Regis Prograis vs Josh Taylor result: Taylor wins to become unified WBA and IBF super-lightweight champion and win World Boxing Super Series

Taylor hands Prograis his first professional defeat

Josh Taylor beat Regis Prograis in the World Boxing Super Series final at the O2 Arena to become undoubtedly the No 1 fighter in the super-lightweight division.

Taylor leaves with not only the Muhammad Ali trophy in hand but the unified WBA, IBF and The Ring belts after a 12 round war.

One final unification bout awaits for Taylor, with WBO and WBC title holder Jose Ramirez holding the other pieces of the division’s prize in a matchup that could crown the undisputed champion.

It was as close a fight as you could have expected the top two men of the division to be in, with both starting and settling in quickly, taking centre ring to trade.

Prograis was the man who landed the more frequent punches in the early stages but Taylor hit the more telling blows, with his left hooks bloodying the nose of the then unbeaten American.

The first five or six rounds were good old fashioned pick ems, but Taylor began to show his class and proved he had an engine that couldn’t be kept up with, in the championship rounds the Scotsman took a clear lead and looked to take Prograis out on his feet – he had no such luck however.

Prograis’ uppercuts were his most effective punches of the fight, landing consistently to Taylor’s right eye which had blown up beyond belief by the final bell.

But it was the undefeated Scot who extends his undefeated record and moves to 16-0, winning by majority decision with cards of 117-112, 115-113 and 114-114.

“Where you at, Jose [Ramirez]!?” Taylor warcried after the fight – and it’s the big, final unification bout that awaits him in 2020, with Taylor hoping to become Scotland’s first undisputed champion.

At the rate his career is peaking, he may just become a man to be reckoned with across a number of divisions.