Emanuel Taylor , who in his last 4 fights fought former WBO world champion Chris Algieri, WBA Jr, Welterweight champ Adrien Broner, undefeated world rated Antonio Orozco, and rated contender Karim Mayfield, looked very sharp as he dismantled the rugged Wilfredo Acuna on the undercard of the Terrance Crawford- Hank Lundy fight at the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, on Saturday night. The event was televised live on HBO.
Taylor (19-4 14KO Edgewater, MD) started fast as Acuna (16-19 11KO Nicaragua) was a willing participant as the two traded blows freely in the 1st round. Taylor, returning from a 9 month layoff showed no signs of rust as he punished Acuna with crisp combinations to the head and body. Acuna, to his credit, fought gamely and landed a few very hard blows which Taylor shook off.
As the bout wore on Taylor began to hurt Acuna with both head shots and body shots. Taylor opened up the 6th round with multiple hooks to the head of Acuna and continued the assault finally dropping the game Nicaraguan near the end of the round forcing referee David Fields to call a halt at the 2:29 mark of round 6.
Star Boxing promoter Joe DeGuardia had this to say about Taylor’s performance: “Emanuel is a skilled fighter in a very hot Jr. Welterweight division. He fought a very tough kid in Acuna who we have used in the past with Chris Algieri and Cletus Seldin and Acuna always comes to fight. In the past, Emanuel has fallen just short in a couple of close high profile fights (like Adrien Broner and Antonio Orozco), but after tonight he is now on the path to get another great opportunity in his quest to become a world champion”.
Taylor weighed 143.8 and Acuna 144.4 for the fight.
Link to Baltimore Sun article:
http://touch.baltimoresun.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-86056556/
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