David Avanesyan soundly roughs up and stops Liam Taylor
In his latest contest, Russian welterweight David “Ava” Avanesyan (28-3-1, 16 KO’s) picked up his second win of the year. He accomplished this by stopping Liam “Dynamo” Taylor (23-2-1, 11 KO’s) in the second round of their dustup. The lopsided victory stood as Ava’s fourth defense of his EBU European welterweight title. Certainly, he is happy to be in possession of the secondary title. However, there is little doubt that Avanesyan will seek to challenge for a world title very soon. The Russian currently is ranked by all four of the major sanctioning bodies. His rates at #6 (WBO), #7 (WBC), #9 (WBA) and #12 (IBF).
Along with these favorable rankings, Ava is riding a five-fight knockout streak since dropping his February 16, 2018 loss to Egidijus Kavaliauskas by way of sixth round stoppage. Avanesyan went on to win the EBU European title, in his very next bout, via ninth round knockout of rising talent Kerman Lejarraga. Six months later, Ava knocked Lejarraga out in the first round of their rematch. Ava would then go on to halt Jose del Rio and Josh Kelly within the distance.
Minus a draw with Chris Jenkins three fights prior, the overmatched Taylor was enjoying a twelve-fight win streak since suffering his professional loss to Tyrone Nurse back on April 11, 2015. This fresh loss and demoralizing beating at the hands of Avanesyan will come as a debilitating setback for the game fighter.
TOTAL DESTRUCTION
Round one began like it was the eighth round of a firefight already in progress. Even though he was impaired by a significant handicap in height and reach, Avanesyan was determined to walk Taylor down. While doing so, the Russian ate a river of hard jabs and straight rights getting into range. Clearly, he had zero respect for Taylor’s punching power. Once on the inside, Ava was doing terrible damage with his short hooks to the head and body, and brain rattling uppercuts.
His naked aggression was rewarded in the final moments of the first period. The Russian would drop his overwhelmed foe with a barrage of blows. Dynamo made it to his feet without too much effort but it was obvious he had a bite taken out of him. The second period began as a carbon copy of the opener, which saw Avanesyan scorching Taylor with the blistering pace and pinpoint power shots.
Both men were landing regularly, yet there was no doubt that the Russian had the heavier hands. Even worse, Ava was not merely head hunting, and he spread his violence out well between the skull, ribs and soft belly. Under the extreme duress that he was outgunned, Taylor had no answers for the assault. Aside from standing his ground and absorbing a thumping, Dynamo was little more than a victim. Seeing this perilous position, while pent along the ropes, referee Mark Lyson halted the prizefight late in the second round. Some will argue that the stoppage was premature, but without question the writing was on the wall. In any event this was a great, highlight reel victory for Avanesyan.
By: Bakari Simpson
