Taylor captured his unified titles in 2019 as part of the World Boxing Super Series tournament, defeating IBF champion Ivan Baranchyk via unanimous decision (UD) in May[4] and WBA (Super) champion Regis Prograis via MD in October, winning the vacant Ring title in the process.[5] After nearly a year out of the ring, Taylor successfully retained his titles against the IBF's mandatory challenger, Apinun Khongsong of Thailand, via first-round knockout (KO) in September 2020, leaving Ramírez' mandatory defence against Catterall as the final obstacle to an undisputed fight.[6]
In October, it was announced that Catterall had agreed to a "step-aside deal", with the promise of a chance to fight the winner of a proposed Ramírez vs. Taylor fight.[1] At the beginning of March 2021, the fight was officially announced for May 22.[7]
The fight
Ramírez was the more active of the two in rounds one to four, landing 25 out of 75 punches compared to Taylor's 11 out of 45. In the sixth, a round which saw Taylor suffer a small cut to the corner of his left eye, the Scotsman landed a short left-hand counter on Ramírez' jaw, knocking the American to the canvas. He made it back to his feet by the referee's count of two to see out the remainder of the round. Taylor scored a second knockdown in the final 30 seconds of the seventh round after landing a left uppercut, leaving Ramírez visibly hurt. He again made it to his feet, albeit slower than the first time, with 10 seconds left in the round. The next five rounds were closely contested, with both men finding success. All three judges scored the bout in favour of Taylor with 114–112, giving the Scotsman a unanimous decision victory to become Scotland's second ever undisputed champion after Ken Buchanan.[8][9] According to CompuBox statistics, Taylor landed 145 out of 530 (27%) punches compared to Ramírez' 134 out of 584 (23%).[10]
