When Ekow Essuman stood in a boxing ring in Glasgow surrounded by his corner team at 10.30pm on Saturday, one could have been forgiven for thinking he was getting ready to have a fight. This, after all, was a Queensberry Promotions show and Frank Warren, the promoter, is notorious for starting his main events late. Also, on Essuman’s face there was a look of steely determination – one typically associated with a fighter preparing to hear the referee’s instructions before then springing to life on the first bell.
In reality, though, the welterweight from Nottingham had just fought. He had, in fact, just gone 12 rounds with Josh Taylor, in a main event that started refreshingly early, and was now waiting to receive confirmation of the decision win he expected to be his. That he was hardly breathing, and that he appeared not to have broken a sweat, was a sign only of how comfortable Essuman had found it doing 12 rounds at The SSE Hydro. He was, it seemed, ready to go again.
True, body language doesn’t always tell the story of a fight, yet sometimes it does. Last night, for example, there were several clues that offered a guide as to how the fight between Essuman and Taylor was unfolding. The first, which was evident early, concerned the way Essuman would rise from his stool between rounds before Taylor and ensure that he started each round closer to Taylor’s corner than Taylor was to his. This habit was then replicated at the end of the fight when Essuman was quick to join referee Bob Williams in the centre of the ring ahead of hearing the decision, while Taylor remained in his corner having his gloves removed. As always with clues, these moments meant both nothing and everything.
A better indication of Essuman’s superiority could be seen in the fight itself, which turned out to be one of two halves. The first half, which was Taylor’s best half, presented Essuman with an opportunity to feel out Taylor’s famous intensity and draw the former world super-lightweight champion’s sting while making him punch himself out. This was apparent in both round one and round two – rounds in which Taylor asserted his dominance and to some extent rolled back the years. On the front foot, tense and spiteful when throwing combinations, in those two opening rounds we saw the Taylor of old. The same intensity was there. The same ferocity was there. The same variety of punches was there.
As for Essuman, the underdog, he simply retreated to the ropes and sampled what he was up against. There were sporadic jabs and the odd right hand from him, but he was mainly on the defensive and having to cover up.
Then, in round three, Essuman started fast and flustered Taylor with a combination, the highlight of which was a right cross and right hook thrown in succession. Both shots served to anger Taylor, who responded in kind with a left cross and right hook of his own. However, it was still Essuman who had the final word when a right hand stopped Taylor in his tracks before the bell.
The fourth round was just as thrilling as the third. It began with a Taylor left cross rocking Essuman back to the ropes, only for Essuman to then answer with two short and heavy right hands inside. In the fifth, meanwhile, the action was slow until the 10-second klaxon, which is when both started to trade and one sensed Taylor was wanting a finish. Everything he did, in fact, was done with that target in mind, but the desperation to get it clearly grew as the fight progressed. By the time he was cut above the right eye in round seven, and by the time he realised Essuman was getting stronger rather than weaker, Taylor’s need to at least make a dent in the Englishman had never been greater. Even if he couldn’t get him out of there, it was imperative that Taylor did something to deter him and stop Essuman from coming forward.
Because after round six that is exactly what Essuman did – he came forward. He came forward whether Taylor liked it or not and he had Taylor retreating not of his own volition but because he had nowhere else to go. Soon, despite starting the fight on the back foot, Essuman had managed to force the fight into a new pattern and from this latest position – on the front foot – he was able to smother Taylor, outwork Taylor, and give the impression that he was the one now in the ascendancy.
In rounds eight and nine, for instance, all Essuman needed to do was keep motoring forward, prodding out punches, and catching Taylor whenever his defence let him down – which, alas, often it did. Pumping out his arms, and never letting his opponent breathe, Essuman had by now figured out the route to victory and was fit enough to keep it up for the duration of the fight. He is, after all, known as “The Engine” for a reason.
Taylor, on the other hand, was running on empty. In round 10, a round in which he was hurt by an Essuman left hook, he had difficulty sustaining attacks and was duly outhustled. Gone, it appeared, were the days when Taylor’s intensity would be too much for opponents and they would inevitably weaken after the Scot’s whirlwind start. Now, in the case of Essuman, Taylor had someone opposing him who, even at the age of 36, was fit enough to go with him and essentially beat him at his own game.
It was never one-sided, and it was never enough to overwhelm Taylor, but nor did it have to be. From Essuman’s point of view, all he had to do was keep working, keep moving his hands, and keep up the pressure. The rest would take care of itself; Taylor’s leaky defence would almost guarantee it.
In the end, it was as much that – a leaky defence – as any stamina issue that cost Taylor in the fight’s second half. He was still busy enough, albeit now on the back foot, yet he just couldn’t seem to get out of the way of anything Essuman chucked at him – notably the right cross. These were not, to the common eye, the most powerful shots in the world, but they were without doubt scoring shots and Essuman, through 12 rounds, landed more of them than Taylor did. In fact, according to the punch stats, Essuman had landed 140 punches to Taylor’s 125 at the conclusion of the fight, which, although not always an accurate gauge of a fight, is perhaps a more accurate gauge than body language.
Still, it was hard to ignore the contrasting demeanours at the end of it all. Taylor, for years so cocksure and confrontational, was now suddenly uncertain and exhausted, all the while Essuman, a former British champion, carried the air of somebody utterly at ease with the jump in class. He did all the right things during the fight – all the pro tricks – and he pulled all the right poses after the fight, if only to leave no doubt as to which of the two fighters was in control.
Thankfully, the three judges needed no persuading. They saw what we saw. They saw Essuman, now 22-1 (8), full of conviction both before, during and after the fight and correctly scored the fight in his favour: 116-113, 116-112, and 115-113. In the same venue three years ago, Taylor, 19-3 (13), received the benefit of considerable doubt after 12 rounds in the company of Jack Catterall. He was, however, not so fortunate on this occasion.
Interestingly, a lot has happened in the space of three years and Taylor, since beating Catterall, has been unable to win another fight. He has lost three now officially – some will say four – but this latest, against Essuman, feels somehow different than the rest. The others, against Teofimo Lopez and Jack Catterall in a rematch, were fought at a very high level and asked Taylor to get two world-class technicians to fight his kind of fight. Essuman, on the other hand, is a 36-year-old former British champion whose style, on the face of it, should have been exactly what the doctor ordered, especially with Taylor being at home. Instead, for 12 rounds Ekow Essuman did to Josh Taylor what Josh Taylor has for so many years done to others. He took whatever he could offer and rudely threw it back at him, barely breaking a sweat in the process. Which now begs the question: what does Josh Taylor, at 34, have left to throw?