Emmanuel Taylor vs Albert Mensah On ESPN July 19th
Emmanuel Taylor photo by Gautham Nagesh for StiffJab.com
by Gautham Nagesh
We pride ourselves our coverage of the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia boxing scene, but somehow the rise of local junior welterweight Emmanuel “Tranzforma” Taylor caught me completely by surprise. After scoring back-to-back knockouts on ShoBox and ESPN, Taylor has come from nowhere to become arguably the hottest fighter in the DMV.
Perhaps it’s because the only time I’ve seen Taylor fight live was his only professional loss, against Prenice Brewer at Fight Night 2011. I scored the fight for Taylor, but it’s fair to say I wasn’t too impressed. Which goes to show the danger of judging any prospect on one performance, especially their first eight-rounder in in a ballroom full of cigar smoke and drunken defense contractors.
Taylor was raised in Capitol Heights, Md., home of the Fighting Gary Russell clan, among other boxing notables. But he’s more closely associated with Baltimore, where he develops under the watchful eye of his longtime trainer David Sewell. Taylor grew up in boxing; his father Maxell Sr. is a former fighter and trainer at Charm City Gym, and was inducted into the Maryland Boxing Hall of Fame in 2010.
Taylor will fight on national televisoin for the third straight time on July 19th, when he returns to ESPN’s Friday Night Fights for the second time in a row to battle Albert Mensah of Ghana in New York City. We interviewed Taylor from ringside at Club One Fitness in Millersville, Md. last weekend, where he was ringside to watch his brother Maxell Jr. lose in the main event. Taylor labelled Mensah “awkward” but didn’t seem overly concerned.[[MORE]]
“I’m preparing like any other fight. He’s nothing I’ve never seen,” Taylor told Stiff Jab. “In this fight, I’ll just keep on doing what I’m doing, training hard, and just getting ready for this fight.”
After stopping Raymond “Tito” Serrano in January on ShoBox and following that up with a knockout of Victor Cayo on ESPN in March, Taylor has seen his star rise considerably, both in and out of boxing.
“A lot of people started noticing me, I get a lot of compliments wherever I go,” Taylor said. “I get a lot of calls coming in, just looking up to me.”
Stopping two quality opponents has also opened eyes about Taylor’s power, especially since he wasn’t previously considered a huge puncher.
“A lot of commentators said I didn’t have no power, I wasn’t that strong,” Taylor said. “But I proved them wrong because I do got a lot of power. I’ve been doing all my pull-ups.”
The Mensah fight is a definite step up, since a win would likely establish Taylor as a legitimate contender on the fringes of the top ten in the junior welterweight division. Mensah hadn’t lost since 2005 before dropping a decision to the unbeaten Denis Shafikov in December. He has since rebounded with two stoppage wins, and has also beaten the likes of Michael Katsidis in the past.
Should he pass this test, Taylor is eying a shot at one of the division’s top draws within the next year. He specifically name-checked Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson, albeit before Peterson’s loss this weekend.
A backyard brawl with Peterson would make a fantastic co-feature if Golden Boy brings Lucas Matthysse vs. Danny Garcia to the Verizon Center as promised this September. Lamont remains the top dog in D.C. at present, but Taylor believes he can take the hometown crown before too long.
“After this year, I feel like I’m ready for anybody,” Taylor said.