For the eighth straight fight, Pryce was once again right.
Pryce Taylor scored a fourth-round stoppage on Friday at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York, finishing the game but outgunned Ed “Tex” Fountain. The fight was waved off at the 36-second mark after Taylor opened up a combination that had the St. Louis-based Fountain ready to spill.
Fountain, 14-9 (7 KOs), protested the stoppage, but Taylor thinks it was for the better that the fight was halted when it was.
“If the referee didn’t stop it, he would have probably died on his back,” said Taylor. “I don’t want anybody to die in there; I’m just trying to win.”
Taylor, a 28-year-old from Brooklyn, New York, was able to hurt the 36-year-old southpaw Fountain from the first round – though he didn’t seem to be in a hurry to get the stoppage. Instead, Taylor fought with a relaxed style reminiscent of George Foreman, whom he honored by wearing his T-shirt into the ring, stepping in with drive-by style punches that caught Fountain off guard.
In Round 3, Taylor heeded his corner’s advice to bright a left hook behind his right hand, stunning him seriously for the first time. Fountain made it through the round, but a heavy series of blows the following round ended the bout.
Promoter Dmitriy Salita calls Taylor the “best American heavyweight prospect” today, and says he will be back in the ring in his first eight-round bout on the Claressa Shields-Lani Daniels undercard July 26 in Detroit.
“I believe that this is gonna be a big year for him,” said Salita. “A lot of attention and growth and championships for years to come.”
The most popular fighter on the undercard was by far Bryce Mills, a junior welterweight prospect from 20 minutes away in Liverpool, New York. Mills, though sporting an impressive record, figured to be in a tough matchup against Aaron Aponte.
Mills gave his hometown fans something to cheer for as he knocked out Aponte in the first round with an overhand right that left Aponte unable to get back to his feet.
Mills’ record improved to 19-1 (7 KOs) while Aponte fell to 12-3-1 (3 KOs) with his first knockout loss.
Ashleyann Lozada didn’t keep fans waiting for post-fight autographs, stopping Carmen Vargas in just 27 seconds. There were no knockdowns, but Vargas, 5-4-1, was badly wobbled and unable to defend herself from her stronger opponent’s offensive blitz. Lozada, 2-0 (1 KO), of San Juan, Puerto Rico, was a 2024 Olympian for Puerto Rico.
Opening up the card, Da'Velle Smith, 12-0 (8 KOs), banked away enough early rounds to edge Antonio Todd, 17-13 (9 KOs), in an eight-round middleweight fight. The scores were 78-74 on one card and 77-75 on the other two.
Smith, 24, of Dearborn, Michigan, was out-hustled down the stretch against the all-out aggression of Todd, 30, of Atlanta, but was able to close Todd’s left eye in the early going.
Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for krikya360.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at .