Jermain Taylor v Kassim Ouma

Jermain Taylor successfully defended his WBC and WBO middleweight titles in front of his hometown fans with a unanimous decision over Kassim Ouma at the Alltel Arena.

Coming off a draw with Winky Wright, Taylor (26-0-1, 17 KOs) won on all three judges’ cards by the scores 117-111, 115-113 and 118-110.

The 28-year-old came into the bout with plans of knocking out Ouma (25-3-1). That did not happen, but Taylor – who overcame a cut above his left eye – established a point-scoring right hand.

From the opening bell, Taylor swung viciously for a stunning knockout but was still able to land effectively. He clearly won the first four rounds, ending the second with a textbook left-right combination.

“That’s exactly what happened,” Taylor said. “I came in the first couple of rounds trying to knock him out. I had it in my head I wanted to knock him out so bad, I (punched) myself out, but I was in such good shape I stayed in there.”

Taylor’s best punch of the night was his straight right, but another highlight was a perfectly-placed left hook after a right that completely rocked Ouma’s head, bringing the audience to its feet in the fourth round.

Despite being backed up repeatedly by Ouma, Taylor landed 41% (244-of-597) of his punches and 46% (188-of-413) of his power shots.

Taylor suffered a cut in the fifth round due to an accidental head-butt.

A southpaw, Ouma had won his last four bouts but was fighting as a middleweight for the first time.

“He (Ouma) came in and fought all 12 rounds,” Taylor said. “I give it to him – for a little guy, he’s tough.”

Taylor bounced back after his draw with Wright in June.

Like Taylor, Wright had a successful follow-up by recording a 12-round unanimous decision over Ike Quartey a week ago.