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Last night at the Alltel Arena in Little Rock, Arkansas, WBC/WBO Middleweight Champion Jermain Taylor made what could be his last appearance at 160 lb as he defended his belts with a points victory over former IBF Light Middleweight titlist Kassim Ouma.
In what had clearly been planned as a safe defense for Taylor, the much smaller southpaw Ouma pressed the champion for the entire bout and was unable to bother the hometown hero in the early rounds.
In the fifth, Taylor was cut above the eye and by the later rounds the difficulty making weight combined with Ouma’s pressure began to tell on the champion. The challenger’s high volume attack had better success as the fight wore on but Ouma, a smallish light middle, just didn’t have the steam on the shots to bother Taylor, a big middleweight.
In the end Taylor, 26-0-1 (17), was declared the winner by scores of 118-110, 117-111 and 115-113, retaining his belts for the third time while Kassim Ouma, 25-3-1 (15), will likely return to action as a light middle.
