‘Two scores were a joke,’ fumes manager after Jones title loss

Troy Jones…outpointed by Ezra Taylor. Stock image: Manjit Narotra/BCB

FOR Troy Jones, the future still glints after suffering his first professional defeat.

The heavy-handed light-heavy showed he possessed the old fashioned cajones needed at top level in suffering 10 round defeat to the home city’s Ezra Taylor at the Motorsport Arena.

The right man won on Saturday night. But two of the judges’ scores – a 100-90 whitewash and 99-91 – provoked an angry response from Jones’ manager Lee Beard. John Latham’s 97-94 assessment appeared closer to the mark.

“You don’t have to be a boxing person to know Troy won rounds,” Lee said. “When the fight was over, people were saying it was close. Those two scores were a joke. What were they watching?

“If you look at the rounds, they were very close. There was no way in the world Troy didn’t win those first three rounds, for me.”

The decision snapped a 12 fight unbeaten run for the Birmingham bomber now based in Tamworth. With something called the WBA Continental Gold belt on the line, 26-year-old Jones finished the fight bruised and bloody.

His grit will have earned admirers and further slots on stadium shows.

At times, Troy appeared shaken by Taylor, particularly in the eighth and ninth, but had his moments, especially in the first three sessions. Undefeated Ezra, who had stopped eight of his previous 11opponents, threw his best shots, but couldn’t break Troy.

Jones worked the body well in the early rounds and, on my card, also took the seventh. Taylor, tipped for big things and guided by Frank Warren, looked stylish and well schooled. “Ezra showed a lot of toughness and calmness and his shot selection at times was very good,” Beard said.

The trainer is not crying robbery. It’s the mathematics that hurts.

“We knew we were up against it,” Beard said. “You could see that at the press conference – it was all about Ezra, the interviews were about British title fights. It annoyed me more than anything. We knew we’d be down on the scorecards before the ring walk.

“Troy is a strong fighter, he’s been in with good people, he’s stopped a lot of people. He came back at the end of the third and said, ‘I’ve got this’ – looking back, maybe he was too comfortable, too soon. Maybe he lost a bit of focus.

“He pressed well in fourth, but Ezra landed the cleaner, more eye-catching shots. The momentum, for me, then swung Ezra’s way for the next few rounds. Troy was losing things a little bit and pushing things a little too quickly, neglecting his jab and feints. After the eighth, I thought it was 50-50.”

Jones, a former English champ, can definitely come again.

Beard said: “Troy did make little mistakes, he did stray from the plan a little bit along the way.  He knows himself what he did wrong, which is good.

“He’s not looking at those two scores, he just thinks it’s a joke. He knows he can perform better. He’s in good spirits, he’s goes on holiday in three days time, then he’ll be straight back in the gym.”

“We’ll see what’s out there for him. The next one may be an eight rounder to keep him busy and after that we’ll see what’s about. He doesn’t want to hang around.”