It's over. If the decision had gone the other way I wouldn't have argued for a minute. It lived up to its billing and in the end there was respect for both fighters. Prograis was classy and didn't whine about the decision. Perhaps he saw that the close margin had upped his stock in the sport.
It was strange to watch two southpaws, heads and feet and fists always in the way. Rougerou got out early and, after the feeling out rounds, I thought he outworked Taylor. What changed the momentum was that Taylor began to box a little more rather than stand nose to nose trading punches with the better body. Both fighters displayed good chins, eating shots that would have made lesser men quit.
I wasn't keeping score, I was going with the flow of the fight — damage done, whose body would break down soonest. Prograis seemed like a man of metal as he took many right hooks to the body and I think he was the strongest of the two at the end, at the twelfth round. In the middle rounds, he took a bloody battering as Taylor had him measured. It was hardly a cakewalk for Taylor who looked more beat up at the end in spite of getting the decision.
Did I mention one of the judges was probably a close relative? Well no, not exactly, but you'd think so considering that he had Taylor so far ahead in his outsized scoring. Another judge had Taylor by one point. The third judge had it a draw.
