The Buzz is back as Bradley's a winner

Cambridge News9th September, 2009

BRADLEY Evans returned to winning ways with a confident points victory over Karl Taylor to maintain his unbeaten record.

'Buzzsaw' lived up to his nickname with a sharp-edged showing against the grizzled veteran Taylor to score a comfortable 40-36 win at Watford Colosseum.

The Royston lightweight had been held to a draw in his second professional bout at the same venue against Jevgenijs Kirillovs four months ago.

But where Evans looked dull and lacked sparkle against the awkward Latvian, Taylor discovered his jabbing was back to the snappiness that earned him last year's Senior ABA featherweight title before joining the paid ranks.

It still took time for Evans to settle into the contest as one would expect coming up against an evergreen, who has fought the likes of Ricky Hatton and Junior Witter and earned the Midlands Area title since starting out in 1987.

The Birmingham boxer may have moved into the role of journeyman, having not won for six years, but, to his credit, Evans, 20, did not fall into the trap that he would only have to turn up to have his fist raised by the referee.

He began to take command in the second round after cutting Taylor's right cheek with a stiff jab.

As the bout wore on, Evans upped the tempo and his work rate to leave Taylor - who looked to be carrying some excess baggage in weighing in at 10st 7lb - looking every one of his 43 years as he resorted to smothering the prospect at every opportunity.

Where Evans failed to get out of similar situations against Kirillovs, he moved in and out with deft combinations against Taylor to ease to victory.

Evans, who is set to box at the same venue again in November, was delighted to get back on track after his winning debut against Sid Razak in February.

He said: "I'm happy enough with the performance, although there's still plenty to work on. But it's nice to get back to winning ways.

"I hadn't seen him before, so I just saw what he was about in the first round and then dominated the rest of the bout.

"For the last fight I did the weight wrong and only got it down at the last minute, whereas I did it more sensibly this time and performed better as a result."