Taylor dominated the middle rounds, survived a badly damaged right eye and a late run by Prograis, who won the final two rounds on my card to make it close, but not enough to catch Taylor, who I scored the winner by a 115-113 score (7-5 in rounds.).
Entering the fight, Prograis was thought to be the bigger puncher, but in the ring, Taylor seemed to be the far larger and more physical fighter and was able to score with both hands effectively landing hooks that pushed Prograis around the ring.
Hopefully some time next year, Taylor's two titles can be unified with the two (WBC and WBO) owned by Jose Ramirez for one champion, although as soon as that's accomplished the Suleman gang at the WBC will declare the winner their "franchise champion" as they did Vasyl Lomachenko recently and took some of the gas away from a Lomachenko vs the winner of December's IBF title fight between Richard Commey and Teofimo Lopez event that would have resulted in a four title champion.
Ramirez will fight mandatory contender Viktor Postol (Postol has a decision loss to Taylor.) in February, so perhaps in the spring or summer, Taylor-Ramirez can be signed.
The undercard saw Dereck Chisora predictably knock out David Price in the fourth round of their heavyweight co-feature.
The third round saw a give and take with both fighters being stunned in the round, but Chisora landed two big rights and then an uppercut to drop Price, who courageously rose but his corner threw in the towel.
Price landed his share and even wobbled Chisora a time or two, but in the end Price's chin just doesn't hold up at a top 20 level and at 36 years of age, someone that cares about Price should step in and suggest that the time has come to step away.
Lee Selby nipped Ricky Burns via unanimous decision in a close but less than thrilling fight.
I figured this would be the case when it was signed and it might have exceeded my expectations a bit.
Selby was the winner on my card 116-112, but the former IBF featherweight champion is going to be outmatched against most top ten lightweights as the aging Burns gave Selby all he wanted and at this stage of his career, the former champion isn't a top ten fighter.
DAZN's other fight was a pretty good scrap on Thursday night as Elwin Soto won a close unanimous decision over Edward Heno of the Philippines to retain his WBO junior flyweight title.
Heno scored a flash knockdown in the third round for the only knockdown of the fight and held a lead after nine rounds before Soto won the final three rounds on my card for a 114-113 win.
A rematch might not be a bad idea.
ESPN plus featured an old-fashioned grudge match entering the fight for the WBO featherweight title that was vacated by Oscar Valdez.
Shakur Stevenson is dating the sister of Joet Gonzalez with the sister estranged from the family and the pre-fight buildup, the pair exchanged plenty of venom that crossed the line of the usual boxing hype.
In the ring, the fight's action might have peaked at the press conferences and the weigh-in as Stevenson put on a performance that may have tabbed him as a future star, but winning in such a dominating fashion in a mundane fight over Gonzalez makes me wonder what the future for Stevenson is.
Stevenson's a terrific boxer and has the ability to outbox almost everyone that he faces, but he didn't turn up the heat against Gonzalez and was content to take his decision and his title home rather than try to finish Gonzalez to put on the type of outing that makes you need to see more of him in the ring.
I had Gonzalez winning only one round with Stevenson winning 119-109 on my scorecard.
The fight that I would love to see is unlikely to happen with Stevenson taking on WBC and PBC promoted Gary Russell in a unification bout that would be huge in the D.C. area with Stevenson fighting out of Alexandria Virginia and Russell living in Capitol Heights Maryland.
A Stevenson-Russell fight would do well at the new MGM casino in the area or even the Verizon Center in Washington, but if the promoters cannot get Errol Spence vs Terence Crawford accomplished, the smaller potatoes of Stevenson-Russell is even less likely,
Bantamweight Joshua Greer won an unpopular unanimous decision over Antonio Nieves in the other main card battle.
Greer was knocked down in the tenth by what could have been a punch behind the head but was ruled a knockdown.
The crowd wasn't thrilled with the scorecards, but I thought they were correct in the close victory as I had Greer a 95-94 winner (6-4 in rounds minus the knockdown).
I'm not sure Greer beats any of the bantamweight champions (The winner of Nonito Donaire-Naoya Inoue will own the WBA and IBF titles, WBC Nordine Ouabaali and WBO Zolani Tete are the current champions), but with Greer being rated 2nd by the IBF and 3rd by the WBO, he could get his chance to try in 2020.
Showtime's three-fight card looked weak on paper but was better than expected.
The first fight, a heavyweight bout between late replacement Frank Sanchez against Jack Mulowayi.
Sanchez replaced Efe Ajagba, dominated by winning every round in a boring fight that wasn't included in the boxing challenge and was better suited for Showtime's ShoBox series instead of their main outlet.
The co-feature stole the night as junior welterweight Robert Easter bested Adrian Granados in a tough fight that was almost ruined by poor judging with Easter's unanimous decision coming via scoring that seemed to have the scorecards filled out in advance.
Easter 's taller style seemed to fir the attacking style of Granados, but Easter stood and engaged Granados and gave the fans an enjoyable fight to watch.
I had Easter ahead 97-93, but I could see Granados being closer on the cards if you are the type of judge that likes aggressive fighters that lands a large volume of punches.
One judge had the fight like I did at 97-93 and another's 98-92 seemed a bit wide, but tolerable, but the 100-90 score for Easter was a pathetic joke as Granados easily won between two and three rounds and maybe even four.
Easter's debut at junior welterweight in an entertaining bout took some of the dreck off of his previous fight, a too bad to be described draw with Rances Barthelemy and Granados showed his effectiveness at 140 after being knocked out for the first time in his career at welterweight by Danny Garcia.
Both fighters came out of this one looking better than when they entered, but I'm not sure either have a road to a title in the division with two champions holding two titles apiece and neither are promoted by PBC in Josh Taylor and Jose Ramirez.
The main event had junior middleweight contender Erickson Lubin against late replacement Nathaniel Gallimore and Lubin, he of the big punch and questionable chin, went the distance and looked good in winning a unanimous decision over Gallimore.
I had Lubin a 99-91 victor and even though he didn't stop Gallimore or even knock him to the floor for a spectacular showing, Lubin might have gotten more out of a solid ten rounds than he would have of an early-round knockout.
Lubin looks likely to be headed towards the winner of the WBC title rematch between Tony Harrison and Jermell Charlo, which should Charlo win his title back would be a rematch for Charlo and Lubin.
Their first ended in a first-round, one-punch knockout by Charlo.
In the boxing challenge, I added twelve points to Ramon Malpica's ten with the difference in points being Shakur Stevenson winning via decision and a bonus point for picking the round of Dereck Chisora's KO of David Price.
My lead stands at 261-225
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