Taylor Bevan eased to victory on his professional debut when he stopped Greg O’Neill in two rounds on the undercard of Sunny Edwards-Galal Yafai at Birmingham’s Resorts World Arena.
The Welshman, who impressed at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in the same city, where he won silver, recently signed with Matchroom and, at 23, performed with a composure and maturity perhaps beyond his years.
His convincing jab largely dictated the opening round against his battle-proven opponent, and after he hurt O’Neill with successive left hooks to the body in the second round, he dropped him for the first time with a right uppercut.
A further left hook, this time to the head, wobbled his 33-year-old opponent, and Bevan then almost instantly finished him with an authoritative one-two combination that dropped O’Neill sufficiently heavily that when he returned to his feet after a count of eight, the referee Peter McCormack rightly intervened to wave the action over.
The timing of the stoppage was recorded at two minutes and 42 seconds.
