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Josh Taylor vs Ekow Essuman LIVE RESULTS: Taylor homecoming ends in HUGE DRAMA after Itauma scores DEVASTATING win

Josh Taylor vs Ekow Essuman LIVE RESULTS: Taylor homecoming ends in HUGE DRAMA after Itauma scores DEVASTATING win

The Sun24-05-2025

EKOW ESSUMAN left Josh Taylor STUNNED after scoring a career best win in Scotland!
The Engine handed Taylor a THIRD successive defeat with a 116-113, 116-112, 115-113 unanimous win that leaves the former unified champion at a major crossroads.
It was a deserved win for Essuman, who came on strong in the later rounds what was one of the best performances of his career.
Scots hero Taylor needed a win to revive his own career after suffering back-to-back defeats at the hands of Teofimo Lopez and Jack Catterall - it is unclear where he now goes from here.
On the undercard, highly-rated heavyweight prospect Moses Itauma scored a BRUTAL second round KO of Mike Balogun, having dropped him THREE times inside two rounds.
Today, 18:02 By Nyle Smith
Welcome
Josh Taylor takes on Ekow Essuman in a Scottish homecoming fight TONIGHT!
Taylor is looking to rectify back-to-back defeats as he takes on 36-year-old Essuman.
'The Tartan Tornado' Taylor comes into the clash off the back of two losses, having been beaten by Teofimo Lopez before losing his rematch to Jack Catterall in May 2024.
Ekow 'The Engine' Essuman comes into the bout with a record of 21-1-0, with eight of his 21 victories coming by KO.
Essuman's only defeat came at the hands of Harry Scarff in 2023, losing by unanimous decision in Manchester, meaning Taylor will look to be the first man to KO Essuman to get back to form.
The Engine in turn looks to be the first man to KO Taylor, with both of his defeats coming by unanimous decision, with whoever can score the victory becoming the WBO international welterweight champion.
But before this huge fight, there are several thrilling bouts on the undercard.

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The decline of English players in our marquee game should worry us
The decline of English players in our marquee game should worry us

Times

timean hour ago

  • Times

The decline of English players in our marquee game should worry us

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Meet the ex-convict rapper talent-spotting for Arsenal
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timean hour ago

  • Times

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One of the Premier League's top academy scouts is a convicted drug dealer and rapper whose lyrics about his old life of crime have garnered millions of views on YouTube. Joseph Bol does not covet attention on the touchline in his role as Arsenal's grassroots recruitment coordinator for east London, for which he is charged with organising a network of talent-spotters focused predominantly on under-9 to under-14 players, but parents and older siblings at youth games still occasionally recognise him as the artist 'Joe Black'. 'The kids always used to say, 'You're famous', but I don't think they understood what for,' Bol says. 'They may have thought it was for football.' It has been 15 years since Bol, 39, was released from prison for a third and final time. Ordinarily, a DBS check that showed convictions for robbery and possession of class A drugs with intent to supply — Bol spent a year in prison on remand for a third charge on which he was found not guilty — would preclude him from working with minors, let alone within the academies at Crystal Palace, Chelsea and then Arsenal. Yet, several of the players Bol discovered are now on the cusp of making their first-team breakthroughs, such as Zain Silcott-Duberry (Bournemouth) and Amani Richards (Leicester City). Trey Faromo, a 14-year-old winger, is considered one of the country's brightest talents and recently made his debut for Chelsea Under-18. It is a rare and quite remarkable story of reinvention. When Bol is not watching all manner of school, district, and league matches, he is a tutor at City Select Academy, a specialist college in Croydon for sixth formers harbouring faint but fading dreams of playing professional football. 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So that's my mission: to use football as a tool for kids to have a better start because a lot of these skills are transferable.' Bol grew up on the Highbury Estate in north London and his mother worked as a civil servant in Brent Town Hall. He had been a talented footballer himself but he was seduced by the perceived glamour of crime in his early teens. 'I wanted things my mum didn't deem necessary, like designer clothes, trainers, and that led me down a slippery slope. I stopped playing football and I started selling and smoking weed, and then it went on to be more class A drugs. I was just in a bubble thinking this is going to be my career path,' says Bol, who was sentenced to three years in prison for robbery aged 15 and sat his maths and English GCSEs in a young offenders' institute. When he was released after 18 months, 'it didn't really sink in that I'd actually served that much time,' he says. 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'But I caught the bug and I've been doing it ever since.' Bol continued to rap about his old life and earned a 'liveable wage' as his popularity grew, pressing his own CDs and taking them to independent record shops in the days before streaming. He was even once a support act to Rick Ross when the American hip-hop mogul played in London, but football remained his foremost passion. In 2012, he set up his own grassroots club called AC United and it quickly grew from having one team to eight. Their performances in local cups attracted the attention of scouts such as Joe Shields, now a senior director within Chelsea's academy, who got Bol a job as an academy scout and development coach at Crystal Palace. Bol's big breakthrough came when the standout player at AC United, Clinton Mola, was invited for a trial at Chelsea. He accompanied Mola to the training ground and was mobbed by several of the under-14 players, including the likes of Reece James, much to the confusion of the academy staff. Seemingly realising the sway his fame could have, Chelsea ultimately decided to sign them both — Mola, 24, who now plays for Bristol Rovers, went on to represent England from under-16 to under-21 level. 'I'm still amazed that it happened. It wasn't by design. It was just because of the quality of players we had in our team,' Bol says. 'The original question was, 'Do I know anyone who would be interested in scouting for Chelsea in north London?' I said, 'Yeah, me.' ' Bol feared his criminal history would caused Chelsea to baulk. 'Rightfully so, because there were obviously reservations after what showed up [on the DBS check],' he says. 'I did a risk assessment and they asked me how I ended up in these situations and what I'd done to change my behaviour to ensure I wouldn't fall back into those old patterns. 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'There are a bunch of people involved in the decision-making and then Per Mertesacker [Arsenal's academy manager] may have the final sign off,' he says. Bol's end goal is to become the head of academy recruitment at a Premier League club so his voice is the crucial element in that decision-making process. 'There are still lingering doubts in my head that because of my past maybe there is a ceiling [on what role he can have], but so far there hasn't been. If there is, I created it myself, but I feel proud of where I'm going,' he says. 'It's good to reflect every once in a while to remember how far I've come.'

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The Sun

timean hour ago

  • The Sun

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