Brooklyn’s own heavyweight bruiser, Pryce Taylor (2-0, 2 KOs), fresh off flattening another opponent in the first round, is pretty straightforward about his ambitions, “I’m here to throw down, plain and simple.”
At 27, Taylor’s been shoved onto the express lane by his handler, Big Apple’s legal eagle Keith Sullivan. Sullivan’s betting big on Taylor, saying, “We’ve got a packed schedule for Pryce this year. The lad’s got promise but needs to get his gloves dirty. He’s not just a mountain of muscle with a cool head, there’s something extraordinary about him. With the right grooming, he’s going to light up the ring.”
Taylor kicked off his pro career with a bang last December 1st, sending Mike Diorio to dreamland in the first act at Melrose Ballroom, Queens. Standing tall at 6’ 4” and tipping the scales at 270 pounds, Taylor was itching to jump back into the fray just two weeks later at a Boxing Insider Promotions bash in Times Square’s Sony Hall. But fate played spoilsport when his opponent’s peepers flunked the med check not once, but twice, scrapping the fight at the eleventh hour.
Taylor, no stranger to hiccups from his amateur days, shrugged it off, “Been there, done that. Sure, it stung, but Keith told me to stay sharp and promised to line up a fight lickety-split. I’m game for a rumble any day of the year.”
With New York turning into a ghost town for fights over the holiday season, Sullivan had to cast the net wider, finally snagging a spot for Taylor on an RDT Promotions event last Saturday at Harrah’s Philadelphia in Chester, Pennsylvania. Taylor made short work of Gabriel Aguillar Costa, dropping him like a bad habit just 56 seconds into the round.
The knockout punch? A lethal uppercut that kissed Costa’s ribs goodbye. “Costa came out swinging, but I kept my cool. That look in his eyes after the body shot landed? Priceless. Knew it was curtains,” Taylor recounted.
His Philly debut was a bit of a mini-break for Taylor, “First time fighting in Philly. Loved the vibe, the hotel stay, and the new faces in the crowd. But when it comes down to it, throwing punches in Philly felt just like home in New York.”
Taylor’s gearing up for a homecoming bout on March 7th at Sony Hall, courtesy of Larry Goldberg’s Boxing Insider. Fans can snag tickets from the box office or hit up Taylor and Sullivan directly.
Before turning pro, Taylor was the toast of the U.S. amateur boxing scene, bagging two New York Golden Gloves and nearly snagging the national title four times, once losing to Joshua Edwards who’s punching his ticket to Paris for the 2024 Olympics.
Last year, Taylor notched up seven victories in the Team Combat League’s unique one-round, team battles. While those wins don’t beef up his pro record, they’ve sharpened his skills for the upcoming season’s showdowns.