Winner of Garton vs Jenkins ordered to face Liam Taylor next
The BBBofC today (February 15) ordered the winner of the forthcoming British welterweight championship contest between champion Johnny Garton (23-1-1) and challenger Chris Jenkins (20-3-2) to defend the title to Liam Taylor (20-1) before the end of June 2019.
Purse bids have been called for March 13, which will be just five days after the Garton vs Jenkins fight takes place at the Royal Albert Hall on March 8.
Middleton's Taylor, 28, managed to exact revenge in his last fight by outpointing his one and only conqueror Tyrone Nurse over 10-rounds in a British title eliminator last November. 'Dynamo', who lost to the Huddersfield man in Leeds back in April 2015, got the win in the rematch at the Victoria Warehouse in Manchester. The scores were 96-95 and 96-94 in favour of the victor, while one judge saw it 94-96 in favour of Nurse.
His attention now turns to Johnny Garton, who trains at the iBox Gym in Bromley under the tutelage of Alan Smith and Eddie Lamm. His teammate Bradley Skeete was in possession of the Lonsdale belt for some time, meaning he had to wait his turn, collecting the English and IBF European belts in the meantime, finally winning the vacant strap in an 11-round thriller at the York Hall against Gary Corcoran last October.
The first challenger in line is Welshman Chris Jenkins, 30 from Swansea. The pair are set to meet on March 8 at the historic Royal Albert Hall, where Joe Mullender challenges Liam Williams for the British middleweight title on the same card.