Taylor vs McCaskill results: Katie Taylor retains WBA belt with decision win

Katie Taylor made a successful first defense of her WBA lightweight title today at York Hall in London, scoring a decision win over Jessica McCaskill in the main event of the card.

Taylor (8-0, 4 KO) won on scores of 97-92, 97-92, and 98-91.

The 31-year-old Irish star lost a point in the seventh round for holding, and Chicago’s McCaskill (5-2, 3 KO) has to be credited with doing her best to make it a rough fight, but for the most part Taylor’s class won out, and she was able to outbox her challenger.

In the night’s co-feature, Martin J. Ward scored a sixth round knockout win over Spain’s Juli Giner to win the vacant European super featherweight title. Ward (19-0-2, 9 KO) also holds the British and Commonwealth titles, and really the only step left for him is world level. Whether or not the 26-year-old has the skills to compete on that stage remains to be seen, and it’s a tough division right now, with a lot of good fighters in the mix, led, of course, by Vasyl Lomachenko.

Giner, 34, falls to 21-3-1 (8 KO). He had briefly held the title in 2015-16 after a November 2015 win over Romain Jacob, and was aiming to become a two-time European champion.

A bevy of U.K. prospects were active on the undercard, too, and all did pretty much as expected. Here’s a quick rundown of those results:

• Josh Kelly TKO-6 Jean Michel Hamilcaro
• Jake Ball UD-10 Miles Shinkwin
• Ted Cheeseman PTS-8 Tony Dixon
• Joe Cordina TKO-4 Lee Connelly
• Conor Benn PTS-6 Cedrick Peynaud
• Lawrence Okolie TKO-2 Antonio Sousa
• Felix Cash TKO-1 Greg O’Neill
• Gamal Yafai TKO-3 Ricky Starkey