BOXING : Taylor Overcomes a Rough Start

Meldrick Taylor, knocked down twice in the first four rounds, came back to gain a unanimous decision against Glenwood Brown and retain his World Boxing Assn. welterweight title Saturday night at Philadelphia’s Civic Center.

“It’s my fight. I won the fight,” Brown shouted after the final bell, but all three judges disagreed, with one scoring the bout 114-113, and the other two at 116-113.

“He got all my respect,” the 25-year-old Taylor said. “He’s a very tough guy. I knew he was a big puncher.”

Brown knocked Taylor down with a hook shortly before the bell ending the first round. Taylor got up at the count of two.

The second knockdown came during the fourth round when Brown caught Taylor off-balance with a right to the body. Taylor got to his feet immediately.

Brown appeared in complete control in the first six rounds, but Taylor then got back into the fight.

Taylor, a former International Boxing Federation junior welterweight champion, improved to 29-1-1 with 14 knockouts in his second defense of the welterweight title.

It was the second straight unsuccessful welterweight title bid for Brown, who now is 34-3 with 25 knockouts. In his previous fight, Oct. 4, he lost a split decision to Maurice Blocker for the IBF title.

On the undercard, Pernell Whitaker, the undisputed lightweight champion, made his debut as a welterweight by scoring a one-sided decision over 36-year-old Harold Brazier.

Hector Lopez, who only recently completed a 2 1/2-year stay in prison, scored an easy victory over Andres Sandoval in a 10-round super lightweight bout at the Reseda Country Club.

Lopez, 21-1 with nine knockouts, had cut Sandoval (40-11-1) over both eyes by the second round, closing the right eye by the fourth. Sandoval’s trainer, Abel Sanchez, halted the fight after the fifth round.

“The rustiness is going away, but it’s not gone yet,” Lopez said.

Also on the card, middleweight Joey DeGrandis earned a bout in his hometown of Boston against top 10 middleweight contender Brett Lally on March 16 by outlasting John Armijo of Huntington Beach.