Boxing: TNT Taylor blows away Maxwell

Anthony "TNT" Taylor was relentless in ripping powerful punches to the body of Daniel Maxwell in the professional bout. Photo / Ruth Keber

NZPBA New Zealand Welterweight champion Anthony "TNT" Taylor has taken Daniel Maxwell out - and not for dinner.

The Tauranga professional looked just that in front of a packed house at the inaugural Phil's Place Clash of the Corporates at Memorial Hall on Saturday night, overcoming an awkward opponent in a TKO sixth round decision that served as a perfect tune-up for tougher tests ahead.

Taylor lived up to his nickname throughout a busy six rounds, efficiently chopping down a stifling opponent with head feints and impressive footwork that afforded him the opportunity to blast away at the body.

Maxwell took a fearful beating to the ribs and kidneys, and despite sound defensive skills and the ability to slip punches, grab, and change distances and levels, began to get easier to hit as the accumulation of all the blows took force.

Taylor was leveraging his punches - especially his left hand - with incredible power and swinging for the fences on lunging hooks to the head and uppercuts and hooks downstairs that dropped Maxwell a number of times through an explosive six rounds.

Maxwell was brave, but with Taylor more or less walking through his punches and proving far more active at every range, it was only going to be a matter of time before referee Denny Enright stopped the fight.

The inevitable came with 18 seconds remaining in the sixth round when Maxwell fell for the seventh and final time in the face of a flurry of punches from the hands of a man who looks a serious fighter.

"He's a very defensive fighter; knows all the tricks and has been around for a long time," a relaxed Taylor said after the fight.

"I decided to work his body and then take it upstairs. Those body punches started to take their toll in the later rounds.

"I've fought him a couple of times and that's the first time I've put him away."

He paid tribute to Phil Rudd for sponsoring the evening and the large number of well-wishers in his corner.

"It's like a family down there. It has been for many years. That's what I enjoy about it. You're a team. You're in there on your own at the end of the day but everyone is in there with you."

Taylor's next fight is pencilled in for Hamilton in November ahead of a bigger fight next year.

TGA Box proprietor and Tauranga Boxing Club head coach, Chris Walker, will be a happy man as the event went off without a hitch.