Pryce Taylor Edges Rogava to Win First Title in Albuquerque

Taylor survives a scare to claim his first belt

Pryce Taylor is a title holder at last. The unbeaten Brooklyn heavyweight edged 2020 Olympian Tsotne Rogava by split decision on Saturday, November 7, at the Kiva Auditorium in Albuquerque, New Mexico, capturing the vacant North American Boxing Federation heavyweight championship in a ten-round fight that stayed in doubt until the final bell. Two judges scored the contest 96-94 for Taylor, while the third saw it 97-93 for Rogava, a spread wide enough to leave the winner himself unsure as the scores were read aloud.

Taylor, now 14-0 with nine knockouts, had never fought for a title before. Rogava, a 33-year-old Ukrainian who represented his country at the Tokyo Olympics, fell to 13-2 with eight knockouts, suffering only the second defeat of his professional career. For Taylor, the victory was the biggest of his career so far, and it puts the 30-year-old from Brooklyn into the World Boxing Council's global heavyweight picture. He entered the fight ranked No. 28 by the WBC, and the NABF belt is expected to lift him higher in the ratings.

"I was concerned when I heard the wide 97-93 score for him," Taylor admitted afterward. "My corner kept saying I needed a knockout to win. So, I applied heavy pressure in the final rounds. I feel I won the fight because of the pressure I applied in those last two rounds. I wobbled him and almost had him out, but I kept the pressure on right to the end."

A late surge settles a tight fight

The fight was close throughout, and by Taylor's own account it was won in the championship rounds rather than the early ones. Rogava, trained by Hall of Fame trainer Joe Goossen, brought the pedigree of an Olympian and a seasoned professional, and he made Taylor work for every round. Taylor weighed in at 271 pounds, 13 pounds lighter than his previous fight, and the leaner version of the 6-foot-4 heavyweight leaned on pressure and body work as the fight wore on.

The Brooklyn fighter's plan was clear from the start: hurt Rogava to the body, wear him down, and take the fight out of the judges' hands if the chance came. Rogava, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighed around 265 pounds in his previous outing, had the size and the experience to absorb that approach, and for much of the night he did. But Taylor's late surge, the two final rounds in which he wobbled the Ukrainian and nearly stopped him, gave two of the three judges the reason to side with the unbeaten American.

Rogava's defeat is a setback for a fighter who had rebuilt carefully after his first professional loss. He was beaten by Ahmed Krnjic in the quarterfinals of the WBC Grand Prix tournament in Saudi Arabia in August 2025, then returned to winning ways with an eight-round unanimous decision over Mauricio Leon Perez. The narrow defeat keeps him in the mix rather than ending his ambitions, but the momentum, and the belt, now belong to his opponent.

Taylor arrived in Albuquerque on the back of his own career-best win, a ten-round unanimous decision over Isaac Munoz Gutierrez in San Juan, the first time he had gone the full ten-round distance. The Rogava fight was his second consecutive ten-rounder, and the second time he has had to find a way to win late.

A famous belt and a busy 2027 ahead

The NABF heavyweight title carries a history that few regional belts can match. Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Ken Norton, Ray Mercer and Wladimir Klitschko have all held the championship, and Taylor now joins that list. It is a junior title in the formal sense, a stepping stone rather than a world championship, but it is the kind of stepping stone that has historically marked out fighters on their way to the top of the division.

His manager, Keith Sullivan, made no secret of the ambition behind the move. "Pryce continues to prove why we believe he is the future of American heavyweight boxing," Sullivan said. "Winning this junior title is another important milestone in what we expect to be a very special career. Pryce has embraced our philosophy of staying active, staying ready, and taking on every challenge put in front of him. This is another step up the ladder, and I firmly believe the best is yet to come."

Taylor is taking this week off, but he plans to return to the Cops and Kids Boys and Girls Gym in Brooklyn next week to resume training. His priorities are clear: keep working on his speed and keep his weight moving down after dropping from 284 to 271 pounds for the Rogava fight. The fight was streamed live on DAZN, giving the new champion his widest audience yet, and the plan is to build on that exposure quickly.

"I'll be back in the gym next week," Taylor promised. "I need to work on my speed and keep dropping weight. I should be back fighting in the first quarter of 2027, defending my NABF title belt for the first time."

That first defence will be the real test of what this win means. A split-decision victory over a good but not elite opponent does not make Taylor a world-title contender overnight, and the heavyweight division is crowded with bigger names and bigger punchers. But Taylor is unbeaten, he is a title holder, he has now won two ten-round fights in a row, and he has shown he can dig deep when a fight is slipping away. The next step is to defend it.