MEMPHIS (Tennessee), May 20: American Jermain Taylor kept his undefeated record intact, scoring a slow-paced 12-round decision over Cory Spinks in a world middleweight title fight on Saturday.

This was the 27th consecutive win for the 28-year-old Taylor and may have set up a blockbuster middleweight fight with Kelly Pavlik who fought and won on the undercard at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.

Taylor was the heavy favourite and the fight failed to live up to its pre-fight billing. The World Boxing Council and World Boxing Organization champ is now 27-0 with 17 knockouts while Spinks drops to 36-4.

There was some confusion over the judges' scoring as one scorecard was announced as being 111-107 for Spinks which was mathematically impossible. The other scorecards were 115-113 and 117-111 in favour of Taylor.

Taylor's corner scolded him during breaks in the later rounds, trying to inspire him to looked more enthused and throw more punches.

Spinks spent the majority of the fight backing up while Taylor looked for the knockout punch. Both fighters threw few punches but Spinks jumped for joy at the end of the 12th round happy to have simply survived in the distance with the champ.

Spinks, the son of former heavyweight champion Leon Spinks, is the International Boxing Federation junior middleweight champion and a former welterweight champion who was moving up to try and dethrone Taylor. Spinks had his father in the corner for the first time.

Spinks was the third consecutive natural light middleweight whom Taylor has beaten since claiming the title over two fights with fading former champion Bernard Hopkins in 2005.

Spinks was a replacement for former ‘Contender’ star Sergio Mora.

On the undercard, Pavlik posted a seventh round knockout over fellow American Edison Miranda.

Taylor said he would consider fighting Pavlik next but not if he could make more money fighting someone else.

“If Kelly is the best fight and the most money I will take it,” Taylor said. “I will fight whoever else is out there if it is for more money. I want to fight for the most money.”

Miranda was knocked down twice in the sixth, spitting out his mouthguard during the first knockdown.

Pavlik bombarded Miranda on the ropes in the seventh forcing the referee to stop it at 1:54.

—AFP