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Only July 16, an intriguing match-up will take place. Call it historical; call it whatever you wish but this just might be the changing of the guard for an old warrior. Bernard Hopkins (46-2-1, 32 KOs) will square-off against the brightest middleweight prospect this decade in Jermain “Bad Intentions” Taylor (23-0, 17 KOs) in what figures to be a good match-up. “The Executioner” owns four middleweight title belts and holds wins over future hall-of-famers such as Felix Trinidad and Oscar de la Hoya. Jermain has blown out virtually every fighter he has faced including a twelve round win over former three-time WBA middleweight champion William Joppy. Taylor’s management team has to be thinking if this is a bad move for their young twenty-six-year-old fighter because they are facing a fighter who has not lost since May 22, 1993 against fellow hall-of-famer Roy Jones. History tells us that seemingly unbeatable foes can easily be outclassed and beaten badly on any given night, which means that the question remains: will the stars be aligned on the night for Taylor to be the undisputed middleweight champion?
Hopkins, in my opinion is the best middleweight since Carlos Monzon whose record of successful title defenses he broke with fifteen straight. Now he has twenty straight title defenses and went virtually unknown prior to his destruction of Felix Trinidad, a fight that ended in a twelfth round TKO. He is a very deft fighter who possesses all the smarts in the ring that you would want to teach every young fighter, all his fights aren’t pretty but he provides a system of dismantling his opponent and breaking him down. You can bet right now that he is studying Jermain Taylor’s weaknesses and picking his opponent’s brain continuously. He has made a habit of developing strategies to beat top-level fighters and his workout routine has become legendary.
Jermain Taylor was an Olympic Bronze Medalist at the 2000 Summer Games, and just under five years removed from that and only four years as a professional is he ready to fight the Alpha-middleweight of the twenty-first century? Taylor has good hand speed and good pop but nobody has tested him yet, and the only name he has on his ledger is Joppy who was clearly just a punching bag. People have said that Jermain is the future of the middleweight division, but Bernard Hopkins is not just going to hand that title over in one night.
Hopkins’ last loss was to Roy Jones, Jr. and that was twelve years ago. For Taylor to be successful he might have to employ another strategy, which is to be the faster and stronger man in the ring against Hopkins. What will happen? Anything can. But remember how great Hopkins is and how green Taylor still is.
