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Sorting Out The Middleweights Post-Hopkins
With Bernard Hopkins insisting that his long-awaited and now largely symbolic return match with Roy Jones Jnr is a done deal for June, the middleweight division that “The Executioner” dominated for so long will embark on the scramble for a new figurehead and a new era.
The man who would be undisputed king, Jermain Taylor, is primed to make the first significant move when he defends his WBC and WBO titles against Sam Soliman on April 15. Taylor holds the belts that everybody else wants and he might just hold on to them for a lot longer than many of his critics believe.
Jermain hardly covered himself in glory with his two close but unanimous victories over Hopkins. In the first fight, Taylor didn’t chase the title in the way that a challenger is expected to. In the rematch, he seemed to be beset by hesitance and self-doubt after a fast and positive start. Hopkins didn’t help his own cause in either case by giving away the early rounds. Jermain was fortunate in that respect, and good fortune in the fight game can sometimes carry just as much weight as natural talent.
Jermain Taylor has talent in abundance. He is fast, clever, hits with authority and would appear to be on the cusp of greatness if he can just find that extra dash of confidence that comes from the correct balance of arrogance and self-belief. He might well have already done so.
I suspect that he hurdled that final obstacle when the decision went for him in the second Hopkins fight. It confirmed his standing as the official top dog of the division, a child of fortune as well as a man of destiny. Jermain could have lost that verdict. It was very, very close. He got the pivotal break that so many great fighters attain in that transitional part of their careers before they take off with their second wind and leave the rest standing.
It is hard to believe now that a young prospect called Cassius Clay was being dismissed and derided forty-two years ago after a skidding and near disastrous run-up to his defining fights with Sonny Liston. Thousands believed that Cassius had been shaded by Doug Jones at Madison Square Garden in 1963. Then the would-be Greatest was nearly knocked out by Henry Cooper. The rest of the story we know. Once past Liston, Muhammad Ali just kept flying.
The Sam Soliman fight is a sensible choice for Taylor and will tell us much about Jermain’s state of progress. With seventeen knockouts in his twenty five straight wins, we know that the champion can turn on the power when the occasion demands and he might just show us the full range of his skills against Sam.
The tough and awkward Australian is a popular favourite with just about everyone for his genial nature and herky-jerky style. Soliman won legions of new supporters with his stubborn stand against Winky Wright, who confessed to being surprised by his opponent’s persistence and stamina. “I thought he would wind down,” said Winky. “He was very awkward and he came to fight.”
The question here, however, is who will dominate the division for the immediate future? Sam Soliman is not that man, but the thirty-two year old could still have it in him to give his fellow contenders some very uncomfortable nights. Sam takes what little he has and mixes it very ably into an infernally confusing and stinging cocktail.
Forever chugging away, he throws looping shots from all angles and hits the target more often than logic would dictate. He has come on late in his career, securing the match with Wright with a commendable points win over Raymond Joval. But Soliman’s 31-8 record includes earlier defeats to Joval, Anthony Mundine, Howard Eastman and Jerry Elliott. We know that Sam can be found out and I will be enormously surprised if he upsets Taylor.
At twenty-five years of age, Arthur Abraham is the youngest of the current contenders and arguably the most dangerous with seventeen knockouts on his unblemished 19-0 record. The Germany-based Armenian is a difficult one to figure. He looks utterly predictable on his worst nights but has the priceless gift of being able to lower the boom at any given time.
I saw Abraham’s big win over Howard Eastman in Nurnberg last July and was very disappointed in Arthur’s one-track approach. Eastman jabbed, hooked and fiddled him about all night long, and the plodding Abraham very quickly ran out of ideas. Arthur went home with a very fortunate decision, one of the judges somehow seeing it 119-110 in his favour.
But the big man can throw some dynamite and he certainly set off an explosion in December with his fifth round knockout over the highly touted Kingsley Ikeke for the vacant IBF title. Ikeke, coming off a tenth round TKO over Antwun Echols, was being groomed as a big player in the division and had lost only one of his previous twenty four bouts.
I don’t believe that Abraham has the versatility to rise to the top of the division and dominate the middleweight picture, but his undoubted power will enable him to set some very interesting equations for his fellow contenders over the next few years.
Followers of Howard Eastman will be hoping that the Battersea Bomber can still fulfill his potential, but the thirty five year old must surely be running out of time. Eastwood is a conundrum. Without doubt, he is one of the most accomplished ring mechanics in boxing today, but his mental approach to the big fights has been a disappointment. He should have beaten William Joppy. He could have beaten Bernard Hopkins. But did Howard himself believe that he could beat either man?
It is hard to define the nature of the chink in Eastman’s mental armour, which could amount to too little self-belief or too much. His lack of urgency against Joppy and Hopkins was at times infuriating. A challenger has to go and get a champion. He has to show that he wants the title more than anything else on earth. Boxing is a unique arena in that respect. As well as beating your opponent, you need to charm the referee and three judges. You must leave no doubts in their minds that you are the man.
Eastman, for all his wonderful talent, cannot seem to understand that moving along in cruise mode just doesn’t cut the mustard. Howard believed he won the decision against Joppy. He didn’t. And at this stage in his career, it is difficult to see how he could find a way around Jermain Taylor or the evergreen Winky Wright.
Winky’s successful step up to middleweight with the Sam Soliman victory was the latest step in an extraordinary career, which looked to be no more than that of a highly competent journeyman at the close of the century. Big fight reverses against Julio Cesar Vasquez, Harry Simon and Fernando Vargas would have extinguished the fire of less committed fighters
But Wright just kept going, learning new tricks all the time. His masterful wins over Shane Mosley and Felix Trinidad revealed a fully blossomed old pro who had rounded his game to near perfection. One could almost feel Trinidad’s frustration as he repeatedly failed to find a way through Winky’s maze.
A fight between Taylor and Wright might not set the house on fire in terms of thrills and spills, but could well be a tactical masterpiece. For me, it is the most appealing match out there and would effectively determine the best middleweight in the world. I think Taylor would come of age and edge his way to victory, but we know that Winky loves nothing more than being written off.
Such is boxing, it could be some time before the middleweights sort themselves out and we get to see the match-ups we really want to. If Taylor gets past Soliman, it is likely that he will mark time for a mega-fight with a third defence against another respectable but supposedly safe opponent.
Germany’s Felix Sturm would be a good choice and is still very much in the mix after notching four straight wins since his controversial points defeat to Oscar De La Hoya last year. Felix is slated to meet Maselino Masoe in Hamburg next month. Determined and dogged, Strum’s respectable 24-1 record (11 KOs) reflects his workmanlike and troublesome style.
Taylor, I believe, would beat Sturm comfortably. Call him lucky, call him what you will, Jermain could be the man to beat for some time if he has the fighting heart and full commitment that every great champion requires.
But what of the man who reigned for so long? Possibly, Bernard Hopkins will plod on and secure another shot at his old bauble. If he does, I don’t believe he will be successful. In the meantime, I don’t know what a Hopkins-Jones rematch is supposed to prove to anyone but the contestants. Bernard and Roy are now in great danger of soiling their outstanding records with pointless exercises in vanity.
Hopkins would do well to learn from Marvin Hagler’s neat trick of nigh on twenty years ago. Despite his rage at losing to Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin hung “em up, never came back and sealed his legacy.
As a friend of mine said to me at the time, “When the names of Hagler and Leonard are mentioned in years to come, see who gets the bigger cheer.”
