Boxing News

Prediction: September 29 is Jermain Taylor’s Coming Out Party

I am not a big Jermain "Bad Intentions" Taylor fan. I have no problem admitting that. This is because, in my opinion, he is an HBO-creation: over-hyped by HBO to be the next future superstar, so that HBO could make money off him. This hype and accolade would be fine if he backed up the hype with

Click for larger image © HBO Boxing

real and true results; i.e., Floyd Mayweather, Jr. I want to like Jermain Taylor, but he has not shown me to this point that he is a true superstar or legend.

In his last five fights, on my scorecards, he drew with Bernard Hopkins in their first fight, lost to Hopkins in their second fight, lost to Winky Wright, unimpressively beat Kassim Ouma, and lost to Cory Spinks.

As we all know, the judges have always seemed to score points, rounds, and fights in his favor. In fact, I am surprised, given all the gift decisions that Taylor has received, that he did not win a decision against Winky Wright. Well, maybe his swollen-up eye had something to do with that.

I think Jermain Taylor has skill, no doubt. When he is on his game, he throws straight punches, including an above-average jab. He will also take risks and throw flashy, scoring combinations. More...

Recap and Analysis of the Recent Televised Fights in the Bantamweight and Super Bantamweight Divisions

After back-to-back weekends of exciting boxing matches, boxing takes a much-deserved rest. There is not another meaningful televised fight until Jermain Taylor versus Kelly Pavlik on September 29, 2007. I do not count the September Fernando Vargas vs. Ricardo Mayorga and Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Rocky Juarez pay-per-views as being meaningful.

The former fight might be interesting, but it certainly has no implications on the future of boxing (unless you are really interested in which one of these fighters will be in line to get schooled by Vernon Forrest). The latter fight should be a fairly one-sided victory for Juan Manuel Marquez.

But forget about the near future. Let's just savor the recent past.

This past weekend, on HBO, we saw two knockouts. The first knockout was unexpected. Gerry Penalosa won the WBO Bantamweight title by scoring a flash knockout of Jhonny Gonzalez with a perfect counter left hook to the body. Gonzalez could not beat the ten count. At that point in the fight, on my scorecard, I had scored the first round for Penalosa, but had scored rounds two through six for Gonzalez. And Gonzalez was on his way to winning round seven as well.

After the first round, Gonzalez was making the fight look pretty easy. Gonzalez showed impressive foot movement and a variety of punches. Gonzalez's jab was working and he threw monster left hooks to the body. Despite this excellent display of boxing, this fight showed how quickly things can change and that you can never count out a live opponent. More...

No Power, But No Doubt: Hopkins Clinches Clearcut Victory

Click for larger image © Mike Cleary BoxingPhotographs.com

From what I have read and heard, most boxing writers and fans scored the recent Bernard Hopkins versus Winky Wright bout in favor of Hopkins (a notable, but not surprising exception is HBO's Larry Merchant). I scored the fight 116 to 112 for Hopkins. After the fight, some reported the contest was more exciting than expected. Some reported the fight was boring as anticipated. I would have to say that overall I agree with the latter reports: the fight was pretty boring. And I am a Hopkins fan.

This is not to take away respect away from Hopkins. Simply put, he found a way to handily beat one of the best fighters in the world and one who carried a long unbeaten streak. He employed the pre-Castillo Ricky Hatton style of throwing flashy, but powerless combinations then holding. It worked for Ricky Hatton to secure a welterweight title against Luis Collazo and ensure a victory against Juan Urango in his showcase for the planned showdown with Jose Luis Castillo.

People have derided Hatton for that holding and hitting style in his fights against Collazo and Urango. Likewise, many have derided Hopkins for utilizing that style against Wright. But that is what Hopkins needed to do to win the fight. That is what he needed to do to stop Winky's best offensive weapon: the jab.

When Winky was employing his turtle-shell defensive style, Hopkins was throwing pitter-patter combinations at Winky. Then, he held Winky to make sure there were no counters and to make sure Winky did not have the distance to throw his jab. It was a great strategy in that it took away Winky's best offensive weapon; plus, all that leaning and rough-housing on the clinch wore down Winky toward the end of the fight (although, in my estimation, not as much as reported; I did not see Hopkins completely dominating rounds 9 through 12). More...