Hopkins-Taylor: Duane Ford Stole my Autumn.

National Geographic once captured an infant crane falling into piranha-infested waters somewhere in South America. That is the feeling I got from the morning boxing chat forums. Did people really need to call Bernard Hopkins overrated that many times? Did people have to dismiss Jermain Taylor as predictable and unimaginative? The main thing that mystified me about the passion of the heated message forum posts was that the fight I paid fifty bucks to see was so damn dull. Before I get started, I should clear something up. It was evident from reading some of the online boxing articles that people were just waiting to give Hopkins a verbal ass whooping. I mean, you cannot say anything about the decade long reigning champion, until he loses. So, I’ll admit my bias at the beginning of the article: I was rooting for Hopkins to win and I am about to criticize the outcome. No one can ever say, however, that Bernard won the fight. My point is that Duane Ford ruined an otherwise hopeful fall season of middleweight boxing with what nearly everyone on the planet regards as a shockingly bad call in the twelfth.

As far as the fighters go, I say to all the fans, you are right. I have no complaints with either argument. Yes, Hopkins looked defensive in the first half of the fight while Jermain showed more exciting aggression. He racked up round after round in the early stages. But, I also agree that once Taylor forgot his plan was to jab all night, Bernard introduced him to six rounds of blistering right hand counters—ouch, after ouch, after ouch. Taylor may have pushed Hopkins off balance early with a big right hand behind the head, but Bernard hurt Taylor late in the fight, twice.

Both fighters won half the fight, and the dirty little secret is neither was very convincing in the fight “Everyone was waiting for.” I am a Bernard Hopkins fan; my man wasn’t very convincing. Jermain Taylor fans aren’t willing to admit that, frankly, he wasn’t either. Was that the fight that deserved the passing of the throne to the new hero? Was that the sunset on what any fight fan in their right mind would call an incredible career? Blah I say. And it deserved the blahest of all boxing decisions: the draw. But, Duane Ford stole my autumn.

What kind of fall could we fight fans have had if it was not for Duane Ford’s momentary lapse of sanity? We could have had a nervous excitement waiting to see if our man would fight like the first or second half of the July 16 bout. Hopkins might endure jeering for luckily slipping by or encouragement to start stroking Jermain with the right earlier. We would remind Taylor to jab through all twelve rounds, but also remind him of his “bow and arrow” telegraph. We could enjoy the moment as a group of people sharing a similar hobby but holding individual opinions. Best of all, we would not have to pretend.

But Mr. Ford ruined all that. Now we cannot face the reality that neither athlete really showed anything that would warrant a convincing win. Now we have to pretend that there was one fighter who stood so much higher than his opponent he deserved to win in such a historical bout as the twenty-first consecutive title defense of a fighter’s career. We have to pretend that the July 16 match was so exciting it deserved to alter the very future of the sport we love. The only fight that evening that deserved that kind of respect was the one involving the little Irish piece of iron with a heart the size of whisky pot still.

One is tempted to blame Compubox. But, I understand where people can look at the statistics Hopkins collected such as: more overall landed punches, higher punch percentage, higher jab percentage, more overall power punches and higher power punch percentage and say it doesn’t matter how pretty the round is as long as you win seven of them. That is a valid point, and that is why I blame Mr. Ford. Every round is an enclosed capsule of action and must be scored as such. The only round in the entire fight I am looking at is the twelfth.

If Duane Ford scored the twelfth round for Hopkins, the fight is a draw. Taylor can remain the young undefeated hero and Bernard the savvy old champion. They must fight again because of the rematch clause anyway! Give the men a chance to prove themselves in the right manner. Roy Jones was trying to tell everyone at the end of the fight that Ford was the reason for the draw. So, Jermain Taylor unseats the decade-long, undisputed middleweight champion of the world because he won the twelfth round? Is that the message the boxing world is sending me?

I have 8 to 5 odds that Duane Ford was the only person in the arena that had Taylor winning the twelfth. That call was so obvious that Koko the gorilla signed to me that she had Hopkins in the twelfth to save a 114-114 draw. Let the men do honorable battle. I am not commenting on any other scoring in the match, nor on the fighter’s strengths, nor their mistakes. I am not trumpeting my hero at the expense of the other. I am merely asking, did I deserve, as a fight fan, to have my Shakespearean sized middleweight epic interrupted half way due to a call as bad as giving Taylor the twelfth and the belts?

No, I do not believe I did. I am asking all fight fans to band together and not buy into the hype. Let’s all just concede that it wasn’t all that impressive. And most importantly, whoever it is you want to win, let’s admit they better roll a little bit harder next time and prove they are worthy of the moment.

Brian Lagotte can be reached at anthrobl@ku.edu