Taylor Shuts Out Joppy.

Tonight in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA, Jermain “Bad Intentions” Taylor displayed great patience and an abundance of boxing skill and power in a great performance to score a complete wipeout over former three time WBA middleweight world champion William Joppy. Joppy, whose only other losses

came against Felix Trinidad, Bernard Hopkins and Julio Cesar Green was completely outclassed from the beginning and whatever ambition he brought was soon dismissed by Taylor’s brilliant versatility. Taylor managed to drop Joppy with a huge left hook in the fifth and Joppy’s attempts to survive became even more obvious afterwards. Joppy made no attempt to be competitive in the last half of the fight and Taylor, though not pulling the trigger on a hesitant Joppy, was very authoritative and scored the dominating twelve round decision with ease.

READ ON FOR A FULL ROUND-BY-ROUND REPORT.

Round one: Both fighters start off jabbing well and landing consistently. Taylor smashes a huge right hand to Joppy’s head but Joppy looks good in this round. Taylor switches his attack to the body with a double sided flurry and scores a huge right uppercut. It’s a heated first round that almost spills over after the bell sounds.

Round two: Joppy outjabs Taylor but sustains an injury to his right eye, quite possibly from the thumb of Taylor’s lead hand. This forced Joppy into retreat for the remainder of the round as his vision is severely impaired. Taylor tries in vain to capitalize as Joppy makes it to the end of the round.

Round three: Taylor lands some very good hooks and tries to time Joppy coming in with the uppercut. Joppy is doing well and not giving Taylor a lot of time to get organized and Taylor’s power also does not seem to be bothering Joppy.

Round four: Joppy negates Taylor’s jab very well by moving out of range but the former world champion is definitely not doing enough to take rounds on the scorecards. Taylor lands a massive right uppercut through Joppy’s guard and in response, Joppy goes crazy, trying to make Taylor pay for his success.

Round five: Taylor being unable to land his jab consistently forces him to show his range of offensive options as he looks to counter Joppy. Joppy begins to look like he’s running out of ideas as Taylor raises the stakes. A quick flurry from Taylor culminates in a huge left hook that takes Joppy off his feet and deposits him into the ring ropes. A ten-eight round for Taylor.

Round six: Joppy is frustrated and starts to mess around, he starts fouling Taylor and looks as if he is trying to take the younger man out of his fight plan as all of Joppy’s other good work has come to nothing. Taylor remains solid in concentration and dominates the round.

Round seven: Joppy’s ambition has virtually disappeared, he lands a few good right hands but Taylor answers with so many great, eye-catching shots and he simply cannot miss Joppy with the right uppercut that lands through Joppy’s guard with ease.

Round eight: Joppy is totally out of ideas, this is a winning round for Taylor only he does not land nearly as many clean shots through Joppy’s defenses.

Round nine: Joppy is not offering anything offensively in the fight but he finally succeeds in rattling Taylor by lifting him off his feet in a clinch on the ropes. Taylor loses his cool and batters Joppy with two right hands over referee Bill Clancy’s shoulder. Clancy warns both fighters for their misconduct.

Round ten: Joppy is even worse in this round as he turns his attentions to the crowd. He motions outwardly to them and draws huge jeers and boos as he tries to stir Taylor into a mistake once more. Taylor does the right thing by staying compact and reserved. The fans might not understand it and want a knockout but Taylor cannot risk a mistake at this stage of his career.

Round eleven: Joppy lands a few good rights but aside from that he simply goes through the motions knowing he has no way to win the fight. The HBO broadcasters offer that the fight should be stopped because of Joppy’s extreme passiveness. Taylor lands what he wants when he wants until the end of the round.

Round twelve: Joppy simply runs out the clock, Taylor does not pull the trigger but he has virtually won every round. Referee Clancy’s frustration overcomes him and he stops them and orders them to make more of a fight of it. The bell sounds and it’s a shutout for Taylor and very likely to be retirement for Joppy.

The judges score the fight exactly the same, 120-107 all for Jermain Taylor.