Taylor: Wright- An analysis
www.fightnews.com
June 17, 2006
By Ron Katz
Ron Katz
Director of Boxing
Operations/Matchmaker
Northeast Promotions
This Saturday night, Beale Street in Memphis will be rocking to something other than the Blues music which made it famous when Jermain Taylor from nearby Little Rock, AR, battles Ronald "Winky" Wright for the undisputed middleweight championship of the world.
You have to give Taylor big time kudos for jumping right back into the fire after two grueling matches with Bernard Hopkins. He picked one of the toughest marks in Wright, a fighter who many of the elite boxers have avoided over the past decade.
Taylor has a new man in his corner, legendary trainer Emanuel Steward, who has guided the career of countless world champions. I expect to see a totally different Taylor. We will see a more controlled fighter who will utilize his strengths in a calculating fashion.
Taylor is the younger and stronger of the two but Wright holds a major advantage in experience.
Wright is a very good defensive boxer who works wonderfully behind a stiff jab. Wright is technically sound and does not often make mistakes. He too has a very good trainer in Dan Birmingham, who has been with Wright every step of the way. I think this will give him a slight advantage over Taylor. Although Steward is second to none, it's still a new experience for both Steward and Taylor plus they picked a helluva fight to start out together.
Taylor will come out early and try to establish a good stiff jab, a trademark of Steward's fighters. Wright offers very little in the way of openings defensively so I think we will see a concentrated attack on the body of Wright by Taylor. Wright holds his hands up high, which can make him susceptible to body shots. Wright also has a heck of a chin.
Taylor will try to set a good pace but conditioning will not be a factor here as both guys are always in top condition. I wouldn't be surprised to see Taylor move more than usual and try to open Wright up for power punches. Taylor also has youth on his side.
Taylor will also have the home field advantage since Memphis is a short drive from Little Rock.
Wright has been a steady professional but at age 34, the only question may be whether he is slowing down. He struggled with Sam Soliman in his last fight, which may have been caused by the flu. Still this world-traveling champion has logged a lot of rounds in what has become an outstanding career.
I expect Wright to fight the way he always fights, which is walking forward, hands high, working behind a stiff jab. Wright likes to let his hands go but that can cause potential danger from the counterpunching of the more powerful Taylor. Wright also has sneaky power but Taylor has shown a good chin up to this point of his career.
Wright needs to get respect from Taylor. It is unlikely he will enjoy the physical advantage he had over both Shane Mosley and Felix Trinidad.
This shapes up as a very interesting bout. It will come down to which fighter can impose his will onto the other.
We all know the accomplishments that Wright has gathered in his career. He dominated Trinidad and licked Mosley twice.
Taylor on the other hand has to be given credit for his two wins over future Hall of Famer Hopkins, especially in light of the way Hopkins just handled Antonio Tarver. Twenty-four rounds with a guy like Hopkins are worth a hundred rounds of experience against other fighters.
This is another one of those fights that can go either way, which makes it very difficult to pick a winner. I keep flip-flopping on whom I like. I am reluctantly going with Taylor to win a very close decision in a fast paced bout.
Boxing purists are going to love this match up. We will see skill, conditioning and great character from both participants.
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Re: Taylor: Wright- An analysis
Im still going with a Winky decision in this one.....what do you guys think?
Re: Taylor: Wright- An analysis
Taylor by stoppage, or one sided UD.
Re: Taylor: Wright- An analysis
Quote:
Originally Posted by p4pking
Taylor by stoppage, or one sided UD.
Im a little surprised that you think it will be such a clear cut result for Taylor....Taylor will definately show improvement but I just dont think it will be enough against a guy who will fight for a full 12 rounds and with the obvious skills Winky has....
Re: Taylor: Wright- An analysis
Quote:
Originally Posted by miles
Im still going with a Winky decision in this one.....what do you guys think?
I'm feeling the same vibe....of course I thought B-HOP would dismantle Taylor......but I think Winky is a younger Version of B-HOP....slightly different mold but close....Winky by UD....
Re: Taylor: Wright- An analysis
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigragu
Quote:
Originally Posted by miles
Im still going with a Winky decision in this one.....what do you guys think?
I'm feeling the same vibe....of course I thought B-HOP would dismantle Taylor......but I think Winky is a younger Version of B-HOP....slightly different mold but close....Winky by UD....
this fight really is a toss-up for me, but if i HAD to pick one i'd pick............
taylor by late stoppage, i know winky was sick when he fought soliman but regardless, winky seemed to be having a little trouble and i think it had more to do with fighting style than illness
soliman exposed a few flaws that i feel jermain is going exploit, in my humble opinion
Re: Taylor: Wright- An analysis
Quote:
Originally Posted by miles
Quote:
Originally Posted by p4pking
Taylor by stoppage, or one sided UD.
Im a little surprised that you think it will be such a clear cut result for Taylor....Taylor will definately show improvement but I just dont think it will be enough against a guy who will fight for a full 12 rounds and with the obvious skills Winky has....
Disagree with that somewhat... Winky may fight a full 12 rounds, but the point is he will then be in range and in danger of being hit very hard by Taylor... That's the thing with Hopkins and his fight with Taylor, I don't think he didn't fight 12 rounds because of age or anything to do with that, as you just saw against Tarver he has absolutely no problems fighting for 12 rounds.. The reason Hopkins didn't exchange and take offense in many rounds, imo, is because he felt Taylors power and he knew he was a dangerous and fairly accurate puncher. That's why I think the first fight was actually very very clever strategy by Hopkins, and I assume that his plan was to stop Taylor, which he very nearly did. I mean Taylor showed alot of improvement even in the 2nd Hopkins fight, believe it or not, he didn't gass out, Hopkins didn't hurt him the same way, he had a big 11th round and imo he edged it. And I guess the primary basis for my pick is I don't think Winky is as good a middleweight as HOpkins was, and he doesn't have the power to really deter Taylor from using his own tools.
Re: Taylor: Wright- An analysis
I think Taylor will win, something like 115-113.
He gained invaluable experience fighting The Executioner. Wright's been on a steady diet of one-dimensional (Soliman, Tito) and seen-better-days fighters (Sugar Shane), this in all honesty is the biggest, and hardest fight of his life. And at a weight where lets be honest, he is unproven.
From seeing the two at the press conference Taylor looks to have a good size advantage, he's bigger, and I think he'll be stronger. What I gauged from Jermains fights with B-Hop was that he is an excellent technician - he countered Bernard brilliantly in that fight, frustrating the hell out of the Philadelphian. A few times Hopkins sort of shook his head, as if to say, what can I do here, I'm getting caught when I step in. And Bernard, as we all know, is one of the craftiest S.O.B's in the business, with a superb defense.
Winky will be in that turtle shell, and to be honest, I don't think he'll fully be able to get out of it all night. Taylor's got a deceptively good right hand, and I think Jermain will overall manage to out-wit Winky. Winky, to me, although a brilliant fighter, is methodical and robotic at times, he often moves in in a straight line, and seems pretty tight. Jermain has wonderful lateral movement, he has tons of confidence coming into this fight, and he has the best trainer in the world in his camp now - Steward.
Re: Taylor: Wright- An analysis
If this turn out to be jabs versus jabs, naturally the one with the longer reach wins, and in this case it's obviously Taylor. But there is the defense factor which Winky is known for. I have a feeling that Emmanuel Stewart has it all figured out for the simple reason that he won't just be sitting there and do nothing about it, and he is not known as the "legendary trainer" for nothing. Winky puts up his defense high so naturally he leaves the lower part of his body open, although he tries to extend his long arms down trying to cover as much as possible, there's still limitations as to how far down his defensive arms can go. So I think Taylor will go for the body shot often and when the head defense opens up, he'll go for the jab.
How about Winky's heart? These defensive type of fighters usually have questionable heart as they don't get hit very often enough to show what kind of stuff their hearts are made up of. Only after being hit many times with good shots can you see the fighter's heart. So will he be able to stand his ground when he gets hit often as I expect it to be? I think not. So I go for a KO win by Taylor in the later rounds. But Winky's fans, cheer up, this is just an opinion of a boxing fan who leans heavily toward an underdog, although I try to be as realistic as possible. I guess I've always had a soft heart for an underdog, right or wrong.
Re: Taylor: Wright- An analysis
Winky showed unquestionable heart in his gruelling battle with Vargas.
Re: Taylor: Wright- An analysis
I think Winky is the most overrated boxer fighting today. Everybody thinks he's some kind of p4p legend just because he beat Mosely and Trinidad.
Both fighters have been beaten just as convincingly by others, and I think that Wright is in for a rude awakening tonight.
Taylor to shine, big win for Jermain tonight, I can feel it coming.
Re: Taylor: Wright- An analysis
Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Mac10
I think Taylor will win, something like 115-113.
He gained invaluable experience fighting The Executioner. Wright's been on a steady diet of one-dimensional (Soliman, Tito) and seen-better-days fighters (Sugar Shane), this in all honesty is the biggest, and hardest fight of his life. And at a weight where lets be honest, he is unproven.
From seeing the two at the press conference Taylor looks to have a good size advantage, he's bigger, and I think he'll be stronger. What I gauged from Jermains fights with B-Hop was that he is an excellent technician - he countered Bernard brilliantly in that fight, frustrating the hell out of the Philadelphian. A few times Hopkins sort of shook his head, as if to say, what can I do here, I'm getting caught when I step in. And Bernard, as we all know, is one of the craftiest S.O.B's in the business, with a superb defense.
Winky will be in that turtle shell, and to be honest, I don't think he'll fully be able to get out of it all night. Taylor's got a deceptively good right hand, and I think Jermain will overall manage to out-wit Winky. Winky, to me, although a brilliant fighter, is methodical and robotic at times, he often moves in in a straight line, and seems pretty tight. Jermain has wonderful lateral movement, he has tons of confidence coming into this fight, and he has the best trainer in the world in his camp now - Steward.
That sounds about right to me . Taylor is on the way up , Winky is on th eway doen . Im sure subconciously th ejudges will lean in that direction .
Wrights southpaw jab is the key . If he can establish it with rythm and follow through with the left it will stop Jermaine from getting started . His peek aboo defence can be penetarted as weve seen from Harry Simon and Jermaine isnt as 1 dimensional as Tito .
If Wright wins he will prove his greatness but I think hes guna have a hard night . Alot of people under estimate Taylor but he is an improving fighter and is naturally bigger . He also overcame Bernard who IMO is a more formiddable fighter than Winky .
Id say Taylor on points
Re: Taylor: Wright- An analysis
I see Winky Ronald Wright winning this fight. He is more defensive and will give Taylor trouble. He will outbox him and win a UD.
Re: Taylor: Wright- An analysis
Quote:
Originally Posted by outspoken
I see Winky Ronald Wright winning this fight. He is more defensive and will give Taylor trouble. He will outbox him and win a UD.
Agreed :coolclick:
Though I am getting a bit nervous now!! ; :-\ ;D
