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07.04.06 - By Jonathan Reck: For me, June 17th, 2006, holds what might be the biggest middleweight title fight since "Sugar" Ray Leonard’s comeback win against "Marvellous" Marvin Hagler in 1987. That’s 19 years, which in boxing terms, is a very long time. The fighters, Winky Wright and Jermain Taylor, are both at the top of their game, dominating their opposition. Winky Wright is a boxing specialist, who tends to rely on his counter punching ability as well as his superb defence, to win his fights.
The only real problem, however, is that Wright lacks real one punch knockout power. Whereas, Jermain Taylor is probably the hottest middleweight prospect the USA has produced in years. Taylor has an excellent jab, yet lacks good footwork and has questionable stamina. Moreover, the way he slowed down against Hopkins, in the later part of their 1st fight, was worrying, and the rematch answered few questions. In Taylor’s defence, he had just fought 24 rounds with the hardest man in boxing to look good against, so there were always going to be questions asked about him.
Looking at the boxers, I have come up with what I think will happen in their fight:
Jermain Taylor:
This is a 27-year-old kid, who in his last two fights, has probably learned more than in any of his others during the course of their entire careers. Nevertheless, it seemed after the 1st fight with Hopkins, there were more questions asked than answered about Taylor's abilities. For the most part, Taylor showed a surprisingly good command of the ring for the first six rounds of the fight, and then he went into freefall, looking bad. In rounds 7 to 12, he totally fell apart, almost getting dropped. If it weren’t for Hopkins’s lack of attacking know-how, I think with another top middleweight he could have been in more trouble. After the 1st fight, I was happy knowing he had a solid jab, but there were stamina and footwork problems. Then came the Hopkins - Taylor re-match, which turned out to be a dreadful fight. Labelled "No Respect," there was too much respect, from what I saw. Taylor won the re-match more clearly, but once again, questions weren’t answered.
Winky Wright:
Winky Wright is possibly the best southpaw in the world today from my perspective. In his last four fights, he has defeated Shane Mosley, Felix Trinidad and the unorthodox, Sam Soliman, all to school, making them look bad. Both Shane Mosley and Felix Trinidad, are sure Hall of Fame boxers, yet Wright totally gave them a boxing lesson. The Trinidad fight, especially came as a shock to me. Wright picked poor Trinidad apart, using only a jab for 12 and every time Trinidad attempted to mount an assult, Wright's defense was incredible, not allowing any punches to break through. Wright next fought Sam Soliman. In that bout, Soliman came out throwing non stop punches from every angle and I was sure after the first round, he would soon tire out but he didn’t, which gave Winky all sorts of problems.
Nevertheless, Wright's fight with Jermain Taylor will, I believe, be Wright's toughest challenge yet. To beat Wright, you need three important qualities: 1. you need a commanding jab; 2. you have to dictate the pace of the fight; 3. you need to make sure you always land your punches and then get out the way of Winky’s jab. If not, you will be on the end of Wright's jab all night long. I believe that Taylor has all those qualities.
I see this fight starting with Taylor coming out the blocks early, trying to win the early rounds, and also trying to figure out Wright’s style. I forsee Taylor winning 4 of the first 7 rounds, but then Wright will find his range with jab and start to score. However, I think Taylor will do enough to take a close majority decision, due to his early work.Still, if Taylor doesn’t impose his jab early on in the fight, I can see Wright winning a unanimous decision
