I just don't get how people can criticize Taylor's willingness to fight the top guys. I know I've already argued this in other threads, and I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but it just blows my mind the criticism Taylor is getting. If you want to criticize his performances, that's fine... but his level of competition? Give me a break.

He fought Bernard Hopkins (who had been undefeated for 12 years) twice in a row.

After those two wins, everyone expected Taylor to take an easy fight to get some rest and get an easy title defense. Instead, he chose to fight Winky Wright, the #2 PFP fighter in the world. And for anyone who wants to jump in and say "But Winky isn't a true middleweight!!"...... I challenge you to name a fighter at 160 who would be a tougher opponent than Winky.

Then after fighting Winky, everyone expects that this time Taylor will definitely pick an extremely easy opponent to get an easy fight. And instead he takes on Ouma. Sure, Ouma was undersized, but he is hardly a stiff and could easily be a champ at 154. He is not a pushover by any stretch of the imagination.

There have been 2 or 3 opportunities for Taylor to fight a Henry Bruseles/Tim Austin type of stiff, in other words, some completely incompetent mandatory... and he hasn't done it.

Who the hell is Edison Miranda to think that someone is ducking him? Did anyone even know who he was a year ago? I might have to start calling Miranda the "Colombian Margarito."