What's wrong with Jermain Taylor?

[Julius Rain]

IWHO, Taylor's taken his eyes offa the ball...he needs his original trainer back & he needs to be put back on track.

Im sorry, but if you cant get motivated when a soft spoken trainer who seldom raises his voice screams at you to "LET YOUR F****** HANDS GO" then its not the trainer. Its the fighter.
ESPECIALLY if the trainer is emanuel.

theres a old saying "if it ain't broke don't fix it" before manny took over j.t was perfectly fine, i always had a feeling j.t wouldn't respond too well with manny. it could be j.ts fault since yes manny is a great trainier, but sometimes a fighter doesn't need a great trainier he needs that trainier that brought him where he was before manny took over.

[Lionheart Lacy]

well taylor imo is a disgrace i hope he gets knocked out so bad he doesnt recover for a couple of months, bastrd is taking advantage of the fans,...i liked him before but since he has become a gold digger.

[the phenom]

IWHO, Taylor's taken his eyes offa the ball...he needs his original trainer back & he needs to be put back on track.

manny took over when taylor started fighting top notch fighters afcourse he not gonna look as good as he did when he fought noones but its not the trainer its the step up in oposiion and the media ....... how the media? ..... well they said he looked bad against ouma cuz he was trying to go for the knockout i thought he looked dominant and was landing clean punches so he decided to box a boxer, but taylor thinks boxing means bening inactive ..... he looks good when he is forced to stay busy .....fighters that run will make it a hard fight for taylor and make him look bad, i think he can knock pavlik the fuck out czu pavlik will come forward and bang with taylor and he cant hes not on taylors level cuz i bet winky and hopkins woould kick pavliks ass ...... mirandas boxing and wide shots were always susupect so it was a matter of time before he lost to someone with straight accurate hard shots and exhaustion was a big part fo him gettin knocked down, now iam not defending taylor but ppl need to cut him some slack he had a bad night .................. asnwer me this who in the last ten years can say they competed with hopkins and who in the last 7 can say they competed with winky

[Swice]

Why some people want to blame Emanuel Steward for J.T.'s performance is beyond me. All Manny could do was tell J.T. to throw punches he couldn't throw them for him. Manny gave the right advice and J.T. didn't follow it, it happens all the time in boxing. I wasn't impressed with Taylor before Manny was his trainer and I'm even less impressed now.

And as far as all the people who are saying Spinks didn't do anything in this fight, you are correct but neither did J.T. For all his running, Spinks only landed 16 less punches than Jermain. Thats less than 2 extra punches a round. Where you would expect a huge edge in jabs for the taller man with the nearly identical reach, J.T. only landed 7 more than Spinks. Where you would expect a huge edge in power shots since Spinks isn't a power puncher, J.T. only landed only 9 more. And Spinks running is no excuse for Jermain to not have put on a good performance. Somebody runs you cut off the ring, they hold you punch with your free hand to the body, its as simple as that. You land some good body shots in the clench and they will let you go. Jermain should have been prepared to fight this type of fight seeing as how this is how Spinks fights every fight. He is always running in his fight its what he does. I have said it before, Spinks is one of the most boring fighters ever to lace them up.

[Purist]

Manny was so frustrated last night that it looked like he wanted to give up on the guy after the 11th. JT is a complete moron. I understand that Spinks is quick but he has NO power whatsoever. JT didn't do a damn thing in the fight, he didn't throw punches. If this fight was a year ago Spinks would have won, but I guess judges are now placing more emphasis on pressure. What the fuck is wrong with this guy? Even Dibella was screaming to JT "DO ANYTHING". The fight was hard to watch because of Spinks style but the guy landed and threw more punches than JT, so what the fuck is JT talking about? And then to top it all off, Larry Merchant MURDERED him in the post fight interview. He basically made JT admit that he knew the fight was no challenge and that he was only looking for the biggest paycheck. Pretty much all elite boxers are looking for big paychecks but at least they don't come out and say it, even ODLH, PBF, B-Hop, they all say that they want the "big fights", they don't just come out and say I'll fight anyone for the most money. JT is disappointing in the ring and now out of it, and I'm jumping off the bandwagon now. I'm sick of him. He won't fight JoeCal because JoeCal's gonna outwork his dumb ass, and he won't fight Pavlik because he's gonna get KTFO. I thought he was the future but I'm SURE that he's only placeholder until he moves up or loses.

I think Taylor said it best at the press conference when he said he's used to fighters coming at him and trying to kill him.

Spinks didn't do that, he made Taylor lead and countered him and made him look foolish.

[Hebman]

There is definitely something wrong with a guy who says after a bout that he'll fight whoever offers the most money! I mean how dumb is that. Manny Steward looked fed up with JT. Telling Taylor that he should have fought Miranda instead during the fight was an unbelievable thing to hear, I mean that somes up how Taylor has been fighting.

When Taylor beat Hopkins the first time, I was delighted as we finally got a new "Man" at Middleweight, but now he's just cheating the fans.

The root of his problem is he's not passionate about the business. Boxing to him is his job, period! To Spinks, boxing is his life. Spinks shows passion every time he's in the ring and he got his tactics spot-on last night.

Now I've read a load of comments on hear about how Taylor just had a bad night..... bla bla bla. Yes fighters have off nights, but he's looked poor his last 4 bouts. Taylor did absolutely nothing last night.
The gameplan should have been simple. Facing a blown up welterweight, he had to chase him down, cut him off, keep moving forward. Spinks can't hurt many fighters at welter never mind middle so Taylor could afford to get hit and walk through Cory and grind him down. But JT looked threatened by Cory's speed and backed off the whole fight. Now for a guy that was so pissed off with Miranda's comments in mid-week and who had vowed to silence his critics, you would have thought he would have been motivated, and prepared to put himself on the line, but he came across spineless, uninterested, unmotivated and looked to just sneak a win. Even the reactions from both fighters at the end of the fight showed how they felt the decision would go ...... Spinks way. Now I'm not saying Cory was outstanding, and really deserved the decision, but he didn't deserve to lose that fight as much as Taylor didn't merit a victory.

The final point is JT seems to look horrendous against southpaws, his style never gels with them and he struggles to pin his opponent down. He really needs to address this or he can never possibly be considered a possible "great" if he can't convincingly dispose of a southpaw (especially a blown-up welterweight).

Taylor looks no where near the finished article, and if he does decide to fight Calzaghe (who will probably offer the most lucrative next bout for Taylor) he looks to have absolutely no chance. Calzaghe has the ability to make him look amatuer!