Quote Originally Posted by RP33 View Post
I thought Taylor looked pretty awesome.. He was composed and he didn't deviate from his game plan except for the 5th round..

The WORST part of the fight was the ref.. WHAT THE FUCK WAS HE DOING constantly just hitting their arms away.. IMO that is a terrible method to break up the clinching. I'd be pissed if a ref was moving my hands away possibly leaving me open for a shot.. All you have to do is yell break.. If they keep doing it, then you warn them both, and then you start to take points away.. That eventually will stop them from holding..

If Taylor could show a few more angles, step sideways a little more, and throw a few more uppercuts and left hooks as opposed to the straight right hand, then he will be very tough to beat in his next fight.. His defense seems to have increased quite a bit since the first Pavlik fight, and he seems to be more composed.. He also didn't tire out as bad as he normally does at the end of fights..
I think while Taylor looked fresh the whole fight it was because he was holding so much. I still am not sure on how his stamina will be against a mover. I think he did a great job on fighting his fight 11 out of the 12 rounds, he dictated the pace and some of those uppercuts he landed were brutal. Also I was impressed when he turned Lacy in a complete circle peppering him with jabs the whole time. Very impressed with the composure of Taylor in this fight though, when he hurt Lacy he tried to finish it, and never let Jeff get anything going. Taylor definately has an elemental place at 168, I think Kessler with his stamina will give him problems, against Bute it should be a good fight, it would probably be pretty close. Andrade would wear out Taylor big time IMO.
One fight against a top 10 guy at 168 and then Bute should be who he should go for.