I thought Taylor lost today and against Hopkins. He was highly competitive in all three fights though and can't be said to lack balls given the quality of the guys he's fought. Sturm in most people's opinions outboxed Oscar in a competitive fight. Apart from Oscar (who's not any sort of middleweight) who's on Sturm's pro resume?

Do you think he gets the sparring and training that a guy like Taylor can get? Taylor can spar with world class guys in American gyms whenever he wants. He can pay all manner of money for the best sparring partners because he's a major PPV investment for HBO.


You've got to be careful about putting too much faith in amateur results esoecially where American guys or 'next big thing' PPV fighters are concerned. All you could hope for is some enduring psychological advantage as in Lewis-Bowe.

US fighters are often beaten in the Olympics for several reasons. They don't stay amateur for as long as Eastern Europeans. They come forward more (the Cubans seem to be the only ones mature and polished enough to attack in the amateurs without being outpointed by eastern european runners).

The structure of pro boxing in the states sees a great deal of improvement from boxers once they turn pro. Kelson Pinto beat Cotto convincingly in the amateurs and was destroyed when they fought each other. There are many more examples of this.

Sturm is a good fighter but I don't think he gives Taylor as many problems as Wright. He is orthodox, so he won't throw Taylor's jab an offense off, he looks a good deal smaller than Taylor and he's not anymore of a puncher than Wright.

If Sturm can shut out Abraham, I'll start to get more excited about him.