Jermaine Taylor wins over Hopkins

Having seen a video of that fight, I'm not at all in agreement with the decision. I believe Hopkins clearly won the 12th round. Not to take anything from Taylor; he clearly dominated the first fre rounds, but Hopkins finished stronger.

Taylor is a well-schooled fighter, and if he can get by a rematch with Hopkins, he should hold the belt for awhile.

I wish we had "photo finishes" for close championship fights, with three different judges from the ringside judges reviewing the fight from different angles. Nowadays, fights can be taped from every angle quite easily.

 

The best analogy I have heard is that in football if one team leads another team 30-0 going into the fourth quarter and the other team scores 29 points they still lose even though they finished stronger and totally dominated the fourth quarter.

I didn't see the fight so I'll leave the outcome to be argued over by the boxing experts.

The outcome does kind of cause me to think about buying the pay-per-view for the rematch.

 

I am glad Hopkins lost .Its not that I don;t like him but he reminds me of Haglar in away .He does beat everyone in his weight class but plays it safe .Everyone Halgar beat that was good moved up in weight to fight him same with Hopkins .I like to see a champion after he holds the belt for a long time move up in weight .In Hopkins case and Haglars they were offered great deals to move up to Lightheavy and didn;t .

 

Moving up in weight divisions isn't always wise. Emile Griffith moved up too quickly from welter to middle against a dangerous opponent(Hurricane Carter) & was KO'd in the 1st.(When EG won the middle title, it was from good, but not GREAT,light-punching opponents. The only bonafide power hitter he fought for the title was Nino Benvenuti, until he fought All-Galaxy middle Carlos Monzon, losing twice, once by KO.)

All-time great Sugar Ray Robinson went to lt-hvy & fought light-punching Joey Maxim. SRR was well ahead on points when the effort he'd expended against the bigger man cought up with him in the form of heat exhaustion & he had to quit.

Outstanding lt. hvywts. have moved to heavy and generally been unsuccessful. Tommy Loughran & Gus Lesnevich are two examples of this, but for our era, Bob Foster stands out. By all measure, he was a great lt. hvy. champ, but when he went up against Frazier, it was clear he couldn't do much against the much-heavier man & was KO'd in the fourth. Same thing when he fought Ali a coupla years later...Ali, much heavier, KO'd Foster in the 8th.

Likewise with Oscar De La Hoya against Hopkins. Good as O was, he isn't nearly as big or as strong as is Hopkins. As for Hagler, he's only about 5'9" or so, and most of the top light heavies of the time were tall. I seriously doubt if he coulda beaten Virgil Hill, who was very successful against shorter opponents.

As for Hopkins, why should he leave the second-most-premier boxing division where he had been dominant? What kinda fame & fortune is there at SUPER MIDDLE? As for lt. hvy, his last BAD loss had been to Roy Jones Jr., & I believe Tarver is simply too large for Hopkins. He'd prolly be in the situation James Toney is now in...able to beat 3/4 of the fighters in the division, but unable to get past any of the top flight.

IMHO, Hopkins has made the right choice, staying a champ in a very famous weight class instead of pursuing the unknown in lt. hvy.

 

Belts really doesn;t mean much anymore like they did years ago .Look at Tyson .He hasn;t had a belt in years and still gets big money .Jones is the same way .Larry Holmes proved that he gave his belt away .If Lennox Lewis came out of retirement he;s make a ton .I don;t mean jumping up two weight classes .To go down as one of the all time great you have to take chances in boxing now days and go for the name fighters not belts .Hopkins will not be a great name down the road and neither will Haglar both solid good fighter s though .All the Titles made boxing a joke .And I would get rid of Jr.Titles also .I don;t think tarver is to big for Hopkins .Hopkins is a big middleweight .I think I could have beaten Hill .Foster will go down in history as a great fighter .A light heavy moving up is to much 175 to a heavy that weights 220 or more is to much .Theres Crusiers now anyway .And lots of Crusiers move up like Hoyfeild and one of the Heavyweights Champ's is a former cruisers can;t think of his name .Robinson moved up to many classes and almost won anyway .Thanks my 2 cents worth .