By David P. Greisman
Photo © Josh Barron/Fightwireimages.com
Jermain Taylor cannot win.
It was but two years ago that Taylor was the heir apparent, a young prospect chosen as the man most likely to replace the supposedly soon-to-retire Bernard Hopkins as middleweight king.
It should have been so easy.
Taylor took two close, controversial decisions over Hopkins, disputed outcomes no matter how often HBO blow-by-blow announcer Jim Lampley has since reminded us that five of the fights’ six judges favored the humble Olympian from Little Rock.
Taylor didn’t win his next fight – but he didn’t lose it either. Taylor and Winky Wright battled to a draw, cementing that the bout’s contestants were the best two 160-pounders around. The order, however, remained inconclusive.
By defeating Hopkins, it seems, the heir apparent inherited much of the critical attention oft directed at “The Executioner.” The respect, though, is still pending.
He fights too many blown-up junior middleweights, the naysayers argue, and even then, he backs up and lets them dictate the action. His two wins and a draw against Hopkins and Wright could very easily have been three losses. He is a product of hype, of careful matchmaking, of good timing, of interested parties looking to protect their investment.
He’s undefeated.
He can’t win.
We expect an heir apparent to assume his role with enthusiasm and vigor, to prove himself as more than a fighter who was in the right place at the right time. But Taylor, some believe, has opened himself up to criticism. His battles against Hopkins were passive pugilism masquerading as tactical battles. His draw with Wright had a fortunate finish, a judge who punished Winky for taking his foot off the gas in the final stanza. His last fight was against a small junior middleweight, as is this Saturday’s defense against Cory Spinks.
He is a middleweight on middle ground.
Taylor did better against Hopkins than most had over a decade of the latter’s defenses. He waged a close battle against a Winky Wright whose experience and ability were only recently receiving respect. He outpointed – widely, on two cards – a Kassim Ouma that many had previously considered a live dog, a potential problem for any middleweight.
He needs more.
Against Spinks, Taylor needs to thread the needle, to sew up his own fate with a clear, decisive victory. He needs to move beyond the heir apparent label and establish himself as a true champion.
He will be helped by the undercard.
Between Hopkins, Wright and Ouma, somehow the knock on Taylor came to be that he needed better competition – criticism that largely came from Taylor’s original date being feather-fisted Contender champion Sergio Mora and Mora’s replacement being feather-fisted junior middleweight titlist Cory Spinks.
Fans had been spoiled by seeing Taylor in against top-class opposition; anything less would be scrutinized.
Taylor needed a foil, a rising upstart who poses a legitimate threat to his reign. That challenger will be the winner of Saturday’s clash between Edison Miranda and Kelly Pavlik.
As the middleweight division shifted into Taylor’s control, it found itself in a state of flux. If Hopkins had essentially defeated all wannabes and never-weres, then Taylor would need to wait for a new set of contenders and pretenders.
And as the sanctioning bodies took back belts long held by Hopkins but now vacated by Taylor, many fighters chose to compete for trinkets rather than challenge for the championship.
Taylor’s fate is now clear – he will probably either take on the winner of Miranda-Pavlik or move up to super middleweight and Joe Calzaghe. First, however, he must defeat Spinks.
But if Jermain Taylor is going to thread the needle, he cannot just win on Saturday – he must win decisively.
The 10 Count
1. The blockbuster Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather Jr. pay-per-view cashed in on months’ worth of marketing and hype, selling an estimated 2.15 million buys and bringing in $120 million in pay-per-view revenue, HBO announced last week.
With the broadcast selling 160,000 more buys than 2002’s Lennox Lewis-Mike Tyson mega-fight – and with those buys coming with a price tag of $54.95 – De La Hoya-Mayweather set a new record for pay-per-view buys and revenue.
2. Mayweather, meanwhile, capitalized on his victory with a series of high-profile appearances on television programs such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
The box office success of this month’s pay-per-view has earned Mayweather what is essentially a victory lap through all the usual publicity channels typically made available to actors, musicians and comedians. But whereas those celebrities hit the talk show circuit so as to promote movies, albums and projects, Mayweather’s appearances are his long-awaited touches with fame.
As such, Mayweather may be testing the temperature of the waters, checking to see how hot or cool he is in terms of popularity. Truly, it all boils down to a moment on The Tonight Show when Mayweather told Leno, “If the fans demand a rematch, they going to bring me out of retirement.”
3. Any De La Hoya-Mayweather post-fight chatter, though, quickly and rightfully went away late last Monday as the news came in that Diego Corrales had died in a motorcycle accident in Las Vegas.
Those who love the sport, from participants to non-participants, quickly went from grieving over Corrales’ death to remembering who he was in life. With numerous messages, postings and articles, the boxing world provided an apt memorial to a fallen fighter.
Rest in peace, Chico.
4. There is never any easy transition from the depressing to the routine, and so I won’t attempt to provide one. Instead, this column does what the sporting world had to – we move forward without necessarily moving on, keeping Corrales in our minds and hearts for the warrior that he was.
5. Former heavyweight titlist Corrie Sanders continued his comeback on Saturday, outpointing warm body Daniel Bispo en route to a 10-round unanimous decision.
It was only Sanders’ second appearance since his December 2004 farewell knockout of Alexei Varakin, and the South African southpaw seems to have less dedication to boxing than he had while competing as a part-time fighter, part-time golfer.
Sanders, who came in at nearly 19 pounds over the 225 he weighed against Wladimir Klitschko, looked “decidedly out of shape,” according to a report from South African Web site SuperSport. Sanders injured his vaunted left hand in the opening stanza, forcing the knockout artist to go the distance.
Although Sanders remains a mere fraction of the fighter who slugged it out with Hasim Rahman and stopped Wladimir Klitschko, his presence is nevertheless intriguing when considering today’s heavyweight division. Wladimir Klitschko is, once again, a titlist earning high praise, a man who, like mixed-martial artist Chuck Liddell, is out to avenge his past defeats. Klitschko is slated for a July rematch with a rusty Lamon Brewster – could a bout against a similarly-shaped Sanders be on the horizon?
6. Boxers Behaving Badly: Former three-division titlist Hector Camacho Sr. plead guilty last week to charges stemming from a November 2004 incident in which he broke into a Mississippi computer store, according to southern Mississippi newspaper The Sun Herald.
According to Camacho’s attorney, the flamboyant fighter was attempting to retrieve a laptop that he had recently purchased from the store and had left there to be fixed. But the store’s owners said that Camacho fell through the ceiling, relieved himself inside and then stole several computers and thousands of dollars in checks and cash.
Camacho, who could be sentenced to up to seven years in prison and fined up to $10,000, also has another upcoming trial for alleged possession of ecstasy.
7. Boxing Broadcaster Chief Behaving Badly: HBO executive Chris Albrecht was forced to resign last week after Las Vegas police arrested him for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend following the De La Hoya- Mayweather bout, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Hours after the fight was over, police officers reportedly witnessed Albrecht grabbing a woman by the throat with enough force that he left red marks on her neck. Albrecht had announced on May 8 that he was taking a leave of absence so as to confront a drinking problem, but his employment status changed after a Times article revealed a past case of domestic violence.
The Times reported that, 16 years ago, HBO had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a former employee and ex-girlfriend of Albrecht’s who had accused her boss-slash-boyfriend of shoving and choking her.
“With great regret, at the request of Time Warner [the company that owns HBO], I have agreed to step down,” Albrecht said in a statement released to the press. “I take this step for the benefit of my Home Box Office colleagues, recognizing that I cannot allow my personal circumstances to distract them from the business.”
Albrecht plead no contest on Friday to a charge of misdemeanor battery. He was sentenced to six months of suspended jail time, a year of unsupervised probation, a $1,000 fine and mandatory domestic violence counseling.
8. Jose Miguel Cotto fought Friday to a disputed draw against Prawet Singwangcha on the main event of Telefutura’s Solo Boxeo Tecate, the result meaning that neither man captured the vacant World Boxing Association “regular” lightweight title.
Singwangcha had been the mandatory opponent to Juan Diaz, but Diaz’ promotional team paid the Thai fighter step-aside money, thereby allowing last month’s Diaz-Acelino Freitas match to go on as a unification bout.
With Diaz now holding the unified WBA and WBO 135-pound belts, the typical sanctioning body shenanigans may, for once, benefit the sport. Cotto and Singwangcha will eventually have a rematch, with the winner moving on to defend his hard-earned bauble. This, in turn, frees up Diaz for a much-desired showdown with legitimate division champion Joel Casamayor.
9. Of more interest, however, is the drama that unfurled before our eyes between the ninth and tenth rounds of Cotto-Singwangcha, when Jose Miguel Cotto appeared to have a physical confrontation with his uncle and trainer Evangelista Cotto. The commotion visually upset Jose Miguel’s brother, welterweight titlist Miguel Cotto, who Evangelista also trains.
Evangelista was angered enough that he sat out the remaining two rounds of the bout, and it will be interesting to see if Friday’s events have any impact on next month’s pay-per-view bout between Miguel Cotto and Zab Judah.
10. Dancing with the Stars Update: With her famous father sitting in the front row, Laila Ali earned one of four spots in the celebrity dancing series’ semifinal round.
Ali and partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy performed two dances – the waltz and the jive – earning a 27 and a 26, respectively, from the show’s three judges, along with a mix of compliments and criticism.
Between Joey Fatone, Apolo Anton Ohno and Ian Ziering, Ali’s remaining competition is stiff, but her consistency and commitment give her a legitimate shot at coming out on top should she make it to next week’s season finale.
David P. Greisman may be reached at dgreisman@aol.com
