By Terence Dooley
Fact is fact and the truth is that Jermain Taylor has done everything asked of him in his final exams.
Quibbles about the results with Bernard Hopkins have twice been repelled and last Saturday Taylor won everything but the final result in a tactically thrilling fight with Ronald "Winky" Wright.
As first defenses go, this particular assignment was beyond the usual first title defense. Champions are usually eased into statehood with a series of gimme defenses whilst the next threat to their crown is built-up. This was not the case for Taylor; he went from the heir apparent to the heir-here to the next victim of the ‘Ronald Wright coming out tour.’
I will put my hand up right now, Jermain Taylor is my blue-eyed boy for boxing over the next few years and I had backed him versus Bernard Hopkins twice plus made it a hat-trick by backing him versus Wright. So I am biased right? Well I will put my other hand up and admit that I am a long-term dues payer in the Winky Wright fan club, I watched him dominate British favourites Steve Foster and Ensley Bingham here in my hometown of Manchester while most people were writing him off as unexciting. So both hands are up and the predilection for both men makes me objective when I say that I feel Taylor won that fight on Saturday night, and won it well. Throughout the piece he imposed himself on Wright with far more force than Wright forced on him. In fact I think this clash will send Wright back down to light middleweight as he found out what happens when a big, strong middleweight blasts through your guard.
I think Wright is a very fine boxer, he will go back down to 154lbs and dominate there, provided Vernon Forrest does not find great form, it is my perception that he found it hard in the ring on Saturday night and will enjoy greater physicality at 154lbs. On the other hand, Jermain Taylor will get his showcase fight and can then look to the European middleweights in a bid to reclaim his fragmented title, Felix Strum and Arthur Abraham are decent boxers yet they will not have the tactical nous Taylor has acquired after thirty-six rounds with Hopkins and Wright.
As for the fight itself it was a classic clash let down by a tepid concluding round, by this point both men may have felt that they would receive the nod from the judges so the draw was, naturally, disputed by both.
When the first bell rang Taylor looked stronger, most expected that, yet he also looked quicker and quickly got his lead foot on the outside of the foot of Wright in order to ensure that Wright could not get full extension on his right jab from the southpaw posture. This for me, throughout a number of rounds, was the key to the fight, Taylor shot his right hand straight through the middle throughout the fight and even when he did not land he kept Wright covered-up and ensured that Wrights jab was not as big a factor has some had presumed.
Taylor stabbed with the right, brought it through as an uppercut and generally imposed the shot on Ronald.
At times in the fight Wright looked oddly passive, his guard let relatively little in but prevented him from sending out any meaningful return fire. Ronald countered well with hooked shots and counters, particularly in round two, yet always looked wary of incoming fire. Those long arms, so long a benefit, could not get Wright the reach on the jab due to Taylor’s positioning and as a consequence the jab became a prod.
Taylor for his part invested in beating the guard of Wright then waging a war of precision and power, people said Taylor missed a lot of shots, or to be exact he had them blocked, yet even the blocked blows served the function of rocking Ronald and leaving him off-balance as well as off-set. Taylor went textbook in the third with a step aside and classic left hook, right hand to body and head antidote to the southpaw style.
Ominously, for purposes of power punching in the fight, Wright was rocked by a jab in the third round yet he continued to pick his blows over the next few rounds, his shield was getting a battering and still he continued to keep his gloves cupping his ears as Taylor slung shots in. As stated the battle of jabs was negated by positioning, Taylor asked Winky a simple question: “Lets see if in my right hand counter is faster than your right hand jab” and Wright failed to retort adequately.
As the fight progressed into its second half the pattern had been a brisk pace from Winky, plus picking of blows, to Taylor’s attrition and awe approach, an all-in Wright began to illustrate the pace as he visibly sagged after shots in the seventh, he looked bemused yet still refused to let Taylor have it his own way.
Wright, when he is forced to think, picks shots sneakily and moves away before he is forced to engage, Taylor had staked his claim to centre ring so Wright adjusted then finessed Taylor onto the ropes where strangely the naturally smaller man excelled.
Yet even then Taylor would blaze back, one time he turned a jab into a left hook as he tried to batter the resolve of Wright, when he did get through with his shots he drilled them in, right hands went straight through the middle after Wright had thought the storm had passed.
Be it gloves or chin Wright was left looking off-kilter at times by the blows of Taylor and it meant his work lacked some spark in the middle stanzas, Taylor was the fighter with swelling to the eye late-on yet it was Wright who looked to the ref as Taylor harassed him.
In this fight more than any other Wright fight Winky was bullied and battered to the point that his picket became full of holes. A late loss of steam from Taylor pre-empted a resurgence in Wrights work at a crucial time as he forced a massive drive from himself in the tenth and eleventh rounds. Finally he got a decent distance and worked the right hand jab; he also popped in quick punches before Taylor had time to set himself.
In many ways it seemed that Wright had followed Hopkins’ approach to fighting Taylor, not in terms of style but rather in terms of, at vital times, staying tight and playing to the gallery to show them that the old soldier could still war with the bigger, younger man. Only from my view it was Taylor who whipped in the eye-catching shots as well as making Wright look like a man who was wistful for his former division, particularly in rounds nine and ten.
It all went down to the final round and Wright inexplicably, or explicably when one considers he thought he had won the fight handily, negated any chance he had of working effectively by oscillating between ring-skirting and smothering his work on the inside. Taylor took the round by firing his combos when he had a chance and trying to close his ledger for the night with a winning round.
I felt comfortable waiting for the result to come through, Taylor had shown improvement and systematically, with some skill, beat Wright up in the middle rounds and taken the fight overall. Wright had landed irritant type shots yet Taylor had really dug-in and slashed at Wright throughout the night. Clearly, yet not dramatically enough to dispel many people’s doubts about him, Jermain had won the fight; or so it had seemed. Then the cards came in: 115-113, 113-115 and 114-114; I had it 115-113 for Jermain, Taylor’s magic number in title fights thus far. There was no knock-out but Winky Wright may have been knocked-down to his former division.
Now the result leaves Wright telling us it always rains on him, yet for an eternal, and it must be said, well-orchestrated underdog and nearly man Wright has been well looked after by boxing recently. Fights with Mosley and Trinidad as well as Taylor have seen his stock rise dramatically as well as showcasing him on HBO, he is no longer an avoided fighter toiling on the other guys card, he is a shining star of boxing.
As for Taylor he looked good until he became distracted by his closing eye, he has the attributes, the attitude and he now has the acute touch of Manny Steward proving a tactical backdrop to his fights.
Taylor showed pragmatic purpose to back up his bodily presence in this bout, he has now negated the arsenals of Hopkins and Wright yet has still received little credit, lets talk less about what he failed to do in these bouts and talk about what he did not allow the other guy to do, lets give him his props as the Americans say. Wright was on form yet at times he looked troubled, that famous shield became a Perspex screen and Wright a scientist manipulating a combustible substance or two. Wright got some answers in the bout; he mixed some combinations up and got some chemical callisthenics going, a jab here, a feint and flurry there yet each time he came up with a formula Taylor’s physicality and power came up with the antidote.
I see that the fight was tense and decisive; if you have Wright winning it I won’t think it a major crime. Yet think about some of the things Wright did when he got his big chance versus Shane Mosley, in fight two he knew he had the win coming, he knew he was a big, strong light-middle and he knew Shane could not hurt him, so what did Wright do? He played to the gallery; he opened his guard and let Shane hit him, he dared not do this with Taylor, he stayed in his shell and looked shocked by what Taylor could bring, when he did get Taylor on the ropes, when Wright had his greatest success, he would catch Taylor and Jermain would patiently wait and back Wright up with his own blows.
If Wright genuinely feels he won the fight easily so be it, HBO and the middleweight Champion are waiting to call his bluff. No one is ducking Wright any longer, in fact Jermain Taylor, to his eternal credit, looks like he will not be ducking anybody. I see a talented fighter in Jermain, I also see shades of James Toney in his attitude and ability, this was his big calendar year and there is more to come.
