By Dr. Peter Edwards
Jermain Taylor, since his first appearance on HBO, was slowly being groomed as the successor to Bernard Hopkins' middleweight throne. The promoter of Taylor, Lou DiBella, made sure that every opponent fed to Taylor had absolutely no chance of even coming close to beating him. Taylor's record is padded with blown up welterweights, junior middleweights and old middleweights. When examining the boxing records of several new stars in the sport, Taylor by far has the most padded record of them all.
Even the blown up welterweights and junior middleweights Taylor beat were old and way past their prime. Rather then face a serious challenge in Howard Eastman, Taylor lured a retired William Joppy to throw on his gloves for a battle. The opponent Taylor faced in order to showcase himself for a potential Hopkins bout was an old sparring partner who barely tried to win the bout. The guy took no risks in his career.
HBO, even more so then Lou DiBella, was banking so much on a Taylor win. The problem with HBO is their consistent push of the same old fighters. In the last 2 years, HBO has lost Oscar De La Hoya, Roy Jones, Arturo Gatti and Felix Trinidad. Their heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko is barely worth a mention these days and some of their other stars like Antonio Tarver and Winky Wright are already in their mid thirties. The only undefeated star quality fighter on their network is Floyd Mayweather Jr., Miguel Cotto is still several fights away from the top and their latest prodigy Kassim Ouma was defeated several days ago. While HBO has been losing stars left and right, their boxing rival Showtime, has been creating new stars. Showtime is home to young faces like Diego Corrales, Samuel Peter, Jeff Lacy, Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe. There is even a scouting program on Showtime called ShoBox, the program's sole purpose is to showcase rising stars and new faces in the sport.
The desperation of HBO's hunt for a new star was never more evident then it was in their commentary during the Jermain Taylor vs. Bernard Hopkins pay per view. It was almost sickening to listen to the biased commentary spewing from the mouths of Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant during the Hopkins-Taylor bout. With the exception of Roy Jones, Hopkins was given little to no respect by the other two play by play men. I know I was not the only one to notice Jim Lampley screaming at the top of his lungs ever single time Taylor threw a big punch. The reason I used the word "threw" is because there were countless occasions when the Taylor's punch did not even land and Lampley was screaming "big left hand by Taylor", yet failed to inform the television audience that the punch did not connect. Hopkins landed a voluminous amount of big right hands, some that rocked Taylor bad, yet Lampley and Merchant were not screaming at the top of their lungs during those moments.
Taylor is not as quick as HBO has led us to believe, Hopkins was able to land his right hand over and over. Taylor was unable to adjust, unable to get out of the way and unable to counter in time. Hopkins easily avoided Taylor's counters all night long and never allowed Taylor to hit him flush after the second round. Once the final bell rang off, Hopkins was the one that appeared like the winner. Taylor was visibly frustrated and his emotions made it appear to many that he felt that he lost the fight.
After the winner of the fight was announced, Taylor was stunned, Hopkins was stunned and promoter Lou DiBella was the one that broke down crying. Lampley screamed "we have a brand new star", the minute the decision went Taylor's way. Unlike Mayweather's crowning moment as a star last month, Taylor was far from crowned as a new star. After the end of the 12 round contest, Taylor was battered, bruised, tired, bloody and screaming for a rematch. Hopkins on the other hand was full of energy and did not have a single visible mark on his face. I can't recall too many moments when a young unbeaten fighter defeats an aging champion and screams for a rematch more so then the fighter he just beat. Let's be honest here, even Hopkins admits that physically he is not the same fighter he was a few years ago. If this is the best that a guy like Taylor can do to a 40 year old Bernard Hopkins, a 35 year old Hopkins would of closed the show with a knockout.
I wont dispute that it was a close fight, but it was close because of Hopkins, not Taylor. Hopkins let the young gun shoot his load early and then took him to school after the fourth round. If not for Duane Ford's mishap in scoring the final round, the fight would have been called a draw. The reality of the situation is that Hopkins was not only fighting Taylor, he was fighting the entire network. HBO has become desperate for a new star, a loss for Taylor would have devastated the network. They pumped millions into the Jermain Taylor express, marketing the guy on their network as the heir apparent, pumping up his big wins over overmatched smaller men as big deals and presenting him at times in a bigger light then he deserved to be in. The guy was factory created by a network for the sole purpose of becoming their new star. What HBO did not bank on was the fact that Hopkins still has plenty of miles left in the gas tank.
I have every reason to believe that Duane Ford was influenced by the crowd, the network and the industry during his scoring of the final round. He knew the fight was on the table in that round and only a blind man could of awarded that round to Jermain Taylor. Larry Merchant said after the fight was over, "Bernard Hopkins tried to steal the fight at the end, but the judges would not let him". Merchant was right, the judges would not let him because Hopkins easily won the final round and it was still awarded on one scorecard to Taylor. During Merchant's post-fight interview of Bernard, he tried his best to downplay Hopkins' claim of winning the fight.
In the end, the final rounds of a fight are the rounds that leave a lasting impression on the viewers. In this fight, the lasting impression was Taylor being battered by a 40 year old aging champion in the final rounds of the fight. HBO needs this rematch to happen much more then Jermain Taylor or Bernard Hopkins, because the public now knows that their new star did not live up to "their" hype.
For the debut of my new weekly mailbag, email your comments and questions to boxingscene@hotmail.com
Jermain Taylor, since his first appearance on HBO, was slowly being groomed as the successor to Bernard Hopkins' middleweight throne. The promoter of Taylor, Lou DiBella, made sure that every opponent fed to Taylor had absolutely no chance of even coming close to beating him. Taylor's record is padded with blown up welterweights, junior middleweights and old middleweights. When examining the boxing records of several new stars in the sport, Taylor by far has the most padded record of them all.
Even the blown up welterweights and junior middleweights Taylor beat were old and way past their prime. Rather then face a serious challenge in Howard Eastman, Taylor lured a retired William Joppy to throw on his gloves for a battle. The opponent Taylor faced in order to showcase himself for a potential Hopkins bout was an old sparring partner who barely tried to win the bout. The guy took no risks in his career.
HBO, even more so then Lou DiBella, was banking so much on a Taylor win. The problem with HBO is their consistent push of the same old fighters. In the last 2 years, HBO has lost Oscar De La Hoya, Roy Jones, Arturo Gatti and Felix Trinidad. Their heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko is barely worth a mention these days and some of their other stars like Antonio Tarver and Winky Wright are already in their mid thirties. The only undefeated star quality fighter on their network is Floyd Mayweather Jr., Miguel Cotto is still several fights away from the top and their latest prodigy Kassim Ouma was defeated several days ago. While HBO has been losing stars left and right, their boxing rival Showtime, has been creating new stars. Showtime is home to young faces like Diego Corrales, Samuel Peter, Jeff Lacy, Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe. There is even a scouting program on Showtime called ShoBox, the program's sole purpose is to showcase rising stars and new faces in the sport.
The desperation of HBO's hunt for a new star was never more evident then it was in their commentary during the Jermain Taylor vs. Bernard Hopkins pay per view. It was almost sickening to listen to the biased commentary spewing from the mouths of Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant during the Hopkins-Taylor bout. With the exception of Roy Jones, Hopkins was given little to no respect by the other two play by play men. I know I was not the only one to notice Jim Lampley screaming at the top of his lungs ever single time Taylor threw a big punch. The reason I used the word "threw" is because there were countless occasions when the Taylor's punch did not even land and Lampley was screaming "big left hand by Taylor", yet failed to inform the television audience that the punch did not connect. Hopkins landed a voluminous amount of big right hands, some that rocked Taylor bad, yet Lampley and Merchant were not screaming at the top of their lungs during those moments.
Taylor is not as quick as HBO has led us to believe, Hopkins was able to land his right hand over and over. Taylor was unable to adjust, unable to get out of the way and unable to counter in time. Hopkins easily avoided Taylor's counters all night long and never allowed Taylor to hit him flush after the second round. Once the final bell rang off, Hopkins was the one that appeared like the winner. Taylor was visibly frustrated and his emotions made it appear to many that he felt that he lost the fight.
After the winner of the fight was announced, Taylor was stunned, Hopkins was stunned and promoter Lou DiBella was the one that broke down crying. Lampley screamed "we have a brand new star", the minute the decision went Taylor's way. Unlike Mayweather's crowning moment as a star last month, Taylor was far from crowned as a new star. After the end of the 12 round contest, Taylor was battered, bruised, tired, bloody and screaming for a rematch. Hopkins on the other hand was full of energy and did not have a single visible mark on his face. I can't recall too many moments when a young unbeaten fighter defeats an aging champion and screams for a rematch more so then the fighter he just beat. Let's be honest here, even Hopkins admits that physically he is not the same fighter he was a few years ago. If this is the best that a guy like Taylor can do to a 40 year old Bernard Hopkins, a 35 year old Hopkins would of closed the show with a knockout.
I wont dispute that it was a close fight, but it was close because of Hopkins, not Taylor. Hopkins let the young gun shoot his load early and then took him to school after the fourth round. If not for Duane Ford's mishap in scoring the final round, the fight would have been called a draw. The reality of the situation is that Hopkins was not only fighting Taylor, he was fighting the entire network. HBO has become desperate for a new star, a loss for Taylor would have devastated the network. They pumped millions into the Jermain Taylor express, marketing the guy on their network as the heir apparent, pumping up his big wins over overmatched smaller men as big deals and presenting him at times in a bigger light then he deserved to be in. The guy was factory created by a network for the sole purpose of becoming their new star. What HBO did not bank on was the fact that Hopkins still has plenty of miles left in the gas tank.
I have every reason to believe that Duane Ford was influenced by the crowd, the network and the industry during his scoring of the final round. He knew the fight was on the table in that round and only a blind man could of awarded that round to Jermain Taylor. Larry Merchant said after the fight was over, "Bernard Hopkins tried to steal the fight at the end, but the judges would not let him". Merchant was right, the judges would not let him because Hopkins easily won the final round and it was still awarded on one scorecard to Taylor. During Merchant's post-fight interview of Bernard, he tried his best to downplay Hopkins' claim of winning the fight.
In the end, the final rounds of a fight are the rounds that leave a lasting impression on the viewers. In this fight, the lasting impression was Taylor being battered by a 40 year old aging champion in the final rounds of the fight. HBO needs this rematch to happen much more then Jermain Taylor or Bernard Hopkins, because the public now knows that their new star did not live up to "their" hype.
For the debut of my new weekly mailbag, email your comments and questions to boxingscene@hotmail.com
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