By Bill Calogero
As expected by most, Jermain Taylor won a twelve-round split decision over Cory Spinks retaining his WBC & WBO Middleweight Titles Saturday night. The snoozer was broadcast live on HBO as the Main Event from the Fed-Ex Forum in Memphis, Tennessee.
The fight began with a typical “feeling out” round with the edge in favor of Spinks. This was primarily due to the fact he was able to land his jab with very little response from Taylor.
In my opinion, Cory Spinks was able to take the second and third rounds using his right jab to set up scoring lefts, but only one at a time. He did nothing great, but was able to score and move out of the way, squeaking out these two rounds. Taylor was not throwing many punches at all. He seemed to be giving Spinks too much “power puncher’s respect”. The problem was, Cory Spinks is not a power puncher.
During the rest of the fight, Taylor was landing the harder punches but nothing spectacular. He certainly did not show me much, but neither did Spinks. Cory was able to avoid Taylor’s power and was able to land a jab followed by a punch or two keeping this fight close on the scorecards, but simply not enough to win.
One judge at ringside scored the fight 115-113, while the second had it at 117-111 both in favor of Taylor while the third had 117-111 in favor of Spinks, giving Jermain Taylor the split-decision victory. BoxingScene.com scored the fight 115-113 also in favor of Taylor.
Cory Spinks drops to 39-4 (11 KOs) while Jermain Taylor improves to 27-0-1 (17 KOs) and still, in my opinion, has yet to impress as a World Champion.
Speaking of impressive, the fight that SHOULD have been the main event of the evening but was featured as the co-main, Kelly Pavlik dominated the highly regarded Edison Miranda from the opening bell until referee Steve Smoger put an end to the beating officially at 1:54 of the 7th round.
Pavlik battered Edison Miranda from one end of the ring to the other. That’s really the only way to describe it. He used his jab, followed by multi-punch combinations to pummel Miranda throughout the fight.
During the sixth round, a solid left hook sent Miranda down. He was STILL clearly in trouble when he rose to his feet. I doubt many people would have argued if Steve Smoger put an end to this bout right then but he did not. Just before he let Miranda continue, Edison spit out his mouthpiece. Smoger stopped action from starting, got the mouthpiece, gave it to Miranda’s corner to rinse off and THEN allowed the action to continue. Miranda, unjustly received substantial “extra time” from referee Smoger, which should have helped him to recover. Unfortunately for Miranda, he did not fully recover and was still on very wobbly legs.
Just prior to the close of the sixth round, the dominating Pavlik unleashed a right-left-right-left four punch combination that again sent Miranda down and almost out for the second time during the round. Miranda somehow managed to survive the round and came out to face Kelly for the seventh. Almost two minutes later, the one-sided fight was over.
Kelly Pavlik stays undefeated, now at 31-0 (28 KOs). Edison suffers the second loss of his career, dropping to 28-2 (24 KOs) but surely will rebound soon. He is a warrior.
Kelly Pavlik proved to me that he very well might be the best Middleweight in boxing today after his performance during this win. After the fight, he was announced as the “Universally Recognized Number One Ranked Middleweight Contender In The World”.
I think the trash-talking Jermain Taylor MUST fight Pavlik next to see who truly should be regarded as the BEST middleweight in the world today. The best middleweight should be the World Champion. That’s NOT the case right now. The question is, Will Jermain Taylor be a man and fight Kelly Pavlik? I personally doubt it. He has yet to prove anything to me since borrowing the Championship Belts.
Jermain Taylor talked lots of BS, before and after the Spinks fight. He said he beat Hopkins and Wright. I for one believe he lost BOTH of the Hopkins fights AND the Winky Wright fight. When he was interviewed after his victory over Spinks, he was asked if he would fight Pavlik next. His answer was, “I will fight who ever gives us the most money”. I think that sums up what has become of professional boxing. It’s all about the money, and that’s sad for me as a fan and it’s absolutely terrible for the sport of professional boxing.
One of the biggest problems with boxing today is a fighter like Jermain Taylor and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Not that they aren’t talented boxers or deserve to make the money they make, but rather how blatantly they throw it down the consumer’s throats. These consumers are the BOXING FANS that pad the pocketbooks of everyone involved by paying for these purses via PPV, ticket sales, etc. How obnoxious is that?
We live in a society that’s based on money. It sucks, but that’s the way it is. In professional sports, boxing is no different from Pro Baseball or Football. The athletes involved are the best we have to offer. Their sport is their livelihood and they have a right to make money at it. They also have the right to make more money than most. I have no problem with that. I have no problem with Boxers making huge amounts of money either. What I do have a problem with is when a boxer laughably says he will fight for “the money” one day, then a month later try and help sell a BS fight as a “worthy” fight so he can make that big money.
A car salesman makes money too. When he’s selling a car, does he say to his potential customer, “Buy this beauty over here. I will make a bundle off of you if you choose this one” ? I doubt it. How many people would buy that car? He may direct you to the car he stands to make the maximum from, verses a car he can’t make as much from, and make his pitch but that is kind of kept to himself. A realist knows that everyone has to make a living, but NO ONE wants to have someone be blatant about it.
That’s what’s being done with Pro Boxing. Guys like Jermain Taylor and Floyd Mayweather Jr. come right out and say they want mo money, mo money, mo money and then have the balls to try and convince the fan who ultimately pays for the purses, that the fight against a lesser opponent will be competitive.
No one ever said the sport of Professional Boxing is easy. No one ever said that Pro Boxers should not be compensated for their efforts inside the ring as well as the hard work required to be put in outside the ring during the preparation for their fights. It’s not easy. It takes 100% dedication and commitment from SEVERAL people.
What we as boxing fans do expect is to get what we pay for. Just like anything else. If I have to pay a premium for a PPV bout, or pay big bucks for a seat at a major fight, then I should be treated to a worthwhile fight. More often than not, we are not. My only question is, why do we as boxing fans continue to do it?
The only explanation is the simple fact that our desire for the sport of pro boxing to be what it should be; the best fighting the best, and our Champions actually being the best of their divisions, is the driving force behind throwing money away on these BS fights and continue to accept that the good fights don’t happen enough.
The Jermain Taylor vs. Cory Spinks fight was on HBO. It’s a premium channel, so not everyone was able to see it, but I would say most that cared about the fight, got to see it. They saw what the vast majority thought would be the case. Too bad.
Also as was the case, the Co-Featured bout was the much better and certainly the more entertaining bout of the pair.
The Kelly Pavlik vs. Edison Miranda fight was definitely what most expected, an action-packed bout. The beauty of this bout was that we got to see two young fighters, in their prime, who both knew going into the fight that the winner would most certainly be in line for a Title shot while the loser would take a devastating step back, battle each other and have the outcome produce the better fighter. That’s exactly what we got.
No trash talking. No references to money or who will fight whom, for what, when, or where. No putting down the other guy. Just two fighters trying their hardest to win a big fight. That’s the kind of fight that I love to watch. The kind of fight, which shows what pro boxing is all about. Now fights like that are worth money to see.
No one will say that Kelly Pavlik or Edison Miranda don’t deserve to make big money. They definitely should. They earned it. They both did.
Kelly Pavlik will make a great World Middleweight Champion. If he’s given the opportunity, I am sure he will succeed and be a well-respected Champion. He will be exciting to watch. His fights will be worth your hard-earned money.
I can’t say the same about Jermain Taylor. He has not proved his skills in or out of the ring since becoming a Champion, therefore he is not a respected Champion, at least by me. To date, he has not lived up to the expectations most have had. But to him, he will fight the guy who gives him the most money. That may or may not be Kelly Pavlik. If it isn’t, I for one will not pay one cent to see him fight someone else. I want to start getting what I pay for. Jermain Taylor is not worth the money.
