By Sammy Rozenberg
The new king of middleweights was set to be crowned in the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee, but the coronation of the new middleweight king did not take place as planned.
The champion, Jermain Taylor (25-0-2, 17 KOs), and Winky Wright (50-3-1, 25 KOs) battled with their hearts, wills and skills to twelve round draw. The scores were 115-113 for Taylor, 115-113 for Wright and 114-114 for the draw.
Most experts saw the fight as a boring technical battle, but the fight turned out to be an exciting battle with both fighters switching rounds.
The right jab of Winky Wright was quicker than Taylor had anticipated, making the fight much harder for the Olympian from Arkansas.
"His jab was quicker than I anticipated. He came with it tonight and I have to give it up to Winky. He is a great fighter," Taylor said.
After the draw decision was announced, Winky Wright stormed out of the ring in disgust, feeling he won the fight and went back to his dressing room. In the dressing room, Wright claimed that he was the victim of a hometown decision, bot more importantly Wright said that he will not fight Taylor again because he feels that he won the fight.
"I won't fight him again. I won the fight. I landed the clean shots and had his head all over the place. There are other big fights out there for me. I don't need to fight him again. I'll fight anyone that wants it. It was another Fernardo Vargas," Wright said.
The reference to Vargas was a reference to the 1999 decision that Wright lost in a fight many observers felt he won.
The bout with Taylor started at an unexpected fast pace with both men trading punches at close quarters. The jab of Wright was winning many of the rounds, while Taylor won his own share of rounds with brute power.
When Wright backed Taylor against the ropes, he would bang away with punches to the head and body. As soon as the fight would go to the middle of the ring, Taylor would take over with power punches. As the fight went to the ninth round, the faces of both fighters were bruised and swollen from the numerous exchanges.
A clash of heads in the ninth round, caused Taylor’s left eye to rapidly swell, affecting his vision for the remainder of the fight. As the fight went to the twelfth and final round, the left eye of Taylor was completely swollen shut.
“When we were in the last round, I couldn’t see anything from the eye. It affected my vision, I couldn’t see the punches coming,” Taylor said.
Wright, thinking the decision was in the bag, stayed away from Taylor in the final round and used defensive maneuvering to get away. The decision by Wright to coast the final round was reminiscent of Oscar De La Hoya cruising in his final rounds against Felix Trinidad because he felt the fight was in the bag, only to lose a decision. The same appeared to happen here, as Wright looked to have given away the final round, and the fight. Wright feels that even though he didn’t do much in the final round, neither did Taylor.
“If I didn’t do anything in the last round, then neither did he,” Wright said.
There is a rematch clause in the contract, which gave Taylor a rematch if he lost. Wright said he does not want to fight Taylor again and Taylor appeared to be open for a return bout. It was a great fight, one of the better fights this year. It would be a real disservice to the boxing fans if the two fighters were not able to battle one more time.
Unless the two men agree to a rematch, the biggest fight for either of them would be against super middleweight ruler Joe Calzaghe. Calzaghe has already voiced his intentions in the media, with respect to facing the winner of Taylor-Wright. Now Calzaghe has a choice of fighting either man. The fight is easy to make for any of the two combinations, if both sides are able to agree on money and the fight location.
Calzaghe has jumped ship to HBO, and the network is looking to capitalize on their investment by making him face top competition while his name is still hot. If there are no outrageous financial demands, the negotiations should be less bumpy.
Whether or not either of the two fighters wants to head across the ocean to face Calzaghe in the UK is another story, and could be the single piece of the negotiations process that makes or breaks the deal.
One thing is for sure, in the post-Hopkins era of middleweights, the position of king is still up for grabs.
On the undercard
Undefeated Olympian Andre Berto (12-0, 10KOs) stopped Sammy Sparkman (18-14-1, 8KOs) in two rounds.
Anthony Hanshaw (19-0, 13KOs) scored a six-round decision over James North (8-11-2, 3KOs).
Undefeated Sechew Powell (20-0, 12KOs) stopped Willie Lee (14-5, 10KOs) after ten rounds of action.
Unbeaten lightweight Isaac Hlatshwayo (25-0, 9KOs) fought to an easy eight round decision over Jeremy Yelton (17-6, 9 KOs). The scores were 80-72, 79-73 and 80-72.
Terry Smith (27-1-1, 18KOs) beat down Dennis McKinney (25-40-2, 12 KOs) bad enough to prompt McKinner's corner to stop the action after eight rounds.
