By Sammy Rozenberg

The young lion has done it once again. After months of controversy over who deserved to win the first fight, Taylor (25-0, 17 KOs) defeats Bernard Hopkins (46-4-1, 32 KOs) to prove his July 16 split decision victory was far from a fluke.

Taylor, a 27-year-old fighter from Little Rock, Arkansas, had the skills and superstar looks of a champion. An impressive amateur background, and a 2000 Olympic Bronze medal was not enough to make Taylor a star. He needed a signature victory over an established star in order to become the new face of boxing.

Bernard Hopkins was Taylor’s destiny from the moment Taylor first stepped inside the ring for his fist professional bout at Madison Square Garden on January 27, 2001. Going into their first meeting, the opinion of many saw Taylor as a fighter who was too inexperienced to defeat a veteran champion like Bernard Hopkins.

Prior to the first Hopkins meeting, Taylor two biggest opponents were Raul Marquez and William Joppy, both were well past their prime and not on the same level as Taylor in terms of overall skill. Hopkins, was undefeated for twelve years, and had not come close to tasting defeat. That is until Taylor, the biggest threat in Hopkin’s long career, had come on the scene.

The first bout was a back and forth battle. Taylor was able to quick start by outpointing the slow-starting Hopkins for at least 6 of the first 7 rounds. Hopkins, sensing the urgency of the situation, began to turn up the heat on Taylor for the final 5 rounds.

In the end, Taylor became an overnight sensation when the two of three judges scored the fight in his favor. After the win, there more questions than answers. Most of the public fixed their attention on the scoring of the final round. A round that was clearly won by Hopkins, but one judge, Duane Ford, still managed to score the round for Jermain Taylor. The disputed final round scoring gave Taylor the one point he desperately needed to win. If the judge would have agreed with his two colleagues and scored the round for Hopkins, the first bout would have ended in a draw. Many fans and ringside observers felt Hopkins did enough to win the fight. A rematch was demanded by both men to settle the dispute.

The rematch began with a similar tone - both men stepped up their ring game from the first fight and were trying to outwit each other. As the fight went on, the power and activity level of Taylor was more apparent than it was in the first fight.

Although Hopkins tried to start better, Taylor paced himself more and did not punch himself out as he did in the first fight. There was no dispute with the judges, as all off them scored the fight for Taylor, with all three cards reading 115-113.

Taylor must now focus his strategy on capitalizing off his career defining victories over Bernard Hopkins. The WBC appointed Winky Wright as the mandatory challenger to the middleweight title. For the moment, Taylor must hang back for a few days and wait for the outcome of the December 10 meeting between Winky Wright and Sam Soliman. Should Wright win as expected, he would make the perfect superstar opponent for Taylor’s next fight.

Wright, a crafty defensive wizard, would be seriously outgunned against the younger and more powerful Jermain Taylor. Hopkins, was regarded by many in the business as a boxing chessmaster and he was still handled by Taylor in two meetings. Hopkins hit hard enough to earn the respect of Taylor. Wright has been unable to score a knockout since 2002. Even against smaller opposition such as Shane Mosley, Wright’s best punches did little damage. 

There is also the prospect of moving up in weight to challenge the winner of next year’s super middleweight clash between Joe Calzaghe and Jeff Lacy. The sky is the limit for the Taylor and it’s going to be very interesting to see what path this talented fighter chooses to take in his blossoming career.

On the undercard, Israel Vazquez (39-3) defeated Oscar Larios (56-4-1) to unify the WBC and IBF jr. featherweight titles by way of a third round TKO. Larios was knocked down in the first round, but was able to survive and began to make a comeback in the second. In the third, Larios sustained a very bad cut above his left eye from a punch. The ringside physician immediately stopped the fight after examining the cut.

Ike Quartey (37-2-1) stopped Carlos Bojorquez (25-8-6) in ten rounds. Quartey dominated the fight from start to finish with his power jab. The referee, Joe Cortez, had seen enough in the tenth round and stopped the fight, as Bojorquez was taking a bad beating, throughout the fight.