Taylor-Spinks: Not as Awful as You Think

TAYLOR-SPINKS: NOT AS AWFUL AS YOU THINK By William Dettloff Lou DiBella apparently grew so tired of all the complaining about Jermain Taylor’s inability to back up Kassim Ouma, last December, that he reportedly went out and got Cory Spinks, who even has a hard time moving forward when he’s on one of those human conveyor belts at the airport. Spinks, THE RING’s top-rated junior middleweight and a former world welterweight champion, is as pure a stick-and-move boxer as you can imagine. The most likely scenario when the two meet, which will reportedly be in May, is that his movement and jab will befuddle Taylor for a few rounds, then Spinks will fade, as he did against Zab Judah and Roman Karmazin, and probably get stopped. This will be seen as rather a cause for celebration in the Taylor camp, as the world middleweight champion hasn’t stopped anyone in 48 rounds of boxing. Taylor engendered some amount of good will after beating Bernard Hopkins for the title, first by agreeing to fight Hopkins again and then by giving a shot to Winky Wright. It’s hard to recall another young champion who faced such stiff competition right out of the box. Rightly or wrongly, he sacrificed a bit of that good will by facing Ouma, a very good junior middleweight, and more yet when, despite his greater strength and punch, he allowed Ouma to back him up all night. The selection of Spinks (which came only after negotiations for bouts against Wright and Sergio Mora fell through) has produced a collective groan in the boxing industry. I’m not ready to castigate Taylor and DiBella for choosing Spinks. There’s a long history of middleweight champions facing smaller fighters moving up. At least four of Marvelous Marvin Hagler’s most notable opponents—Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Roberto Duran, and John Mugabi—came from lighter weight classes. (Duran made his bones at lightweight, for cripes sake.) In fact, Hagler fought Hearns, Mugabi, and Leonard in consecutive fights. The great Carlos Monzon defended against Jose Napoles, didn’t he? Dick Tiger gave Emile Griffith a shot at the middleweight title four months after Griffith’s final welterweight title defense (and was sorry he did). No one’s suggesting that Cory Spinks is the equal of any of the guys I’ve just mentioned, so put down the mouse. I’m merely suggesting that there’s precedent for what Taylor is doing. And if he going to defend against a junior middleweight, at least he picked a good one in Spinks, who is RING’s top-rated 154-pounder. That’s not to say this sort of matchmaking isn’t going to chip away at the good will Taylor established in the early days of his reign. It absolutely is and there’s a way for him to restore that good will, assuming he beats Spinks: face the winner of the proposed Edison Miranda-Kelly Pavlik fight. And say it now—loud and clear. If he doesn’t, if the next opponent isn’t a top middleweight, he will undo all that early respect he got by taking on Hopkins and Wright. But if he does, all will be forgiven. Some miscellaneous observations from last week: Good for Jesse Feliciano for reminding us again that sometimes tough is better than good. Said Quali looked good blowing out Irving Garcia, didn’t he? What did I like best about Mikkel Kessler in his win over Librado Andrade? That in the last few rounds, when he knew he was way ahead, he tried to knock Andrade into the fourth row anyway. That stood in stark contrast to Jean-Marc Mormeck’s pitiable display over the last four rounds of his win over O’Neil Bell. Are there any fighters anymore who don’t have a belt? Just checking. I kept wondering what was holding Andrade up until I remembered he used to work at a Jack-in-the-Box. Nothing will harden a man’s resolve like the memories of working in a fast-food joint and the terrible contemplation that he might have to again one day. I was digging the prefight atmosphere in Copenhagen’s Parken Arena until the ring announcer intoned, “Let’s get this party started.” Yikes. Talk about a buzz kill. I’d advise Joe Calzaghe to steer clear of Kessler, but I imagine he and his people are way ahead of me. Speaking of Calzaghe, I expect he will stop Peter Manfredo late or win a decision in a fight that is a bit more competitive than most expect it to be. And for the record, it will be Calzaghe’s second defense of the world title he claimed when he beat Jeff Lacy, not the 135th or whatever defense of a worthless belt whose organization, need we remind you, once elevated a dead man in its rankings. Either the organization is worthy of contempt or it isn’t. You can’t have it both ways. If it’s true that Bob Papa replaced Fran Charles on Boxing After Dark because of the work Charles does for the NFL, then I can only say thank goodness for the NFL. This is the only solace I can offer those who have a hard time reconciling continued patronage of a sport in which Laurence Cole can referee Kessler-Andrade while serving a suspension in Texas: Being a fight fan is a lot like watching an episode of The L Word: You have to sit through a lot of annoying crap to get to the good stuff, but sooner or later the good stuff comes. And when it does, it’s usually worth it. Bill Dettloff can be contacted at dettloff@ptd.net. http://www.thering-online.com/ringpages/ringupdate.html