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By Cliff Rold - Take a deep breath…let it out. That’s the feeling the whole sport of boxing is going through right now in the wake of the Oscar De la Hoya-Floyd Mayweather show. After nearly six months of incessant hype, advertising, media coverage and utter nonsense about the saving of boxing, boxing gets back to everything it should be. Boxing gets back to being sport.
This Saturday night in the HBO main event, the former World welterweight champion and current Ring Magazine #1 contender to the vacant jr. middleweight title, Cory Spinks (36-3, 11 KO) of St. Louis challenges 2000 U.S. Olympic bronze medalist and current World middleweight champion Jermain Taylor (26-0-1, 17 KO) of Little Rock. It might be the best live crowd of the year as the site (Memphis, Tennessee) allows for the raucous fans of both men to make the trek. Early ticket sales indicate they are.
Spinks, 29 and the son of former World heavyweight champion Leon Spinks, has only one clear loss, a ninth-round stoppage to Zab Judah for the welterweight title in 2005. Spinks also has a knack for upsets, having scored them in winning the welterweight title from Ricardo Mayorga, beating Judah in their first fight, and lifting the IBF 154 lb. belt from the favored Roman Karmazin. Taylor, 28, is looking for a dominant knockout win to cement his shaky status as king after two narrow wins over former king Bernard Hopkins and a draw against Winky Wright. This isn’t seen as a particularly competitive bout because of the perceived size difference in favor of the champion, but both men have their bona fides and vulnerabilities so it’s somewhat compelling. [details]
This Saturday night in the HBO main event, the former World welterweight champion and current Ring Magazine #1 contender to the vacant jr. middleweight title, Cory Spinks (36-3, 11 KO) of St. Louis challenges 2000 U.S. Olympic bronze medalist and current World middleweight champion Jermain Taylor (26-0-1, 17 KO) of Little Rock. It might be the best live crowd of the year as the site (Memphis, Tennessee) allows for the raucous fans of both men to make the trek. Early ticket sales indicate they are.
Spinks, 29 and the son of former World heavyweight champion Leon Spinks, has only one clear loss, a ninth-round stoppage to Zab Judah for the welterweight title in 2005. Spinks also has a knack for upsets, having scored them in winning the welterweight title from Ricardo Mayorga, beating Judah in their first fight, and lifting the IBF 154 lb. belt from the favored Roman Karmazin. Taylor, 28, is looking for a dominant knockout win to cement his shaky status as king after two narrow wins over former king Bernard Hopkins and a draw against Winky Wright. This isn’t seen as a particularly competitive bout because of the perceived size difference in favor of the champion, but both men have their bona fides and vulnerabilities so it’s somewhat compelling. [details]
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