Taylor Decisions Spinks in a Memphis Stinker

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

By Sammy Rozenberg - The FedEx Forum in Memphis Tennessee was the victim of a middleweight invasion. The boxing fans in attendance got a taste of the good and the bad. The undercard was good. The main event was beyond bad.

WBC/WBO champion Jermain Taylor (27-0-1, 17 KOs) beat Cory Spinks (36-4, 11KOs), the reigning IBF junior middleweight champion, by split decision in a dreadful fight on the eyes. The scores were 117-111 Spinks, 115-113 Taylor and 116-112 for Taylor.

The fight saw a very technical battle with Spinks pecking away with the jab and countering as Taylor tried to use his size and aggression. Taylor did not use enough of his size and aggression, which allowed Spinks to steal several of the rounds and make the fight close than it ever should have been. Many boxing experts expected a knockout win for Taylor, and were surprised to see Spinks last to the final bell.

Taylor gave Spinks far too much respect and it cost him. Trainer Emanuel Steward tried his best to verbally charge Taylor between rounds to blitz the powerless Spinks with an assault of punches. Taylor would not engage Spinks in a fire fight and seemed to focus on trying to outbox the boxer. Spinks thought he had the fight won and actually coasted the final round.

The style of Spinks does not make his opponents look good. He made Taylor look very bad. [details]

[TheEvilSaint]

Tonight's Recap

pavlik/miranda was so far the FOTY. both fighters landed bomb after bomb and it took 7 rounds of constant bombardment from pavlik for miranda to finally collapse. miranda landed his vaunted right hand time after time clean on pavlik's head, and pavlik never wavered, not even staggered. right from the start, pavlik backed up miranda (who looked suprised as hell), kept him on the ropes and just broke miranda down with jabs, rights, and hooks to the body. miranda never won a single round on my scorecard. both fighters showed tremendous desire, incredible chins, and a true willingness to stand and fight. although miranda was warned for low blows, after he was KDd for the 2nd time, he spit out his mouthpiece and the ref gave him valueable recovery time, but all for nothing. pavlik dropped him again in the 7th and the ref mercifully stopped the one-sided massacre. my hat's off to both fighters.

spinks ran, and taylor did nothing. that was one of the most uneventful fights i have ever had the displeasure of seeing. after the fight, i personally apologized to both my parents and my brother for watching this fight on our TV. mike buffer's incorrect reading of the 1st scorecard as 111-107 for spinks was the only intresting event in the entire "fight." how any1 could have scored that fight for spinks is beyond rational thought. IMO, both fighters lost. neither of them showed any desire to win. i am truely ashamed to have to acknowledge jermain taylor as the MW champion of the world. after the fight, taylor said "i'll fight whoever gets me the most money." i said "mothe****er, be a ****ing man and champion for once and give the #1 contender his ****ing title shot." how dare he blatantly disrespect pavlik and miranda after their fight by saying he'll fight whoever gets him more money. i **** on jermain taylor, pavlik will decimate that perfect example of today's professional athlete (whiny, arrogant, money-grubbing, coward).

kelly pavlik stole the show, 'nuf said. he and miranda put on a great example of what boxing should be and he won decisively and professionaly. jasmine taylor and carmen spinks put on a great example of what's wrong with boxing today.