-
-
Also Taylor was'nt always hated in fact he was much loved until he has proven himself a fraud.....And not a worthy Champion.I always liked taylor until he stole the title from Hopkins and then was given a very lucky draw with Winky.Comment
-
Yes n00b, your boxing knowledge is very n00bish!
Spinks was rated #1 154 pounder by Ring Magzaine.
Comment
-
Hopkins 20 title defenses mostly came against C level type fighters, what made Hopkins a big name was him beating up a guy who was best at 147 and another who stared his career at 130.
My point was it was OK for Hopkins & Calzaghe defend their titles against many ****ty middleweights and super middlweights in calzaghe's case, then it's not OK for Taylor to defend his title agaisnt 2 of the best 154 pounder in the sport.
That's just bull****!Comment
-
Interesting interview I just read with Manny Steward. He said he doesnt want to fight Calzaghe at all, and if he were Taylor's manager he would never have put him in the ring with Spinks, Winky, and Ouma. He said he is looking forward to finally training Jermain against a right handed fighter.
Can you break down the Cintron-Matthysse fight?
“Matthysse is a puncher. Every punch he throws with full knockout (force). He doesn’t worry about pacing himself. So punching like that you’ve got to be concerned about. You can never say that you’re not concerned. So we’ve got to be worried about his punching power.”
How has Cintron improved working with you both physically and mentally?
“Well, first of all he’s grown to be more of a professional fighter. Remember before he mainly was training in a little gym in Redding, Pennsylvania. But now for the fights that he’s been fighting recently he went to Spain with Wladimir Klitschko when Wladimir was getting ready for Chris Byrd. He’s boxing everyday with (unbeaten middleweight) Andy Lee and all these top fighters. It’s more of a professional environment. Then he’s at the Kronk gym boxing with all those fighters. He’s going to Austria on Thursday; we have a training camp up in the mountains getting ready for Wladimir’s fight and his fight. It’s so a much more professional fight.”
Are you guys interested in fighting the Gatti-Gomez winner?
“Oh, I don’t know. I’m a big Gatti fan. I really want him (Cintron) to get in the flow. I’d like a fight with him and Shane Mosley. That’s the fight I want.”
Do you and Jermain Taylor have the chemistry for success?
“Well, it’s a complicated question. One, he’s fighting a different level of fighters than he was fighting before. He was fighting class C guys, cutting them up and so it was easy to do what he wanted to do. But now I think the fighters he’s been put in with; I would never ever had any middleweight in history involved in those fights. No way! I would never. Tommy Hearns called me up when I got home on Sunday and said ‘Man why are you guys putting this guy in with guys like that? You would never let me fought a guy like that.’ I said I know. I said I have no choice; I’m not the manager in this case. But I was in your case. I would have never, never, never fought a Winky Wright. After coming thru two difficult fights with Bernard Hopkins and then to go to a guy like Winky with his hands up on his head. And he (Taylor) did all he could do. I mean, there’s nothing to punch at so he just punched threw the gloves, hitting his gloves, he did all he could do to solve that. A lot of is that these are horrible opponents. Ray Leonard said the same thing. He said ‘why are you guys putting them in there (with Taylor)? I would never fight those guys.’”
Do you think Taylor has a mental block from fighting all these tough opponents in a row?
“No, I think a lot has to do with the opponents. I keep saying that. Corey Spinks, you make one step forward to get closer to him he pulls a step further away. That’s all he does all night. So when you do punch you’ve got to punch and try to run in all at the same time. And then he bends down real low so you’ve got to punch where you think his head might be. You’re not going to land two or three punches ever. I thought he could have done better with (Kassim) Ouma. But Winky Wright, you’re not going to look good against.”
Will you continue to work with Taylor?
“Yes, I’ll work with him. And I’m really looking forward to working with him for his first right handed opponent.”
What do you think will be next for him?
“I think (Kelly) Pavlik. It’s going to be a great fight. If he’s not ready Pavlik is going to push him. Pavlik is a big guy unlike anybody he’s fought. He’s going to put a lot of pressure on him. They fought in the amateurs in the Olympic trials and it was a very close fight.”
How do you see that fight going down?
“I see Jermain winning. I think he’ll look very good in this fight.”
What about a fight with Calzaghe?
“I’m not interested about Calzaghe. Another left-hander? I mean it’s like we’ve got to find the most difficult fighters in the world, all left-handed…I’m not interested in Calzaghe at all.”
Stylistically who would you like to see him fight next?
“Kelly Pavlik, his number one contender. That will answers a lot of questions for me, to the public and everybody. Kelly’s a solid middleweight, bigger than Jermain. He’s a busy fighter and he’s going to push him. And if he’s got problems that he can’t adjust to there won’t be any excuse after that.”Comment
-
I don't have a problem with him fighting smaller opponents. But if you claim to be the man knockout those smaller guys coming up. Hopkins did it to De La Hoya and Tito.Comment
-
Still in the record books. Even if Oscar kept fighthing it would have gotten worse. Do you agree? Because De La Hoya was bound to get tired and Hopkins was imposing his strength later on in that fight.
After reading that interview Steward is right. Taylor need to fight a couple of bumbs to fix his weaknesses. I still don't understand if he was so good in training camp why the poor fight.Comment
Tweet
Comment