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Fair enough. I think its a little tough to tell due to the fact that Mikkel has only been in there against one top guy but I wouldn't go writing Kessler off. He has a great deal of ability and is technically very solid. Perhaps a little one dimensional but still a very good and potentially great fighter IMO.Comment
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Also, I'd like to mention that I am also a fan of Pavlik but a lot of people forget the 2nd round of his first fight with Taylor.Comment
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OK, I think kind of like this, but not exactly, so here goes. Jermain Taylor beating B-Hop were GREAT wins, but have two things against them, 1) Taylor didn't really do anything special and 2) Hopkins was getting on a bit. An objective assessment of the two fights, IMO, shows Taylor winning pretty much by default after Hopkins simply did not do enough to win, and looking pretty goddamn shaky at points in both. I think this is a fair assessment. Taylor then went on to beat Spinks and Ouma, both second tier boxers in championship terms, then lose to Pavlik twice, in the first fight looking pretty goddamn awful, and in the second while performing better, showing nothing to suggest he is the "great" boxer some believe him to be. He's not ****, but to me and many others he does not look like a worldbeater.
OK, Calzaghe v Hopkins. This depends on how good a win you think it is. On the one hand, Hopkins was The Ring champ and agreed by most here and elsewhere to be the best LHW boxer. His wins over Winky and Tarver showed that the lower workrate required at LHW as opposed to MW suited him. Hopkins had beat the guys and won the belt. On the other hand, he was 43, did have less stamina than he used to, and had those Taylor losses on his record. For me the fair assessment is that when Joe beat Hopkins he was not the boxer he used to be, but remained elite and was the best of a fading LHW division. Considering Calzaghe's critics routinely denounce him as a fraud, beating this guy, with the added factors of it being your first fight in the US and at a new weight which is really too big for you, and as you begin to slip yourself, has to be regarded as a good win, especialy since although Calzaghe did not deliver his best boxing, he did dominate most of the fight the best way that was possible in the circumstances, by out-and-out outhustling B-Hop, which in fairness, Taylor did not do to the same degree, he did struggle with Hopkins more than Joe did.
On Kessler, I'm not sure how highly people rate him P4P, but I would have him in the top 20 or so. Kessler has never beaten a marquee name of the Taylor variety like Pavlik has, but has a vey underrated resume. His run of wins from Siaca to Andrade essentially took out every credible challenger and champion in the SMW division other than Calzaghe and Lacy, and what made it more impressive was the way he did it: easily, displaying a lot of talent and style. This goes some way to explaining his P4P ranking (he was #9 here at the time) since perceived talent does contribute. He then fought Calzaghe in Calzaghe's backyard and despite losing, still looked a very good boxer, again compare this with Taylor, who rarely does. I think you have to throw in the fact that his only loss was to Cal, whereas Taylor's were to the (at the time, relatively) unheralded Pavlik, which again is quite a big difference.
So its not that Taylor is ****, B-Hop is a win of unsurpassable quality or that Kessler is an all-time-great, it's more that Taylor is probably not the boxer his wins over Hopkins made some think he was, Calzaghe's win over Hopkins was the best he could have had at the time but should have happened earlier and Kessler is a very talented boxer who looks to many to be a bit better than Taylor and is on the fringes of the P4P.
Hope that makes sense.Last edited by abadger; 09-19-2008, 08:04 AM.Comment
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No no no I dont dislike Taylor, I was pulling for him when he fought Hopkins the first time. I just think JT might be more hype than what he's delivered. He fought some really good fighters but almost lost to Hop, Winky and the smaller Spinks then Kelly put him to sleep. So I think JT has alot to do if he wants to live up to his initial hype.Comment
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