Taylor v. Wright ends in a draw

It was an alright fight. Winky was the better "boxer," but I think Taylor did more damage. I don't think Winky did anything to ever hurt Taylor and guaranteed Winky is the one who is sore this morning.

 

Sirs, Madames,

Where's Carlos Monzon, Rodrigo Valdez and Bennie Briscoe when you need them?

160 hasn't been an interesting division for a long time (15 years and, for James Toney, 70 pounds ago).

YHS, etc

 

160 wasn't interesting because Bernard Hopkins beat the shit out of everyone. When Tito Trinidad went to him he got mauled, when De La Hoya stepped up he got dropped on a body shot.

With Winky probably moving up to fight Calzaghe it doesn't leave Taylor with much unless Vargas wins this second fight with Mosley and Taylor can coax him to move up in weight (which shouldn't be a problem for Vargas) and there's always Ricardo Mayorga for an easy payday.

 

Mr or Ms N,

Jones beat the shit outta people, then Hopkins. Both did it predictably, less than crowd-pleasers, and had no surpassing competition.

I have no idea whether Calzaghe is the real deal. But history would tell you that moving up a couple of divisions in a short span is risky for Winky--though it might not be a matter of carrying power up weight classes.

YHS, etc

 

I've often wondered if there should be some sort of tiebreaking mechanism in boxing. Most fans, who tend to look at a fight as a whole rather than the way judges do, which is as 12 one-round fights, seem to believe that a draw is a cop-out and over the course of 12 rounds a judge should be able to determine a winner.
Draws also tend to lend credence to the idea that the result was somehow contrived to advance whatever agenda the promoter might have. But if while scoring a fight round-by-round, it turns out that both guys won the same number of rounds, what are you supposed to do?
Two decades ago, New Jersey tried fighting an extra round to break the tie. I'm not sure why they stopped doing it, but there are some very good reasons why it shouldn't be done. After the last scheduled round, the fighters cool down for several minutes and as far as they know, the fight is over. Throwing them back into three minutes of very intense combat in that situation can be very dangerous.
But perhaps there should be some other way to break the tie.

 

Penalty kicks ... to the groin.

 

Like that game Cartman talked about, rochambo (sp?)?

 

Outstanding fight and probably was judged the right way. I had it at 114-114, though I don't know how much Taylor did in the final round to win the round either. Sure, Wright was on the dancing defensive, but Taylor wasn't exactly free swinging to get the win. Wright was, by many accounts, up a round heading into the final round, so all he had to do was protect the lead. Shouldn't Taylor have had to do something to win the fight himself?

I think that what few punches Taylor did land, he probably had more impact than the jab that Wright was working, but for as many big swings as Taylor took, he didn't land much of anything. You could hear the fans going nuts when Taylor was taking those big hacks, but reality was that Wright was blocking almost everything.

Either way, it was an excellent boxing match and I'm pleased that I didn't pay to see it (though I would have). The rematch WILL happen. Maybe not right away, but sometime in the next year. It's an exciting time in the middle classes right now. I'm going to the Julio fight in Vegas this weekend and I'm really excited. I think Julio could be the next big star and eventually move up some classes. Between guys like Julio and Taylor, there is a bright future for boxing. If only we could get some heavyweights worth a darn.

 

Jones fought two title fights as a middleweight, he did his damage as a super middleweight and a light-heavyweight. He moved up to fight James Toney in 1994 and never looked back.

Moving from 154 to 168 in a two-year span isn't particularly bad for Winky and Calzaghe is a good guy to test the weight at. He's not a big puncher particularly, he's faster than expected, but fighting a sloppy, non-defensive fighter suffering from shock like Jeff Lacy isn't like fighting Winky who has built a strong reputation overseas.

 

Great fight! I have to associate myself with the remarks of FootballScribe, Spinning and Hoops. I thought Winky was ahead going into the final round but the result was appropriately scored a draw after Winky didn't try to consolidate his win. You can't sit on a lead when you're trying to win the belt from another guy. You have to leave no doubt.

Winky was a big baby afterwards, saying he didn't want to fight him again. I think that gives Taylor the edge for the eventual re-match.