Undisputed MW champion, 27-0.. coming off a quality MW run.. ran into Pavliks left hook & never looked the same again really.. people cite fights like Calzaghe v Lacy or Hopkins v Pavlik as examples where a fighter was totally ruined by a fight.. is this in that category?
Brutal losses to Pavlik, Froch and an especially brutal loss to Abraham did him in. His recent issues with law lead a lot of folks to believe he is suffering from CTE related issues. Sucks to see this happen to a guy that seemed like a really good person.
No I don't think so. His performance against Froch was pretty good. He just didn't have the stamina to go 12 hard rounds. Same with Abraham. He didn't look shot to me, he looked pretty good. Same as Froch fight he couldn't hold it down the stretch. If any could claim it would be Abraham who sent him to the hospital w/bleeding from the brain. Came back from those losses & gave Truax his 1st loss. And his final fight? Was for IBF title. Ruined fighters don't win a major strap 13 years after turning pro. Soliman who gave WInky fits, beat Sturm.. could not do it against Taylor his spiel of fighting wild crazy and all over the damn place! For me it was one of Taylor's best performances. Taylor did some things that night he kinda never did. He got backed up -or chose to by Cory Spinks, Kasim Ouma small fighters, then against Smiling Sam he stood his ground was very strong on the inside & nullified all that crazy lunging & throwing stuff Sam does. Wasn't pushed back. A strange thing happened...the Taylor who starts off strong & faulters mid round..was behind 1st 4 rounds, then turned up his punch outpute, dropped Sam once, then again. That ankle was hurting Sam on 2nd KD, too bad. Taylor started whooping his behind dropped him again. Every wild swing & clinch was met with a strong Taylor refusing to be outmuscled. Sam is no great fighter, but he is so wild- its hard to counter. Add on 3 or 4 tackles/takedowns Sam was on the canvas more times against Taylor than probably most of his career. Taylor finished his career-winning the IBF title unanimously.
Nah, don't think so. Unlike Taylor he didn't lose at his own weightclass. Pavlik went back down to 160 and only lost to prime Maravilla since in a decently competitive fight. Liquor ruined Pavlik though.
Absolutely not. All he had to do was stay up on his feet against Froch in the 12th round and he would have won.
Hello no, it was just exposed that Taylor couldn't deal with big punchers, just check his losses, it was against punchers.
Taylor was on the cusp of a win over prime Froch, so there's no way that the Pavlik fight damaged him. It's not like he was an elite PfP guy for years. He had issues against Wright (most thought he lost), Spinks and Ouma. He came back very well at 168, just couldn't hang with guys who kept their power late. He would have made for a nice fight against Kessler, though I would have favored MK. He would have been schooled by Calzaghe or Ward. Seemed like a good guy but fame and CTE ruined him.
No, Taylor just wasn't that good. He had HBO's hype machine behind him though, so he was given bogus decisions against Hopkins in the rematch, Wright, and Spinks. He really should have losses against those three.
So I’m guessing people forgetting how bad Taylor looked against Winky Wright, Kassim Ouma and featherfisted/bloated Cory Spinks.. Taylor style was a bad matchup for Hopkins but Taylor was never elite during his reign and Pavlik was just to first to crack his chin.. Just pay attention to his record and you can see he was kept away from punchers until he had to fight Pavlik other than a past prime Joppy..