My respect to Teofimo, looked great and vintage; The kid definitely needs to be ranked p4p now. As for Josh, what on Earth was that performance? He looked WEAK and off-balance the entire fight. The speed wasn't there, neither was the power or the legs. It is insane to believe that this is the person who went toe to toe with both Ramirez and Prograis and took there best punches to beat them by decision. Can we discuss how bad Josh looked?
chacal, you are entitled to your opinion and I won't try and talk you out of it but I will say this. I find it very hard to believe that a fighter who beat both Regis Prograis and Jose Carlos Ramirez was never anything special. Those men are both quality fighters and you don't beat them unless there is something special about you. Now, some fighters are special for a long time (Ali, Moore, Duran) and some get there for a fleeting moment (Donald Curry and Riddick Bowe) but they were special. I think the same goes for Josh Taylor.
Yep this 100%. I've been saying he's overrated for years but as you say apparently I'm crazy. He isn't a bad fighter in fact he's very good but he was never some top P4Per. He simply had way to many flaws for me to be thinking he was anywhere near the level of guys like Loma, Usyk, Inoue, Canelo etc. No head movement, overly wide stance which means he's balanced but also not every mobile, stands right in front of opponents because of that and so he's there to be countered after throwing as we saw vs Catterall and Lopez. He also in general takes far too many shots, he's tall and huge at the weight but is poor on the outside which for me is always a red flag why a guy with all the physical advantages to fight from distance for some reason can't fight well at a distance and ends up fighting up close for a lot of the fight.
Where in the your P4P list do you rank Pograis and Ramirez? They are decent fighters but nothing special and wins over them shouldn't be enough to get you anywhere near the top of the P4P rankings when you look who Usyk, Canelo, Spence, Bivol etc have beaten. Pograis is fast and has power but skill wise he's nothing special at all, prime Amir Khan and Kell Brook would beat him comfortably. He's far too static, holds his feet and relies on head movement as his main defence which is why Taylor was able to turn the fight into his type of fight with exchanges on the inside. Pograis is your typical basic speedster, relies on fast hands to get off first but doesn't counter and again that means Taylor was able to just walk him down. Pograis is as overrated as Taylor was because people see his speed and power and think that's all it takes to be an elite fighter when if you take that all away his skills are rudimentary.
Prograis and Ramirez are getting on in years.Its time for take over or take it back etc.At his age Teo there’s only one fighter i can think that beat or fought elite competition at that age.Pac and Floyd? I mean you get fighters are protected and wont fight the best at this stage these days.He beat the biggest 140 literally in baxxing josh is a huge 140’er.Massive weight bully.Murked him.Top it off this is guy who beat Ramirez and Prograis.
If the rematch happened Catteral beats Taylor worse than Lopez. Catteral looked superb in his last fight. The opponent was poor but still , the jab of Catteral destroyed him and Josh can be hit with a jab. Teo is a good boxer but I wasn't impressed with his hitting power. His blows only made an impact when the body shots and weight cut cought up with Taylor. Gato's punches were hurting Taylor early That rematch wouldve been a terrible fight for Taylor.
People ignoring the fact that Teofimo should have 2 losses already both of which in his backyard where everything was stacked heavily in his favour. You can't just erase the fact he lost to Kambosos and should've lost to Sandor Martin, a fighter who lost to Anthony Yigit. Jermello clearly lost the first Castano fight in his own backyard and poor Castano got clipped in the rematch because he had to try and take it out of the three US judge's hands by being more aggressive because he knew they would rob him again if he didn't and of course the scorecards proved him right. Jermello should also have lost to Vanes and he did lose to Harrison. That's three losses in his own backyard at his first weight against fighters his size or smaller. Clenelo would have half a dozen losses without his corrupt judges and even more without his PEDs. I think Twink who has fought trash and has been ducking the best his entire career lost to Isaac Cruz but his PBC home judges were there to bail him out. Haney just lost to an old past prime natural 126 pounder who he weighed four divisions more than and had a near six inch reach advantage on in the vast vast majority of observers eyes. Only 16% of the 118k people who voted in Fighthub's poll had him winning even though it was in his backyard and he had a 36 hour weigh in. But they all P4P doe
He was never great But yeah that was a poor performance. Two in a row Cattaral beat him too. The wars may have burned him out. He did look better a few fights ago. Too many Trainers, tough fights, or just better opponent, probably a combination but he looks to have regressed some.
Taylor was a very good to great fighter. If pushed, I'd put him in the 'very good' class. A very good fighter who took advantage of the super series to eventually unify all the belts. He squeezed by anothet 'very good' fighter in Prograis. He's nowhere near the same fighter now. Trouble at the weight or some other reason.
Nobody gave Teo a chance to win but me and a few others, I always thought Taylor was a good fighter, not great by any means but I knew if Teo would come in 100% mentally he could beat Taylor, I just didn't think it would have been that easy. Masterful performance from Lopez. I also commend Taylor for being classy and for not making excuses, he took the loss like a champion.
I always thought Taylor was overrated.I actually got tremendous respect for him now.I can now see why he beat prograis and Ramirez.The man is huge and tougher than i gave him credit.A lot of guys that are tall for the weight and are complete bambi.Jaime Mcdonalds and Fundora fellow at middle weight.Taylor is tougher than i expected.Huge respect.I actually had Teo ktfo Taylor bad.This is similar or if not equivalents to Pac taking in Margarito.Moving up and fighting a massive fighter for the weight.