2005 Jermain Taylor ve Andre Ward

Right now, Andre Ward is one of those fairly common boxing anomalies. He really is one of the top ten in the world based on a p4p rating; maybe top 5. He is also ridiculously over rated. He always looks somewhere between okay and very ****ing good, but he NEVER looks unbeatable. Fans and writers talk like Andre was the perfect synthesis of prime Ali and peak Hopkins. He's not.

I'll assume that JT would still have Pat Burns in his corner, and I'll try to forget how poor he sometimes looked under Steward. As difficult as it is, we also have to throw out everything that happened post-pavlik. (The pre-pavlik and post-pavlik careers of several fighters were as different as night and day.)

The weight brothers me A LOT. I do not think Jermain at 168 was ever going to be as good as Jermain at 160, and that's with or without the Pavlik disaster. However, he still had pretty quick hands, and enough power to dump Froch on his arse; something neither Ward nor Kessler could do.

Those quicks hands resulted in an outstanding jab, and a SERIOUS one-two. Now here's the rub: Up to this very day, we have not seen Andre fight anyone who could trouble him with a jab. That is NOT because he is great at avoiding the jab. That remains to be proven because Ward has not fought anyone who had exceptional hand speed. JT's hands were quicker than Ward's hands and feet. Ward could switch to southpaw, but Taylor fought some really good lefties, and never lost to one.

2005 Taylor had more than enough punch resistance to handle anything Ward can dish out. Andre is not going to seriously hurt Jermain, and Jermain always made his biggest mistakes AFTER he got hurt.

The reverse isn't true. JT had enough power to put Pavlik on ***** street and drop The Cobra; two top flight chins. Andre Ward does not have a top flight chin. His chin is one of the few weaknesses he has. Darnell ****ing Boone made him do a chicken dance Zab Judah and Amir Khan would be proud of. I realize that was a long time ago, but chins rarely change for the better.

We're talking 2005, and Jermain rarely abandoned his jab with Burns in his corner. So, the real question is this: Could Andre Ward avoid JT's jab and that hellacious 1-2? Unless you are to busy licking Andre's nuts to pay attention to his opponent, the correct answer is "No!"

Jermain also had a very good left hook. That is a punch Ward would be open to if his opponent had fast enough hands, and JT certainly had fast enough hands.

Jermain used his uppercut to buckle Froch's knees, and make Pavlik inspect the overhead lights a couple times. Both have better punch resistance than Ward, and that is another punch Ward looks susceptible to if his opponent has fast hands.

Under Pat Burns, Taylor's stamina issues never stood out like they did later. Burns made Taylor train harder than the others did. Ward trains his ass off, but his stamina issues are very obvious.

And, if Ward tried to rough Taylor up or foul him, Jermain would immediately retaliate, so Ward's rough house crap would do nothing but buy him trouble.

2005 Ward vs 2005 Taylor: JT beats him half to death.

2005 Taylor vs today's Ward: Great fight, but Ward is a whole lot smarter in the ring than JT. Over the course of 12 rounds JT either finds away to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, or Ward out foxes Jermain, and legitimately wins a close but clear decision. The deciding factor would probably be ring intelligence. Ward has that in spades. JT never really displayed much.

 

A lot of you are overrating the **** outta that HBO hype creation Taylor.

Current Ward vs ANY version of Taylor is a one sided beating that ends with JT being stopped.

Of course Taylor wins if they fought in 05 dumbass above me! In 05 Taylor had been a pro for damn near 5 years, and Ward had only been a pro for less than a year.

Taylor beats NO version of 2009-present Ward.

 

Taylor beat Hopkins TWICE seven years ago, and some people still haven't gotten over it.

 

Ward would be too much.

 

Ward UD, something like 8-4 in rounds.

booradley is still insane I see.

 

I don't see how there's any case for Jermain at all in this matchup. The only reason Jermain "beat" Hopkins is because Hopkins basically threw about 11 punches per round in the first half of their two fights and Jermain didn't exactly go crazy landing on B-Hop during that time, he just nicked rounds outworking Hopkins. Ward throws a consistent number of punches(usually around 50 per round), has the same insane defense, and while I think he could beat Jermain outside or inside, Jermain doesn't have any inside game to compete with Ward. It would be a shutout or late stoppage win from Ward.

 

Hopkins won those fights but let a guy who fought like a stiff make him look bad. Either way Ward clowns him.