Are Jermain Taylor's wins over Hopkins underrated?

Well, he beat Hopkins for sure. I'm not going to get into which fight because they were close, but he beat him.

The fact that Hopkins went on to have a Foreman-like second career shows that it was impressive. Taylor was great, he just lacked a chin....which made him only a "good" fighter.

 

He lacked chin, power (he looked tremendous and punched with loud powerful sounding thuds, but did no damage to top opposition even with clean connects), ring IQ (he only had plan A, if that failed, there was no chance to win) and composure. He would often risk it all for no reason (loss to Abraham and first loss to Pavlik).

 

Just for ****s and giggles, I'm going to try this again. Let's see if you're going to answer these 2(nah): How could Hopkins been a bit green when he had already broken the record for the most middleweight title defenses by the time he fought Taylor:nut? How could he have been weight drained when he hammered DeLaHoya at 156 just 10 months before he fought Taylor? Needless to say I won't be holding my breath waiting for an answer.

 

Taylor definitely won the 2nd fight, first could have went either way.

 

Not underrated just boring

 

First of all Hopkins could no longer fight a full 12 rounds. He wasn't near his prime anymore. Second of all, I don't rate either win as meaning much, as Taylor didn't issue an ass whooping in either fight. The first fight saw Hopkins coast 7 rounds, and fight 5. He clearly won the rounds he let his hands go, but still he gave away too many rounds. It wasn't anything that Taylor was doing. Taylor was only able to land the jab. In the rematch, Hopkins was jobbed.

 

??? Its all he has going for him, so no.

 

Still haven't answered the questions-no surprise there. Let's try this again. How could Hopkins be drained at 160 against Taylor when he was at 156 just 10 months before when he hammered ODLH? How could he have been 'a bit green'when he had already broken the record for middleweight title defenses:nut? And now for the most pertinent question of the thread: how the **** do you justify writing down such utter bull****?

 

No. Hopkins should've gotten the decision in the first fight. Taylor had zero ring I.Q. If he stepped back reset and fires off an uppercut he would have stopped Pavlick. He was a brave ...but dumb fighter.

 

And Spinks, a spoiler.

 

Not really in hindsight. Styles make fights. Taylor's style was wrong for Hopkins. Just like Dawson was wrong for Hopkins. JT always lacked any ring iq and didn't maximize his talents. Njce guy but he was alway flawed.

 

Hopkins definitely lost the second IMO.

Taylor is an anomaly

 

Hopkins also didn't have the power to check his glass

 

Wins are underrated and hardly mentioned now days. If you are at the top, levels are very thin, I mean difference in skills are small. Much smaller than fanboys want to admit when they are hyping Hopkins or other long lasted champions - loosing to a guy who fell short some fights afterwards, somehow tarnish Hopkins legacy. Hopkins wasn´t unbeatable by any means. He was better than his opponents most nights but he wasn´t that dominant.

 

They are really.

People like to dismiss it as an anomaly or a blip but he did the same thing twice and came away with enough points to take the W.

With other judges it could have easily been a draw then a Hopkins victory. But Taylor pushed him all the way and deserves credit for that.

He fought some quality opposition during his prime.