Aside from his two title tries vs Ossie Ocasio and Piet Crous (in which he dropped Crous in round 3 before being stopped in the same round, an underrated and forgotten classic!) I dont know much abot him. Educate me, please?
Wait..as far as the Crous fight I confused Taylor for Randy Stephens. Taylor fought Lee Roy Murohy for the IBF world title and lost.
All I can tell you is: He was born in Memphis but migrated to Chicago at some point, where we know he fought at least once as a novice in the Chicago Golden Gloves (novice is usually 10 fights or fewer when entering the tournament). Turned pro later that year (1975) so not a ton of amateur experience. Probably too green to have any hopes of making the 1976 Olympic team so why wait around four more years before turning pro? That’s the way it usually went in those days — if you had a shot of making the Olympic team, you usually hung around the amateurs to try to do that because Olympic glory meant $$$ in the pro ranks. Was a ripped, muscled 5-10 or 5-11. Started 21-0 with good wins over Ivy Brown and Jesse Burnett before a technical draw (2 rounds) with Dale Grant and then an unsuccessful challenge of Ossie Ocasio in his big step-up opportunity. After that he was hit and miss. Cruiser wasn’t 100% established or accepted as a division and there was no money there — a journeyman heavyweight could make more money than a cruiserweight contender or even champ. So that’s kind of what Eddie became, fighting bigger men for paydays and taking his share of lumps in a hot-and-cold career. I seem to recall he was a sought-after sparring partner for heavyweight contenders for a while, but can’t recall with whom he might have sparred. .
