How did Jermain Taylor beat Bernard Hopkins twice?

I felt Hopkins deserved no less than a win and a draw from the two bouts. I was rooting hard for Taylor too but he didn’t beat Hopkins.

 

He wasn’t unlucky. He got a gift wrapped scorecard. He was trying to quit. Calzaghe dominated.

 

Taylor was actually great in these fights. Remember, he was out pointing Froch, Abraham, and Pavlik before getting knocked out. I think...

 

I remember watching at the time thinking it was real close. I’d have to rewatch them to give an opinion though

 

They are hard fights to judge because Taylor was the more active fighter but not necessarily the more effective one.

 

I was coming in to say the same thing. As dedicated as he was the weight demands finally caught up with him. He lost some spark and energy and his workrate suffered. He was fighting so conservatively and did next to nothing in the first half of the fights. At a comparable point Hagler was losing to a SRL who hadn't fought in years and Monzon had left the building still on top. You could see the shackles were off when he moved up. He'd been defending the middleweight title for a decade.

Not much in the fights either.

 

They were both less than exciting fights as I recall. Bernard fought like he didn't want to and Taylor fought like he didn't know how.