Not sure if this had been done but if not it should be. These two at light welter could make for a cracking fight. Speed verses power. Who's winning?
Taylor while enjoying a shorter prime, hit a higher level than Kostya. Prime for Prime Taylor outspeeds a stalking Tzyu to a UD, something like 8-4.
Yeah, he did time Zudah. Taylor won't overconfidently leave his chin out there with hands low like Zab, though.
Taylor was really fast but he got into brawls very often, imo Tszyu would have timed him coming in and would have stopped him.
This could be Taylor s greatest win. That's if he uses his speed sensibly. If he sticks to jab and move he could nail this with a solid point s win. Keep s his chin tucked away and out of Kostya s bomb s its in the bag. But I have a feeling that meldrick gets to confident and starts to brawl. That s inviting a hammering from kt. Bit by bit he'll be broken down till Kostya stops him around the tenth. So it's how Taylor plays it for me.
Tszyu lost his final fight against Hatton who was a high volume puncher. Prime Tszyu was the ultimate stalker. Taylor could win if he boxed but his macho attitude mean that he would try to trade. Taylor trades once too often and is stopped late while ahead on points.
I know Kostya was a great fighter but in this match I see it a winnable fight for Taylor.. But it s in his hands to play it safely, out box him and keep covered, or get in to a war. In which case he gets a heavy handed beating.
Although by no means am I saying that Tszyu couldn't land the perfect punch and stop Meldrick, I just don't see that happening. Prime Taylor only got KO'd like that once. By a prime Chavez, who in my opinion was noticeably superior to Tszyu. And Chavez had to walk through serious fire to get that win. Chavez was just as heavy handed as Tszyu, was more defensively sound, and was far busier. Before the career changing loss to Chavez, Taylor was a force of nature. He beat the living **** out of the highly skilled and hard punching Buddy McGirt. I would bet the farm that Buddy McGirt could beat any version of Tszyu. If I remember correctly, Chavez weathered an incredible number of shots from Taylor (over 400+) before making his incredible and unlikely comeback in that fight. The only times Tszyu encountered that type of return fire were against Cool Vince Phillips, and Ricky Hatton. And he was the one who ended up being stopped both times.
I agree. I was never totally sold on Kostya. Phillips exposed him. Afterwards his best win was Zab Judah. That was a great win but Judah proved to be very flawed. He was hyped then so when Kostya beat him it was seen as an upset. I have detailed in other posts how Tzyu's biggest name victims were past it when he beat them. His record looks really good at first blush because of the names. But, once the names are put in context one can see he caught most/all of them at the right time. I am not going to go as far as to say his record is smoke and mirrors, but let's just say his management did a masterful job of rebuilding and sustaining his career post Phillips. I would favor the following to beat Kostya prime for prime: JC Chavez Meldrick Taylor Frankie Randall I'd give McGirt and prime Roger Mayweather a good shot at beating him, as well. His head movement and overall defense was not elite and I can see the Mayweather right hand down the pike doing major damage. Same with Frankie Randall.
As Kostya matured he developed a fairly brutal body attack. This would play a significant role in this matchup.