Revisited Hopkins Taylor I for the 1st time

I had Hops winning the first narrowly, but Taylor winning the second.

Something I found inexplicable was that Hopkins would go on about being robbed and then fight the rematch like he did. Yet, it seems like people are still hung up about the first fight despite the second one being just as important (if not moreso) and Hopkins having the first fight to base an effective strategy off of. Having the superior ring intelligence, I was expecting better in fight #2. That's when I began thinking that maybe he just struggles against faster fighters he can't physically bully.

I hate seeing any fighter robbed, but the fallout of Hopkins-Taylor I was mitigated somewhat in my book because Hopkins had just as good a chance to win his titles back, and being the tactician he is compared to Taylor I found it extremely disappointing. He lost the second fight fairly, and Taylor would've been champion anyways.

Also, it's more than a bit interesting to me that Hopkins never tried to avenge that loss after that despite Taylor moving up in weight shortly after Bernard did. Instead of seeking revenge like he did vs Jones, he was content to play the robbery card- and while I could see the case for the first fight, the second fight was far from it.

 

I had it 7-5 for taylor. I agree that in some of those rounds, taylor was just swinging wildly and mising a lot, but he was hitting some. And Hopkins did next to nothing. I was rooting for B-hop too, and remember being completely frustrated at the end of the fight wondering why he didn't fight the WHOLE fight like he did the last 3 rounds.

Kind of like I felt with Hagler-Leonard.


Keith

 

Haven't watched these fights in a while. I had Hopkins winning them but I guess he left too much doubt with his less than stellar work rate. No biggie...he's more than made up for them with his wins of Tarver and Pavlik. While it's been downhill for Taylor.

 

Exactly. Without the influence of HBO Taylor would NEVER have "won" that fight. It's extremely unfortunate that an ATG like Hopkins - and later Winky Wright - were deprived of their rightfully victories in order for HBO to push their latest hype job forward. A travesty, really.

 

I had it 7-5 Taylor very clean.