Taylor to return as a Middleweight on Showtime on Dec. 30

Taylor is no great shakes, don't get me wrong. But nor is Martinez IMO.

I'd favour Sergio to win it on points, but Taylor is bigger than him, and has fast hands himself. Sergio is nowhere near as slick as he thinks.

 

I agree. Sergio is good but technically no where near what he or boxing fans believe. Martinez has no real contenders though. He made his name on 2 very good fighters who happen to be good styles for him.

 

I wish him all the best, one of those fighters who I didn't care much for but over the course of time has really grown on me and become a guy I'm really fond of.

During his middleweight reign I was pretty critical of most of his defences and felt, for a lineal champion, that he gave pretty below par and not exactly awe-inspiring performances, particularly taking the merely okay opposition that he was against on an almost fight by fight basis. Seemed to be heading towards being one of 'those' HBO-driven fighters for quite a time.

Seeing how he came back from his initial setbacks though, I grew an admiration for him, an awful lot of effort and heart displayed in an attempt to improve himself as an all-rounder. Granted, some may argue it was a futile attempt but that's not the crux of my point, it's a bit like the way I always talk up Ponce to an extent. Seems like a nice guy with a lot of application, a belief in his athletic talent but aware that there were flaws to be ironed.

Looking back it's clear that for at least a short period he was a very good, albeit very flawed, 160lbs champion. I felt he beat B-Hop at least once and that people often forget just how tight that Pavlik rematch was. Many people actually scored it to him, if I am recollecting correctly.

As I say, I wish him all the best, his main problem is his lack of durability/stamina down the stretch, which are probably intertwined when you think about it. Needs to pace himself better, and pending he hasn't been ruined by King Arthur I think he can make at least a pebble-sized splash.

 

Pascal is a joker like Taylor. Anyone can see what went wrong against Hopkins and yet NOTHING changes in the rematch. Pascal got lucky via kd's. Whenever I fight Hopkins I would not bank on winning a fight via kd's so the second fight was poised as harder fight because to kd Hopkins twice 2 fights in a row doesn't work. Mercado knows all about it!

Pascal is another very talented operator who needs to actually learn to box properly. He has had decent success at 2 weight classes because he is very talented like Taylor.

I was a Taylor fan in the beginning. So much potential but absolutely no changes as he moved up in class. I gave up when I saw Steward shouting at him in the Spinks fight and nothing was sinking in.

Pascal is going a similar route as the Hopkins rematch proved fruitless in his development.

 

If he fancies another trip to the hospital then this is the fight for him :yep

 

Exactly :yep

Then again, would Taylor be able to do better than Ouma? A good matchup IMO.

 

Golovkin has fought mainly bus drivers so far.

A shocking waste of talent IMO.

On Taylor, if his heart is in it then good for him, he's not damaged and has had ample opportunity to let his body heal. A year of ''comeback'' fights against steadily improving opposition would be fine, then see where he is.

 

He would do well until he felt Golovkins power, then the memories would come flooding back. I don't think you can recover from the KO's he has suffered,

He had/has decent boxing skills but was never that great. Apart from 2 tight decisions vs BHop he hasn't done much else apart from get beat up. I thought he lost against Winky and was **** against Spinks.

 

He may have been rubber stamped by the medical people to be good to go, but to have had bleeding on the brain should indicate it's time to retire.

 

I like Taylor. Seems like a classy guy, and if he can do 160 ok then he could make a noise in the division. i think that i read somewhere that he is already down at around 160 so making weight shouldn't be a problem - he has been training for months to get into shape.

don't think he beats martinez but could have good fights with macklin, barker, lee, pirog, chavez, rubio etc

 

I obviously not a medical expert but after suffering the sort of brain injury Taylor has is it really worth getting back in the ring? Don't think he's hard up and I'm sure he could get punditry jobs.

 

looked like a light heavy to me.

 

Good luck to Jermain, he is over the hill but could still have an impact on the poor Middleweight division.

 

he really shouldn't be boxing he suffered a brain bleed which is one of the worst injuries you can get in the ring

 

Bring on Jermain Taylor vs Andy Lee