Why did HBO heavily back Jermain Taylor as the next Golden Child of American boxing, I feel like this along with the Chad Dawson deals were the beginning of the end for HBO boxing. Taylor although talented wasn’t really that good to begin with, he had major flaws as a fighter yet he was pretty much the face of boxing for all of 05 to 07. He should of never received decisions on the 2nd Hopkins fight, the Winky Wright fight or even the Spinks fight. His star power won him those bouts then Pavlik came out of nowhere and derailed the hype train. Too bad Pavlik was a severe alcoholic, I feel as though he could of easily ruled the MW division for a couple years, that Hopkins loss really messed him up mentally.
Nearly all of his losses came when he was ahead in the fight and then gassed out and was stopped. You would think he would learn from his losses but he kept making the same mistake
Hopkins became a house hold name once he knocked out Oscar and made history by being the first to unify all 4 titles but he was still unpopular with the general public. Roy had just got knocked out by Tarver and Oscar was a part time boxer at this point. HBO which was still the leading network for boxing were desperate to find a young star to become the face of boxing, that’s why they tried to heavily invest on Taylor and even hired Steward as his trainer which gave him more coverage but Taylor just wasn’t it, even Steward knew this in the Spinks fight.
How could he have gassed so badly late in fights? I thought modern training was a catch-all for this sort of thing. Nutrition! Nutrition!
I thought Taylor won both Hopkins fights, I see nothing wrong with Taylor getting the nod in either fight, both fights were very dull boring affairs with not much happening. But Hopkins left it too late and didn't do enough. I thought Taylor deservedly earned a draw against Wright in a good fight, Wright gave away the 12th round in a close fight his own fault, similar to how Wright coasted vs Vargas in the later rounds. costing him the decision in that fight aswell. As for Spinks vs Taylor again another ugly fight but I thought Taylor won. Pavlik also didn't come out of "nowhere". He'd had impressive victories leading up to the Taylor fight, including destroying Edison Miranda who was highly thought of at the time, on the Taylor vs Spinks undercard. Taylor lost to Pavlik in one of the best Middleweight fights of the modern era, then lost a close decision in the rematch that he had an argument to winning. Taylor's loss to Froch had he survived another 16 seconds would of won a decision. Taylor was a good a fighter he just wasn't a great fighter, I always felt he was never truly relaxed in the ring. And would waste far too much nervous energy in the ring. But he had a fantastic jab and decent skills although he was too hittable.
