GGG. Actually looks a little bit like the text version of Jermain trying to stutter through his name.
Taylor is more athetic and a bit more fluid, and i think he would win the first few rounds. But ggg would start catching him sooner rather than later, and he probably ko him in the later rounds. I could also see Taylor surviving a late scare and winnig a decision though
Taylor was a pretty good fighter but I don' t think he has the skill or the toughness to handle Golovkin's pressure and power for 12 rounds. At some point he gets stopped.
Taylor deteriorated quickly but at one point he was a decent fighter. Nevertheless GGG stops him late
I never thought Taylor was particularly good at all ... Very stiff and had horrible technique... Just a big dumb athlete-boxer ... Losing twice to him, even at an advanced age, is a black mark on Hopkins legacy
Not that he was unorthodox in the way a guy like Maidana is, but he had a combination of athleticism and awkwardness that often causes problems for more text book style fighters. The problem seems to be heightened when it's a more cerebral fighter. Hopkins basically could figure guys out and break them down by not only exploiting weaknesses but by anticipating their next move. It seemed he could never quite pin it down against Taylor. Bernard probably would have had an easier time with a middleweight version of Vernon Forrest even though Vernon was the superior boxer. I think it might be like how sometimes a great pro poker player will usually beat a lesser pro, they struggle more with a skilled amateur.
I agree to an extent but I also think Hopkins was reluctant to be more aggressive... In both fights he waited and waited and waited but when he stepped on the gas just a little, he completely took over the fights... In GGG you're talking about a guy who likes to step on the gas and hits way, way harder... I think he gets Taylor out of there after a brave but futile effort by JT
Yeah I don't know why. It's like he was waiting for JT to walk into a big counter or something even though most of Hopkins success was when he was more assertive. Maybe he trying to make some kind of statement about being able to negate Taylor's jab and win the fight on the outside? Either way I figured for sure he would win the rematch after realizing what worked and what didn't in the first fight. Yet he basically changed shit. (at least from my limited memory of those crappy fights)
Yup. Same here... I was sure he'd win the rematch big since as soon as he turned it up in the first fight, he took over completely... But he did the same thing all over again
Seemed to me that Hopkins was wary of Taylor's power. He basically lost those fights because he got outworked. The only benefit of the doubt we can give him was being 40 because I would take almost any decent middle over Taylor... Hell, I'd have favored Trinidad over Taylor and he was no middleweight.
Agree... I never rated Taylor... He had courage, he was game but he looked like a guy that learned boxing from his football coach
Aye, one of the weirdest modern fights that rematch. You can only imagine that hecwas so tight at the weight that he just couldn't up the pace?
One thing which always annoyed me about Taylor was that he would waste so much energy with these weird jittery movements. However, against Hopkins it was actually quite effective as Bernard seemed to struggle to figure him out early on.