by Joon Lee The needles are going haywire as they rip into the paper. The seismic waves registering in the Atlantic City area has the town in a panic—but nobody is following the evacuation routes. Everyone is heading to Boardwalk Hall September 29<sup>th</sup> to watch Jermain Taylor, boxing’s biggest potential superstar, take on the power punching Kelly Pavlik in the ultimate middleweight showdown in ages. http://www.fightbeat.com/article_detail.php?AT=499
I disagree with the comparison to Holmes-Cooney or any event predicated on the potential for racial divide. Pavlik is more indicative of the common working man than White America, and Taylor is way too country to represent anything other than the South. My own obscure comparison is to that of the US Presidency. If the middleweight division were America, then Taylor is the leader that everyone is sick of, and Pavlik represents the first bonafide candidate that the nation can rally behind.
All that said, nice to see Joony's name once again appear in a by-line, and nice to see FightBeat put up fresh content for a change ::
I agree with you Jake regarding the comparison, but I also think that people, especially boxing fans, sometimes see things in its simplest form. It's simplest form is black vs. white.
I have an article that I wrote just sitting here for almost two weeks. Just haven't had a chance to finish it. By the time I release it it will be december '08 ::
This fight is light-years from Holmes-Cooney in terms of race division. Holmes-Cooney was defined by each fighters race...that's the way the fight was sold and there was no avoiding it (as distasteful as it was)...the fight fans, both fighters management and the fighters were all part of it. (Although Cooney never seemed all that enthused or comfortable about that aspect of the fight promotion unlike Holmes who seemed to thrive on it). In the case of Taylor-Pavlik...this is the first I've heard about anyone trying to put a black vs. white label on it. I don't see fight fans lining up on either fighter's side due to race here...they're just anticipating a good fight.
Race aint got nothin to do with this fight! Most the brothas on this forum are rooting AGAINST that stuttering fraud.
Unfortunately Jermain Taylor is almost more white than Kelly Pavlik....There is zero racial divide in this fight.
is that why you dont like taylor? doesnt seem to me like taylor has a strong fan base from his fellow african americans.
No, I could care less what Taylor listens to. I dislike Taylor cause he's a sloppy, unimproved, unimpressive, overrated soon to be EX-champion.
If it weren't for Kau talking about it all the time and this article being written, I wouldn't even be thinking about the racial aspect of it.
Even if Taylor knocks him out, I still wont be a fan of his. But he'll have earned back respect from me if he wins(WITHOUT controversy).