Both EJ and Josh had their primes cut short by drinking/partying too much, being too inactive, and staying at the weights too long. Of course, Spence was a MUCH better fighter than Taylor, but it's interesting that their downfalls were very comparable.
I do notice the similarity. Both Taylor and Spence were bound to lose at some point and it just so happens to be against talented fighters like Teo and Crawford.
Both ultimately got beat by better fighters. It might be arguable in Taylor's case though. I don't think any version of Spence beats Crawford. The 2019 Taylor might have beaten Teo, but I don't wanna discredit Teo's excellent performance.
I don’t think EJ will hang around for too long. A couple more years and he’ll hang ‘em up. He had a good run from 2017-2019, and a nice come back after the accident. But I think he was just beaten by a better guy and it doesn’t diminish him in my eyes because I never had him beating the best welterweights of all time. Taylor is just a limited guy, IMO. An ultimate overachiever considering that he really isn’t all that gifted. He’s basically competent in most areas but doesn’t have anything that stands out. No blazing hand speed. Wasn’t a huge KO puncher. Not a defensive genius. Not the best mover. He was always gonna have a short reign.
Didn't say that they went down the exact same path. Just that there are some similarities. Another similarity - both with wide stances. Bo Mac just pointed out yesterday that Spence's wide stance is a weakness that they always saw. Taylor has the same problem.
I noticed similar about how Crawford jabs against bladed stances vs squared up stances. Bud's much more likely to snap his jab at squared up targets than he is to play at range and paw over the lead hand. He did it against Kava, Horn, Spence and Porter. And it's extremely effective.
While the video from the car accident was "impressive" (for lack of a better word), AFAIK he didnt wven broke one bone of his body. The dammage he incurred were mostly superficial it seems