HOPKINS-TAYLOR POST-FIGHT ANALYSIS

Jermain Taylor upsets Bernard Hopkins and wins a split decision to become the middleweight champion.

July 18, 2005 - by Bert Sugar

In one of the biggest miscalculations of a finish line since the hare gave the tortoise too much of a head start, Bernard Hopkins, for reasons that won't stand up to the vaguest of examinations, gave away too many of the early rounds to Jermain Taylor to pull his championship chestnuts out of the fire with a late-round comeback. Hopkins, who gets up to speak at the sight of a grapefruit, had spent the entire week leading up to the fight assaulting the ears of anyone who would listen, telling them how he would add Taylor to his growing list of championship fight victims, already up there somewhere in the paint cards, by "teaching him a lesson while absorbing a beating." Taylor, making little illiterate request upon the art of conversation, merely responded that his "time had come."

But it wasn't a case of Taylor's time coming so much as Hopkins' time never coming. Or coming too late.

For while Hopkins spent most of the first four rounds analyzing his challenger much as a scientist would a specimen looking for what he called "flaws" in Taylor's style and trying to bait his opponent into the position of taking cheese from his set mousetrap, Taylor, unlike most of Hopkins' previous 20 challengers who seemed more interested in catching the first train going south than in pressing the action, took the fight straight to Hopkins, pumping his piston-like jab into Hopkins face and then bull-rushing and using his brute strength to muscle Hopkins into the ropes--once, in the second round, driving Hopkins into the ropes with a hard right that as much startled as hurt the champion.

With Taylor laying down layer-after-layer and round-after-round of domination for the first four rounds with his speed and aggression--so much so that you could have written "ditto" or "ibid" or whatever after his name for each of the first four rounds--a chant went through the crowd of "Whoooo…Pig…Sooooey…Razorbacks" from 4,000 fellow Arkansans who turned the MGM Grand Arena into an away Arkansas football game as they cheered on their homestate hero who carried the hopes and dreams of the entire state on his massive twin shoulders.

But even as Hopkins' fans were beginning to wonder if their faith in Gibraltar had been misplaced, the 40-year-old champion came alive in the fifth, practicing his own form of regentrification. Racing out of the corner with speed which belied his advanced years, Hopkins moved inside to land a right, another right and an elbow. Then, after mocking Taylor with a shimmy-shake, the champion came back in and outmuscled Taylor into a corner, landing several more times, including once with his head, opening up a huge gash on the challenger's forehead--which would later require 15 stitches. Hopkins newfound energy brought forth a chant from his fans, one of "Old school," as the chemistry of the fight seemed to change.

Rounds six through eight were tamer as each fighter jockeyed for positional advantage with Taylor landing his left jab with diving-rod accuracy and Hopkins, finding it uneventful to trade lefts, resorting to lead rights which began to find their mark.

With time running out and no more rent to pay, no more Sundays and no more anything, Hopkins put on a finishing drive beginning with round nine that was so late it would be indicated on train schedules by an asterisk. With his right-hand leads landing with increasing frequency and his work inside forcing Taylor to cover up, almost as if he were a Sunday school teacher fully expecting to be hit by an errant spitball the minute he turned his back, Hopkins mounted his comeback.

In the tenth Hopkins hurt Taylor with one of those right-hand leads, forcing Taylor to turn his back and momentarily halt Hopkins' assault as referee Jay Nady stepped between the two to separate them. Later in the round, Taylor, who only a couple of rounds before was being fitted with a glass slipper and now looked vincible, almost went into a defensive shell, hugging and grabbing, as Hopkins landed lead right after lead right.

Trying, as someoneorother once said, to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, Hopkins continued his assault in the 11th. All of which brings us to the 12th and final round.

FIGHTERS	Hopkins	Taylor
TOTAL PUNCHES
Thrown	326	453
Connected	96	86
%	27%	19%
JABS
Thrown	109	264
Connected	18	36
%	17%	14%
POWER PUNCHES
Thrown	217	189
Connected	78	50
%	36%	26%
JUDGES SCORECARDS
Jerry Roth	116	112
Duane Ford	113	115
Paul Smith	113	115

Coming out of his corner with the words of trainer Bouie Fisher that he "needed" the last round ringing in his ears, Hopkins picked up where he had left off, landing two hard rights, then three more. And although Taylor would fight back, again going to his piston-like jab to ward off the advancing Hopkins, Hopkins closed the festivities with a left-left-right flurry, outlanding Taylor 12-5 in meaningful punches thrown in the final stanza.

And yet when the scorecards were collected and tallied, judge Duane Ford, with a different view from a different pew than anyone else in the crowd, somehow, someway scored the round for Taylor, giving the challenger a split decision win. And the unified middleweight title. With Taylor as saved as a martyr from the stake by judge Ford's gift decision and both fighters claiming victory, the only thing certain was that a rematch was in order.

Next time 'round both fighters may try to implement what they learned last Saturday night at the MGM Grand Arena. For Taylor, who said, "I have never learned so much," it will be a time to put into practice some of those lessons learned. For Hopkins, it will be an opportunity to rewrite the final chapter of his legacy by not getting caught up in his mental underwear and knowing when to start his comeback. After all, how many times can someone misjudge the finish line?