TAYLOR-HOPKINS 2 POST-FIGHT ANALYSIS

Jermain Taylor once again defeats Bernard Hopkins with a unanimous 115-113 decision from all three judges.

December 11, 2006 - by Bert Sugar

With a large amount of weeping and gnashing of teeth and anguish straight out of the Book of Job, Bernard Hopkins had promised that this time round he wouldn't be "robbed" of the decision, that this time Round One of the rematch would be "the first round of an execution." Instead Taylor-Hopkins 2 was almost a carbon copy of their first fight, a stop-me-if-you've-seen-this-before exercise that looked like the watering of last year's crop.

Conventional wisdom dictated that the rematch would acquit the fight's billing, "No Respect," and that the 10,000 fans crowded into that fortified art gallery known as the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino arena would be treated to an all-out war. But conventional wisdom has always been an underdog at Vegas betting windows and what the fans got instead was two reluctant warriors showing too much respect for the other. There is no need to embroider, the truth makes all things plain, and the plain fact is that the two began the fight engaging in a contest of feint and counter-feint, their gloves showing nothing but consideration and forbearance as they exhibited all the impassivity of two of Madame Tussaud's wax works.

The only meaningful punches thrown during the early rounds were three wicked rabbit punches thrown by Taylor during one of their frequent clinches, three punches that earned Taylor a rebuke from referee Jay Nady and the round from all three judges. As the two dawdled along, their punches chained to Morpheus' slow carriage, Taylor continued to pack round-after-round neatly into his kit bag, the judges rewarding him for what little action there was.

With the fans alternately yawning and booing, Hopkins, who for the first six rounds had looked as bereft as Robinson Crusoe without a boat, suddenly came to life and, with the accumulated energy of his 40-plus years, began taking the fight to his younger opponent, dealing out right hands by the heaping plateful. And moving inside where for most of his career he had set up shop, all the better to rough up his opponent. However, this time Taylor, adhering to a fight plan devised by his trainer, Pat Burns, used his left elbow to ward off Hopkins' bull-like rushes and grabbed his arms to suffocate him inside, making Taylor as difficult to open up as an oyster with a butter knife. Still, Hopkins carried the middle rounds and, by the end of the tenth, with Hopkins on the offense and Taylor tiring, the fight was still up for grabs--or clinches.

During the one-minute break between Rounds 10 and 11 Pat Burns turned from trainer to motivator. No longer satisfied with telling Taylor to "keep your left hand up" and "double up on your jab," Burns turned to his "win-one-for-the-Gipper" speech, exhorting Taylor to "come on" and "win this round." And win it he did, almost running out of his corner to take the battle back--and to Hopkins. Taylor was rewarded with Round 11 on all three judges' scorecards and despite the fact that Hopkins, in this the Indian summer of his career, came back to win Round 12, the matter was settled; Taylor would win another decision, one that was thisclose, but a decision nevertheless, this time a unanimous one.

For Taylor the unanimous decision was a validation of his split-decision win in the first fight, a victory which gave lie to the slander that his first-fight win was, as wee Bobby Burns would say, "a giftie." Now Jermain Taylor was the rightful descendant to the middleweight crown once worn proudly by the man he had defeated twice, Bernard Hopkins.

FIGHTERS	Taylor	Hopkins
TOTAL PUNCHES
Thrown	391	371
Connected	124	130
%	32%	35%
JABS
Thrown	209	131
Connected	64	29
%	31%	22%
POWER PUNCHES
Thrown	182	240
Connected	60	101
%	33%	42%
JUDGES SCORECARDS
Dave Moretti	115	113
Chuck Giampa	115	113
Patricia Morse Jarman	115	113

For Hopkins, whose loss in the first fight had been seen by his fans as ungraspable, causing them to wonder if their faith in the Rock of Gibraltar had been misplaced, it was a noble effort. And as he leaves to put his career in mothballs, those fans who cheered him at the beginning in faith, midway though with applause for his achievements, can now cheer him in appreciation for a great career. For, in a sport where champions come and go with all the suddenness and completeness of the flame of a candle that has been blown out leaving only the traces of smoke, Bernard Hopkins has shone longer than any middleweight champion in history. And has survived in the ring as he has in life, against all odds, and is now an odds-on favorite to be remembered as one of the great middleweight champion.