By: Danny Serratelli
Rarely is there a fight where a draw is expected or accepted with open arms, but in the Winky Wright vs. Jermain Taylor fight last night the draw was proper. In a fight of this magnitude, where neither fighter really deserves to lose, a draw can be an acceptable outcome. The judges scored this fight 115-113 Wright (Hawkins), 115-113 (Taylor) and 114-114 (Lathan), I had the fight scored the same as Chuck Giampa 115-113 Taylor and HBO’s Harold Ledderman had it scored a draw 114-114, the same as Lathan. Fans should not only notice when judges do a bad job of scoring a fight, and this appeared to be a case where the judges were all consistent and the result was fair.
Taylor, 25-0-1, 17 KO’s entered the fight as the undisputed middleweight champion of the world while Wright, 50-3-1, 25 KO’s was coming up in weight to take the titles. Winky had a game plan in this fight, and he stuck with it. He challenged Taylor early, backed him up and won many rounds using his obvious edge in experience and his ring generalship. Emanual Stewart has said that Jermain Taylor is still a raw talent despite his accomplishments to date and Winky Wright exposed that fact throughout this fight. However, just as Winky stole some close rounds with the sharper punches, and being slick, Taylor stole several rounds (including the 12th and final round on my card) just being aggressive and throwing the harder punches.
The fight was very evenly contested throughout the bout The score of each round often depended upon if the individual scoring the fight favored the busier fighter throwing the harder punches (Taylor), or the slicker, more accurate puncher (Wright). After 4 rounds, I had the fight scored 2 rounds each, after 6 rounds I had it scored 3-3 and after 8 rounds I had it 4-4. The difference on my card was that I gave Taylor 3 out of the last 4 rounds of the fight. While there will be a lot of dispute regarding the decision in this fight, the truth of the matter is that the majority of the rounds were extremely close and many could have went either way. There will be many observers who agree with Winky that he won the fight, however, as is usually the case, many people who dispute contested decisions often do not actually score the fight on a round by round basis.
When viewed as a whole the perception of the result of a fight is often different then when a fight is scored on a round by round basis (the way professional fights are scored, on the 10 point must system). Viewed as a whole, I felt that Bernard Hopkins did enough to win both of his fights against Jermain Taylor, however, when I tallied my scorecard at the end of each of those fights I had Taylor up by a point or 2 because he took a lot of very close rounds, particularly early in both fights just being the busier fighter. Jermain’s youth, aggression and his apparent punching power can influence people scoring his fights and in the process lead judges to give him the nod in close rounds. This was true in both Hopkins fights and was true again tonight with Wright.
After the final bell rang, I was pulling for a draw in this fight. Despite what Winky said after the fight (that he did not want to fight Taylor again because he felt he was robbed), everyone in boxing knows that he is a warrior and in all likelihood he will want to fight Taylor again. After an excellent fight like this, a rematch will be beneficial for all parties involved, as well as for boxing in general. It will be very interesting to see the adjustments both fighters would make for a rematch. If Jermain Taylor continues to sharpen up his game under the tutelage of Emanual Stewart there is no telling how good he can be. However, Winky Wright, being the consummate professional that he is, will be back and will always present problems for whoever he decides to fight. After an excellent fight that was surely seen by far more viewers because of the fact that it as on regular HBO (not pay-per-view), the fans will demand a rematch and the money will be available to make it happen.
Originally published by www.doghouseboxing.com
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