14.06.06 – By Goran Dragosavac: On Saturday night, Jermain Taylor (25-0, 17 KO’s) will take on Winky Wright (50-3, 25 KO’s) at the FedEx Forum, in Memphis. With these two exciting fighters going at each other, the big question is, can Taylor adopt same “no respect” strategy in fight against Winky Wright and dominate his slower opponent? For me, there’s no question that Taylor will win against Winky Wright and he will likely win big.. Besides being the younger, fresher fighter, the 27-year-old Taylor has multi-dimensional fight skills, that is, he has a powerful jab, good ring movement, solid power in both hands, and he can throw variety of punches from different angles.
With Wright, 34, the difference between offence and defense is clear as daylight; either he is all wrapped up in his defence or he predictably uses jab before stepping and throwing an occasional right hand. While that can work against smaller guys, like Soliman or Shane Mosley, there is no way it will work against a someone of Taylor’s size and calibre of fighter. I just cannot see where Winky Wright can have advantage to the extent that I would give him serious chances of pulling the victory.
I firmly believe that in order for Wright to win, he needs to bring into the ring far more than his static defence and excellent jab. No, he must bring speed, angles, lateral movements, and dynamic defence with effective counter punching, and all the rest. Well, this would mean that this would be a version of Winky Wright, which I have never seen before. So, I certainly allow the possibility of being wrong in estimating Wright’s chances here, but come Saturday night, we’ll know for sure. Either way, good luck to both fighters and let the better man win.
Side Note: I would just like to comment on Bernard Hopkins astonishing win over Antonio Tarver. Firstly, most of you who have read my articles before know that I was never big fan of either Bernard Hopkins or Antonio Tarver. However, I was surprised, like many of the others, with Hopkins lopsided victory over the Tarver. I could not possibly even imagine that he would come so deadly effective, accurate and aggressive in this match. Hopkins executed (or adapted) his fight plan to the perfection, and this was one of his best fights ever as far as I’m concerned.
As for Tarver, nobody could imagine him so flat, predictable, one dimensional, and reluctant to throw the punches. Did Hopkins look so good because Tarver was so bad, or did Hopkins’ brilliance on the night just make Tarver look so bad? No one will ever know, and it doesn’t even matter. All that matters is that Hopkins has shown to boxing public and his doubters, (me included) that he is true boxing great.
Now, this praise to Hopkins doesn’t mean that I agree with the match commentator who said that “if Hopkins had fought this way against Taylor, he would won.” Any serious boxing commentator should stay away from this sort of wild speculations. Hopkins is one of the smartest fighters ever, and if he knew that same tactic deployed against Tarver could have worked with Taylor, made no mistake, he would have deployed it. Taylor is younger, faster and packs up far heavier punch than Tarver, so Hopkins had to give him some respect in a ring. Well, in a fight against Tarver, the word “respect” wasn’t much considered by Hopkins.