Jermain Taylor Graduated & Bernard Hopkins Congratulated
by
Buster Paris
2/19 - Saturday night, February 19th 2005 at the Los Angeles Staples Center was an interesting night of boxing to say the least. Fans saw and were spoken to by Oscar De La Hoya and surprisingly by Mike Tyson on the HBO telecast. Middleweight contender Jermain Taylor beat Daniel Edouard and if you managed to stay awake through the first 4 rounds then you saw Bernard Hopkins take over Howard Eastman for his twentieth consecutive title defense.
First up was Jermain Taylor vs Daniel Edouard.
This fight held significance to it as it was an audition of sorts for Taylor to prove his skill, chin and style guarantee him a corner in the ring for a match against the big boys of the Middleweight division or more clearly put earns him a shot at Bernard Hopkins.
The first round saw that Edouard was not intimidated by Taylor. Don’t forget Daniel was at one time Jermain’s sparring partner and didn’t seem to be of that mentally. He came to fight and he came to win. They had some good exchanges and I thought that maybe Taylor was in for rough night’s work.
In the second round, the engagements continued. It was as if they both had magnets in their stomachs and were fiercely drawn towards each other. Jermain’s left hook was becoming a factor as to where this evening was heading.
In the third and final round, Taylor started playing with distance. He caught Edouard with a masterful upper cut and as the round was nearing it’s close Jermain started putting together beautiful combinations one of which wobbled Daniel. Having seen Edouard on rubbery legs Taylor knew he had the opportunity to close the show and went on the attack.
The referee was forced to stop the fight as Edouard was unable to answer Jermain’s assault. Taylor remains undefeated. 23 wins and no losses.
Next up after some waiting was Bernard Hopkins vs. Howard Eastman.
The first four rounds were somewhat boring, dull and very uneventful. I’m aggravated with Hopkins’ style, but at the same time I’m so impressed with how brilliant it is. I’m disappointed and annoyed with Eastman, but he’s also being smart. It’s not the brightest idea to strike first against one of the best counterpunches in the business, but I think he should have anyway.
The fifth was the round that Howard said he’d put Bernard away and I was roused from my boredom as the action started to become existent. They were actually exchanging punches. Hopkins stopped running away which allowed Eastman to stop following him and they were able to mix it up.
Fans could see that Bernard had Howard all figured out. This was without a doubt his fight now and it started in the seventh.
For the remaining five rounds Hopkins countered beautifully and his form was near perfection. He took his time and simply dominated Eastman. Watching Bernard he seems ageless, timeless and unbeatable.
What was most disappointing was that I stupidly expected a Marvin Hagler-Tommy Hearns type of fight. Howard Eastman filling the Thomas Hearns role with those long spidery arms and powerful punches and for Bernard Hopkins to play the role of Marvelous Marvin Hagler with him being the undisputed and hardest working Middleweight champion, a true throw back to boxing’s great past.
The unanimous decision announced and I’m happy for Bernard and at the same time disappointed for Howard. As I’m watching the post fight interview I can’t help but think what went wrong for Howard, I really thought that this would have been a much closer and much better fight. What happened?
Here’s the stat that I think says it all – the jab:
* Hopkins landed 40% of his jabs
* Eastman landed 6% of his jabs
6%? Yes six percent. Any questions? Next in the script is for Jermain Taylor to take on Bernard Hopkins. Hopkins wants to retire at the end of this year. He would like to fight Taylor, maybe step up in weight and fight Glenn Johnson or Antonio Tarver and finish the year with a match against Felix “Tito” Trinidad.
This all this sounds like a great plan and a great finish to an incredible career. However I don’t think Jermain is ready yet. I think he needs another fight or 2 with some tough opponents either in his weight class or just below.
Let’s supposes for the sake of this discussion that Bernard is only going to fight 1 more fight and then retire. That he wants to fight Taylor and then that’s it. Here is a list of those I’d like to see Jermain fight before he takes on Hopkins:
* Howard Eastman – let’s see how he handles a recent easy fight for Hopkins, remembering though that Eastman’s no push over.
* Oscar De La Hoya – never would happen, but I’d like to see it.
* Felix Trinidad – this would either be a great success or huge failure. It would need to be the 2nd fight out of the 2 fights before he faces Hopkins, but I’ll have to give this one more thought.
This list I’d like to see fought with Taylor going down 3-lbs and the following going up 3-lbs, so both parties would be weighing in at 157 lbs:
Winky Wright, Fernando Vargas and Keith Holmes. Taylor had trouble with weight, but you never knowabout these talented smaller fighters.
A Taylor vs Hopkins bout is just around the corner despite the fact that I don’t think Taylor is ready. I do think it’s a great move for Hopkins though to add to his amazing legacy. Regardless of the when I just hope Jermain remembers to jab.
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