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Not even good? Now I know you're too hard on him. Ok, lets say he lost close to Winky, lets even say he lost close to Spinks, that still doesn't make him a bad fighter. Winky is/was elite, and Spinks was a WW and JMW champ with a style that could make anybody look bad, who had beating Karmazin shorty before the Taylor fight.
Hopkins is tough to get a read on, and when I heard him speak of passing the torch to Taylor it puzzled me a little as well, but in the ring in both their fights, I didn't see anything that made me inclined to think Hopkins was going half assed.
By "good" I mean "better than average." Taylor has always been average to me as a Pro. Considering where Ouma is now (the only guy you can say with a straight face he definitely beat during his MW Title Reign, who was 20lbs higher than his best weight), I stand by that.
You didn't see anything to indicate Hopkins was half-assed? His punch-output was abysmal, lower than anything he'd ever done in the first half of the first fight, and throughout the second fight.
I guess Hopkins was just over hill though. Maybe he just couldnt be what he used to be. - Oh, that argument is thrown out the window. Hopkins went on to DOMINATE and HUMILIATE Antonio Tarver for 12 rounds. Something he didnt do to Taylor. So I think that there proves perhaps Hopkins wasnt in his prime but that he had some magic left. This was where Hopkins was king and where he ruled for 20 straight title defences.
My argument was that Hopkins wanted out of MW, and to "pass the torch" as he said himself, to someone marketable. Not that he was over-the-hill.
Winky? Well for one give him credit for giving Winky a shot. That alone should mean something. No one wants ot fight Winky. He's expensive. He's tough to beat. And doesnt give you much to be thrilled about. Ouch. Do I think Winky might have won that fight? Yes I feel that way.
At the time he gave Winky a shot Winky was the JMW Champ, the guy Oscar didn't want to Fight. And I don't think Jermain MIGHT have lost, I think he DEFINITELY lost.
Kassim and Cory are two small but very slick guys that gave him trouble. The styles gave him trouble. But I feel he won those fights.
You must have never seen Kassim Ouma fight. Nothing slick about him, he's a come-forward swarmer who throws billions of punches that don't hurt. And Kassim was at his best as a JWW, and Cory as a WW.
At this point Taylor was still young.
That's no excuse, because at that point Taylor was also "The Undisputed Middleweight Champion of the World." You carve yourself BEFORE you wear the crown, not during your reign.