Jermain Taylor: "I Want To Make an Impact at 168"

[Dirk Diggler UK]

If Joe wanted Hopkins badly enough before 2008, I'm sure he could've gotten him. Call Taylor HBO's Golden Boy all you want, but you can't make me believe that they wouldn't have marketed a good looking, quick, white fighter from the UK as well or better than a black kid from a bad neighborhood in a non-boxing town. This is all hypothetical too, but you cannot say with any degree of certainty what Joe was offered and what he was not offered.

Irrelevant hyperbole about JMM. Spinks was fighting at Jr. Middle a year before he moved up to fight Taylor. Sure there was a size difference, but not enough to warrant bringing up JMM. If anything Spinks' size made him afraid of Taylor enough to run around the ring the entire night, making Taylor look awful, whereas Lacy's size made him foolishly brave enough to stand there and get hit all night by Calzaghe, making Joe look sensational.

Joe signed to fight Hopkins in 2002 after the Trinidad fight. Hopkins backed out and demanding double the purse.

Taylor did a similar thing a couple of years ago.

Since when has HBO put their weight behind a European fighter, let alone a white British fighter? Come on.....

Exaggeration yes. But I made my point. Spinks was knocked out by Zab Judah which kinda puts things into perspective. You're not gonna convince me that Spinks at 160 is a more legit fight than an unbeaten Lacy at 168.

[Hitman932]

dstew is prett much owning everyone out of this thread. that is why he is in my sig.

clear evidence of that is the inability of anyone to single out any of his statements as untrue. On top of that you are simply avoiding them altogether and replying with some balogna rhetoric that really doesen't answer a question or dispute his assertions.

abadger i think you owe him an explanation on the interview of Calzaghe sayiing RJJ is **** since he seems to have proven his point in exactly the manner you requested.

i think calzaghe is a great fighter, but this video makes his look like a complete ass in my opinion.

[Dirk Diggler UK]

The fact that in , starting at the 6:30 mark, when Joe is asked if he beats Hopkins and has one more match, if fighting Roy Jones Jr would be a letdown, Joe says:

"Yeah, probably, because Roy Jones was a great fighter but he's not a great fighter any more. He's been knocked out twice in his last something like five fights, so I don't see that being a motivating fight for me either. After this fight the number one fight would be maybe Kelly Pavlik/Jermain Taylor, the winner of them two. They're excellent fighters and they're boxing I think next month, so that's a possibility"

Straight from your idol's mouth. That was recorded less than 10 months ago. Doesn't sound anything like the tune he's singing lately, does it???

Now please... PLEASE... tell me how questioning the integrity of a weasel like this somehow brings my own integrity into question?

Middleweight star Jermain Taylor says he would relish a bout with world super middleweight king Joe Calzaghe, with late summer a likely date.
"Calzaghe is a fight I would love because he's supposed to be the man at 168lbs, and those are the guys I want," said WBC and WBO champion Taylor, 28.

"It's all but impossible for me to make middleweight now, and I plan to retire in two years when I reach 30.
--------------------------------------------------------------

If Joe and Frank want me that much, make me an offer for $10m and I will show up and bring him a gift to his front door," Taylor told BBC Sport.

[daggum]

calzaghe wasn't on hbo for a long time because they probably saw him and said to themselves "we don't do women's boxing."

[dstew]

Joe signed to fight Hopkins in 2002 after the Trinidad fight. Hopkins backed out and demanding double the purse.

Taylor did a similar thing a couple of years ago.

Wow, it must be really frustrating to have another fighter back away from an offer and claim you won't make them enough money. At least Joe knows how he made Kelly Pavlik feel - oh wait, nevermind. Nobody accused Joe of not being experienced enough or simply not truly wanting a fight with them, as Joe did with Kelly.

Since when has HBO put their weight behind a European fighter, let alone a white British fighter? Come on.....

They don't seem to have a problem with it if the white Euro is fighting decent opponents, as evidenced by Joe's last three fights.

Exaggeration yes. But I made my point. Spinks was knocked out by Zab Judah which kinda puts things into perspective. You're not gonna convince me that Spinks at 160 is a more legit fight than an unbeaten Lacy at 168.

If a fight against an unbeaten Lacy is so legit, then a fight against a one-loss Lacy doesn't deserve the criticism you've been giving it for the last few days.

And I have no doubt that if Spinks would've stood and traded with Taylor like he did with Judah, he would've been knocked out again. But he didn't; Taylor's management screwed him by matching him against a fighter that wouldn't fight him.

[dstew]

Middleweight star Jermain Taylor says he would relish a bout with world super middleweight king Joe Calzaghe, with late summer a likely date.
"Calzaghe is a fight I would love because he's supposed to be the man at 168lbs, and those are the guys I want," said WBC and WBO champion Taylor, 28.

"It's all but impossible for me to make middleweight now, and I plan to retire in two years when I reach 30.
--------------------------------------------------------------

If Joe and Frank want me that much, make me an offer for $10m and I will show up and bring him a gift to his front door," Taylor told BBC Sport.

Um... what's your point?

[Clegg]

If Joe wanted Hopkins badly enough before 2008, I'm sure he could've gotten him.

What makes you so sure?

Call Taylor HBO's Golden Boy all you want, but you can't make me believe that they wouldn't have marketed a good looking, quick, white fighter from the UK as well or better than a black kid from a bad neighborhood in a non-boxing town.

Well I disagree.

First of all, Taylor is a well spoken, intelligent guy, regardless of his neighbourhood or race. Furthermore, if Hopkins or Tyson were white, would their persona work as well? Not in my opinion.

I think race helped Tyson because a white kid isn't as intimidating, and I think race helped Cooney because of the 'white hope' issue. But Taylor? IMO it didn't make a difference.

As for nationality, American fighters can fight in America without having to travel as much or re-arrange their entire lives to such an extent. American fighters have more of an American following, regardless of isolated instances like Ricky Hatton.

If Calzaghe had fought in the US 10 years ago, he would've had less travelling fans than Clinton Woods did.

Because of this, I don't think that a young Calzaghe was worth as much to HBO as Taylor. Of course the Hopkins win played a part, but so did nationality. Not because HBO are biased, but because nationality affects things such as fan support, fight location, opposition etc.

Taylor loses, and what happens? He can fight in his own country against a lesser opponent and be on HBO. Hamed loses and what happens? He can fight in his own country against a lesser opponent and HBO don't televise it. Ditto for Hatton-Lazcano.

In another post, you mentioned Calzaghe-Lacy in response to Taylor-Spinks.

Taylor-Spinks was a 160lb guy against someone who had been KO'd at 147 not that long before. Lacy was, on paper, a very good fighter with massive power and an exciting style.

We can all look now and see that Lacy was overrated. But at the time, that wasn't the case, and on paper Calzaghe-Lacy was more likely to produce an exciting fight and more likely to be competitive.

[Dirk Diggler UK]

Wow, it must be really frustrating to have another fighter back away from an offer and claim you won't make them enough money. At least Joe knows how he made Kelly Pavlik feel - oh wait, nevermind. Nobody accused Joe of not being experienced enough or simply not truly wanting a fight with them, as Joe did with Kelly.

Calzaghe was never even in negotiations with Pavlik. There was no offer and Calzaghe didnt agree to any fight. Calzaghe made it clear he wanted Jones long before Pavlik beat Joe's sparring partner. So the situation is nowhere near the same as Hopkins blatantly ducking out of an agreement to fight Joe.

Pavlik has already fought on HBO, is fighting Bernard Hopkins on PPV and has all HBO's weight behind him.

Nobody accused Joe of not being experienced enough or simply not truly wanting a fight with them, as Joe did with Kelly.

No. People accused Joe of being a stay at home euro bum who didnt deserve a crack at Hopkins or Jones until he fought in America.

They don't seem to have a problem with it if the white Euro is fighting decent opponents, as evidenced by Joe's last three fights.

I said throw their weight behind. Not just broadcast. Jermain Taylor was being hand-fed jr middleweights on HBO and groomed as the next big thing. Calzaghe beats Eubank and a host of other top contenders at 168 and they couldnt care less.

If a fight against an unbeaten Lacy is so legit, then a fight against a one-loss Lacy doesn't deserve the criticism you've been giving it for the last few days.

A fight against an unbeaten, confident Lacy who was KOing almost eveyone he fought and was world champion is slightly different from a Lacy who's been on the receiving end of one of the most one-sided beat downs in championship fight history and looked utterly horrible in his 3 follow up fights against relatively mediocre opposition.

And I have no doubt that if Spinks would've stood and traded with Taylor like he did with Judah, he would've been knocked out again. But he didn't; Taylor's management screwed him by matching him against a fighter that wouldn't fight him.

Why would he stand and trade with Taylor? It was Taylor's prerogative as Champion to go out and put in a dominating performance against a much smaller guy whichever style he brought in. Once again, you aint convincing me that was a legit fight,.

[Dirk Diggler UK]

Um... what's your point?

Well one minute Taylor is desperate to fight Joe, the next he's demanding silly money he knows he wont get.

Are we going to call him a "weasel" too?

[Clegg]

Wow, it must be really frustrating to have another fighter back away from an offer and claim you won't make them enough money. At least Joe knows how he made Kelly Pavlik feel - oh wait, nevermind. Nobody accused Joe of not being experienced enough or simply not truly wanting a fight with them, as Joe did with Kelly.

This is a bit of a cop-out, no?

You said he could've fought Hopkins sooner, then when Dirk answered your point, you ignored it and started talking about Pavlik.