Is Taylor Mentally Prepared for Hopkins?

[The Fix]

I think you got it the other way around. Taylor NEEDS to get in the early work. Once Hop figures out what he wants to do and gets comfortable with him Taylor is going to have a rough time trying to crack Nards D. I'd also be interested to see how good Taylors conditioning down the stretch is. We all know what X is going to bring to the table and thats a 24 in waist.

but i can see taylor leaning on hopkins with his size and tiring the 40+ year old fighter. taylor also has a very nice jab if he decides to work on the outside.

[borikua]

Nard just threw away a mega fight with the winner of Trinidad/Wright....Taylor by D. Is not official yet, right?

[Run]

Taylor is Ultimately Unprepared.

One school of thought.

Taylor is an excellent prospect. He still has some questionmarks unanswered. One is: Can he deal with adversity. The kind where you are seriously hurt, and overcome it. I suppose the best way to find this out would be to throw him to the lions (proverbially). Meaning an immediate fight with Hopkins may serve this purpose.


Another school of thought

Once again though, I do not feel that he is ultimately prepared for this fight. The only win at middleweight that impressed me, was his last victory over William Joppy. He distanced himself well and dictated the tempo of the fight, frustrating the smaller outgunned ex-champ. His victory over Raul Marquez should not be emphasized. Raul was fighting professional bouts when Taylor had a "curfew" established by his mother. His age was the tell tale factor in that fight, and a younger Marquez would have given Taylor some serious problems.

Easing into the picture

He needs to step it up a notch further; in order to "test his metal" so to speak. The tools are there, but facing Hopkins at this point might be asking too much of him. There are other names in the division who are worthy of him fighting at this point:

Those may include:

Felix Sturm
Mikkel Kessler
Lacy at super-middle (rematch which would be interesting to say the least)
Winner of the Tito/Wright fight
Howard Eastman

one of these should be the route that he is going to take.
I suppose he and his promotion think otherwise.......

Asking alot of a fighter who I think has Worlds of Potential, but is overrated by fans at this point.



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[Kimmy]

I admire Hopkins for taking this fight with Taylor, he could have taken easier options such as Trinidad and Soloman, but no, he is in with the number 2 middleweight in the world, hats off!

[HayeFan]

I think a petrified Taylor will pull out a blistering performance in blitzing an unsuspecting Hopkins, setting up a showdown with a redemption seeking Trinidad.

Oh what a glorious day that will be

[The Troll]

I think he is mentally prepared Jermaine to me always seems very cool and collected and I dont think the pressure of the big title fight is going to get to him.