No doubt: Taylor victorious
LAS VEGAS – Jermain Taylor on Saturday night showed any doubters that he deserves to be undisputed world middleweight champion, beating former champ Bernard Hopkins for the second time in a year, this time slugging it out like a champ until the final bell at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.
Taylor didn’t fade in the late rounds this time, as he did in July when he beat Hopkins in a contested split decision.
This time there was no split: all three judges scored the bout, 115-113, in Taylor’s favor.
“The difference in this fight is he respected me more,” Taylor said. “I give myself a B. I don’t give myself an A because I didn’t knock him out, but I’m taking the belts back to Arkansas. Hopkins is a very clever fighter. You have to pull every trick in the book to try to hit him.”
Taylor is 25-0. Hopkins suffered his fourth career loss and is 46-4-1. Whether he will retire now is unclear. Hopkins turns 41 on January 15 and has said frequently that he will retire shortly after that birthday.
HBO is reserving a Jan. 28 airdate for him – a date when it also has an Arturo Gatti bout scheduled – and Hopkins spoke recently about staging a combination exhibition fight and farewell event on that date.
Early on the fighters circled and sized up each other at a distance like navigators peering through telescopes. Each rushed in just a couple of times, with clutching and grabbing ending each confrontation.
Taylor knocked Hopkins off balance twice with lefts in Round 2 and had him covering up to end the round, and Hopkins seemed to be spending more time than usual backed into corners.
By Round 4, Hopkins’ strategy was becoming clear: hit and run, hit and run. Whenever the younger Taylor was able to keep Hopkins from skipping back, his dangerous strength advantage showed.
And then just as Hopkins was finding his game, Taylor found his own range, striding in and out with jabs. At the end of Round 8, he caught Hopkins with a hard right in Hopkins’ corner to set up his strong finish.