The Americans, the trendsetters in professional boxing, have not had so many opportunities to rejoice for their compatriots in recent times - the Slavs occupied heavy weights, Latin Americans and Asians occupied light weights. The Yankees are left to seek happiness among the middleweights, but even there it does not always look real.
The super-bout of Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather, which took place two weeks ago, was not without reason announced as historical. The discussion about who actually won - the more accurate Floyd or the more active Oscar, promises to last for years. But the participants, it seems, get no less pleasure from this dispute than from the battle itself.
The duel between compatriots Jermain Taylor (28 years old, 27 fights - 26 wins, 1 draw) and Corey Spinks (29 years old, 39 fights - 36 wins, 3 defeats) the American press called the low-budget remake of the meeting De La Hoya - Mayweather.
Spinks, like Handsome Floyd, was going to act second in all 12 rounds and catch an opponent who was more active and had a powerful blow in counterattacks. Taylor said the day before that he knew about the opponent’s tactics and was going to greatly surprise him. It seems that both boxers outwitted not only the fans, but also themselves.
From the first round, Taylor began to languishly stomp in the center of the ring, not at all going to attack the challenger, and he patiently waited for the champion at the ropes. The audience openly yawned, but still hoped to see a real fight. In the fourth round, rare blow exchanges began to bring success to the more accurate Spinks. Taylor's trainer Emmanuel Steward insistently advised his client: “You have a killer blow, man! Use it, what are you waiting for ?! ”But Jermain nevertheless was waiting for something, and no one in the hall was embarrassed to whistle unhappily.
Only in the sixth round did Taylor finally activate and start to beat. Each of his exact hits threatened to send Spinks to the floor with the next blow, but the continuation of the attack should not have been. The blows missed by the applicant were not left without consequences. He no longer had time to shyly shy away from strikes, and it seemed that there was no question of accurately hitting himself.
It was hoped that in the final rounds the champion would still knock out Spinks, at least dyeing the match. But in the end, Taylor was tired, and the fight again took on the leisurely nature of the first rounds. After hitting the gong in the twelfth round, the audience burst into a whistle that will sound for a long time in the nightmares of both boxers.
Having scored points, the judges gave the victory for Taylor with a minimal advantage (111: 117; 115: 113; 117: 111), but hardly one of America’s most promising boxers will be very pleased with her. Now he will have to fight against his compatriot Kelly Pavlik, who knocked out the Colombian Edison Miranda last night in the seventh round and won the title of mandatory contender for the WBC middleweight title.
Andrey IVANTSOV