pundit wrote:Terence wrote:Taylor is a very good middleweight. Jumping to SM and taking on a a top guy in his first fight will be a big ask, to his eternal credit I imagine if the call comes Taylor will give it a bash.
This would be poor career planning for Taylor. The fella is young and hasn't been at the highest level for that long.
He should first establish himself as the clear #1 at 160 and gain experience in the process - give a refight to Winky, fight a couple of other strong challengers, say Abraham or Sturm. Thereafter he could step up to 168, win a belt there, and then challenge the man at 168 (who will probably be Kessler at the time) -- if he wishes. Similar to how Tito did it when he went to 160. This said, 168 is generally less interesting and has a lower reputation than 175 or 160, so perhaps he should just use it as a stepping stone a la RJJ.
I agree to an extent, there are still some interesting, if not quite compelling fights to be made at 160 (Miranda, Abraham, Winky rematch if it ever happens etc.), but I think Taylor is the type to take a gamble, even if his backers aren't. Taylor was pretty inexperienced to be taking on Hopkins, and to his credit, whether he should have won or not, he made a compelling argument for taking the old mans titles, more than any of the other middleweights around had done.
I think that a lot will depend on whether they perceive Calzaghe as being on the slide, certianly i think Lacy's backers mistakenly thought he was, as did many of us based on his lacklustre showings against the likes of Salem.
However, Taylor is definetly a big middlweight, I don't know how he makes 160, he looks more like a 175 lber in the ring and does look to me to be the bigger man that Calzaghe.
However, anyone saying that Calzaghe beating Taylor in any way equates to DLH beating floyd is smoking some serious shit.
Oscar is a future hall of famer, and of his era, deservedly so. Mayweather is THE top man in boxing, at least in terms of skills and talent. Oscar will be dropping in weight, taking on a younger, fresher, and more talented (in my opinion) man. At a catchweight, it's a big ask for Oscar.
If Oscar loses, then it's not big deal, he's an old fighter who is trying to summon up magic to beat Floyd, who is right on his game right now.
If however he wins at say 150, then you have to perhaps accept that Oscar really is something a bit special, because Floyd hasn't really looked like losing aside from a relatively close call against Castillo, which was overplayed.
If Calzaghe beats Taylor, it doesn't prove a great deal, as Taylor is only just becoming a dominant force in his own division, let alone some sort of belt hopping superstar.
If Calzaghe is still around in 18 months time, and Taylor has fought another 3-4 times at MW and really proven his dominance, it's a more significant fight, but even then, Taylor would have to go some way to be anything like a comparison for Mayweather.
Hopkins got his P4P props by virtue of sticking around so long and the Tito win, and the fact that after that he kept on winning. Taylor has two creditable but debatable decisions over Hopkins, and a draw with a light middlweight to his name, hardly the stuff of legend yet is it?
