Jermaine Taylor vs Cory Spinks

[Doc_Piptorious]

Ok this is a bit early but between a weekend trip to see this fight and then off to Athens on Tuesday, I will not get to post this on Saturday.



We have two current World Champions meeting in the ring in this one.


Both high calibre fighters.

So who is picking who to win?

Taylor to tonk Cory?

Or maybe the famous Spinks jinx to resurface.


I think I am more excited at the prospect of this fight than I was two weeks ago over Mayweather/De La Hoya.

Mayweater may be the best pound for pounder out there at the moment, but Taylor comes a close second in my opinion.



I am firmly in the corner of a Taylor win, and a win by stoppage for the man from Little Rock. Im my opinion, he is too big, too strong, can match Spinks for speed, and we all know that Taylor can handle a technical fighter as well as boxers and durable men.

Should be a corker of a fight though as Cory Spinks is no mug

I also think that if Warren grows a set of balls, that Taylor will take Calzaghe's unbeaten record off of him in Wales. Warren may be talking big in the press, but he knows that by spouting off on live tv about Calzaghe wanting Taylor that he may have opened a can of worms that he may not be able to bluff away without embarrassing his fighter's reputation even more by lining up another nomark for him to fight instead.

[Big Dave]

Calzaghe closer to Taylor fight

Calzaghe's camp still have to up their offer to secure Jermain Taylor
Joe Calzaghe's chance of a lucrative super-fight with American star Jermain Taylor is moving closer to reality.
Frank Warren, WBO super middleweight holder Calzaghe's promoter, had offered Taylor $4m, while the middleweight star's camp said they wanted $10m.

But Taylor's promoter Lou DiBella told BBC Radio Wales' Back Page programme they were now prepared to take $6m.

"A $4m offer was ridiculous and frankly Frank asked for more money guaranteed on Joe's side," DiBella said.

Although there is still a significant gap between the two camps' valuations, a deal could even be thrashed out next weekend providing Taylor beats Cory Spinks.

Calzaghe will be ringside at the Fed-Ex Forum in Memphis on 19 May to watch the 28-year-old from Little Rock defend his WBC and WBO titles.

Our preference is to fight Calzaghe, we've indicated we're even willing to go to Cardiff or London to make the fight happen

Jermain Taylor's promoter Lou DiBella

Taylor won his titles from middleweight legend Bernard Hopkins and earned $6m from his draw against Ronald "Winky" Wright last June.

That has set the money standard that Calzaghe's US backers, cable television network HBO, must match if the 35-year-old Welshman is to entice Taylor up to super middleweight.

"If HBO pays the same money they paid for the Winky Wright fight, I will take US television (revenue) and let Frank keep the gate, the sponsorship, and the British and other international TV," DiBella said.

"But HBO needs to pay that $6m, that's what we're looking at.

"Right now Frank says there's no money in the pot from all those other revenue sources and I'm saying that I'm certainly not cutting in on the US revenue if that's the case.

"You're moving a fighter up in weight against the very best man at that weight and you're going into the lion's den to do it.

"It's difficult but Jermain's beaten Hopkins twice, drew with Winky Wright and defended his title five times, four at middleweight.

"It would be tough in Joe's backyard but we're not (previous Calzaghe victims) Peter Manfredo Jr or Jeff Lacy.


Jermain Taylor must first defend his titles against Cory Spinks

"Joe's a great, great fighter, but he's never left his home turf and he's never beaten a great, great fighter."

Calzaghe believed that his last defence, a three-round destruction of Manfredo in front of 35,000 spectators at the Millennium Stadium, could well have been his last in Britain.

But DiBella said that Taylor is prepared to come to the UK for the fight, paving the way for another huge night in Cardiff.

Manfredo was most famous for being the runner-up in the first US series of boxing reality TV show 'The Contender', but was given no realistic chance of causing an upset on Calzaghe's 20th defence.

But a match-up with a genuine contender such as Taylor could see ticket sales rocket.

"I don't want to look past the Spinks fight, but obviously Joe Calzaghe looms on the horizon as a possible opponent if I can get Frank Warren to make a fair deal with me," DiBella added.

"HBO does not believe that Jermain Taylor and Joe Calzaghe is as big a fight as Jermain Taylor and Winky Wright was, so we're not able to get the same licence fee from HBO.

"Based on the numbers we have right now we can't make a fight, we're about $1m apart.

"Our preference is to fight Calzaghe, we've indicated we're even willing to go to Cardiff or London to make the fight happen, but we're not willing to take on unfair economic terms."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/6649563.stm

[Big Dave]

Got to be Taylor for me..........think his size will be just too much.

And I don't think for a minute that Calzaghe will get his chance unfortunateley. I'm sure I read somewhere that Warren was trying to wheel Sven Ottke out of retirment FFS :whatever:

[Doc_Piptorious]

Got to be Taylor for me..........think his size will be just too much.

And I don't think for a minute that Calzaghe will get his chance unfortunateley. I'm sure I read somewhere that Warren was trying to wheel Sven Ottke out of retirment FFS :whatever:

Yeah that fight has reached the discussion table between both sets of managers. We were chatting about it on here last week.

Typical Calzaghe fight though, as Warren doesn't want to risk his golden egg.


Taylor would beat Calzaghe on points in Wales, imho, and stop him if it were to take place in the States.

[Fiddy]

I don't care who would win out of Calzaghe/Taylor, I just want to see them get it on

[kurtangle01]

No contest. Taylor wins this one.

[Doc_Piptorious]

No contest. Taylor wins this one.

Barring something totally unexpected I cannot see any other result.



Hope he gets to touch gloves with Calzaghe too, I quite like the fact he has been very vocal to the written press, the tv companies etc about meeting Calzaghe. Taylor has alway had a no bull**** approach to the media, and tends no to make call outs to other fighters unless he wants to meet them.

[Kaip]

how did that one judge have spinks so far in front

[Fiddy]

****e. Let Calzaghe have a crack at him, at least then it would be some kind of fight

[Howard_lfc]

Taylor has no heart.
At the end of 11th round - he wasn't even out of breath. He was going through the motions. It wasn't self belief - he just doesn't have a fighters heart. I hate to say this coz I can't stand Chicken Joe anymore - but he'd wipe the floor with both of these fella's.

****e fight but I had Spinks ahead by 1 round.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Taylor has no heart.
At the end of 11th round - he wasn't even out of breath. He was going through the motions. It wasn't self belief - he just doesn't have a fighters heart. I hate to say this coz I can't stand Chicken Joe anymore - but he'd wipe the floor with both of these fella's.

****e fight but I had Spinks ahead by 1 round.

Have to disagree with you Howard. Taylor has mixed it up plenty of times in his career and has not been found wanting. He soaked up pressure against Hopkins, and rallied and came back.


It was a very dull fight, but Spinks came to survive and not to fight, and if a fighter doesn't come to fight, he is difficult to fight against.


As for not being out of breath, Mayweather was the same towards the end of the fight against De La Hoya, both he and Taylor are very well conditioned and are the type of fighter that would thrive under the old 15 rounds system.


Calzaghe wipe the floor with Taylor? Don't think so, Calzaghe would need to bring his A game and Taylor would need to perform like he did on Saturday night for Calzaghe to get a win imho.


If Calzaghe can avoid trying to fight old Sven Ottke and concentrates on making a match with Taylor for around September, then I reckon you would see a very different Taylor climbing into the ring.





The Miranda vs Pavlik fight on the undercard was a good one though. A real humdinger with both fighters trading almost at will. A bit of an upset with Pavlik winning that one. It was an eliminator to see who gets the next crack at Taylor.