Boxing

New champ learns his lessons

By JOHN C. COTEY
Published July 18, 2005

LAS VEGAS - Bernard Hopkins said he would teach Jermain Taylor a lesson Saturday night, and he did.

Taught him a few, in fact.

How well Taylor applies them will decide whether his reign as middleweight champ is a brief one.

Despite an impressive but somewhat belated effort, the old master Hopkins showed the young gun Taylor a few veteran's tricks, but not enough to prevent Taylor from snatching away his WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF middleweight title belts.

Taylor (24-0, 17 KOs) said he learned enough from the crafty Hopkins that the rematch won't be nearly as close.

In front of nearly 12,000 fans at the MGM Grand, it was Taylor who two judges scored a split-decision winner (115-113 from Duane Ford and Paul Smith), offsetting Jerry Roth's card, which had it 116-112 for Hopkins.

The Times scored it 115-113 for Taylor on the strength of his early rounds.

The scoring was greeted by thunderous cheering from the pro-Taylor crowd, but some in the media expressed shock as did many ringside observers.

Most startling was that Ford scored the 12th round for Taylor, in effect handing him the victory. Had he scored it for Hopkins, the fight would have been a draw.

"I feel like that 12th round was a bite-down moment and you just go in and give it all you got," Taylor said. "Then whatever happens, happens. I got the energy from somewhere. So yes, sir, I thought I did pull it out."

Few agreed, especially Hopkins.

"From the fifth or sixth round on, I dominated the fight. I had him hurt twice. The only thing I didn't do was knock him out," Hopkins said.

But Ford gave Taylor five of the first six rounds, and Smith gave Taylor all six, handing the 2000 U.S. Olympian a big early lead.

By the time Hopkins (46-3-2) started drilling Taylor with vicious right hands, almost putting him down on a few occasions, it was too late as his streak of title defenses ended at 20 in a row.

Hopkins said it was a bad decision and immediately invoked the rematch clause in the contract. Richard Schaeffer, the CEO for Golden Boy Promotions, said the rematch would be Oct. 1 and was a done deal.

By then, Taylor said he'd be ready to turn in a better performance. Though he controlled the fight early with his left jab and appeared to hurt Hopkins in the second round, he fell apart later as Hopkins scored with precision.

"I didn't win the fight like I wanted to win the fight," Taylor said. "I have never lost a round as a professional. Not a round. So that was killing me."

As a result, Taylor was far from jubilant at the postfight news conference. But he seemed excited about putting to use what he learned.

Taylor said he tried too hard to knock out Hopkins after hurting him in the second, didn't work the body enough, wasted energy chasing and was impatient.

He seemed to admire the way Hopkins felt him out early before delivering a solid beating the last three rounds.

"He never wanted to negotiate the fight until the later rounds," Taylor said. "He came on. In the later rounds, he started putting his punches together. He's a smart fighter. At the rematch, I got a plan for that."

[Last modified July 18, 2005, 01:38:10]