This is why I hate boxing. Of course, I love boxing, but this is why I hate it. Saturday night, family out of town, I get to watch the HBO replay of Hopkins vs. Taylor without knowing anything about who had won the fight. Having gotten burned by HBO replays in the past, I know that they tell you who won before the replay starts, but then move into a complete repeat of the live coverage, so I tivo-forwarded through the pre-fight spoilers and settled in to watch twelve rounds of youth vs. experience, power vs. possibly the most fit person in all sport, polite and gracious vs. sullen and bitchy.
Despite what that nitwit Larry Merchant says, this was a great fight because it was a great boxing match. Hopkins lures Taylor into his ploy to wear out in the early rounds, and then hopkins attacks with precision in the late rounds. You get to see the judges scores after the round in the hbo replay, and if all three judges end up voting the 12th round for hopkins, then the fight is a draw. Hopkins clearly dominates the 12th. He hurts taylor, he throws more punches, he lands more punches, he lands a higher percentage of punches, so we're about to have a draw....reasonable result. Instead, one of the judges, who has up until now been more or less accurately reflecting what everybody else is watching, decides taylor won the 12th round. Not even taylor or taylor's corner believe he won the 12th round, but this judge locks it in for him, and taylor is declared the winner of the fight. I don't know what you have to do in order to get to be a boxing judge, but apparently "be a good judge of boxing" is no longer a priority.
The only person commenting on the fight that sounded like he knew what he was talking about was Roy Jones Jr. HBO needs to replace Larry Merchant with ESPN's outstanding Teddy Atlas. Come to think of it, HBO should just contact me and I will put their boxing house in order, because now that I think of it, there are a whole bunch of things I don't like about their coverage.
Posted by Dick at July 26, 2005 01:49 PM | TrackBack