MightyGloves.com

Taylor Keeps Middleweight Titles

posted by mightygloves.com on June 18, 2006, in News

The fight seemed very close, even though compubox stats were heavily in Wright's favor. Wright connected more punches and jabs, but Taylor's strength made it appear that he was moving Wright around the ring. Wright fought a good technical fight, with good defense and a piercing jab. Taylor, who has an obvious lack of balance, used his strength and desire to stay in the fight.

Taylor suffered a head butt in the 8th round which caused his left eye to swell shut, making it impossible to see out of that eye and causing him to change some strategy.

The fight, which could have gone either way, came down to the final round. Wright, feeling he was far enough ahead to win the fight without the last round didn't show up. He danced and maneuvered around the ring just as Oscar De La Hoya did against Felix Trinidad. Maybe Wright should have taken a lesson from Oscar. Oscar believed, as did many fans and media, that he had won that fight against Trinidad, and he too, gave up the twelfth round, which cost him the fight. Wright might have won the fight had he decided to box in the last round. The judges scored the fight 115-113 for Taylor, 115-113 for Wright, 114-114 for a split decision draw.

Taylor gave Wright his props at the post fight press conference, stating that he knew the fight was extremely close, however, Wright did not attend, he did not do his interview with Larry Merchant in the ring, and claimed he was robbed. Merchant did catch up with him in the locker room, and Wright agreed to the interview, but, unfortunately he did not answer questions for most of the media. Gary Shaw did most of the talking for Wright and informed the media that Wright was outraged with the decision and did not want to fight Taylor again. He also made it clear that Memphis had not been good to Team Wright and that Gary Shaw Productions would never again be back in Memphis to put on an event.

The fan support was overwhelmingly for Taylor since his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas is a short two hour drive from Memphis, and even though the arena was only about half full, (9,678 out of 18,500 seats) the support in Taylor's favor seemed to upset Wright and his team, as they expressed that the crowd and venue may have influenced the decision.

Lou DiBella, Taylor's promoter, expressed to the media in the post fight press conference that the fight was close, and he did not feel that Wright was robbed. He also pointed out that Taylor had fought three very tough fights in the last twelve months, to two of the top pound for pound fighters, which is very stressful for such a short amount of time. He also was displeased with the lack of respect shown to Taylor.

Team Taylor has announced that his next fight will be in Little Rock, Arkansas before his hometown crowd, possibly in October or November.

Story by Kathleen Holland
Photography by Chris McGee

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