Can Spinks jinx Taylor’s title toting ways, or will size dictate the decision?
 By Benny Henderson Jr (May 17, 2007) Doghouse Boxing
Coming up this Saturday night May 12th live on HBO Boxing 10:15PM ET/7:15PM PT an intriguing middleweight championship showdown will take place as the undefeated WBC & WBO middleweight title toting Jermain Taylor, 26-0-1 (17), puts his straps on the line against the battle tested Cory Spinks, 36-3 (11), in a scheduled twelve round 160-pound clash. Although the Arkansas native has never tasted defeat, a little St. Louis southpaw has plans on serving up a helping.
The past six years Jermain Taylor has been on a flawless journey from hot prospect to championship status, defeating all
in his pathway. The twenty-eight year old pugilist has a hit list of high-level opposition – Raul Marquez, William Joppy, and Bernard Hopkins twice have fallen victim to the Little Rock native – but with every beginning there is an end, and the question is, can Spinks be the one to call a halt to Taylor’s winning ways?
Cory Spinks, best known for his namesake of his father Leon and uncle Michael Spinks, has had success in his journey as well. In his ten years as a professional Cory has compiled up an impressive resume that includes wins over Ricardo Mayorga, Zab Judah and most recently Rodney Jones. A former welterweight titleholder and now the current IBF junior middleweight champion, Spinks has proven to be a battle tested boxer who has the goods to deliver, but the bump up in weight has Spinks coming in as the smaller fighter. What does favor Spinks is that he is a solid tactician, and very skill full with his talents. Although he is giving up size advantage he is not to be over looked – just ask the 6’1” Rodney Jones. If there is an upset brewing is there a possibility Spinks could be the one providing the upset?
Although Taylor has an unblemished record, his last few outings have not exactly been thrillers. With close calls against Bernard Hopkins and Winky Wright, fighters are aware that there is a kink Taylor’s armor, but just ask the little guys, such as Marquez, Bunema and most recently Kassim Ouma, and they will tell you that capitalizing on any Taylor mishap is not an easy task.
Spinks comes in with speed, and a lot of it, but no pop to his punches will be a big disadvantage as he tries to fend off the bigger, stronger Taylor. Cory has not stopped an opponent since 2001, and with the beard Taylor has there would seem to be no worries of a knockout for the champion, but stranger things have happened.
Funny thing, Taylor has not seen a KO victory in two years, could this be an end to the dry spell?
The Breakdown
I do not like to count anybody out of a fight, but unless some strange occurrence takes place at the FedEx Forum this Saturday night, I say chalk up another check in the win column for Jermain Taylor. Spinks should make it a good go around for a few rounds, but for some reason I cannot get another Ouma-like ending out of my mind. Although they say the bigger they are the harder they fall, I say the bigger they are the harder to make them fall, especially when you have eleven knockouts in almost forty fights and you are facing top of the crop. Jermain is just to big for Cory, he should be able to bully around the much smaller Spinks and have a successful fifth title defense. So unless things head south for Taylor I see no jinx in Spinks and in this go around size really does matter.
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