Watch Dog: Steve’s PPV Criteria: Taylor vs Hopkins II
By Steve Hudgins (December 3, 2005)  
Photo © PPV-HBO
THE PURPOSE: I don't think any one fight can be made in boxing today, that alone, is worth the price of a PPV. Unless of course, they can conjure up Dempsey vs Marciano or Joe Louis, but until that day comes, I want some quantity to go along with quality!

I say, if they want us to shell out 30, 40 sometimes 50 bucks per PPV, they should give us some bang for our buck! The card should be solid from top to bottom! Or at least it should be so top heavy with excellent fights that they can get away with a showcase fight to kick off the festivities, but these 2 or 3 showcase fights and 1 decent to mega main event PPV's are for the birds! (My apologies to any of the birds I may have offended with that statement.)

SO HERE'S MY SYSTEM:

I preview and rate every fight that is scheduled to be televised on a PPV Boxing Card, and try to determine whether that card is worth purchasing or not based on my point system below.

Please note that at the end of each preview, I will mention what weight class the bout is being fought at and where each fighter ranks within that weight class. This is done by using "The Ring" ratings.

HERE'S HOW STEVE'S PPV CRITERIA WORKS!

POINTS:

6 = MEGA MATCHUP
5 = Excellent Matchup
4 = Good Matchup
3 = Decent Matchup
2 = OK Matchup
1 = Bad Matchup

If a fight is scheduled to be televised on the card, it gets at least 1 point. This helps to reward quantity.

POINT SYSTEM:

14 or higher = GET IT!

13 = If you can find someone to split it with you or the price of the PPV is 24.99 or less, GET IT!

12 = If you can find someone to split it with you or the price of the PPV is 19.99 or less CONSIDER getting it.

11 = If you can find a place that is showing it, or get enough people over to split it with you, so that you are not paying more than 10 dollars for the card, CONSIDER getting it.

10 or under = Save your money and sleep well at night knowing you didn't get ripped off!

AND AWAY WE GO!

December 3rd - PPV PRICE: 49.95

BERNARD HOPKINS (46-3-1, 32 KO's) vs JERMAIN TAYLOR (24-0 17, KO's) II

The debate about who really won their first meeting was more exciting than the fight itself. Hopkins took forever and a day to finally get rolling and by that time Taylor had built up enough of a lead on the scorecards to make it a close fight. The frustrating thing was that there were several rounds in which either fighter could have taken decisively had they just decided to step it up a bit and take it, but both fighters chose not too. Hopefully this time around things will be different. Surely Hopkins knows he must get started earlier and Taylor knows he has to double his efforts from the first time around. The rematch definitely should be better than their first fight. 

*Jermain Taylor is the Middleweight Champion Of The World - Bernard Hopkins is rated # 1at Middleweight (160 lbs)*

SCORE = 4

OSCAR LARIOS (56-3-1 36 KO's) vs ISRAEL VAZQUEZ (38-3 27 KO's) III

Rubbermatches are fun aren't they? Larios and Vazquez have traded knockouts and this one is to set the record straight. Vazquez brutally KO'd Larios in 1 round the first time these two met, but this was very early on in Larios' career. The second time around a much more seasoned Larios took control via 12th round KO over Vazquez. Larios is a whirlwind punching machine. Vazquez can't match Larios' punch output, but is the harder puncher of the two. This is an excellent matchup, should be highly entertaining and is by far the best fight on this card.

*Oscar Larios is rated # 1 at Jr Featherweight (122 lbs) - Israel Vazquez is rated # 3 at Jr Featherweight (122 lbs)*

SCORE = 5

IKE QUARTEY (36-2-1m 30 KO's) vs CARLOS BOJORQUEZ (25-7-6 21m KO's)

This is an intriguing matchup. At first glance, this is the perfect fight for Quartey. An opponent who he should be able to handle without a lot of difficulty, who is durable enough to get Quartey some much needed rounds to rid himself of 5 years of ring rust. Upon further glance though, this may not be a cake walk for Quartey. As mentioned, Quartey is still rusty as showed heavily in his June bout vs Verno Phillips. In only his 2nd comeback fight in 5 years Quartey showed some brass stones by taking on a top 3 Jr Middleweight and better yet he won, albeit by the skin of his teeth after being rocked more than a few times. Quartey still has to be rusty and Bojorquez is a big heavy handed fighter, who can make this fight very interesting if he can manage to find Quartey's chin a time or two.

*Ike Quartey is rated # 5 at Jr Middleweight (154 lbs) - Carlos Bojorquez is not rated at Jr Middleweight*

This fight is being fought at a catchweight of 157 lbs.

SCORE = 3

FINAL SCORE = 12

SUMMARY: It was like trying to solve a Chinese riddle in trying to find out whether this PPV card was going to televise 4 fights or if they were going to play it cheap and only televise 3 fights. I phoned Golden Boy Promotions earlier this week to find out for sure how many fights would be shown on PPV and what did they say? They said they didn't know and that I should call MGM, which is bad enough, but the fight is taking place at Mandalay Bay for crying out loud! This is a true story! It's my opinion that if they want us to shell out 50 bucks to watch their fight card, we deserve to see at minimum 4 fights. I don't care if the 4th fight is a Byrd vs Williamson rematch, we deserve to see at least 4 fights! Ok, maybe not a Byrd-Williamson rematch, that may be going a bit far, but you get the idea.  To me forking over 50 bucks for 3 fights is kind of like ordering an expensive meal at a nice restaurant and never being served your baked potato! Hey, I don't care if you like baked potatoes or not, if you toss out the cash for an expensive meal you deserve your baked potato too! They are really playing it cheap by going the 3 fight PPV card route (did I mention that I think that sucks?) considering that there are 9 fights taking place on this card, but it's still a PPV worth considering especially if you can get enough folks over to split the expense with you three ways or more.
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