Taylor struggled to impose himself and had little impact with his offense, loading up on single shots that failed to trouble Hutchinson. He looked like he was mimicking Deontay Wilder’s fighting style.
The problem is, if you don’t have that equalizer power, you’re just a stationary target for a technician. Hutchinson’s footwork kept him two steps ahead, and Taylor’s lack of a backup plan made it look like a glorified sparring session by the middle rounds.
Hutchinson was essentially fighting a ghost because Taylor’s “bombs” were landing on nothing but air.
When a fighter relies entirely on power but lacks the setup or the actual power to back it up, they become a punching bag for a technician like Hutchinson. Those 98-92 and 99-91 scores reflect a guy who was just collecting data and potting shots at will. Hutchinson’s lateral movement and head slots made Taylor look like he was underwater, swinging for the fences while Hutchinson was already resetting for the next combo.
It was a masterclass in making an opponent look amateurish by simply not being where the punches were supposed to land.
Willy needed a dominant bounce-back, and he picked the perfect opponent to showcase his boxing IQ without taking much return fire.
Hutchinson’s win tonight helped wash away the bitter taste of that Joshua Buatsi loss. While he was out-boxing Taylor, you could see he was also fighting the pressure of his own rankings. Coming in at #6 with the WBC and #10 with the IBF, he couldn’t afford a slip-up, especially against someone like Taylor, who only got the fight because of a ringside scuffle.
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