On the bright side of things for Mr. Truax, he came through perfectly when given the opportunity on a fairly-sized stage, live at the Convention Center, in Minneapolis, Minnesota on ESPN's Friday Night Fights. I was impressed by his performance. A good word to sum it up would be "mature". It was the job of a savvy pro in there. He was better than George at everything I could see last week, June 21, 2013. George was flat-footed and dull, while Truax was bouncing around, using angles, rolling with and slipping punches, countering, leading, aggressive when he needed to be, restrained when it was called for, never risking burning himself out, but still scoring steadily with both hands to the head and body, and even able to get in and out of clinches seemingly at will.
There was talk about George perhaps taking off too much weight. I wouldn't be surprised if he did, as he seemed to lack a next gear that he desperately needed. Truax out-boxed George, but he also outfought him. George, a typical "tough guy", relying on a good chin, a good punch and willpower, was being controlled the majority of the fight, all leading up to a devastating stoppage while being dissected on the ropes, finally clocked on the ear by a big right in the sixth of ten. Truax personified patient aggression all night and showed that he was a super middleweight name to be taken seriously. Not long ago he was being treated as a gimme for a faded Jermain Taylor, a confidence builder with a nice record, until Truax reminded Taylor he was serious. Very serious, though ultimately losing.
On the dark side of things for Mr. Truax is that there are people at about the next three levels of boxing in his division that are serious too. Very serious. An elite among elite champions, Andre Ward, sits at the top-THE champion of the division. He's putting on instant classic clinics on class men. At the next tier sits Mikkel Kessler and Carl Froch, putting on instant classic wars your average fighter would have neither the talent nor the toughness to withstand. Even yet another tier stands proud and strong after that with Robert Stieglitz, Sakio Bika, Arthur Abraham, Marco Antonio Periban and more. And they're all in line ahead of tough fellows like Don George. Now, Caleb Truex looked a class above George on the night and he really earned some distinction, on the bright side, but the cloud surrounded by that silver lining is he's only earned the right to try and surpass a handful of hard, hard men that don't want to share the little spotlight they have in a division full of genuine star fighters fighting over most of the spotlight already. Regardless, congratulations to Mr. Truax on an excellent performance over a good opponent on a good TV date. He earned some applause. He may not be able to earn a major title with all the talent ahead, but that man is serious. Don't doubt it.
Work that bag,
Basement Gym Boxing
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