Boxing fans can all recall how big a name Jermain Taylor became in 2005 when he defeated Bernard Hopkins not once, but twice to claim his spot as undisputed middleweight champion of the world. It elevated his career to new heights.
Taylor's career hasn't been very rosy since. Despite fighting to a draw with Winky Wright(I thought he lost) in 2006 and then surviving with a win against Corey Spinks(I thought it was a draw) in 2007, he was still viewed as the 'man' because he beat B-Hop. He was a fighter that had done the improbable against Hopkins, but had glaring weaknesses which had been exposed by Wright and Spink. Taylor's critiques found those flaws and jumped on board the bandwagon, but he pressed on as champion.
Kelly Pavlik's 7th round knockout of Taylor was the beginning of the end. As we all recall Taylor had Pavlik hurt and down early, but punched himself out, paving the way for a brutal beat down by the 'Ghost'. It was a bad loss. I don't think Jermain ever recovered psychology from punching himself out and getting knocked out in the Pavlik bout. The rematch was pointless and the win over Jeff Lacy proved nothing more than he could beat a one handed fighter.
Point: Taylor moved up to super middleweight after Pavlik loss.
In April of this year Taylor took on Carl Froch for Froch's WBC super middleweight title. He was in it early, even scoring a knockdown over Froch in round 3, but he faded late. The end result was a nasty 12th round TKO stoppage. Taylor was battered around in that final round like a rag doll and was defenseless when the referee stopped the fight. Taylor couldn't find the third wind to carry him down the stretch and his suspect chin failed him. Yet another bad loss.
Let's fast forward to this past weekend and the opening round of the Super Six World Boxing Classic. Taylor, who's last bout was against Froch, enters his matchup with "King" Arthur Abraham without a tuneup fight. That wasn't a smart move by his camp. It's just makes sense to me that they would have put Jermain in there with somebody to build his confidence back, but that goes down in the book as a fail. The fight belonged to Abraham from the middle 5th on and Taylor once again was the victim of a very ugly knockout loss with just seconds remaining in the 12th round. Taylor spent a night or two in the hospital as the result of a straight right to the kisser. You grasp that this was a bad loss as well.
The fact that the losses have been crushing, KO defeats is what concerns me the most. Jermain Taylor was a good fighter, but he can't afford to be on the other end of knockouts very long. Moving up to super middleweight certainly hasn't been the answer he wanted in order to get his mojo back. I would hope that he considers shutting it down, before he is seriously injured.
Note: If a fighter withdraws from the Super Six, Allan Green is the alternate.
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