Boxing Preview: Carl Froch vs Jermaine Taylor

When Joe Calzaghe left the super middleweight division in April 2008 to face Bernard Hopkins for the light heavyweight title, most thought it was going to be a temporary move.

Until that point, Calzaghe held the super middleweight division under siege, making it undeniable as to just who the man in charge was.

After Calzaghe defeated Hopkins and opted to stay the light heavyweight champion, the 168 lb division was suddenly left wide open.

While the consensus was that Mikkel Kessler, widely considered the division’s second best, would immediately become “Heir to the Throne”, the Dane has been slow moving in claiming the crown.

Since Mikkel has done nothing to immediately define himself as the division’s new champion, a round-robin of possible bouts have evolved in an attempt to determine who is worthy of stepping in where Calzaghe left off.

One of those possible bouts came to surface when former middleweight champion Jermaine “Bad Intentions” Taylor , 28-2 (17), signed to fight current WBC Super Middleweight titlist, Carl “The Cobra” Froch, 24-0 (19).

Froch, who became champion in December, 2008 by defeating Jean Pascal, has fought all but one of his bouts in the United Kingdom and is looking to make himself an internationally known superstar.

But before he can make that happen, Froch will need to add a few more big names onto his list of fallen opponents.

On April 25, Froch can start that process when he makes the first defense of his newly won championship against Taylor, and if successful, the Nottingham resident will be one step closer in making his name the only one that matters in the division formerly run by King Calzaghe.

On the other side of the ring that evening, former undisputed middleweight champion Taylor has set an agenda of his own.

Since losing his championship to Kelly Pavlik in September, 2007, Taylor has admitted to doing some soul searching and has learned that he does not like the “empty feeling” left around his waist since losing his belts.

After a somewhat lackluster performance against former IBF Super Middleweight titlist, Jeff “Left Hook” Lacey, in his last outing, Taylor says now feels comfortable in his new weight class and promises that against Froch, we are going to see the old Jermaine Taylor, who set boxing on fire when he ended the 11 year title reign of pound-for-pound great and future Hall of Famer, Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins in 2005.

Carl Froch vs. Jermaine Taylor is going to answer any, if not all, questions that may be lingering on exactly where either of these two fighters currently belong, not only in the super middleweight division, but among boxing’s elite.

WBC Champion Froch has fought only one bout outside his homeland and is literally untested in international waters. Although his undefeated resume is impressive, much of it is against limited competition and with the exclusion of his title win over Jean Pascal, all but three of his opponents are virtual unknowns.

Taylor, once among boxing’s pound-for-pound elite, has fallen from grace over these last few years. That fall had begun even before his title losses to Kelly Pavlik in 2007. After winning the titles from Hopkins in 2005, Taylor seemed to almost instantly to lose his “hunger and desire” that had brought him to the top.

Those signs started to become apparent in his first two title defenses when Taylor showed little or almost no desire to even attempt to showcase his skills against two soft-hitting light middleweights, Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks.

Will Jermaine Taylor fulfill his promise when he steps into the ring on April 25 and remind the boxing world why “Bad Intentions” was the fighter to fear from 160-175 lb., or will Froch take the next step towards the international superstar status he so craves?

All answers to those questions and any others will have to wait until fight night. Personally, I can’t wait to see what they are.