Boxing Profile: Jermain Taylor – Still Awaiting Greatness

He is the undisputed middleweight champion of the world. And it is that word, “undisputed”, that grabs you when one speaks of Jermain Taylor, 26-0-1 (17), and his accomplishments, because in today’s world of alphabet titles and paper champions, it is rare to find a consensus top dog in any weight class.

He won the Bronze Medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and from his first jab thrown during a professional fight, the expectations of his career have been huge.

He was instantly signed to a big endorsement deal with Everlast and was being billed on HBO cards before his fifteenth professional bout.

And it might not be an understatement to say that Taylor carried the hopes of many young American boxing fans. The potential that he has exhibited in the ring is boundless.

He left the ring as the world champion on July 16, 2005 at the ripe age of 26, just a month shy of his twenty seventh birthday, after defeating the legend and pound for pound king at the time, Bernard Hopkins.

Taylor successfully defended his title against Hopkins five months later and was primed to take over the world. But, judging from his resume over the last two years, you would think that Taylor was the junior middleweight champ.

In his previous two fights, Taylor faced legitimate contenders Winky Wright and Kassim Ouma, but both were natural junior middleweights and much smaller than Jermain.

It is natural in this sport for a fighter to move weight classes, it happens all of the time and, aside from the heavyweights or maybe Hopkins and Joe Calzaghe, it is rare that a fighter stays at one weight class for more than ten years. But with Taylor, it looks like he is moving down in weight progressively, at least with regards to the size of his opponents.

His next fight was supposed to be another tune up with Contender Season One winner Sergio Mora, who was a legitimate middleweight at least, but after a year of negotiations, that fight fell through.

So instead of fighting the Pavliks or the Mirandas of the world, both of whom were ready and willing to take this fight, Team Taylor decided instead to face former welterweight champ Corey Spinks, 36-3 (11). The fight is set to take place at the FEDEX Forum in Memphis, Tennessee tomorrow night and is being broadcast by HBO.

Spinks is a good fighter, no one is taking that away from him, but Taylor is now facing another feather fisted opponent, who he will probably outweigh by over fifteen pounds on fight night.

Most in the boxing community were praising Taylor after his two fights with Hopkins and immediate jump into a big fight with Winky Wright, and I was one of them. But is it better for Taylor to waste his time on these little guys with big names or fight an overmatched middleweight who seemingly has no chance?

I think that the difference here is that the money that these little guys will bring in not only helps his wallet but also the wallets of HBO and his sponsors. HBO often turns down fights when a fighter has a date set, if they feel that they can’t sell the bout. You only have to look as far as Chris Byrd for this.

But if it makes money, it makes sense and, for Taylor right now, staying busy against welterweights and junior middleweights keeps his exposure high and his risk factor low. Between Ouma and Spinks, they have had a total of 67 professional fights and only 23 knockouts. That’s only a 34% KO ratio, and for any weight class that is low.

So we come back to that word, “U]undisputed.” I will not argue here; Taylor is undisputed. But I will say this: his level of competition since winning the title is disputed.

Some people think that every champ deserves a few easy fights now and then. But Taylor was not supposed to be your average champion. He was supposed to be one of the great ones. That is what we were told and that is what we started to believe early on in his career.

But the one word that I think of when I hear Jermain “Bad Intentions” Taylor’s name today is “potential.” He is still the guy with so much “potential” and for the undisputed king of middleweight boxing, the world should be focusing on the now, not the future.