Could we be talking about Jermain Taylor as a 'great fighter' if

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He had stayed with Pat Burns?
Interesting article on his comeback states...
urns had guided Taylor to a 25-0 record, the undisputed title and both wins against Hopkins before he was fired and replaced by Emanuel Steward, who had a disappointing four-fight run with Taylor -- a draw with Winky Wright and decisions against Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks before the first loss to Pavlik.

Burns was on the verge of re-joining Taylor's corner in late 2007, but ultimately longtime assistant Ozell Nelson, Taylor's father figure, took the reigns instead

Just asking? We know he has always had stamina issues but it seems very sudden (again this is normal however) that he just didnt quite have it. Just wondering if he had stayed with Burns (his new trainer for his comeback btw) would he have faired better!?

This quite possibly could be the case. Not sure I'll go 100% on it though. It looked to me like Taylor got comfortable. Not necessarily that his skills faded, he just got comfortable with how much money he has. Combine that with the fact that he was being worshipped like a god in Arkansas, and he felt he didn't need to try as hard anymore. Before he knew it, he hadn't been trying as hard for too long and everyone either caught up with or passed him. I wish that fire had kept burning.

Yeah i really liked him as a fighter, I know alot of people thought ever since the Ouma fight he didnt look really really impressive, Perhaps being beaten by Pavlik affected him more as well, I guess only the man himself knows the true reason, trainer, age or a bad knockout... or solmething else lol

I think Jermaine’s career would not have been that much different staying with Burns. He hard two hard fights with Hopkins, nearly being stopped in the last round in their first fight. Taylor the fought a hard fight against Winky and deserved an easier fight against Ouma, where he fought down to Kassim’s level of a blown up middleweight. Making weight also probably shortened his career and by the time he was fighting super middle he lacked the conditioning and resistance to stay with the elite fighters.