Hopkins inspires Taylor
by Chris Givens, Arkansas Democrat Gazette
Jermain Taylor, by his own admission, does not watch a lot of
boxing on television.
But there was no chance Taylor would miss the Bernard Hopkins-Kelly Pavlik fight Oct. 18.
Taylor, 30, is the only person to fight both fighters, and both figure prominently in Taylor’s boxing career.
Taylor beat Hopkins twice to win and retain his middleweight championship belts in 2005, and then lost to Pavlik twice to lose those same titles.
So how did Taylor feel about Hopkins thoroughly beating Pavlik on Oct. 18?
“I don’t really know how I feel about that,” Taylor said from Miami. “I mean, of course I watched that fight. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I figured Hopkins would win the fight, but I didn’t think by that much. He made Kelly look like a kid. I felt bad for Kelly, he’s just a champion on paper. Hopkins, I’m proud of him. He’s that old and still taking care of business. Hopkins is a beast. It takes a special kind of person to beat Hopkins.”
Taylor also said Hopkins’ victory has given him the proper motivation to begin what Taylor is calling the “second phase” of his career.
There was a time when Taylor was considering retiring. Not anymore.
“I can do this for a long time,” Taylor said. “Look at Hopkins. He’s proving you still can do it as long as you want to. It means a lot to me to see these guys on top beating these young guys. It shows me you can get out of this business at any time. I’m very motivated by him.”
Mad about Miami
Taylor returned to Miami for training camp for the first time since he defended his undisputed middleweight championship Dec. 2, 2005, with a second consecutive victory over Hopkins.
He said it was the perfect place to revive his career.
“I do have good memories from Miami,” Taylor said. “It’s good to come back to this. A lot of things have been changing in boxing for me. I think I’m getting my love back, just for boxing. I’m getting the love back for the
game. I think I lost that.”
Taylor is training in a new gym, but everything else, notably the weather, is as the former champion remembers.
Taylor’s trainer, Ozell Nelson, is just as pleased with camp thus far.
“At first I was very leery of coming here, but when I got down here, the gym is so hot, it’s like we were made for it,” Nelson said. “I’m actually kind of nervous. Things are so good, I’m waiting for something bad to happen.
Punching partners
Camp started with an emphasis on conditioning, but that is beginning to change.
“We have some great sparring partners here, and Jermain is really getting some good work,” Nelson said. “We’re still getting our running in, getting our legs right, but it’s time to start hitting people, too.”
Taylor is sparring 10 rounds a day, and will move into 12-round sessions this week.
One change from previous camps is that Taylor is interacting a lot more with his sparring partners, talking and joking with them, and taking advice from them. It’s all hands on deck for this fight.
“It feels real good to get in there with these guys,” Taylor said. “I don’t have to be mad at them to do my thing. I’m still learning from them.”
Strategy session
Nelson and Taylor have been watching plenty of videotape from Taylor’s two losses to Pavlik, the only two losses of his career.
Taylor’s vulnerability to Pavlik’s right hand struck them as an area that must be addressed. “You’ve got to work on defense,” Nelson said. “You don’t want your offense to be your defense. We’re going to
dodge that right hand, stay behind him. Lacy’s nickname is ‘Left hook,’ but he has a sneaky right hand. We’re going to stay away from that.”
Much of the sparring and shadow-boxing work in camp has been focused on getting Taylor to use his left hand more, and Nelson and Taylor both expect that it will be Taylor who brings the fight to Lacy.
“I want him to dictate the pace, be more aggressive, with his left hand, hooking off the left and jabbing,” Nelson said. “We don’t want to let Lacy plant his feet and get comfortable. We don’t need to knock Jeff Lacy out. I want him to box Jeff, move and pivot and frustrate him. Relax in there, but dictate the fight.”
Rested and ready
Taylor will be stepping into the ring on Nov. 15 after a nearly nine months away from boxing.
Nelson said he was nervous how Taylor’s transition back to competitive boxing would be after the longest layoff of his career, but so far, in training camp there have been no signs of rust.
“His mental attitude has been great, like he found himself again,” Nelson said.
Taylor said he was ready to get back in the ring before camp even started. Now that he’s in the middle of camp, it’s like he never left the ring.
“I got away from it for a while, and I needed it,” Taylor said. “Now it’s just me and boxing again.
“This is the second phase of my career, and I think it’s going to be better than the first one.”
