The Rise and Fall of Jermain Taylor

Jermain "Bad Intentions" Taylor started boxing at age 12. He put together a phenomonal amatuer career that climaxed with a Bronze Medal in the 2000 Olympic Games.

Jermain turned pro under the DiBella banner, and made his debut with a 4th round TKO over 17-4-1 Chris Walsh on January 27th, 2001. Like most young pros, JT fought his next several fights against the typical cast of journeyman, club fighters, and no-hopers.

Jermain's first real step up in class came with the respectable former world titlist Raul Marquez on June 19th, 2004. Taylor stopped Marquez in the 9th round. Next came a still quite good William Joppy. JT boxed Joppy's ears off. Three months later Jermain took Edouard's zero by stopping him in 3 rounds.

Little did we know that Jermain "Bad Intentions" Taylor would fight his next 10 fights against current, or recent, world champions, world titlists, and future hall of fame members.

Bernard Hopkins X 2, all time great and undisputed middleweight champion and titlist at 175.

Winky Wright, future hall of famer, and multi time world titlist.

Kassim Ouma; recent world titlist

Cory Spinks, former undisputed welterweight champ, two time world titlist at 154

Kelly Pavlik X 2, current world champ at 160

Jeff Lacy, former titlist at 168

Carl Froch, current titlist at 168

Arthur Abraham, recent world titlist at 160

I'll have more to say later on this thread. For the time being I'll say two things.

Nice ride cowboy!

And, if you do not have massive respect for Jermain Taylor someone should poke your ****ing eyes out because you do not deserve to watch another boxing match, not ever.

 

I'll probably take some heat for this, but I lay responsibility for the first loss to Pavlik squarely at Emmanuel Steward's feet. Even Jack Leow said he felt JT gave the fight away, but JT tried to do what Steward ask him to.

You do not go to war with Pavlik, nor should you engage in a jabbing contest. Steward had Taylor doing both.

 

It's my opinion that Steward believed all of his own pre-fight hype. I do not beleive for one second that he spent a lot of time on studying Pavlik. The comment you referenced was very telling. Another bad one was "keep workin' that golden left arm." In other words, "Jermain, I want you to go out and get into a jabbing contest with a guy who has a jack hammer for a left hand." Dumb idea.

I also beleive that the constant changes in chief second were a big part of Jermain's down fall. If he had stuck with Burns, his career may have been very different. Nelson instigated the split with Burns. Ozell Nelson is JT's worst enemy, but JT was never smart enough to see that.

 

Exactly! There were a number of rounds that were hard to score, but Kelly took it to JT down the stretch, and that's what made the difference.