The Rise and Fall of Jermain Taylor

What ruined Taylor was turning him into a defensive boxer.

 

War Taylor! :happy

I'd love to see him hit the thirty win mark before hanging them up for good. No more big punchers though!

 

jermain is one of my favorite fighters...he was in no way ruined by carl froch..he was ruined by kelly pavlik...he never looked on top of his game again...even in the froch fight while he was winning he still didn't look like the same jermain from 2004-2005

jt should retire and stay retired....had a nice run at winning the mw title and took a chance at the smw title and couldn't get it done...

 

boo, the one nitpick is that Taylor's really good run began right before Marquez with a win over a prime Bunema before Bunema had put himself on the map collecting scalps like Phillips, Karmazin, and Matthyse.

 

He made a very mature decision in dropping out of the tournament. Whether or not he ever comes back, I give him credit for putting his future, his family, and his health before picking up another paycheck.

He made his mark in the game, and gave us the fans some thrilling fights. The question I'll always have concerning JT is where exactly his limitations lay. He had the body and the talent to become a much greater fighter than he ever did. From Hopkins, to Wright, to Abraham, I never felt that he progressed much in terms of either style or technique, and this proved especially costly as he moved up in weight.

 

Record of jermain's OPPONENTS WHICH HE LOST
117-0

 

As you can see I rarely post on this site. I like to read everyone else's views even though I hate the back and forth fighting between posters over boxer's. We have our favorite fighters and back them but we are not them.

Now I saw this post and started to think what was the fall of Taylor. Some say it was Pavlik? Some say it was Froch? but really I believe it was right after he won the title that he started his decent. I mean when your at the top you can only go down. After Taylor beat Hopkins for the 2nd time I think that took alot out of him. He goes on to fight Winky Wright to a draw a LMW who beat Trinidad a fighter who was broken by Hopkins coming off a 4 year layoff not counting his one fight with Mayorga . Then Taylor fights Ouma, a guy with a name but a LMW that Taylor would beat 9 times out of 10. Then fights another LMW in Spinks, I remember watching that fight vividly because I am a Pavlik fan and he just dominated Miranda. After I saw Taylor struggle against Spinks, I knew that Pavlik would beat Taylor. It just looked like Taylor was like alot of guys who get to the top. Once your there you do not train like you use to, you mind set goes from being the aggressor to being a little more defensive because you know the Judges will usually score the champs way if it's a close fight. I believed both those occurances happened to Taylor. In the first Pavlik fight, I think he was even stunned that he had Kelly on the ropes and pretty much gassed himself in the 2nd round. The score cards leading up to the 7th round were a joke, there was no way Kelly was down 2 to 3 rounds. Hence that lead to my 2nd point about becoming a champion and the judges usually siding with you. However, you could tell after the 2nd round that Taylor was getting more tired after every round and lost to a hungier guy. Hungry like Taylor was going into the Hopkins fights.

Now the next Pavlik/Taylor fight went to the cards but was far from exciting and Taylor hung in there and as we all know the rest is history. I like Taylor he is a great boxer however my take is that he was on the down hill turn right after his 2nd fight with Hopkins. He reached the mountain top, beat a HOF'er twice and after that really has not been the same. I think someone posted that turning him into a defensive fighter was his downfall. I believe some of that to be true. It's like in football, you will go offensive and score to take the lead and then your defense goes into Prevent and you lose.

As I said I am a Pavlik fan and look at what he has done since he reached the top. Lockett, Rubio and Espino as wins and a bad loss to Hopkins.

It seems like a lot of fighters wear out on their journey to the top and when they reach the mountain top they tend to relax a bit, get a few paychecks and fight off their name.

So to me, Taylor like a lot of fighters their downfall was becoming the Champ.

 

the fighting pride of little rock was/is a class act in and out of the ring. he showed respect to all his opponents even if he lost. i remember after the draw to winky when winky just left the ring w/o saying anything jermain gave him props and didnt gloat or anything. all he did was give winky props and say you gotta take it from me if you want it.

if all champions fought the caliber of competition jermain did, then they would be regarded as "overrated" as jermain is on this board somtimes.

jermain "bad intentions" taylor was/is good for boxing and we were all privileged to see him while we could.

good on ya champ

 

Great post, the sad part is taylor never got the respect he was due, he was alwyas critisized about somethin.My only beef with taylor was that he didnt follow the sport as her should have, he has absolutely no knowledge about the history of it nor who the current most respected fighters are. I hope hes made enough though to live a happy lifestyle.

 

:deal and you know damn well that's what that arkansas boy is gonna be doin'.

 

I have to agree because Taylor look good against B Hop and after hiring Emmanuel Steward he never looked the same. Emmanuel might be a ******* but he is a good trainer just not a good trainer for Taylor. But to some all this up Taylor has nothing to be a shame about since he fought anyone that his promoter wanted him to fight and also being undisputed middleweight champion. I'm glad he decide to take some time off and just think about his situation and also his health.

 

well, when he dumped steward and stuck w/ ozell, he looked 10 fold in the second pav fight what he did in the first. but you are right my man :good he damn sure fought anyone no questions asked

 

Much appreciation for Jermain, classy guy, courageous fighter...just think if Manny and Floyd had his character, how awesome boxing would be.

As far as his downfall is concerned, I think it had a lot to do with the hype and the fact that his athletic talents covered up his weaknesses for a long time. The idea that nutrition might be a worthwhile thing to look at seemed totally new to him when he prepared for Abraham. His ring intelligence was never well developed and maybe this is something that has to be instilled in a young fighter. Similar to RJJ who never learned good fundamentels, because with his freakish natural ability he didn't need them in his prime. Taylor was athletic enough to keep winning so that his weaknesses were not sufficiently addressed. After the loss to Pavlik, people kept hoping Jermain could still win big fights with his talents, but those began to fade a little and his confidence never fully recovered from this first loss. Maybe if he hadn't been hyped so much by HBO, if Steward hadn't underestimated Pavlik so much and trainers in Jermain's career in general would have looked at his weaknesses more, it could have been a different ending to his career.