Jermaine Taylor: Tribute to a Class Act

[Nobuhiro Sugoi]

Taylor, who began boxing at age 13, earned numerous accolades throughout his amateur career, starting with his achievement of the 1996 Under-19 Championship. He went on to win a pair of Police Athletic League (PAL) Championships and National Golden Gloves titles, and he finished second and third at the 1997 and 1998 United States Championships, respectively. In 1998,Taylor won a bronze medal at the Goodwill Games. Then, in 2000, he earned a spot on the Olympic Boxing Team, becoming the first boxer from Arkansas ever to compete in the Olympic Games. Competing at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Taylor ended up winning the bronze medal.

He made his professional boxing debut in 2001 and won his first 23 bouts, which included victories over former champions Raúl Márquez and William Joppy. On July 16, 2005, Taylor defeated Bernard Hopkins to win the undisputed middleweight championship, claiming The Ring magazine middleweight championship and the middleweight titles from the four major boxing organizations.

During his reign as champion, Taylor won a rematch against Hopkins and defeated Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks, as well as fighting Winky Wright to a draw. On September 29, 2007, Taylor suffered his first professional loss to Kelly Pavlik and lost a rematch to Pavlik on February 16, 2008. Afterwards, Taylor moved up to the super middleweight division. In his first fight in the weight class, Taylor defeated Jeff Lacy to earn a fight against World Boxing Council (WBC) super middleweight champion Carl Froch. Taylor, ahead on two of the scorecards, lost the bout to Froch by technical knockout in the final round.

[BOLLOCKS]

Aye, he had **** stamina, but he never quit.

[The Hammer]

Jermain Taylor has always been a good sport and a nice guy. He'll always be remembered for those two wins over Hopkins!

Hopefully he's made enough money that he can retire comfortably.

[MARKBNLV]

Retire please Jermain you had a good run,no one wants to see you turn into a vegitable.

[NeXt In Line]

I'll always be a fan of Jermain, he was always a very nice guy who may have had training or stamina issues in the past, but was always a class act, and did his "trash talking" in a way that was warranted. Unfortunately, every big fight he was in besides his two wins over B-Hop, he always came up just a bit short.

Against Kelly, he had him, but he gassed. Against Winky, he straight up didn't follow instructions in regards to how to fight. Against Froch, he had him beat but couldn't last the full 12 on his feet. Anyone who denies Jermain is world class are out of their minds, he always just came up a bit short. His mentality more than anything was his downfall, because I'll be honest he was just weak mentally and wasn't able to overcome his shortcomings in his big fights, it always weighed on his mind.

I wish Jermain nothing but the best. Hopefully he takes a nice vacation for a while, spends time with his family, and comes back to be the unified SMW champion. Perhaps it's just wisful thinking, but a fan can always dream.

[swizz]

the way he conducts himself is just great and he had a good run while it lasted