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From today's Arkansas ******** Gazette:
Taylor tweaks regimen
By Nick Walker
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
LITTLE ROCK — Jermain Taylor said he knows that his window as a championship-caliber boxer is slowly closing.
That’s why he’s been willing to do things differently - from where he trains, to what he eats, to even how he trains - as he prepares to take on Germany’s Arthur Abraham in the opening round of the Super Six World Boxing Classic on Oct. 17 in Berlin.
Taylor, a super middleweight from Little Rock, said he found no positives to draw on after his last-second, knockout loss to Carl Froch on April 25. Even the fact that two of the three judges had him ahead 106-102 before the 12th-round knockout was insignificant.
“I feel like just because you’re close, that doesn’t mean anything if you don’t get the victory,” Taylor said. “There was nothing good to come out of that loss. I just wanted to get away from Miami and try something new.”
After years of training primarily in Miami, Taylor moved his training camp to Houston, and he’s been working out at one of former heavyweight champion George Foreman’s training facilities.
“George Foreman asked us to come out here and [wanted to] show us some pointers,” Taylor said in a telephone interview in between training sessions. “He wanted to help us get the championship back. I’ve learned so much from him, and it’s really been a blessing.
“We had to come out here. I mean, when George Foreman talks, you can’t help but listen.”
Next, he hired Danny Smith, who’s best known for training Fernando Vargas, to work alongside Ozell Nelson, and Taylor started eating differently in an effort to increase his stamina and energy.
“I’m eating six meals a day, but those things are a lot healthier,” Taylor said. “I didn’t know that certain things when you eat them make you feel a certain way.
“I’m also lifting weights, which is something I’ve never done as a boxer. A lot of leg presses and a lot of squats.”
Taylor said that he’s up to almost 600 pounds on the leg press after starting out at around200 pounds.
Another big change is the time that Taylor is training.
Taylor is training in such a way that he’s sparring around 1 p.m. because of the seven-hour difference between Central time in the United States and Central European time. The time that Taylor is working out in Houston is equivalent to the fight time in Germany.
That’s about the only accommodation Taylor is making for fighting at O2 World Arena in Berlin. Taylor said he is planning on moving his camp to Berlin sometime between Oct. 1 and Oct. 4.
“I’m not worried about where the fight is,” Taylor said. “It’s going to be me and him in the ring. He’s going to throw the same punches over there that he would throw over here.”
By Nick Walker
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
LITTLE ROCK — Jermain Taylor said he knows that his window as a championship-caliber boxer is slowly closing.
That’s why he’s been willing to do things differently - from where he trains, to what he eats, to even how he trains - as he prepares to take on Germany’s Arthur Abraham in the opening round of the Super Six World Boxing Classic on Oct. 17 in Berlin.
Taylor, a super middleweight from Little Rock, said he found no positives to draw on after his last-second, knockout loss to Carl Froch on April 25. Even the fact that two of the three judges had him ahead 106-102 before the 12th-round knockout was insignificant.
“I feel like just because you’re close, that doesn’t mean anything if you don’t get the victory,” Taylor said. “There was nothing good to come out of that loss. I just wanted to get away from Miami and try something new.”
After years of training primarily in Miami, Taylor moved his training camp to Houston, and he’s been working out at one of former heavyweight champion George Foreman’s training facilities.
“George Foreman asked us to come out here and [wanted to] show us some pointers,” Taylor said in a telephone interview in between training sessions. “He wanted to help us get the championship back. I’ve learned so much from him, and it’s really been a blessing.
“We had to come out here. I mean, when George Foreman talks, you can’t help but listen.”
Next, he hired Danny Smith, who’s best known for training Fernando Vargas, to work alongside Ozell Nelson, and Taylor started eating differently in an effort to increase his stamina and energy.
“I’m eating six meals a day, but those things are a lot healthier,” Taylor said. “I didn’t know that certain things when you eat them make you feel a certain way.
“I’m also lifting weights, which is something I’ve never done as a boxer. A lot of leg presses and a lot of squats.”
Taylor said that he’s up to almost 600 pounds on the leg press after starting out at around200 pounds.
Another big change is the time that Taylor is training.
Taylor is training in such a way that he’s sparring around 1 p.m. because of the seven-hour difference between Central time in the United States and Central European time. The time that Taylor is working out in Houston is equivalent to the fight time in Germany.
That’s about the only accommodation Taylor is making for fighting at O2 World Arena in Berlin. Taylor said he is planning on moving his camp to Berlin sometime between Oct. 1 and Oct. 4.
“I’m not worried about where the fight is,” Taylor said. “It’s going to be me and him in the ring. He’s going to throw the same punches over there that he would throw over here.”
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