by David P. Greisman

Mental evaluations performed on Jermain Taylor have led an Arkansas judge to find him fit for trial, and the former middleweight champion has been relocated to a rehabilitation center until then, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

“Taylor had been at the private hospital to undergo a physical and mental evaluation requested by his attorneys after Taylor's second arrest on a shooting-related charge in less than six months,” the article said.

Online court records show that Taylor still has a jury trial scheduled for June 23 and 24 in the case in which he is accused of shooting and injuring his cousin last year.

He’s also facing charges from January, when he was arrested following an incident at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Little Rock in which he is accused of pointing his gun at a woman and her kids and shooting at their father after a child dropped Taylor’s world title.

Taylor, who is 36 years old, won the middleweight championship in 2005 with a split decision win over Bernard Hopkins. He reigned until 2007, losing via technical knockout to Kelly Pavlik. Taylor dropped a decision to Pavlik in a rematch, won a decision over Jeff Lacy and then was stopped by Carl Froch in the final round of their fight in early 2009. He then entered the “Super Six” super middleweight tournament.

His first and only tournament fight came against Arthur Abraham, who scored a one-punch, 12th-round knockout. Taylor suffered a brain bleed and was out of the sport for about two years. He returned in late 2011 after undergoing a series of medical examinations. Taylor won four bouts in a row and ultimately met a hobbled Sam Soliman this past October, scoring several knockdowns and taking Soliman’s title by unanimous decision.

That moved Taylor’s record to 33-4-1 with 20 KOs, but he was subsequently stripped of the belt when an injury and the January parade shooting led to the cancellation of a February bout with Sergio Mora.

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