By Terence Dooley
Photo © Ed Mulholland/FightWireImages.com
Next weekend, Jermain Taylor takes the most difficult step possible in boxing as he bids to become one of the few men to avenge a KO defeat by virtue of immediate rematch. A Taylor win would put him shoulder-to-shoulder with Tony Zale, Floyd Patterson and Lennox Lewis, men who were KO’d brutally but came back to avenge the KO, by KO, in their very next fight. It is an elite group, and a task that requires skill, mental fortitude and conviction of will. Ironic given that these are three areas in which Jermain has been perceived to have come-up short in recent years.
Taylor is also further hindered by a switch in trainer, he has dispensed with the services of Emanuel Steward, who guided Lewis to his revenge win over Hasim Rahman in 2001 – is it really that long since that night? Taylor is now working with former fitness coach Ozell Nelson.
I was lucky enough to speak with Steward earlier this year. Steward was gracious and spent time with me discussing various fighters. At the time he was training both Jermain Taylor and Andy Lee but they were discussed very little, the recurring name in our conversation was former amateur Golden Boy Mark Breland.
Breland won a million Golden Gloves trophies, Olympic Gold, was 110-1 as an amateur, and if we listed his amateur achievements in this piece, it would have to be split into two parts. There was a wistful sense of regret in Seward’s voice as he confirmed that, in his mind, Breland was one of the most talented fighters he had ever seen but also one of the ones who never truly reached the pinnacle of his gifts as a pro. For Mark Breland read Jermain Taylor, talented amateur also who has never truly gelled as a professional fighter, his physical gifts are undoubted but there seems, as was the case with Breland, to be a little extra missing in the arsenal of Taylor.
Steward was of the strong belief that Mark was burned out a little by the time he hit the pro ranks, his legs always looked a little spindly in general and in the pro code a weak base can prove your undoing over the longer distance of the fights. Despite this Breland was a superb specimen from the waist up. Stabbing straight shots with the jab and right hand, clever feints, impeccable pedigree, and a sophisticated boxing style; in other words almost the perfect pro.
Breland breezed through his early career, picking up the vacant WBA welterweight title by virtue of his fight with Harold Volbrecht, but his progress was brought to a sudden halt when he was defeated by the irrepressible Marlon ‘Moochie’ Starling in 11 exciting, too exciting for Breland fans, rounds.
No one could ever have doubted that Starling was a dangerous foe – he had twice extended Don Curry, the first a close fight, plus had handed Simon Brown his first pro defeat. Despite all the warning signs this was a bout Breland should have won if he was to take his place among the potential elite of the sport.
Despite Mark bearing his own heart a little in this Breland’s first defeat the fight seemed to knock a little of the stuffing from those long legs, as well as placing a shadow of fear over his confidence.
Breland, as Taylor is doing, went into an immediate rematch with Starling, this time he went the distance, a bonus, but failed to win back his title as the fight was declared a draw, a negative. Indeed the fight showed that Mark’s confidence had taken a terrible knock; it was very much like the rematch that took place between Vernon Forrest and Ricardo Mayorga. Forrest, for all his skill seemed wary of Ricardo in the return and this was the case with Breland in the second Starling fight.
Breland fought a little scared and his legs looked to be too weak to support his boxing frame in the tough fights you get against guys like Starling. Only once, late in the fight, did Mark seem to really awaken his potential as he feinted, dipped his knees then landed a jab to the body, it was a little glimpse of quality but there was no risk taken, the right hand did not come behind the jab, and Starling came right through the shot. It was the story of both fights.
Breland would go onto win a title again – by defeating Seung Soon Lee in a single round for the, again, vacant WBA title – and would defend it with mixed results. A win over Rafael Pineda, who caught Breland with some good shots, was brought about by Pineda quitting citing a thumb to the eye. A one-sided away-turf win over Lloyd Honeyghan was a highlight.
However a fight with the rough and tumble Aaron Davis again saw Breland defeated by the sheer will and grit of his opponent. Davis manhandled Breland in this fight and Mark’s legs again seemed his undoing as he could never get his movement going the way he had done as a contender. Breland was floored in round 3 and forced to grit things out the best he could. Davis and Breland fought one of those causally brutal fights in which both men looked jaded and both were bleeding by the time the end came; it came in the 9th with Aaron, so long reliant on left hooks, blasting Breland to defeat with a right hand.
In this fight we saw Breland, once again, take on a teak tough pro (although Davis won Golden Gloves as an amateur showing he had skills to go with the will) and failing to get the all-important win. Aaron went onto lose his title to another fighter, Meldrick Taylor, who had amateur pedigree; Meldrick was another fighter who lost his lustre to an uncompromising professional foe – we can never forget his fight with Chavez, controversy aside, one of the great fights in which both men excelled at their own game.
Breland made a comeback but his potential seemed stalled at just that, never quite making it into actuality. Another defeat, this time at the hands of the well-travelled Jorge Vaca, left Breland having to face facts, he had won titles, albeit vacant ones, but had never quite lived up to his potential, a few more fights followed before Breland left the sport behind with his potential remaining as one of those quirks of boxing, a case of what should have been.
In our conversation Manny Steward had told me that a shorter amateur career, plus Steward’s input on a consistent basis, would have seen Breland do better but as we discussed those spindly legs of Mark Steward acknowledged that maybe the basis for continued pro success was never there for Breland, only the tantalising hint of its potential.
Just as the lower-body provides physical bottom for a fighter his inner resolve, his heart and will, forms his mental bottom and this struck me when watching Jermain Taylor fight excitingly then succumb to the blue-collar industry, and skill it must be said, of Kelly Pavlik in a fight that took place a few weeks after my meeting with Steward.
Taylor, like Breland, is a frustrating case, it is all there for Jermain but something seems to be holding him back. This writer feels that he has a gift for boxing, combined with physical athleticism, but the will to be great, or at least shoot for that level, is lacking in Jermain. It is a great shame as well. Like Breland, Jermain is about to go into an immediate rematch with a guy who epitomises the hard-knock mentality of a professional fighter. Kelly Pavlik is an awesome physical specimen but he showed, in round 2 of the first bout, that he is also one mentally tough S.O.B. and when push comes to shove he will brush your shove aside and lay you out cold with a punch.
Is Taylor going to be a Lewis or a Zale? A cold-eyed assassin who amends the flaws and flips his defeat into a win; the potential for this is certainly there in him physically; hopefully the pain of defeat has instilled the willingness and dead-eyed fury to finish the job. Or is Taylor to be a Breland redux? Will Jermain work solely off the jab for the most part, taking his shots on route to a points defeat and retirement? A fighter who could have been awesome but will be left as a footnote in the middleweight division, a footnote pointing toward potential never realised.
So far the signs and portents are foreboding. In an interview with UK magazine ‘Boxing Monthly’ Pavlik was honest about the first bout. Without arrogance he claimed that Taylor is a good fighter but the proof of fight one is that he, Pavlik, is better and tougher. Pavlik dismissed Taylor’s chances out of hand and this blue-collar guy does not seem the type to arrogantly dismiss anyone. It seems that Pavlik truly feels he has sussed Taylor out and knows the desire of Jermain is not as great, nor the physique as strong.
For his part Taylor has hooked back up with his former trainer Ozell Nelson, after never truly gelling with what Steward wanted him to do. Taylor has gone all ‘Rocky’ on us, chopping wood and running, and claims he is as fit as he has ever been, plus knows what went wrong and how to fix it. This had better be the case, in Pavlik he takes on a guy as tough as ten times Rocky.
We are about to find out if Taylor has that bottom-line, will, needed in boxing. Everything else seems in place and in Pavlik he has the best possible test for his intestinal fortitude, Pavlik will not be found lacking, ergo Taylor needs to bring it all next weekend. Is it to be a Breland or a Zale? Win or lose for Taylor? At this point I will be honest and eschew logic (as Tony Soprano said “I could be a cold-hearted prick” but where is the fun in that when it comes to boxing?), sometimes you just like a fighter and this writer likes and believes in Jermain Taylor, slaughter me for that by all means.
With my head shaking in disapproval at my heart’s folly, I say that Taylor will step up to the plate and defeat Pavlik in another stunning fight topped by a KO conclusion. With each man then at 1-1 (2) we, the followers of the sport, will be the overall winners as a rubber match should be the next natural step. It is time for Taylor to put the ghost of one of my past favorites, Breland, to rest by dragging resolve from the soles of his boots and flipping the KO loss.
