By Mark Vester

The  Arkansas Democrat-Gazette had a report on Jermain Taylor's recent news conference at the Arkansas Boxing Club gym in Little Rock, announcing that Ozell Nelson would replace Emanuel Steward as his trainer for the Feb. 16 rematch with Kelly Pavlik, scheduled to take place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and televised by HBO pay-per-view.

According to the paper, Taylor was not pleased with his last training camp and felt that a changed was in order. Taylor did reach out to his original trainer Pat Burns but a return by Burns seems unlikely with Nelson being named as the head trainer. Nelson was Taylor's amateur trainer and led him to a bronze medal with the 2000 Olympic team.

“To be honest with you, this was a big decision,” said Taylor. “I felt like I wasn’t trained hard the last fight. I felt like it was all about conditioning. I did my part. I did what I was supposed to do. I felt like I needed a lot more sparring, and they didn’t give it to me. I always felt like I needed more, more rounds sparring. Sparring is like fighting. If you can’t spar 12 rounds, you for damn sure can’t go in and fight for 12 rounds.”

Pavlik (32-0, 29KOs), who won the WBO/WBC middleweight titles by stopping Taylor (27-1-1, 17KOs) in the seventh round of their September bout in Atlantic City, has agreed to meet Taylor, per their original fight contract, at the catch-weight of 166-pounds.

Taylor said the rematch is the biggest fight of his career, a fight that will define his career.

“Overhype it all you want, call it a career-defining fight, because that’s exactly what this fight is,” Taylor said. “This is my career. This is the most important fight of my career, right now. I’m putting it in Coach’s hands, but I’m putting it in mine, too, because I know exactly what I have to do. I know what I’ve got to do now. I’m going to train my a ** off. I have to do more than 12 rounds. If we have to spar every day, that’s what we’ll do.”

Send News Tips and Comments To Mark Vester @ boxingscene@hotmail.com