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by David P. Greisman
Former middleweight champion Jermain Taylor could continue his comeback with a Jan. 25 appearance in Washington, D.C., on the undercard of a show featuring Lamont Peterson vs. Dierry Jean and Gabriel Rosado vs. Jermell Charlo.
That’s according to Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions, who said he will speak with Taylor and his adviser, Al Haymon.
Taylor, 35, scored a seventh-round stoppage of J.C. Candelo on Dec. 14 in San Antonio, bringing his record to 32-4-1 with 20 KOs.
Taylor became the undisputed middleweight champion in 2005 when he edged Bernard Hopkins, then retained the championship in a rematch. He defended it again with a draw against Winky Wright and wins over Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks, but then suffered a knockout to Kelly Pavlik. Taylor fought Pavlik again in a rematch and lost a decision.
He then rebounded with a decision win over Jeff Lacy, then suffered a last-round knockout to Carl Froch and then entered Showtime’s “Super Six” super middleweight tournament, only to suffer another last-round knockout to Arthur Abraham.
Taylor stepped away from the sport following the October 2009 loss to Arthur, which was his fourth loss in five fights, the third by way of knockout. Though those defeats had come against high-quality, the Abraham knockout brought about some bleeding on Taylor’s brain.
Taylor has been medically cleared, though, with experts testifying that he is at no greater risk of suffering another brain bleed than he was prior to the Abraham loss. And so Taylor came back in December 2011, stopping Jessie Nicklow, came off the canvas in April 2012 to outpoint Caleb Truax, and then made quick work of Raul Munoz in October 2012.
The Candelo fight was Taylor’s first in 14 months.
Pick up a copy of David’s new book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
