It still annoys me the way Jermain Taylor lost all motivation after reaching the top.

Taylor just started fighting better opposition, and he himself didn't improve, so naturally his performances suffered. His weaknesses were exposed, and he and Manny did not make a good duo. It's easier to look good against the Alex Bunemas and shop-worn William Joppys of the world than it is when you're fighting the likes of Bernard Hopkins, Winky Wright, Cory Spinks, and Kelly Pavlik.

His career just fell off after the close, tough wins against Bernard Hopkins. Did Bernard take his soul? If you look at his resume after that, the only decent performance was against a Jeff Lacy who had already lost his soul to Joe Calzaghe, and then a decent showing for most of the fight against Carl Froch. Other than that he had an average at best performance against Winky Wright, 2 fights against Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks which he should have won with ease but didn't. The 2 losses to Kelly Pavlik, in hindsight, are pretty bad news. I would say prime for prime Taylor was a much better boxer all-round than Pavlik. Abraham is a decent fighter I suppose, and I didn't see Taylor's performance in that. I guess it's kinda like a "what could have been..." thing with him. You didn't even see the Abraham fight and you come up with a stupid thread like this? The Abraham knockout was brutal. Much like the Pavlik KO. And to a somewhat lesser extent, the Froch KO. He didn't lose his motivation. He had it knocked the **** out of him to the point that his family was scared for his health.

Getting rid of Pat Burns and losing that great jab didn't help...

I don't think that he lost motivation. I think his fundamental flaws caught up with him. He has a tendency to pull straight back with his hands down. I've seen guys who aren't known for their power take advantage of this, Winky for example. He got in there with Pavlik, who has some power, and he managed to capitalize on Jermain's flaws. He managed to beat Hopkins by simply throwing more punches and being more aggressive, nevermind if they didn't land cleanly.