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By Patrick Kehoe - When Team Taylor sent out their PR circulars, making public notification of Jermain Taylor’s decision to fight Britain’s WBC super-middleweight champion Carl Froch, they couldn’t resist injecting a rhetorical disclaimer intended to put the world champion in his place: “Who is Carl Froch?”
Jermain Taylor had, after all, been world middleweight champion and notably the man who pushed Bernard Hopkins off his middleweight thrown, in July of 2005, backing up that landmark decision victory with another in December of that year. What failed to materialize for Taylor was a distinguished reign as middleweight champion. His cautious title defence winning run, defined by increasingly pedantic performances against Winky Wright, Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks, ended when Kelly Pavlik got up off the canvas to relegate “Bad Intentions” Taylor to the ranks of former world champion. Being a champion never seemed to suit Taylor; it was as if reaching the summit of boxing, in dethroning the legend of Hopkins, had burned away the hard shell of ambitious egoism so fundamental for true ring predators. Experts noted Taylor’s technical development seemed arrested, his wellspring of combative concentration looked to be drying up, at the ripe old age of 28. [details]
Jermain Taylor had, after all, been world middleweight champion and notably the man who pushed Bernard Hopkins off his middleweight thrown, in July of 2005, backing up that landmark decision victory with another in December of that year. What failed to materialize for Taylor was a distinguished reign as middleweight champion. His cautious title defence winning run, defined by increasingly pedantic performances against Winky Wright, Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks, ended when Kelly Pavlik got up off the canvas to relegate “Bad Intentions” Taylor to the ranks of former world champion. Being a champion never seemed to suit Taylor; it was as if reaching the summit of boxing, in dethroning the legend of Hopkins, had burned away the hard shell of ambitious egoism so fundamental for true ring predators. Experts noted Taylor’s technical development seemed arrested, his wellspring of combative concentration looked to be drying up, at the ripe old age of 28. [details]
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