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THE QUESTIONABLE RETURN OF JERMAIN TAYLOR

By Danny Howard | June 30, 2011
THE QUESTIONABLE RETURN OF JERMAIN TAYLOR

I have to admit, I am a little nervous about the impending return of former undisputed Middleweight champion Jermain Taylor, who is two years removed from horrendous back-to-back knockout losses to Carl Froch and Arthur Abraham. My nervousness stems not because of how Taylor lost those fights, but because even in victory, he piled up a career's worth of punishment before finally bowing out into exile after being rendered unconscious by Abraham in October of 2009. Saying I am nervous might be an understatement now that I think of it. The better word I'm looking for is scared.

Taylor will be returning to the ring in August against a yet to be named opponent, and he intends to campaign at Middleweight in hopes of regaining the titles he once held. By doing so, he has reunited with former trainer Pat Burns, who initially did not accept Taylor's offer until he received a clean bill of health from neurologists. It is apparent that Taylor can return to the ring and fight again, but should he?

Normally, when fighters take long layoffs or come back from retirement, more often than not they are fighting at or above the weight class they were last seen in. Taylor, however, is trying to go back to 160. Any trainer will tell you that it's much harder to move down in weight than it is to go up. The reason Taylor is trying to move down to 160 is obvious; the talent pool at Middleweight outside of Sergio Martinez is light and there are very few power punchers that are around, so at Middleweight, he has a better chance of recapturing one of the titles he once held.

Taylor originally captured the middleweight crown from Bernard Hopkins, ending his long reign as champion, and then successfully defended it against the future Hall of Fame champion in their rematch. Both fights were close, but Taylor's explosive speed and athleticism seemed to be enough to not only wrest the title from Hopkins, but for HBO to invest in what seemed to be a sure bet as a superstar. Following the two Hopkins bouts, Taylor drew with Winky Wright in another sensational showdown that deserved a rematch, but never came to be due to Wright's inexplicably high purse demands for the rematch.

What would then follow was two excruciatingly boring defenses against former Jr. Middleweight champions Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks that turned the public against Taylor almost overnight. Gone was the explosive speed and power that vaulted him to a shot with Hopkins; instead was a fighter who looked awfully plain, and in the case of the Spinks fight, almost lost in the ring not knowing how to exploit his smaller opponents. It was around that time where we began hearing about Taylor's weight issues and how he'd have to move up soon.

We all know what happened when Taylor met Kelly Pavlik. Pavlik KOd Taylor in the middle rounds of their firefight and then beat him again in a rematch in which Taylor was apprehensive to engage. Taylor then defeated the awfully faded Jeff Lacy before falling to Froch and Abraham. Nobody wanted to see Taylor get hurt after the Abraham KO. Lou DiBella didn't even want to promote him anymore. Taylor seemed to get the point, agreed, and vanished for two years.

The idea now is that Taylor can recapture the magic he had in those two fights with Hopkins, a pair of fights that were his finest accomplishments, but signaled the beginning of the end. Since the second Hopkins fight, Taylor has gone 3-4-1 with three losses coming via stoppage. He hasn't shown top form in any of those 3 victories and he hasn't given anybody the belief that he can still make a run. I can understand him wanting to come back; he misses the ring, the bravado, and more than likely, the money, but why not come back as a trainer or an announcer or something to that degree?

After all, when he was concussed by Abraham, nobody even wanted to see him continue fighting in the ring even though he was set to face a lighter hitter in Andre Ward for the second stage match in the Super Six Tournament. Let not forget the damage he already sustained in fights with Hopkins, Froch and Pavlik. At 31 years of age and two years out of the ring, I'm sure Taylor can pass a brain scan. Evander Holyfield fights more frequently than Taylor does and still passes every test he takes, but we don't want him to fight either. The formula of a past-his-prime fighter hoping to return to glory after a long time out of the ring usually ends with one result: a humbling beating followed by either retirement or a few more beatings.

A fighter's prime can be over almost as soon as it begins, and that clearly was the case for Taylor, who seldom fought like he did after the Hopkins rematch. When things like that go, they can never be replaced. Taylor thinks the Middleweight division seems wide open to him. Should he put a small string of wins together, he'll find himself in a big fight as he is an American in a division where European fighters dominate the rankings. Are we honestly going to give him the benefit of the doubt when he stands across the ring from a Sergio Martinez, Matthew Macklin, or Gennedy Golovkin should any of those fights come to play? I know he thinks he can still fight, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he should.

(Danny Howard can be reached at dhoward@fighthype.com, Twitter @DBHoward126, and Facebook.)

Be sure to catch Howard and Vivek Wallace every Wednesday on FightHype Radio.

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