Jermain Gets Another Gift

By Dennis Bernstein
www.Scoremedia.org
www.Fansvoice.com

It’s that time of year, folks. People scurrying around trying to avoid the last minute crush for holiday shopping season. It’s not just the average Joe that gets good tidings now; big shot professional athletes do too.

Take undisputed middleweight champion Jermaine Taylor for example.

Taylor defended his crown on Saturday night in his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas against Kassim “The Dream” Ouma. It was his third and easiest title defense and therein lies the problem.

Taylor, promoted by Lou DiBella, was brought along quickly. Too quickly perhaps when he fought Bernard Hopkins in July 2005 for the middleweight title. Taylor won the controversial split decision (we thought he clearly lost the match and Taylor’s expression after the fight told us he did as well) and then defended it against the Executioner in a rematch in December.

It may have been the bad karma that the nasty Mr. Hopkins had generated over the years which gave Taylor the win in the rematch on all three judge’s cards. Despite those two victories over a Hall of Fame fighter, Taylor was and is still a work in progress. I’ve spoken to Taylor in the past. He a respectful young man and a great role model for youngsters who want to get into this dying sport, so maybe his good luck is based on the fact that he does the right thing.

Back in June, he fought the slick Winky Wright for the middleweight title and again the outcome was a controversial draw. So while Taylor’s undefeated streak (and luck) continued, he wasn’t really developing as a fighter. DiBella, a former HBO executive, brought him along masterfully against overmatched competition. So he went from fighting the Daniel Edouards and William Joppys of the world to championship matches.

Somehow, the sanctioning bodies in boxing determined that Ouma would be a worthy opponent for Taylor to defend against. The Ugandan is a great kid and a special person. It’s been documented how he was kidnapped into the army as a pre-teen and how he survived that ordeal makes him a champion of a different breed. But as far as boxing goes, I’ve had as many fights at the 160-pound limit as Kassim had before he climbed into the ring in Little Rock.

So at 5’8”, Ouma faced a man five inches bigger than him at a weight he never fought at, in his opponent’s hometown. That, my friends, spells an early round knockout. And it’s not like Taylor didn’t try to knock him out; a three punch combination in the fourth round should have done the trick. Ouma’s head swiveled but he stood in front of Taylor and kept coming. Guess getting his with a three-punch combination doesn’t compare to getting shot at in the Ugandan jungle. His hometown crowd, wanting that knockout, grew restless as the fight reached completion.

Taylor did win a unanimous decision but with his performances over the last four fights, he doesn’t come close to being one of the best pound for pound fighters in the sport. Taylor has the raw talent to be a great fighter but he’s nowhere near that now. He still throws punches awkwardly and doesn’t know how to pace himself in the ring.

You can set a clock to the time when he runs out of gas; it’s called the ninth round. His camp wisely recruited legendary trainer Emmanuel Steward to polish Taylor’s game but there’s a lot of work still to be done. His dilemma is that there’s not much talent in the middleweight division to go after. Winky Wright is a natural rematch, but Wright has set his sights on Joe Calzaghe.

There are some pretenders like the undefeated Kelly Pavlik or a prior “Contender” winner Sergio Mora. It may be time for Jermaine to go up to super middleweight and face a Jeff Lacy, Mikkel Kessler or Calzaghe.

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