Guest Post: What Have You Done for Me Lately?-Jermain Taylor at the Crossroads
F Scott Fitzgerald once famously said that the problem with American lives was that they had no second acts. On Saturday, November 15 in Nashville, Tennessee we should learn whether there is a second act to Jermain Taylor’s boxing career. On that night, Taylor is matched up with his former US Olympic teammate Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy. You might remember Lacy. He was the once the Next Big Thing in the super middleweight division, a personable Florida native with the physique of a body builder and the power to match who had rolled through all of his opponents, setting up in 2006 the first of what has become a series of Trans-Atlantic superfights, this with another unbeaten fighter, Joe Calzaghe of Wales. Calzaghe exposed Lacy as a one-trick pony, thoroughly dismantling him in as one-sided a beat-down as we’ve seen in recent championship fights. Since then, Lacy has slowly been trying to rebuild his career, but no fight has come as easy as when he was in his ascendance, and he has also been sidetracked by injuries.
I had the chance to meet Lacy at the Winky Wright-Jermain Taylor fight in Memphis in June, 2006, and he’s as nice a guy as you could hope for. He graciously posed for pictures with my wife and me, even as the group he was with was clearly impatient and in a hurry to leave the arena. It’s hard for me to root against Lacy, but it’s clear to everyone in the boxing world that this fight is a do-or-die situation for Little Rock native Jermain Taylor’s boxing future.
Taylor knows what it’s like to go from being the flavor of the month to being dropped like a hot potato by the public. Heavily promoted by HBO once he reached the championship level, he surprised almost everyone—except his loyal Arkansas supporters—by dethroning long-time middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins in July, 2005 in Las Vegas, and following that up with a more convincing decision in the rematch (two verdicts that continue to look better in hindsight as Hopkins improbably makes a living in his 40s defeating other big-name opponents).
What followed was a series of performances perceived by many as a slide into mediocrity for Taylor, even as he continued to hold his title. Match-ups that included Winky Wright, Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks were uninspiring even before the ink had dried on the contracts, and none of them exceeded expectations. The boxing press seized the opportunity, going negative on Taylor, with even some of his Arkansas supporters joining in the chorus. For perhaps less than savory motives, there seemed to be an almost unanimous sense of relief at HBO and in the boxing press when Kelly Pavlik—the new flavor of the month who also happened to be white—knocked out Taylor in the seventh round of one of the most exciting fights of 2007 (Pavlik has since been defeated convincingly by our old friend Hopkins in a non-title bout).
So to say that Jermain Taylor is up against it is putting it lightly. It seems like forever rather than a mere nine months since Taylor was last in the ring: his close decision loss to Pavlik in the rematch of their 2007 bout. Questions remain about his hunger to achieve in boxing and his love for the sport. Taylor admitted to being shaken after meeting Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden and seeing the deteriorating physical condition of the former “Greatest of All Times,” and expressed the desire to get out of boxing before the sport could take a similar toll on him.
Jermain Taylor is at the crossroads in his boxing career, and in about a week’s time we should know a lot more about his place in the sport's future. Truthfully, boxing may need him more than he needs boxing.
What followed was a series of performances perceived by many as a slide into mediocrity for Taylor, even as he continued to hold his title. Match-ups that included Winky Wright, Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks were uninspiring even before the ink had dried on the contracts, and none of them exceeded expectations. The boxing press seized the opportunity, going negative on Taylor, with even some of his Arkansas supporters joining in the chorus. For perhaps less than savory motives, there seemed to be an almost unanimous sense of relief at HBO and in the boxing press when Kelly Pavlik—the new flavor of the month who also happened to be white—knocked out Taylor in the seventh round of one of the most exciting fights of 2007 (Pavlik has since been defeated convincingly by our old friend Hopkins in a non-title bout).
So to say that Jermain Taylor is up against it is putting it lightly. It seems like forever rather than a mere nine months since Taylor was last in the ring: his close decision loss to Pavlik in the rematch of their 2007 bout. Questions remain about his hunger to achieve in boxing and his love for the sport. Taylor admitted to being shaken after meeting Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden and seeing the deteriorating physical condition of the former “Greatest of All Times,” and expressed the desire to get out of boxing before the sport could take a similar toll on him.
Jermain Taylor is at the crossroads in his boxing career, and in about a week’s time we should know a lot more about his place in the sport's future. Truthfully, boxing may need him more than he needs boxing.
