A Champion’s Chance for Redemption

A Champion’s Chance for Redemption

By Vikram Birring (Sept 29, 2007) Doghouse Boxing

Three years ago, Jermain ‘Bad Intentions’ Taylor was a star on the rise in the middleweight division. He was not just defeating opponents, but punishing them with frightening regularity. He was young, athletic, and strong as a bull.

At the time, the king of the division was Bernard ‘The Executioner’ Hopkins. Hopkins had dominated the division for years, but other than two major fights against Felix ‘Tito’ Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya, usually chose to fight mandatory opponents he knew he could defeat. To Hopkins, his championship belts were his most prized possessions; to

lose them would be a loss of dignity and identity for the wily champion.

In February of 2005, Hopkins and Taylor fought on the same card. Taylor beat up ‘Haitian Sensation’ Daniel Edouard in three rounds, pummeling him at will until the referee halted the carnage. Hopkins defeated perennial British contender Howard ‘The Battersea Bomber’ Eastman on points, showing his superiority over a highly experienced opponent. Taylor’s impressive victory set the stage for a possible shot at Hopkins, and though Taylor showed respect, he still had his pride. Hopkins may have been king of the middleweight division, but as Taylor proclaimed loudly, “He’s not my king.”

Hopkins surprisingly gave Taylor a shot, unable to come to terms with Ronald ‘Winky’ Wright, a fight boxing fans were clamoring for at the time. Though Taylor had all the physical advantages, the majority of the public expected an easy victory for Hopkins. A strange thing happened though – Taylor outworked Hopkins for the first eight rounds. Two-thirds of the way through the fight, the rookie was pitching a shutout against one of the greatest middleweights in boxing history.

The tide changed in the last four rounds though, as Hopkins battered Taylor around the ring in desperate hope of a knockout. Yet it was not enough, as Taylor squeaked by with a victory. There was a new champion in the division, and he was from Arkansas.

Hopkins demanded a rematch, complaining that the judges robbed him, an ironic complaint from a convicted thief. Hopkins promised a new strategy - to start fighting the second fight as he finished the first. However, Hopkins did exactly what he did in the first fight. Taylor simply outworked the veteran, until Hopkins took over the fight in the final rounds. Too little too late, Taylor won again, and this time Hopkins did not even show surprise as the decision was announced, just the simple smile of a defeated man.

Taylor was a star at this point, and nobody was happier to see him win than Winky Wright, a man who had wanted to fight Hopkins for years, only to never see the match come to fruition. Taylor agreed to fight Wright in Memphis in June 2006. Before the fight, Taylor fired his longtime trainer Pat Burns, saying the duo had gone as far as they could go together, and hired legendary Detroit-based trainer Emmanuel Steward. They only had a few weeks to prepare for the fight, but both Taylor and Steward promised results.

The real result was another close fight. This time Taylor escaped with only a draw. The fight was a tale of two strategies. When Taylor and Wright fought in the center of the ring, Taylor hammered Wright with thudding jabs and right hands. When Taylor backed into the ropes, Wright released rapid-fire combinations, one after another, after another, punishing Taylor to the point where his left eye shut completely.

As the fight wore on, Winky seemed to have the edge. He blocked most of Taylor’s punches with his gloves and arms, and bulled him into the ropes time and again. Inexplicably, the judges gave Taylor the final round, so Taylor got to take his belts back to Arkansas.

After the Wright fight, Taylor’s promoter lined up two supposedly easy opponents. The first was Kassim ‘The Dream’ Ouma of Uganda. Ouma was a former champion of the junior middleweight division. He had lived a tumultuous life. As a child he was recruited to be a soldier, and spent many years fighting, first with the rebels, and then with the Ugandan army. He escaped to the United States years later, and trained to become a professional boxer. His style was reminiscent of a man who had fought his whole life; Ouma always came forward and fought; he shook off thunderous punches, only to smile in return. For a man whose body count was in the hundreds by the time he had turned ten years old, a boxing match was a walk in the park.

Taylor’s fight versus Ouma was an entertaining battle, as Taylor stayed on the ropes unleashing occasional combinations, and Ouma absorbed every blow only to fight back. Taylor won on points, but the story was clear. For a smaller man to come into his hometown and shake off everything, only to return fire, meant that perhaps Taylor’s power was overrated. But then again, it was only one fight, against a boxing warrior who had himself been a real warrior since childhood.

Cory Spinks was selected as Taylor’s next opponent. Spinks was the junior middleweight champion, and took the fight at middleweight for the money and the opportunity to become champion in three divisions. His father and uncle were both world champions, men who had defeated the likes of Muhammad Ali and Gerry Cooney. Spinks was a boxer in every sense; he was nearly impossible to hit, and waited for his opponents to make a mistake before countering with quick combinations, only to retreat and wait for another mistake.

Against Spinks, Taylor looked befuddled and confused, to the extent he hardly threw any punches. Spinks controlled the tempo, and made the larger man fight his fight. Towards the end of the fight, what was supposed to be a pro-Taylor crowd was chanting Spinks’ name, and Spinks’ master plan seemed to be revealing itself to an increasingly-frustrated Taylor and an angry Steward. Spinks was assured a victory, only to fall into the same predicament as Winky Wright, and be robbed with a simple stroke of a pencil. Taylor was handed another victory, and this time, the criticism was harsh.

On the undercard, a lanky, bald-headed power puncher from Youngstown, Ohio knocked out Colombian brawler Edison ‘Pantera’ Miranda in what was essentially a backyard brawl. Both fighters took enormous punishment, but the kid from Ohio won the fight. His name was Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik, a humble fighter from the same hometown as boxing legends such as Ernie Shavers and Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini. Pavlik erased the invincibility that Miranda once had, and the boxing world took notice. Just as Taylor stole the show from Hopkins years earlier, Pavlik had done the same, in such emphatic fashion that Taylor had no choice but to fight Pavlik.

Jermain Taylor was once the young star of the middleweight division, drawing ooooooh’s and aaaaaah’s from the crowd with every punch, knocking out hapless contenders until defeating an immortal champion, not once but twice. However, in boxing, as in life, is a story of what have you done for me lately, and in recent fights Taylor has showed signs of regression and declining skills. Pavlik is the new kid on the scene, and Taylor has been given yet a third chance at redemption against a highly qualified opponent. What he does with this opportunity is yet to be seen. The boxing world will find out on the night of September 29, 2007.

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Vikram at: slickvik69@hotmail.com