By: Jai Singh “UK BOXING WRITER”
Former Undisputed WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO Middleweight Champion Jermain Taylor (28-4-1), who has been idle since October of 2009 finally returns to the squared circle on the 30th of December in a televised bout against fairly unknown Jessie ‘The Beast’ Nicklow (22-2-3) ; who’s only claim to fame (if you can call it that) was a TKO loss in the fourth round by Middleweight prospect Fernando Guerrero back in 2009.
Obviously, this is just a tune-up bout for Jermain Taylor to shake the ring rust off and Jessie Nicklow will be used as a gauge for Jermain Taylor to see where he’s at right now as far as how capable he is to compete with the top dogs of the 160 lbs division. This is his ‘last chance saloon’ so to speak – if he doesn’t impress and totally dominates Jessie Nicklow, then as far as this boxing fan is concerned he has absolutely no place being mentioned in potential fights with the top fighters and champions in his division such as P4P breakout star Sergio Martinez, WBO champion Dmitry Pirog and exciting but flawed undefeated WBC champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. as well as many others.
Taylor has been on the receiving end of three brutal KO losses in his last few ‘big’ fights – he was riding high in his career before he ran into undefeated star (at the time) Kelly Pavlik. Taylor was winning the fight on points until Pavlik was able to turn the fight around and batter Taylor en route to a 7th round TKO win. This started a trend for Taylor as he suffered subsequent KO losses against Carl Froch and Arthur Abraham in the 12th rounds of both contests. Jermain Taylor suffered internal bleeding on his brain when he was knocked out in the 12th round by Arthur Abraham, causing him to step away from boxing indefinitely.
When a fighter gets brutally knocked out, it’s always going to take that little something out of them, be it mentally and/or physically as they can become ‘gun-shy’ and be reluctant to throw punches and more often than not the fighters punch resistance becomes weaker. He’s also a little older now at almost 34 years of age.
His trainer Pat Burns disagrees, here are his thoughts that he shared with ESPN Sports earlier in the year;
‘”I like everything I’m seeing, but most important, both neurologists he has seen have given him 100 percent clearance to compete and, based on what I’ve seen, he looks outstanding. He’s very hungry. He has the look he had when he was on the way up.
“He went through a lot and lots of guys would have thrown in the towel, but he has a determination to come back and capture the title, and that’s pretty exciting. I’m glad we were able communicate and work this out. He’s very hungry, which is great to see, and he’s done a lot of maturing.”
Lou Dibella on the other hand, his former promoter declined to comment.
So, can Jermain Taylor rewind the hands of time and make a splash in his former division, where he had most of his success? Supposedly Taylor is now re-energized, re-focused, re-dedicated AND has the added bonus of having his former trainer Pat Burns once again in his corner.
But if I can be brutally honest, he has division gate-keeper written all over him right now, his body has taken too much punishment in his last few fights and he’s not getting any younger. The year 2005 seems like it was a long time ago for Taylor.
But who knows what’s in store for Taylor? We’ll just have to wait and see – December 30th live on Showtime.
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