The Thing We Forget About Jermain Taylor

Published

9 years ago

February 2, 2015

It might be easy to forget this now, but at one time, Jermain Taylor was this close (imagine my thumb and index finger a hair’s breadth apart) to ruling the world.

Taylor stormed through his first 23 opponents with relative ease. A natural middleweight, Taylor cut an imposing figure once the robe came off in his corner. Chiseled, powerful, and athletic, he often looked too big for his class compared to his often over-matched opponents. He was also handsome, likable, and humble. He punctuated every interview with a “yes, sir” that you only hear in the military or from a person like Taylor with old-fashioned manners. He looked like one hell of a package.

Despite his sterling record, there were boxing concerns. He kept his hands low and could be a little robotic with his footwork. There were questions about his defense, stamina, and as typical of prospects growing into contenders, his opposition as well. I still recall Larry Merchant saying one night on HBO when critiquing Taylor, “He has a lot of chinks in his armor, but look at all that armor!”

After stepping up in class with victories over high class fighters Raul Marquez, William Joppy, and Daniel Edouard, Taylor got his title shot against the great Bernard Hopkins on July 16, 2005. BHop was already a legend then and had not lost a fight in over 12 years. While Hopkins has always been a slow starter, he gave a particularly odd performance that night. While Taylor never had Hopkins in trouble, he was so much more active than the champion through the first 6 rounds that he was able to build up a big lead going into the back half of the fight. As the fight wore on, Hopkins’ skill and experience began to take over and Taylor began to look fatigued. Still, Hopkins had simply given away too many rounds for two of the three judges and lost a split decision to the challenger.

Taylor was now a world champion, but the decisiveness lacking from the victory had many questioning its veracity. That was more than a little unfair to Taylor. Had Hopkins’ hand been raised that night the decision would have been just as questionable, if not more. With all the criticism surrounding the fight, Taylor gave Hopkins an immediate rematch, less than 5 months later. Given a second chance, Hopkins curiously fought almost the exact same fight. Once again, sleepwalking through the first half of the fight and imposing his will far too late to make up for all the listless rounds that came before. This time, the judges scored the bout as a unanimous decision victory for Taylor with triplicate scorecards of 115-113.

However, the rematch did little to burnish the image of Taylor as a legitimate champion. The questions about his stamina which may have been more of a murmur before his back to back scraps against BHop became a full throated and legitimate criticisms. Taylor looked gassed by the end of both contests and many felt his two title bout victories said more about BHop’s strategy than they did about Jermain’s performance. In retrospect, this seems deeply unfair. Neither fight resulted in a dominant performance, but who ever looks all that good against Hopkins? Not to mention, this was a near-prime BHop, not the crafty Methuselah defying the hands of time as he fights on the cusp of a half century on earth.

There is exactly one fighter in the history of the sport with two wins over Bernard Hopkins. His name is Jermain Taylor. End of list. For some reason, that’s not seen as significantly as it should be.

It would have been perfectly reasonable for Taylor to step down in class for his second title defense. Instead, he took on the highly skilled, defensive-minded genius known as Winky Wright. If it was hard to look good against Hopkins, it was downright impossible to do so against Wright. That fight ended in a draw, with one judge each favoring Taylor and Wright by identical 115-113 scores and the third judge turning in a dead even card of 114-114. Again, the decision was disputed and Taylor’s champion bona fides were questioned.

After the Wright bout, Taylor replaced his long-time trainer, Pat Burns, with the great Emanuel Steward, in an effort to escalate Taylor’s progression. They would not prove to be a great match.

Perhaps reasonably, Taylor’s team selected his next two fights against high quality opponents who were nonetheless moving up in weight and not considered serious threats. Taylor won a unanimous, if uninspiring decision over former IBF Super Welterweight champion Kassim Ouma and then a troubling split decision victory over Cory Spinks, a once and future Super Welterweight champion himself. While Ouma went out of his way not to make the fight, the light punching Spinks was very competitive and even hurt Taylor late in the fight. Spinks would have seemed like a perfect opponent for Taylor to roll through and look sharp against. However, Spinks’s craft showcased many of the deficiencies in Taylor’s skill set and added a new one. His chin. Because if Cory Spinks can hurt you, anyone can.

Despite fighting four world class opponents after taking the title from Hopkins, Taylor found himself still searching for respect. Why was he unable to knock out Ouma and Spinks? Why in five title fights had he not showcased at least one dominant performance? These were the questions being asked when Taylor took to the ring against Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik in September of 2007. The fight started well for Taylor and in the 2^nd round, he landed a big right hand and multiple follow up blows that sent Pavlik to the canvas. Taylor appeared to be on the verge of the signature win he craved. However, Pavlik survived the round and as the fight wore on, he managed to creep ever more into Taylor’s kitchen. In the 7^th round, Pavlik landed a huge right that spirited Taylor across the ring and into the corner. He would not make it out. A series of brutal uppercuts and hooks sent Taylor slumping to the floor and the fight was justly stopped with Taylor leading significantly on all scorecards.

Taylor fought Pavlik again less than five months later. While Taylor ended the fight on his feet, Pavlik was awarded a clear unanimous decision victory. After consecutive losses, Taylor fired Steward and replaced him with Ozell Nelson. As great as Manny was, he could never get Taylor to modify his style and strategy. It didn’t seem to be an issue of stubbornness on Taylor’s part as much as it just appeared that the fighter simply couldn’t make himself overcome his own bad habits. The frustration on Steward’s part during their bouts together was palpable. Steward would tell Taylor what to do, Taylor would reply with his customary “yes, sir” and then go do the opposite. After his termination, Steward would later admit that he just couldn’t get Taylor to do what he wanted him to do.

What has followed since in the career of Jermain Taylor has been positively heartbreaking. Taylor moved up to Super Middleweight and after taking a unanimous decision over the fading Jeff Lacy, he found himself in a title fight against Carl Froch. Like his first fight with Pavlik, Taylor sent Froch to the canvas in the 2^nd round with a hard right hand. It was the first time Froch had ever been down. Heading into the final round, Taylor had sizable leads on 2 of the 3 scorecards. All he needed to do was stay ambulatory and the fight would have been his. It was not to be. Froch put Taylor down in the 12^th, and even though he was able to make it back to his feet, the onslaught by the British fighter left Taylor crumbling against the ropes before the referee stepped in and save Taylor from further punishment.

Again, Taylor was right on the cusp of something special, only to have it slip from his grasp once more.

Taylor next competed in Showtime’s Super Six tournament for Super Middleweights that included Froch, Andre Ward, Andre Dirrell, Mikkel Kessler, and what was to be his first and only opponent in the tourney, the undefeated former Middleweight Champion, Arthur Abraham. In the 12^th round, with only 10 seconds left in the fight and Abraham ahead on all cards, the German fighter scored a devastating knockout victory over Taylor that could only be described as frightening. Taylor eventually got up and was taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a severe concussion and experienced memory loss. Whatever Taylor could have been remained in the ring that night.

After a 26 month sabbatical from boxing, Taylor returned and fought a series of journeymen. He didn’t look particularly great against any of them and barely survived a 9^th round knockdown against Caleb Truax in claiming a unanimous decision win. KO victories against the 22-15-1 Raul Munoz and the 32-12-4 Juan Carlos Candelo followed, leading to a title shot against nominal IBF Middleweight Champion Sam Soliman. In a barely watchable fight, the title holder suffered a significant knee injury midway through the fight and went into survival mode thereafter. Taylor took a unanimous decision and for the first time in over seven years, could once again call himself a champion. Even if it was only of the alphabet variety.

Jermain Taylor’s ring performance since that first fight against Pavlik has not only been largely lackluster, but deeply concerning. The brutal KO losses to Pavlik, Froch, and Abraham have left the once gifted fighter deeply diminished. Many onlookers wondered aloud whether Taylor should have been fighting at all. Unfortunately, in boxing, you can almost always find at least one sanctioning body that will let a fighter into the ring, regardless of condition. You could also argue those around him could have done a better job of protecting him from himself. This also is a common refrain in our sport.

However, it has been outside of the squared circle where things have truly gone awry. Little more than a month before his fight with Soliman, Taylor was arrested and charged with shooting his cousin twice in Taylor’s Little Rock, Arkansas home. He pleaded not guilty and made bond in time for the Soliman fight, but the disturbing incident revealed concerns about Taylor’s mental capacity.

Long known to be one of the most polite fighters in the game, the reports of erratic behavior that began to trickle out were in opposition to the Jermain Taylor people thought they knew. Stories of moodiness, forgetfulness, and fits of anger began to circulate. Those issues reared their head again recently when on January 19^th of this year, Taylor was arrested a second time for gunplay. This time he was charged with five felony counts of aggravated assault and three felony counts of endangering the welfare of a minor, as well as misdemeanor drug possession charge for a small bag of marijuana that was found on his person.

Taylor was to defend his title on February 6 against Sergio Mora. That fight has been called off and an Arkansas judge has ordered Taylor into a state hospital for a mental evaluation. For perhaps the first time in a very long stretch of years, Taylor is exactly where he’s supposed to be. His attorney, Hubert Alexander, may have said it best after the judge’s ruling when he told reporters, “Everybody is saying this isn’t the Jermain Taylor they know. We’re trying to figure out who in the heck it is.”

So much of Taylor’s career can be viewed through the lens of unfulfilled promise. As a prospect and a contender, he was often spectacular. After becoming a champion, his flaws were revealed and never corrected. All of that is true, I suppose. But I think that view on its own is far too uncharitable in looking at Taylor’s stint at or near the top of the fight game. The thing I will remember most about Jermain Taylor is that from the first Hopkins fight to his crushing loss against Abraham, he fought EVERYBODY. In just over a four year period, Taylor fought ten consecutive current or former world champions at or near their prime. He fought guys that no one ever looks good against and he scrapped with guys who have clubs for fists and paid a terrible price for his courage.

That price is in full view now. Jermain Taylor is broken. The rest of his life outside the ring is far more important than anything he did—or god forbid, will do–inside of it. We should remember him as more than a cousin shooting punchline though. In an era when the best fighters and their promoters often avoid the toughest fights to preserve their status, Taylor was different. Taylor was brave. He was almost great. What a pity it has reaped him so little benefit.

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Ramon Cardenas Channels Micky Ward and KOs Eduardo Ramirez on ProBox

Published

7 hours ago

April 24, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Ramon-Cardenas-Channels-Micky-Ward-and-KOs-Eduardo-Ramirez-on-ProBox

The Wednesday night bi-monthly series of fights on the ProBox TV platform is the best deal in boxing; the livestream is free with no strings attached! Tonight’s episode was headlined by a super bantamweight match between San Antonio’s Ramon Cardenas and Eduardo Ramirez who brought a caravan of rooters from his hometown in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico.

Cardenas, coached by Joel Diaz, entered the contest ranked #4 by the WBA. He was expected to handle Ramirez with little difficulty, but this was a close, tactical fight through eight frames when lightning struck in the form of a left hook to liver the from Cardenas. Ramirez went down on one knee and wasn’t able to beat the count. It was as if Cardenas summoned the ghost of Micky Ward who had a penchant for terminating fights with the same punch that arrived out of the blue.

The official time was 1:37 of round time. Cardenas improved to 25-1 with his14th win inside the distance. Ramirez, who was stopped in the opening round by Nick “Wrecking” Ball in London in his lone previous fight outside Mexico, falls to 23-3-3.

Co-Feature

In an upset, Tijuana super welterweight Damian Sosa won a split decision over previously undefeated Marques Valle, a local area fighter who was stepping up in class in his first 10-round go. Sosa was the aggressor, repeatedly backing his taller opponent into the ropes where Valle was unable to get good leverage behind his punches.

The 25-year-old Valle, managed by the influential David McWater, was the house fighter. This was his 10^th appearance in this building. He brought a 10-0 (7) record and was hoping to emulate the success of his younger brother Dominic Valle who scored a second-round stoppage of his opponent in this ring two weeks ago, improving to 9-0. But Sosa, who brought a 24-2 record, proved to be a bridge too high.

The judges had it 97-93 and 96-94 for the Tijuana invader and a disgraceful 98-92 for the house fighter.

Also

In a fight whose abrupt ending would be echoed by the main event, 34-year-old SoCal featherweight Ronny Rios, now training in Las Vegas, returned to the ring after a 22-month hiatus and scored a fifth-round stoppage over Nicolas Polanco of the Dominican Republic.

A three-punch combo climaxed by a left hook to the liver took the breath out of Polanco who slumped to his knees and was counted out. A two-time world title challenger, Rios advanced to 34-4 (17 KOs). Polanco, 34, declined to 21-6-1. The official time was 0:54 of round five.

—

The next ProBox show (Wednesday, May 8) will have an international cast with fighters from Kazakhstan, Japan, Mongolia, and the United Kingdom. In the main event, Liverpool’s Robbie Davies Jr will make his U.S. debut against the California-based Kazakh Sergey Lipinets.

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Haney-Garcia Redux with the Focus on Harvey Dock

Published

2 days ago

April 22, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Haney-Garcia-Redux-with-the-Focus-on-Harvey-Dock

Saturday’s skirmish between Ryan Garcia and WBC super lightweight champion Devin Haney was a messy affair, and yet a hugely entertaining fight fused with great drama. In the aftermath, Garcia and Haney were celebrated – the former for fooling all the experts and the latter for his gallant performance in a losing effort – but there were only brickbats for the third man in the ring, referee Harvey Dock.

Devin Haney was plainly ahead heading into the seventh frame when there was a sudden turnabout when Garcia put him on the canvas with his vaunted left hook. Moments later, Dock deducted a point from Garcia for a late punch coming out of a break. The deduction forced a temporary cease-fire that gave Haney a few precious seconds to regain his faculties. Before the round was over, Haney was on the deck twice more but these were ruled slips.

The deduction, which effectively negated the knockdown, struck many as too heavy-handed as Dock hadn’t previously issued a warning for this infraction. Moreover, many thought he could have taken a point away from Haney for excessive clinching. As for Haney’s second and third trips to the canvas in round seven, they struck this reporter – watching at home – as borderline, sufficient to give referee Dock the benefit of the doubt.

In a post-fight interview, Ryan Garcia faulted the referee for denying him the satisfaction of a TKO. “At the end of the day, Harvey Dock, I think he was tripping,” said Garcia. “He could have stopped that fight.”

Those that played the rounds proposition, placing their coin on the “under,” undoubtedly felt the same way.

The internet lit up with comments assailing Dock’s competence and/or his character. Some of the ponderings were whimsical, but they were swamped by the scurrilous screeching of dolts who find a conspiracy under every rock.

Stephen A. Smith, reputedly America’s highest-paid TV sports personality, was among those that felt a need to weigh-in: “This referee is absolutely terrible….Unreal! Horrible officiating,” tweeted Stephen A whose primary area of expertise is basketball.

Harvey Dock

Dock fought as an amateur and had one professional fight, winning a four-round decision over a fellow novice on a show at a non-gaming resort in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. He says that as an amateur he was merely average, but he was better than that, a New Jersey and regional amateur champion in 1993 and 1994 while a student New Jersey’s Essex County Community College where he majored in journalism.

A passionate fan of Sugar Ray Leonard, he started officiating amateur fights in 1998 and six years later, at age 32, had his first documented action at the professional level, working low-level cards in New Jersey. The top boxing referees, to a far greater extent than the top judges, had long apprenticeships, having worked their way up from the boonies and Dock is no exception.

Per boxrec, Haney vs Garcia was Harvey Dock’s 364^th assignment in the pros and his forty-second world title fight. Some of those title fights were title in name only, they weren’t even main events, but, bit by bit, more lucrative offerings started coming his way.

On May 13, 2023, Dock worked his first fights in Nevada, a 4-rounder and then a 12-rounder on a card at the Cosmopolitan topped by the 140-pound title fight between Rolly Romero and Ismael Barroso. It was the first time that this reporter got to watch Dock in the flesh.

Ironically (in hindsight), the card would be remembered for the actions of a referee, in this case Tony Weeks who handled the main event. Barroso was winning the fight on all three cards when Weeks stepped in and waived it off in the ninth round after Romero cornered Barroso against the ropes and let loose a barrage of punches, none of which landed cleanly. Few “premature stoppages” were ever as garishly, nay ghoulishly, premature.

With all the brickbats raining down on Weeks, I felt a need to tamp down the noise by diverting attention away from Tony Weeks and toward Harvey Dock and took to the TSS Forum to share my thoughts. Referencing the 12-rounder, a robust junior welterweight affair between Batyr Akhmedov and Kenneth Sims Jr, I noted that Dock’s Las Vegas debut went smoothly. He glided effortlessly around the ring, making him inconspicuous, the mark of a good referee. (This post ran on May 15, two days after the fight.)

Folks at the Nevada State Athletic Commission were also paying attention. Dock was back in Las Vegas the following week to referee the lightweight title fight between Devin Haney and Vasyl Lomachenko and before the year was out, he would be tabbed to referee the biggest non-heavyweight fight of the year, the July 29 match in Las Vegas between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr.

The Haney-Garcia fight wasn’t Harvey Dock’s best hour, I’ll concede that, but a closer look at his full body of work informs us that he is an outstanding referee.

—

While the Haney-Garcia bout was in progress, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman threw everyone a curve ball, tweeting on “X” that Devin Haney would keep his title if he lost the fight. Everyone, including the TV commentators, was under the impression that the title would become vacant in the event that Haney lost.

Sulaiman cited the precedent of Corrales-Castillo II.

FYI: The Corrales-Castillo rematch, originally scheduled for June 3, 2005 and aborted on the day prior when Castillo failed to make weight, finally came off on Oct. 8 of that year, notwithstanding the fact that Castillo failed to make weight once again, scaling three-and-a-half pounds above the lightweight limit. He knocked out Corrales in the fourth round with a left hook that Las Vegas Review-Journal boxing writer Kevin Iole, alluding to the movie “Blazing Saddles,” described as Mongo-esque (translation: the punch would have knocked out a horse). After initially insisting on a rubber match, which had scant chance of happening, WBC president Jose Sulaiman, Mauricio’s late father, ruled that Corrales could keep his title.

Whether or not you agree with Mauricio Sulaiman’s rationale, the timing of his announcement was certainly awkward.

Haney’s mandatory is Spanish southpaw Sandor Martin (42-3, 15 KOs), a cutie best known for his 2021 upset of Mikey Garcia. A bout between Haney and Martin has the earmarks of a dull fight.

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In a Shocker, Ryan Garcia Confounds the Experts and Upsets Devin Haney

Published

4 days ago

April 21, 2024

David A. Avila

In-a-Shocker-Ryan-Garcia-Confounds-the-Experts-and-Upsets-Devin-Haney

Its good to be crazy. Like a fox.

Ryan “KingRy” Garcia knocked down WBC super lightweight titlist Devin Haney three times to remind everyone of his fighting abilities in winning by majority decision on Saturday.

“I just knew what I could do,” Garcia said.

Fans will not forget the lanky kid from Victorville, California now.

Garcia (25-1, 20 KOs) fooled everyone in playing crazy weeks before the fight, then showed shocking power to hand Haney (30-1, 15 KOs) his first loss as a professional at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Haney’s WBC super lightweight title was not at stake for Garcia because he weighed three pounds over the limit.

After Garcia seemingly acting out of control on social media, Haney’s guard must have slipped in the first round during the first few seconds as Garcia connected with that hellish left hook and Haney, with a look of shock in his eyes, almost went down. He barely survived the first round.

“He caught me with it,” said Haney.

During the next few rounds, Haney proceeded to advance toward Garcia seemingly fully aware of the lethal left hook. He used feints and rights to score with a busier approach as Garcia seemed cocked and ready to counter with a left hook.

In the fourth round it seemed Haney was confident he had regained control of the fight, but every time he opened up with more than a two-punch combination Garcia reminded him whose hands were faster and more dangerous.

Though Garcia seldom jabbed he seemed bent on looking for the right moment to unleash his deadly left hook. And every time the Southern California fighter opened up with a combination he scored and Haney dare not exchange.

A few times Haney smiled as if signifying he escaped.

In the seventh round Haney looked to punish Garcia’s body and instead was met with a three-punch combination included a left hook to the chin and down went Haney slumped on the ground. He managed to beat the count and as soon as Garcia came within reach Haney wrapped his arms around him with a python grip. Despite the warnings by referee Harvey Dock, the fallen fighter would not release and Garcia impatiently fired a weak punch during the break. The referee deducted a point from Garcia though he could have deducted a point from Haney for not obeying his instructions to release his hold. Haney actually went down three times in the round but only one was counted by the referee.

From that point on Haney was very cautious but still looking to win by decision.

Though Garcia kept using a shoulder-roll defense that left his body exposed, he would retaliate with three and four punch combinations that usually Haney could defend against other fighters.. But Garcia’s blazing combinations were too fast to defend.

In the 10^th round Haney looked to attack and was countered by Garcia’s right and a blinding left hook to the chin and another two blows that sent the former undisputed lightweight champion to the floor again.

It didn’t look good for Haney to survive.

Garcia walked into the 11^th round still composed and never out-of-control He dared Haney to exchange and when within striking distance Garcia unleashed another lightning combination and down went Haney again with a defeated look.

Both fighters had fought each other as amateurs six times so there were no surprises between them. But Garcia’s power and speed were superior and that was the difference in a professional fight.

In the final round both were cautious with Garcia’s combination punching proving too dangerous for Haney to open up. Garcia celebrated early as the round ended confident of victory.

After 12 rounds Garcia was seen the victor by majority decision 112-112, 114-110, 115-109.

“You really thought I was crazy,” Garcia told the interviewer and the crowd. “You guys hated on me.”

Other Bouts

Arnold Barboza (30-0) won a curious split decision victory over United Kingdom’s Sean McComb (18-2) in a 10-round super lightweight fight. McComb’s long reach and busy southpaw style gave Barboza trouble. But he managed to win the fight though the crowd was not pleased.

Bektemir Melikuziev (14-1, 10 KOs) defeated France’s Pierre Dibombe (22-1-1) by technical decision after eight rounds due to a cut on his eye from an accidental head butt. It was a very competitive super middleweight fight.

Costa Rica’s David Jimenez (16-1, 11 KOs) outworked John “Scrappy Ramirez (13-1, 9 KOs) in a 12-round scrap to upset the Los Angeles based fighter. After a few close rounds Jimenez simply bullied his way inside and forced Ramirez against the ropes and unloaded his guns.

After 12 rounds two judges saw it 117-111 and 116-114 all for Jimenez.

“I’m a hard-working man from Cartago I come from nothing,” said Jimenez. “My corner told me I had to work inside.”

Charles Conwell (19-0, 14 KOs) stepped on the gas early with vicious body shots and uppercuts and blasted through the resilient Nathaniel Gallimore (22-8-1, 17 KOs) for several rounds. After a brutal fifth and sixth round the referee halted the one-side beating in favor of Conwell who was fighting for the first time under the Golden Boy banner.

Another winner was Sergiy Derevyanchenko (15-5) by decision over Vaughn Alexander (18-11-1) in a super middleweight match.

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