By Harry King
LITTLE ROCK — A loser in three of his last four fights, Jermain Taylor is fortunate to have another opportunity to grab the gold ring.
Almost 31, Taylor knows that the Super Six World Boxing Classic will be his last ride on the merry-go-round if he fails. Taylor is one of two former middleweight champions in the round-robin tournament. Also signed on are WBC super middleweight champ Carl Froch, WBA super middleweight champ Mikkel Kessler, and a couple of Olympians on the rise.
The six have a combined record of 161-4-1 and four of the five blemishes belong to Taylor. His experience and his close call against Froch in April helped him get an invite. The tournament to determine the best super middleweight is the brainchild of Ken Hershman, senior vice president of Showtime Sports, who somehow sold five promoters on the idea.
Hershman’s next assignment is peace in the Middle East.
Details were announced recently in New York and Taylor only had to look around at the tournament participants to realize that other fighters stay away from the fatty foods and remain in shape year around. Bernard Hopkins, the man Taylor beat for the middleweight title in 2005, is still winning title fights in his 40s because his weight does not fluctuate.
Extra pounds have always been a problem for Taylor. One reason he moved from middleweight to supper middleweight was because of the eight-pound bump in weight limit to 168. Anybody who has ever done a crash diet can agree with those who believe his lack of stamina comes from losing 20 pounds or more at training camp.
He might have been pushing 190 when he began training for the Froch fight. Taylor had an insurmountable lead on two of the judges’ scorecards when the referee correctly stopped the fight with 14 seconds remaining, underlining the stamina question.
Supposedly, he is working with a nutritionist, running, and working out a couple of times per week — a first-time regimen for Taylor that can be interpreted as an acknowledgment of the problem.
If Taylor has truly come to grips with the weight issue, he will be around 173 pounds when he begins training camp at George Foreman’s place in Houston on Aug. 8. In that case, he can spend his time on strategy and boxing skills instead of sweating and starving.
He doesn’t know anybody in Houston so temptations should be less than they were in Miami where he trained for Froch.
Arkies who were in attendance for Taylor-Froch said the last-round happenings reminded them of Arkansas-Tennessee in 1998. The parallels included working most of the contest to build a lead, running out the clock, big goals within reach, and no time to rebound from a disaster.
The tournament is set up so that each fighter is guaranteed three big fights during the next 15 months and Taylor’s first is against Abraham (30-0) in Germany on Oct. 17. After that, Taylor will fight gold medalist Andre Ward and Kessler, whose only loss was to Joe Calzaghe.
Fighters get two points for a W, one for a draw, and zero for an L. To encourage action, bonus points are available for a knockout or a TKO. The top four point-makers advance to the semifinals.
At the moment, Taylor is in the same category as a golfer who owns a single major championship. It is title No. 2 that distinguishes Angel Cabrera or Retief Goosen from the Todd Hamiltons of the worlds.
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Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.
