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Jermain Taylor Boxing
Autograph
A super Magazine advertisement signed by Boxing's
WOrld Champion - Jermain Taylor.
On July 16, 2005, 2000 US Olympic Bronze Medallist,
Jermain Taylor, earned his first world championship with
a hard-fought decision win over future hall-of-famer, Bernard
Hopkins. Boxing has a new star, one who encapsulates all
the values we like to see in our sports heroes - class,
hard work, enthusiasm, accessibility, and talent.
Jermain Taylor
£35.00
It was a bout that captured the imagination
of the sporting public, and catapulted Taylor into a seemingly
endless stream of media appearances and celebrations. On
August 2, 2005, Taylor's promoter, Lou DiBella, took the
recently crowned champion to former President Bill Clinton's
Harlem office. During the meeting, Clinton praised Taylor
for his recent achievement and boxers in general for the
sacrifices they make in pursuit of their dreams. Taylor,
presented the former President with a replica of the robe
he wore into the ring prior to the Hopkins fight in July.
"It was amazing," said Taylor of
meeting Clinton. "I always wanted to meet him; it was
an honor."
But even though Taylor is the toast of the
sports world after his stirring victory over Hopkins, his
road to glory wasn't paved with gold.
Taylor and his three younger sisters were
abandoned by his father when he was five years old. "When
I look at where I come from, if it was a picture that I
could show you, it would almost bring you to tears to see
how poor we were," said Taylor.
Christmas time was even tougher than usual
to deal with. "Christmases were hard," said Taylor.
"There were a couple of times when I didn't have Christmas."
There was a lot of love in the house though,
and the family persevered through the rocky times. An in
a way, Taylor's speedy maturation process would come in
handy when he began competing in the world's hardest game.
Admirably, Taylor refuses to talk negatively
about the father than left him and his family. "Even
though there are a lot of things in my head that go against
my father, in my heart I still love him to death, and every
time I see him, my heart still jumps," said Taylor.
"It jumps up and down just to know he's my father."
But if there is a silver lining in the clouds
of Taylor's childhood, it's he is determined not to repeat
the mistakes of his own father. "Its changed me so
much because I know you have to spend time with a child,"
said Taylor. "If not, the child will still love you,
but he won't know you. I know my dad, but I don't know him.
I don't know what he's like; I don't know his mean face.
I want my kids to know me, to know what I like, and what
I don't like - to know my facial expressions. At the same
way for them. I want to know the way they look when they're
made, when they're sleepy. Little things like that are part
of being a dad."
The boxing bug bit Taylor at age 13 and even
though he took a severe beating the first time he stepped
through the ropes, he trudged back to the gym, eager to
learn and compete.
Enter Ozell Nelson. "If it weren't for
him, there's no telling where I would have been," said
Taylor of Nelson who not only handles training duties for
Jermain with Pat Burns, but who has also been a surrogate
father to him. "Him and his wife took me in. I used
to go over to their house and eat, sleep, and do everything,
just like I was a part of the family - and they had kids
of their own. Now that I look back on it, it must have been
hard because he wasn't rich. But he still tried to bring
me in and love me like I was one of his sons. A kid, and
especially a young man, needs to have somebody who he can
look up to, because if he doesn't, he's going to look to
the streets. It's easier to pick up a bad habit than a good
habit. Coach taught me how to work. He taught me that your
word is the only thing a person can have. And if you mess
your word up, you're worth nothing. He taught me that if
you put in 100%, it will definitely come out 110%. And I
believe that."
With a strong support system in place, a Spartan
work ethic, and substantial talent, Taylor garnered strong
notices on the Arkansas amateur circuit as he and Nelson
traveled around. But, in the politically charged atmosphere
of amateur boxing, Taylor was ignored until he started making
some noise with his fists nationally.
Taylor was determined to get top the Olympics.
To get there, he piled up victory after victory during his
amateur career. He brought home a Bronze medal for his efforts
at the 2000 US Olympic games, and the quietly charismatic
young man with loud fists was the center of much attention
from promoters, until he signed with DiBella Entertainment
after the Sydney Games. "Lou was my only choice to
represent me as a professional," said Taylor. "He
was honest and straightforward with me and he knows the
game. Most importantly, I trust him."
Jermain's professional career kicked off in
January 2001 as a part of DiBella Entertainment's "Night
of the Olympians". Facing a very experience fighter
in veteran, Chris Walsh, he showed poise beyond his years,
winning via TKO. Taylor put on an impressive display of
power, knocking the more experienced Walsh down twice before
the bout was halted in the 4th round.
Despite a string of impressive wins over subsequent
months, Taylor was seemingly ignored by many in the press,
who lavished praise on other members of the Class of 2000.
But with each successive month, some of Taylor's peers began
to fall behind, either beaten in the ring or taken down
by their reliance on their press clippings.
Jermain Taylor made his move. "I felt
like if I kept working hard and kept my head on straight,
there's no telling how far I could go," said Taylor
who truly arrived after a 5th round stoppage of Marco Primera
in March 2003.
Suddenly the boxing world embraced Taylor,
and was unable to ignore his jackhammer jab, concussive
left hook, and veteran's poise between the ropes. Yet none
of the acclaim, which includes modeling for Everlast, Vogue,
and GQ, and receiving the 2003 Most Improved Fighter award
from The Ring Magazine, affected Taylor. You won't see him
walking the streets with an entourage.
It's a maturity Taylor owes to his Arkansas
roots. "That's the thing about Arkansas," he said.
"It's so small that you don't have to have an entourage
or anything like that. I don't really need it. A person's
friends have a lot to do with how people act. If a person
has good friends, that's going to help them out a lot because
they don't have to do all this stupid stuff and deal with
peer pressure. I don't have to worry about that."
Taylor hopes this attitude will rub off on
America's youth, who are sorely in need of positive role
models. "I'm hoping that I can be a role model for
the kids," he said. "Not the earrings, the long
hair, the sagging pants and big clothes. I think kids need
a new role model."
In 2004, Taylor gave boxing fans a new star,
when he faced Alex Bunema in March, ten weeks after scoring
a violent first round KO of southpaw, Alex Rios in January.
Taylor's jab pumped like a piston all night, confusing and
frustrating his game opponent. He followed his jab with
crushing right hands and by the middle rounds, Taylor sensed
the feisty Bunema was wearing down. A left-right combination
put Bunema down on the canvas for the first time in the
7th round. Bunema beat the count but didn't last much longer
as Taylor pummeled him against the ropes. With Bunema slumped
down on a knee, the referee ended the onslaught. Taylor
improved to 20-0 and earned his 15th KO. Including that
stoppage, Jermain registered KO victories in eight of his
last nine bouts, facing stiffer competition every time.
Squaring off against former World Champion,
Raul Marquez in June 2004, Taylor dominated his more experienced
opponent throughout the contest. As the fight progressed,
Taylor had an answer for everything the cagey veteran threw
his way and knocked Marquez down in the 9th. He scored a
TKO triumph when, between the 9th and 10th rounds, Marquez's
corner, after seeing him absorb too much punishment, decided
he shouldn't continue.
In December 2004, Taylor took on former three-time
World Middleweight Champion, William Joppy. In the opening
minutes of the fight, both fighters exchanged stiff jabs,
body shots and combinations. From a crushing right uppercut
on the chin in the first round, followed by a punishing
left hook to the face in the 2nd round and finally a knockdown
of Joppy in the 5th round, it was clear that Taylor would
dominate the fight against the seasoned veteran. Taylor
scored a unanimous decision to retain his WBC Continental
America's Title. This impressive triumph established Jermain
a the force to be reckoned with in the middleweight division.
In February 2005, Taylor proved worth of the
title of "heir apparent to Bernard Hopkins" with
a devastating TKO victory over previously unbeaten Daniel
Edouard. In a bout many expected to be Taylor's toughest
test to date, Jermain dominated from the start, connecting
on over half of his punches thrown, dictating the fight
and using his jab and power shots to overwhelm Edouard.
As Taylor was connecting on a barrage of unreturned bombs,
the referee stopped the fight in round three.
Even though Taylor has dominated these high-profile
opponents, he refuses to get over-confident, and before
every fight he leaves the comfortable surroundings of home
to train with Pat Burns in Miami. "There are no easy
wins in the sport of boxing because everybody wants to be
champion," said Taylor. "And I think that in order
to train a person needs to be away from his surroundings
to take his mind off everything."
Throughout the peaks and valleys of a life
that was difficult to deal with at times, Jermain Taylor
has excelled and is truly happy now. "I'm happy the
way my life turned out," said Taylor. "I'm happy
with the people I signed with. I was not rushed. I was not
babied. And I'm right on schedule. There is no downside
to this. I love it all."
The only thing missing was a world championship
and in July, Taylor took care of that matter of business,
as he put all four world title belts around his waist. Now
comes the difficult battle of defending that undisputed
championship against all corners. Jermain is up to the task,
which begins with a December 3rd rematch with the man he
won the crown from - Bernard Hopkins.
"I plan on going in there, taking care
of business, and being a lot more aggressive," said
Taylor. I'll be smarter with my punches, and I just feel
that it's my time now."
Meet the new boss.
