By Robert Jackson: In about 3+ weeks Jermaine Taylor returns to the ring against English phenom and 168lb WBC Champion Carl Froch. Froch considers himself on the par of Joe Calzaghe, that remains to be seen. A great deal of the fanfare regarding Taylor has died down since his 2 losses to The Ghost Kelly Pavlik while Froch’s own stardom and stock is rising. Froch seems to want to conquer the American market sooner rather than later and gets kudo’s for wanting and making this fight with Taylor..
It has been said that Taylor originally dismissed a fight against Froch but was talked into it by mentor and trainer Ozell Nelson. In this writers opinion Froch was the ONLY fight for Jermaine Taylor, having squandered away any advantages gained after 2 victories over Bernard Hopkins. What must Taylor do to rise back up to the top? The first thing Taylor has done already and that was to end the uneasy trainer-fighter relationship with Emmanuel Steward. As great a trainer and Steward is there seemed to be great tension between the 2 men which was especially apparent in the corner between rounds of several of their fights together. Ozell Nelson made a good showing of his coaching skills where as chief 2nd for the Pavlik rematch Taylor closed the gap between himself and Pavlik albeit in a losing effort.
Taylor’s 2nd fight with Nelson at the helm was an impressive drubbing of 2000 Olympics teammate Jeff Lacy. The second thing that Taylor must do and without a television sponsor this should be easy to do, is fight the tough fights, not the easy ones. Taking on Froch IMO is just that a ‘tough fight’! The final thing that Taylor MUST do is defeat Froch no small task but Taylor has the skills and the pedigree to win. Expect a give and take match with Taylor returning to his pre- Hopkins form and getting the decision or taking Froch out in the late rounds! Just a 1st step in Taylor’s rise back to the top.