Jermain Taylor
Jermain Taylor ( born August 11, 1978 in Little Rock, Arkansas ) is an American boxer.
Amateur career
Taylor won in 1998 and 1999 at the prestigious Golden Gloves tournament, the 1998 Goodwill Games, he finished on a third place, he lost in the semifinals against Gaidarbek Gaidarbekow.
In 2000 he qualified for the Olympic Games in Sydney and reached there in the light middleweight bronze medal. He suggested, among others, Felix Sturm, Germany ( 19:14 ), which is still boxed there under his birth name Adnan Ćatić and lost in the semifinal against Jermachan Ibraimow, Kazakhstan (RSC 4 ).
Professional career
As a professional, he is boxing at middleweight. His debut took place on 27 January 2001, Lou DiBella. In 2003 he won the continental title the WBC and defended it three times, including against former light middleweight titlist Raul Marquez and former WBA titlist in middleweight William Joppy.
On 16 July 2005, he won against the middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins scarce and controversial on points, thus securing the belt of the WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO. In October 2005, however, he IBF title was again denied because he did not compete against the mandatory challenger of the association, but instead Hopkins gave the chance for a rematch on December 3, 2005. Taylor won there again extremely tight on points.
On 17 June 2006, he fought against the southpaw and official challenger Ronald " Winky" Wright, (who until now been regarded as the strongest Halbmittelgewichtler twice and Shane Mosley and Felix Trinidad had hit ), draw. For this fight, Taylor received his to date, by far the largest market of approximately $ 5,000,000.
In December 2006, he defeated Kassim Ouma from Uganda, another southpaw in the light middleweight. Since these two fights were not only sanctioned by the WBC and the WBO, by the WBA, WBA recognized him then its title from. On 19 May 2007, he successfully defended the title against two remaining Cory Spinks, the third southpaw in a row. As in the battles against Kassim Ouma and against Wright Taylor could not really convince and narrowly won on points.
His second mandatory defense denied Jermain Taylor on 29 September 2007 against his unbeaten compatriot Kelly Pavlik. Taylor acted very offensive to everyone's surprise and beat Pavlik in the second round with a combination to the ground. At this point the challengers appeared to be just before the KO. However, it succeeded Pavlik Taylor in the seventh round to push a shock series into a corner and attach several direct hits, in which the defending champion fell to the ground. The referee jumped at this moment in between and finished the fight with a TKO win for Pavlik.
Jermain Taylor then made a contractually agreed rematch clauses is to fight against Pavlik again directly. Since Taylor had however announced in advance of the fight, they would continue in any case his career at super middleweight, it was agreed for this matchup on a weight limit on the middleweight division, so that Pavlik not the WBC and WBO titles even in the case of a defeat would have lost. The duel on February 16 in Las Vegas, however, was again won by Pavlik, who was able to prevail over the distance of twelve rounds on points and Taylor therefore its second defeat inflicted as a professional boxer.
On 15 November 2008, then came to the important fight against Jeff Lacy. Both boxers since the 2000 Olympics know each other and are good friends. In a well-run battle, Taylor was ultimately unanimous decision durchsetzen.Damit Taylor managed to report back for the two defeats against Kelly Pavlik.
On April 25, 2009, he challenged the WBA champion Carl Froch and went clear first on points lead. In the third round he beat Froch down and dominated the fight in the first half. In the last round he went himself to the ground and could get up just before counting. Shortly before the end of the last round of the fight after another heavy hits in favor Frochs was canceled.
Taylor was invited despite the defeat to the prestigious ' Super Six World Boxing Classic " and punched in the opening fight of the tournament on 17 October 2009 in Berlin O2 World Arena against the Ascended from the middleweight Arthur Abraham. After another good start but Taylor got in another fight increasingly leveling problems, so that he in the twelfth round a few seconds before the end of the fight hard co went. In January 2010, Taylor announced that he would withdraw from the tournament.
After a two year break, Taylor returned in 2011 with a TKO victory in the eighth round over Jessie Nicklow in the ring back. In 2012, he won another battle against the undefeated until then Caleb Truax on points, although he did in the ninth round went down.