JERMAIN TAYLOR

The life of a boxer is not an easy one and only a handful of boxers actually make any significant money or gain popularity from this brutal sport. Boxing often can leave competitive boxers with physical and mental health issues long after they have retired from the sport due to the constant heavy punching endured in the boxing ring.

A boxer needs to develop physical and the mental qualities to make him a success and must withstand the pain and fatigue that he suffers during training and then in the boxing ring.

One such boxer who did make it in the sport of boxing was Jermain “Bad intentions” Taylor who fought some of the best boxers in the world and managed to beat them. Taylor was once considered the most talented boxers of our generation.

As an amateur Taylor held numerous boxing titles and achieved a bronze medal in the Sydney Olympics at the age of 21 years old.

Taylor was often referred as “the American boxing star with a fighting attitude that welcomed big fights.” Taylor managed to gain impressive wins against hall of fame boxers like Bernard Hopkins, Winky Wright, Felix Trinidad, Shane Mosley and Cory Spinks.

Taylor fought the best without hesitation and received heavy punching blows in the process eventually starting to lose fights by being knockout and then after a long absence from the ring he fought Arthur Abraham suffering a loss and a severe concussion and bleeding on the brain.

This is when the significant problems started in Taylor’s life with many observers and doctors commenting that Taylor was suffering from long term damage to his brain known as “Traumatic Brain Injury.”

However despite Taylor posting erratic videos on the social media and being charged with two felonies after shooting his cousin in the leg, Taylor managed to pass his boxing medical test and obtain a licence to continue his boxing career.
On 9th October 2014 Taylor managed to do what most critics were calling “mission impossible” and managed to capture the IBF Middleweight title with a convincing win against the champion Sam Soliman.

Taylor had defied the odds and won a world middleweight title again and finally things started to look more promising for the American.

Taylor the boxing champion was due to defend his IBF title in a couple of months, but has again been involved in an incident where he has allegedly pointed a gun at a man’s head and threated to shoot three small children at an Arkansas parade.

On 21st January 2015 it has been reported that Taylor has now been booked back into jail after the judge has revoked his bond due to the previous firearms case. Taylor is now certain to be remanded and receive a lengthy jail sentence.

The Taylor story represents how easy it is to fall from grace and at one time he had boxing status, respect and prestige, but now will probably not be able to fight as a professional boxer ever again.