Jermain “Bad Intentions” Taylor: From Undisputed Middleweight Champion Fighting for Belts Now Fighting For His Life!
By Joshua “City” Brewer
Bad intentions. A fitting nickname for a fighter who brought the type of ferociousness to the table when an opportunity for a stoppage presented itself. Also, a reminder that the best of times can sometimes be the worst of times. Hailing from Little Rock, Arkansas, a state where I too was born and raised, Jermain “Bad Intentions” Taylor, 33-4-1, 20 KO’s, was at once a bright story rising from the natural state. Taylor represented the United States, in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, bringing home a Bronze Medal at light middleweight. This helped to prep Taylor for the road ahead as he eventually turned pro and started to make a splash.
Taylor was a big, athletic middleweight who possessed a very solid jab. He seemed to be a wrecking ball on a journey as he came up the ranks getting knockout after knockout. Eventually, as the competition rose the knockouts declined. He passed his first major test in December, 2004, when he defeated Washington, D.C., standout William Joppy via unanimous decision. A knockout win over Daniel Edouard followed. This put him in line for the biggest fight of his career against one of greatest fighters to ever lace up a pair of gloves
On July 16, 2005, Taylor found himself standing face to face with the then undisputed middleweight champion of the world, Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins. It was essentially the battle of the old guard in Hopkins taking on new blood looking to dethrone the king in Taylor. There was much talk leading up to the fight and it lived up to the expectation in terms of tense moments. The early part of the fight belonged to Taylor as he was the busier and more aggressive fighter. Taylor brought the aggression as Hopkins slowly worked his craft. As the fight went on Hopkins started to take over, landing unanswered right hands on multiple occasions. Even hurting Taylor late. The veteran Hopkins essentially forced Taylor to grow up right before the audience’s eyes. When the final bell sounded the judges awarded the fight to Taylor via split decision. He had unseated the long running champion and essentially became a star.
Taylor rematched Hopkins five months later and came away with a unanimous decision victory this time around. Like the first fight, there were still those who felt that Hopkins deserved the nod as the championship wasn’t definitively taken from him. While Taylor won the ultimate prize, like many young fighters who faced Hopkins, it took more out of him in those two fights than one could have imagined. Taylor met Ronald “Winky” Wright in his next fight and fought to a tough draw that could have essentially gone either way. A couple fights later he found himself in an unfamiliar situation as he was knocked out in the seventh round of his title defense against Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik. It was an action fight that saw Pavlik go down in the second before making a dominant comeback. In February, 2008, Pavlik again defeated Taylor via unanimous decision in their immediate rematch. This was essentially the last of Taylor as we knew him.
After a win over Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy, Taylor suffered back to back devastating knockout losses to Carl “The Cobra” Froch and Arthur Abraham, the latter of which forced him out of the Showtime Super Six tournament and initiated a 26-month layoff. Taylor finally made a comeback and even picked up the International Boxing Federation (IBF) middleweight title in October, 2014. By this time, Taylor had started to run into legal issues which have become a recurring issue to this day.
In August, 2014, Taylor was charged with two felonies after shooting his cousin during an altercation. The issues didn’t stop there. In 2015, he was jailed on five felony counts of aggravated assault and received a suspended jail sentence in May, 2016. Fast forward to July 18, 2017, Taylor was once again arrested. This time it was for biting his girlfriend and threatening to kill her. Already on a suspended sentence and on probation, if convicted, things will only get worse for Taylor before they get better. It’s a sad state of affairs.
One minute you’re riding high as the undisputed middleweight champion. The next minute you’re broke and in jail with no real means of support. Unlike other sports, boxing doesn’t have a commissioner or any form of rehabilitation that would allow for Taylor to get much needed help. This is where the sport of boxing can be reshaped for the future. Far too many times boxers stay in the game longer than they should due to money. This only puts them further at risk. Of course, everyone is responsible for themselves, but Taylor provided entertainment on behalf of the sport of boxing. The fans loved it and boxing thrived from it. In the end, we’re all human. I believe that a change will ultimately come. It’s just a matter of when.
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