Tough fights not new to Taylor
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- In the past 18 months, Jermain Taylor has won the undisputed middleweight championship by beating Bernard Hopkins, beating Hopkins in the rematch and retaining the title with a hard-fought draw against Winky Wright.
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| Taylor |
An impressive run, to be sure, for the 2000 Olympic bronze medalist who has earned millions and reached the peak of boxing at age 28.
Yet, the prevailing thought inside Team Taylor is that the Little Rock native still can get better.
"He went from fighting 'B' level talent to top-level fighters. It was too big of a jump," Hall of Famer Emanuel Steward, Taylor's head trainer, said of Taylor's jump up in class to fight Hopkins and Wright. "The more time I spend with him, the more I realize how much talent he has that has never been tapped. He has the talent to become one of the great middleweights ever."
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| Ouma |
Six-foot-1 Taylor (25-0-1, 17 KOs) expects to show his considerable talent in front of a hometown crowd at the Alltel Arena on Saturday night (HBO, 10 ET) when he defends against former junior middleweight titleholder Kassim Ouma (25-2-1, 15 KOs), who at 5-foot-8 is undersized perhaps, but is a volume puncher with skills and heart.
"He may be little, but he's tough," Ozell Nelson, Taylor's assistant trainer and father figure, said of Ouma.
| At Friday's weigh-in, middleweight champion Jermain Taylor tipped the scales at 159½ pounds, while challenger Kassim Ouma weighed in at 159 for Saturday night's bout (HBO, 10 ET) in Little Rock, Ark. |
Added Taylor promoter Lou DiBella: "We know this isn't an easy fight. Jermain doesn't want easy fights."
The card also will feature the HBO debut of welterweight Andre Berto (15-0, 13 KOs), a 2004 Haitian Olympian who lives in Florida and is regarded by many as the best pro prospect to come out of the Athens Games, against Philadelphia's Miguel Figueroa (25-4-1, 14 KOs).
For Taylor, his first hometown title defense is big news in Arkansas, even though DiBella openly admits that ticket sales are lagging. Although he still expects more than 10,000 in the house, he believes the overwhelming fan support of the Arkansas Razorbacks football team at last week's SEC championship game in Atlanta and many of those same fans making plans to attend the team's upcoming bowl game have eaten up the money that otherwise could have been spent on Taylor's fight.
DiBella and arena executives even reshuffled their layout to reduce the price of 2,000 available seats to $45 or less.
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| Huckabee |
That surprising move, however, didn't dampen the enthusiasm of those who turned out for Thursday's final news conference in the lobby of the famed Peabody Hotel, where ducks seem to be as common as Taylor fans.
Even Arkansas first lady Janet Huckabee, needing a cane to walk -- not because she and her husband, Gov. Mike Huckabee, are lame ducks, but after having double knee replacement surgery last month -- was seated at the dais to support Taylor.
And you've got to love a little good-natured trash talk from the governor's feisty wife, admittedly Taylor's biggest fan, who limped to the podium, turned to Ouma, smiled and said, "Not lame ducks or Peabody ducks ... but sir, I just want to say you're going to be a dead duck."
Ouma laughed, taking the remark in the spirit in which she said it, as did the rest of the room.
She turned back to Taylor, adding, "You promised me a knockout, son, so you better do it for me."
The news conference had a lighthearted feel, even when talk turned to Ouma's difficult youth as a child soldier kidnapped into the rebel military in his native Uganda.
There was also the poignant moment when Ouma introduced his 9-year-old son Umar, who came to the United States last week. Until then, Ouma, who escaped Uganda's civil war, hadn't seen his son since he was an infant.
However, when Taylor, the star of the show and the final speaker, made his remarks, the mood turned just a little dark when he talked about how he had watched a recent Laila Ali fight on TV a few nights earlier and seen the camera pan to her famous father, Muhammad Ali, who suffers from the effects of Parkinson's disease.
"His daughter was fighting, and he was in the crowd. I saw how he was shaking and couldn't really speak too good," Taylor said. "I wondered how many times does it take to get hit until I wind up like that? How many fights can you take before it shows up? I was thinking about that. But if that's the price I have to pay so my family, so my wife, so everybody who surrounds me can live nicely, that's the price I have to pay.
"I don't care about having 100 fights, Hall of Fame, [or] 'I'm No. 1' or 'I got all the belts,'" he continued. "That don't mean nothing to me. All I care about is supporting my family. To do that, I have to beat Kassim Ouma. That's what I'm fighting for. I fight to feed my family and so they can live nice. I respect this man's [Ouma] dream and hope he accomplishes all that he wants, but I couldn't care less about it because come Saturday night, he's getting knocked out."
Ouma, smiling throughout the remarks, said he wasn't concerned about being an underdog or about Taylor's size advantage.
"I'm a middleweight now. I can't even make 154 no more," Ouma said. "I'm not worried about the size. I've been sparring with light heavyweights."
If Taylor gets past Ouma, who often throws more than 100 punches per round, then Taylor's team has a two-fight plan it hopes will come to fruition, a plan with the support of HBO.
If Taylor wins, he probably will face "Contender" Season 1 winner Sergio Mora, whom Taylor beat in an amateur fight, on April 14.
If Taylor takes care of Mora and super middleweight champ Joe Calzaghe defeats Peter Manfredo Jr. ("Contender" runner-up to Mora) on March 3, then Taylor plans to move up to 168 pounds for a major pay-per-view showdown with Calzaghe in the summer or fall.
The possibility of those fights, particularly the one with Calzaghe, doesn't seem to be distracting Taylor. Rather, he views those carrots as motivation against Ouma.
"It's a motivation all the way because I know that in boxing, you have to win fights," Taylor said. "I like being the middleweight champion of the world. That is a big motivation on its own, and I know other fighters are coming to take those belts, so I'm motivated very much against anyone I fight. When the time comes that I'm not motivated anymore, then it's time to get out of the boxing business.
"My focus is on Kassim Ouma. I have to get past him or there won't be a Mora or Calzaghe. I try not to look ahead too much because I can lose focus, and that would not be good at all. I have seen some fighters talking about what they are going to do down the road and end up losing the fight they should have been focused on. I'm not going to make that mistake."
Calzaghe, though, is clearly in the back of his mind.
"Calzaghe is a big fight for me, and he's one of the best," Taylor said. "If we both keep winning, I'm sure that fight is going to take place."
Not in Taylor's immediate plans is a rematch with Wright, who easily defeated Ike Quartey last week via unanimous decision. Wright, who bitterly disputed his June draw with Taylor, turned his back on $5 million for a rematch because he insisted on financial parity.
"I don't want to hear his name anymore," DiBella said of Wright. "If he wants to come to the table, his people know my number. I want Jermain to worry about fighting. I want Emanuel to worry about making him the best fighter he can be. If [Wright] wants to fight, the fight was always there. I am not mentioning the man's name again. If they call and they want to make a deal on terms that are favorable for the middleweight champion, then it's something to talk about. Otherwise, we will move past him.
"When he wins the middleweight title, he can say 50-50. Until then, he's not getting it. We're not chasing the man. Period."
Taylor, it seems, also is sick and tired of hearing Wright's name.
"I'm a boxing fan as well as a fighter, and I want to see great fights. If a rematch can be made and it's acceptable, we can do it again," he said. "I wanted him for this fight, but I don't think he really wanted a rematch. If he is fine with being No. 2, then he will be a No. 2 because no way will I split 50-50 with him. If he likes being No. 2, then stay No. 2."
That's because Taylor, with a win over Ouma, has every intention of remaining No. 1.
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.
