Jermain Taylor: Looking for respect

Jermain Taylor is 27-0-1 with 17 knockouts, and he’s defended his two middleweight belts four times since he won them from Bernard Hopkins in July 2005.But he hasn’t exactly received a lot of kudos.

Plenty of experts thought he lost his defense against Winky Wright, but he was able to retain his belts with a draw. Several in the know also thought Taylor never won the belts from Hopkins in the first place, but the judges did. And after a subsequent defense against Hopkins and the aforementioned push with Wright, Taylor had the audacity to defend his belts against former junior middleweight champions Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks.

Instead of respect, Taylor has for the most part received criticism for not living up to his potential, and for taking on a couple of little guys so he can perhaps keep possession of his belts just a little longer. Taylor on Monday was asked about all the unflattering talk about his career, and just how much it bothers him.

“At first, it did,” Taylor said, “but it comes with the territory. I could have looked great against them (Ouma and Spinks), and still would have been criticized for whatever reasons. I can erase all of that with Kelly Pavlik and I plan on doing just that.”

Bingo! That’s exactly what will happen if Taylor decisively defends his belts against the hard-hitting, top-ranked Pavlik on Saturday at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. (HBO will televise).

Pavlik, see, is being picked by a lot of experts – including this one – to take Taylor’s two crowns. These days there are plenty of fighters who get ranked No. 1 by a governing body who are not deserving of such status. Pavlik is very deserving. The 25-year-old from Youngstown, Ohio, is 31-0 with 28 knockouts. In his last fight in May, he stopped another top contender, Edison Miranda, in the seventh round. Pavlik has stopped his past eight opponents. Taylor, on the other hand, has gone the distance in his past five fights. He can perhaps be forgiven for not stopping Hopkins or Wright, but he never even came close to stopping Ouma or Spinks inside the distance.

Indeed, Taylor can shut up everyone with a clear victory over a fighter some are already putting in their top 10 pound-for-pound polls even though he hasn’t won a major title – yet.

“I’m very motivated for this fight because a lot of people are picking Kelly to win this fight and I have taken a lot of negative hits lately,” Taylor said. “So, I’m very motivated to make a statement with this fight.”

Part of the knock on Taylor is that he doesn’t appear to utilize his God-given ability to its fullest. One minute, he is staying busy and looking every bit the world champion that he is. The next he seems almost confused, as if he is having a hard time sustaining his rhythm. The feeling here is that Taylor, even at 29, has not yet reached his potential. But the answers he gave for this interview make one think that he just might be starting to get it. In other words, he knows he has underachieved, but there is no way in heck he is going to stop until he fulfills every ounce of promise.

“I’m still learning as a professional fighter,” Taylor said. “I will be the first one to admit that. I just have to be patient and learn from my mistakes and continue to mature and better myself mentally and physically. Everything will fall into place for me. I’m confident of that.”

Taylor might have something here. OK, so he hasn’t come off as a terrific middleweight champion. But he believes that fighting Hopkins back-to-back and then three consecutive left-handers in Wright, Ouma and Spinks is going to pay dividends in the long run. Fighting a tricky guy like Hopkins followed by a tricky lefty like Wright followed by the other two lefties was, in Taylor’s mind, all good. He may have looked discombobulated at times, but it is he who will reap the benefits.

“Actually, fighting Bernard twice and Winky was great experience for me,” Taylor said. “Bernard and Winky are real professionals and I learned a lot fighting them, which was good experience I can put under my belt. I think fighting three southpaws back-to-back-to-back was a real adjustment for me. I can’t think of any fighter who has fought three southpaws in a row where they were all good fighters.”

Taylor, of Little Rock, Ark., is a terrific guy. One would be hard-pressed to find an athlete who loves his home state the way he does.

“I bleed Arkansas,” he said. “If you notice, I don’t have ‘Little Rock’ on my trunks, I have ‘Arkansas’ because home means a lot to me and I like representing my home state. It’s very important to me not to go home losing a fight. I know everyone loses sometimes, but that’s something I don’t want to think about.”

Yes, Taylor is that athlete who loves everyone and is loved by everyone. Reporters might criticize his showing in the ring, but they could never get on him about his character because he treats people with respect and humility.

But in this day and age, that doesn’t seem to go as far as it used to. Until Taylor goes into that ring foaming at the mouth, ready to take apart his opponent and show no mercy, he is going to be looked at with some disdain because he is not taking full advantage of his physical talents.

Taylor can change all that Saturday. But in the minds of many, that’s not going to happen because Pavlik is loaded with talent as well as the disposition to put it to good use.

The time is now for Taylor to make us appreciate him. The heat is on.