Many are calling for Jermain Taylor to exit the Super Six tournament and even boxing. Who would replace him? (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

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With many calling for Jermain Taylor to drop out of the Super Six World Boxing Classic and even retire, talk is heating up on who would potentially replace the former middleweight champion should he indeed choose that route. Dan Rafael of ESPN.com has a report about an idea from promoter Dan Goossen:

All along, Showtime has mentioned Allan Green -- who, like Taylor, is promoted by DiBella -- as a possible first alternate in the event a fighter dropped out of the tournament.

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For what it's worth, Showtime also has the contractual right to continue the tournament without naming a replacement.

Green is a solid contender, but looked terrible in his last fight when he won a lethargic decision against Tarvis Simms on Oct. 2, a fight Showtime televised on "ShoBox" as a way to keep Green warm in the bullpen in case he was needed for the tournament. But his performance certainly didn't turn any heads or help his case that he should be the clear choice as a replacement.

However, Dan Goossen, who promotes [Andre] Ward, had an interesting idea about how to pick a replacement if one is needed.

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What Goossen proposed to me Sunday was that Green (29-1, 20 KOs) and [Edison] Miranda (32-4, 28 KOs) hook up in a rematch to determine a replacement (if one is needed) on the Nov. 21 Showtime telecast featuring the Kessler-Ward Super Six fight in the main event.

Goossen Tutor recently entered into a co-promotional deal with Miranda alongside Seminole Warriors Boxing, and they're looking to get his career back on track. Rafael mentions that it makes sense for the two to rematch to determine a possible alternate entrant to the tournament because Miranda beat Green back in 2007, but I don't really see it that way.

No, Green didn't really impress against Tarvis Simms, but Tarvis Simms isn't a bad fighter, and Green had not prepared for a tricky, crafty southpaw on that short notice. He had prepared to face orthodox slugger Victor Oganov, a completely different fighter. And yes, Miranda beat Green a couple years ago, but Green was quite ill at the time and had a large portion of his colon removed immediately after that fight.

Also, Miranda has changed since then. What was once a frightening brawler has now been debunked. Kelly Pavlik and Arthur Abraham ripped him apart, and Andre Ward easily outboxed him earlier this year. I genuinely see Green as not just more deserving than Miranda, but much more deserving. Miranda has lost his aggressiveness, and that and power that hasn't translated to the top levels too effectively were what made him a contender in the first place.

Green may not wind up being much more of a serious contender than Miranda has turned out to be, and Allan certainly has a Jekyll and Hyde sort of thing going on with his performances over the years. There's plenty of reason to doubt Allan Green, honestly, and to be totally fair to everyone, there's plenty of reason to doubt Green even actually wants to be in this tournament. He's talked big games before and then decided to not move forward with anything more than mid-level opponents. If Green were to get an offer and balk, I wouldn't be surprised. Would you?

Miranda, though he somewhat turned into a pumpkin, almost certainly would go through with it. He has nothing to lose and a lack of guts has never been his issue. My only contention is that I think there's still an open question of whether or not Allan Green would compete on this level; I'm 97% certain Miranda won't be able to, and that he'll be routed or knocked out by anyone in the field. I've already seen it happen against two of them.

As for Taylor, I admit I'm torn. I understand the concern. Rafael says Taylor "probably should not continue in the tournament for the good of his health," but his hospital stay in Berlin was far closer to a normal visit to the ER after any knockout loss than it was the week-long observation that was feared initially.

He's 31 and he got caught with a perfect right hand on the button. It happens. When you compound it with a bad stoppage against Carl Froch earlier this year and one in 2007 against Kelly Pavlik, though, you start to wonder if it's worth it. From a purely analytical standpoint, I don't like it because someone has to come in and inherit Taylor's first stage loss in the standings, and it just takes some of the starch out of the tournament when a guy pulls out after one loss.

But if his health is a concern, of course he shouldn't continue on. Here's hoping that's not the case. And if he doesn't have the desire to fight anymore, he shouldn't continue, either. There's nothing good comes out of a fighter that doesn't want to be there.

At the same time, I'm reminded of an undercard fight on Versus from a while back, underneath the Toney-Oquendo stinkbomb. In that fight, former Olympian Shawn Estrada put the hurt on club fighter Shaun Spaid, and the TV commentators bemoaned the mismatch for all they were worth. "Aw, this shouldn't even have happened," and the like. But I said then and say now that if Estrada drilling Spaid had happened in some small civic center or National Guard Armory somewhere, and nobody ever saw it except the people who were there, that fight would not have drawn one single complaint. Truth is fights like that happen all the time; Estrada had more of them after the Spaid bout.

Taylor's been stopped three times, but if he wants to fight and he's not putting his health at risk any more than is inherent because it's a violent sport and bad things do happen, then I see no reason for him to not keep fighting. A lot of guys have been knocked out a lot more than Taylor has, but they weren't knocked out in fights as high profile as his three have been.

I recently posted a bit about Israel Vazquez, who like Taylor has been a favorite of mine for a while now. It may seem I'm being contradictory compared to that, but it's not that I'm calling for Vazquez to retire, I was merely saying I don't think he'll ever be a top contender again. The same could certainly be said of Jermain, but I'm just not ready to throw in another two cents that he should retire. I don't know if he should or not, but if he thinks he should or a doctor thinks he should, then he probably should.

Also, Jermain may well see his retirement coming, but you know what two more fights would give him? Money on which to comfortably retire. You also have to consider that. I'm not saying that money should jump in front of safety, but it'll be part of his thought process.

It'll shake out fairly soon, I'm sure. I hope Jermain is well enough and still has the desire to keep going, but if he doesn't, then that's his call and either way, I wish him the best. He's had a fine career, no matter how disappointing it may seem right now, and he had a lot of pretty memorable scraps.