It appears that Jermain Taylor will be taking a hiatus from boxing and dropping out of the Super Six Tournament. The following press release was sent out by Taylor's team:
LITTLE ROCK, January 12, 2010 - Jermain Taylor (28-4-1, 17KO's) former undisputed middleweight champion has made a decision regarding his future boxing career. Taylor, who was a participant in SHOWTIME Sports World Boxing Classic last fought on October 17th in a losing battle against Arthur Abraham in Berlin, Germany.I'm going to take some time off from the sport of boxing and take myself out of SHOWTIME Sports World Boxing Classic tournament. It's important that I give my body and mind some much needed rest, because I have been boxing for nearly 20 years," said Taylor. "I plan on keeping myself in shape and making a return to the sport sometime in the future. This was not an easy decision for me, having discuss it with my family, trainer, friends and my adviser Al Haymon, because I'm a very competitive person-but I know this is the smart road for me to take. I want to thank SHOWTIME Sports for everything and I wish the best for my 5 counterparts who will continue on in the Super Six tournament. Most of all, I want to thank the many fans for their continued support.
It's been a long time coming. He's lost three of his last five bouts by knockout, including two knockouts that literally came in the last minute. About a month ago, his promoter Lou DiBella publicly dropped Taylor from his promotional rolls, stating that he thinks Taylor should retire for health reasons and that he didn't want to support Taylor continuing to fight. Best of luck to Jermain, and here's to hoping you got out early enough to avoid any major problems down the road.
What does this mean for the Super Six Tournament? As reported by Dan Rafael last week, it appears that the winner of the upcoming fight between Allan Green and Sakio Bika will be Taylor's replacement. This probably also means that the fight between Andre Ward and that winner will have to be delayed, pushing back the timetable for the tournament to some extent. No matter whether Green or Bika is the replacement, either one should be more competitive than Taylor, who seemed to have more fire lately, but who seemed badly faded from where he was at his peak.