By Edward Chaykovsky, photo by Gavin Lesnick

Former champion Jermain Taylor (33-4-1, 20KOs) is moving forward with his plan to return to the ring.

Taylor has been out of the ring since last October, when he captured the IBF world title from Sam Soliman. He was eventually stripped in connection to his mounting legal troubles.

The boxer has three pending legal cases.

In the first case, Taylor is accused of shooting his cousin outside Taylor's Arkansas residence last August. The second case stems from Taylor opening fire and threatening a family after a Martin Luther King Jr. parade in Little Rock, Arkansas in January. And the third case is related to Taylor beating up a patient at his rehabilitation center.

Since May, Taylor was being held without bail at the Pulaski County jail.

But now the court has decided to grant him bail and released him in order to travel to Florida to begin training camp for a return fight.

County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson, based on a recent mental evaluation, set bail at $25,000.

Arkansas Online reports that Taylor is already a free man. Johnson ordered that Taylor be drug-tested weekly while at the camp.

Taylor's longtime trainer, Pat Burns, was instrumental in the boxer's release and spoke highly of him to the court.

Burns told Judge Johnson that he believes Taylor is "emotionally prepared to abide by camp rules" and that Taylor "got caught up with drugs and alcohol and made some stupid mistakes." Burns said Taylor wants to get "his career back on track."

A jury trial has been set for Taylor in December.