By Jim Cawkwell

Photo © Josh Barron/FightWireImages.com

 

More than a year since his coronation, opinions are still divided on the matter of Jermain Taylor as the true middleweight champion of the world. Where some applaud his overthrowing of the old guard, others criticize his lack of authority in doing so and lament the interruption of Bernard Hopkins’ reign.

 

It was a triumph not of youth over age, but of hunger over self-satisfaction. Hopkins’ discipline allowed his aging body to defy time, but it also awoke in him a pomposity great enough to suggest that his notoriety and statistical achievement would sustain him regardless of his physical effort. Honest commitment and consistency enabled Taylor to ascend the throne; however, the shaping of his own legacy has just begun.

 

Being the gracious Southern gentleman to Hopkins’ loquacious tyrant did not ease Taylor’s transition. Instead, prevailing fan opinion seems to take Taylor’s honesty for weakness, while much preferring Hopkins’ hyperbolic bluster in kind with many of today’s champions whose verbose offerings are often more provocative than their fistic ones.

 

Further differentiating Taylor’s championship career from those of his peers is that he has fought it amongst fighters possessing talents superior to his own. Though athletically gifted and physically imposing, Taylor’s tactical acumen and adaptive intuition were in need of renovation. In search of the dimensions such a recognizable champion requires, Taylor’s behavior became congruent with contemporary ideals.

 

Pat Burns made Taylor the undisputed champion, but was fired in favor of Emanuel Steward. Whether Taylor was decent enough to do the deed himself is immaterial; at the very least, he did not oppose it. With a commodity as precious as Taylor possesses, even one so humble and forthright cannot afford principles to halt his progression.

 

Harsh appraisals followed the unveiling of Taylor under the Steward regime. Unfortunately, this was because it coincided with “Winky” Wright’s decision to emerge from behind his defense to produce his most aggressive performance to date.

 

Expecting to break down a watertight guard and zero in on rare openings, Taylor suddenly found Wright in his face. Once again it was only Taylor’s competitive spirit and rugged persistence that saw him through to the end. If the instinct to adapt and overcome can be absorbed, that will be Taylor’s task in the months, or perhaps years ahead.

 

Meanwhile, it’s time to pay attention to the key demographic. A select few give credence to Taylor’s attempts to become the best by fighting the best; most others just want blood. To satisfy that craving, Taylor needs an assignment unlike those of his three previous championship endeavors.

 

Rather than the crafty, cunning, unnerving, and unpredictable, Taylor needs a challenge he can meet head on; an opponent that will allow the public to see him perform with the power, excitement and dominance he could not, and perhaps was not realistically expected to produce against Hopkins or Wright.

 

Enter Kassim Ouma.

 

Taylor’s pre-championship grooming involved the disposal of several fighters whose presence at 160-pounds was unnatural. Criticism duly accompanied those bouts, and became accentuated by Taylor’s inability to handle true middleweights with similar ease. However, after three fights amongst the noble art’s cognoscenti, and still undergoing a pugilistic reconstruction, Taylor might be eligible for a pass on this one.

 

If the objective is a clean, entertaining win over a reputable opponent, then Ouma more than fits the criteria. The popular Ugandan is not an elite operator, but indeed a former champion with an active, aggressive style that should mesh well with Taylor’s. The match would qualify as a regression only if Taylor failed to exhibit significant improvements from his time with Steward.

 

Expect not to be overwhelmed by a completely revitalized and revamped Taylor, but rather look for glimpses of one suggesting a transformation from exuberant competitor to commanding force. A signature of Steward’s influence is an air of confidence that Taylor needs to inherit in order to not only assert over his opponents, but indeed also his role as champion.

 

He once stated that he would be happy to be half the champion Hopkins became. Now is the time, and the aim should be, for Taylor’s sake and the middleweight division’s alike, to surpass Hopkins.

 

Taylor’s neglect of the media at this stage speaks louder than anything he himself might say. Lacking the arrogance that leads a fighter to ignore the need for reinvention, he will not rest on his accomplishments. Humility it seems may be Taylor’s secret and deadliest weapon.

 

Extraordinarily devoid of ego, he has begun the task of carving himself into the vision of a champion he sees in his mind, opening himself to teachings that have destroyed fighters and created legacies. He is reconfiguring the mechanics of his body so that he might forge a legacy worthy of his predecessors.

 

This December, it is expected that Wright will defeat Ike Quartey and reserve a place to fight for the middleweight championship in 2007. If Steward’s devices succeed as ever they have, Wright shall be received by a fighter that is a champion in much more than name.

 

Contact Jim Cawkwell at jimcawkwell@yahoo.co.uk