Former undisputed middleweight champion Jermain Taylor says the reason he lost to Kelly Pavlik last time was simple: He underestimated the challenger.
Saturday on HBO pay-per-piew, Taylor (27-1-1, 17 KOs) will get his chance against Pavlik (32-0, 29 KOs), the man who violently snatched the title from him with a dramatic seventh-round knockout in Atlantic City, N.J., in a rematch at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.
Taylor, +145 for this fight on WagerWeb.com, feels he took boxing for granted and did not do the preparation necessary in the fights leading up to his Pavlik defeat and sees it as a wake-up call.
Having been ahead on the judges' scorecards when Pavlik stopped him and himself close to stopping his opponent in the second round, Taylor is in no doubt will be able to finish the job if he gets in this position again.
"I think about it [the second round] all the time," Taylor said. "What comes into my head is how I could have trained harder or finish him off in the second round. And all the should haves, could haves in the world is not going to change anything.
"He beat me for the championship, but you know, can he do it again, or did he just get lucky? If I get him in that position again, I'm going to finish him."
Taylor (27-1-1, 17 KOs) says he plans to do some Ghostbusting on Saturday, a play not only on the hit 1984 movie but also on Pavlik's nickname of "The Ghost." Taylor is so serious about exacting revenge that he's thinking of walking to the ring to Ray Parker Jr.'s theme song.However, Taylor's new trainer, Ozell Nelson, saw that loss to Pavlik coming. Taylor was lackluster in wins over Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks before Pavlik knocked him out last September.
Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward got the boot after the loss to Pavlik, but the problem was Taylor. Nelson, a father figure to Taylor, knew it, though he wouldn't say it in so many words.
Taylor wasn't in shape and didn't train with the passion he did when he was largely unknown and eager to prove a point.
"Jermain just didn't have the gas in the tank to do the job," Nelson said of the fight with Pavlik. "If Jermain had been in the kind of shape he should have been in, when Kelly went down (in the second round) it would have been all over, and you and I wouldn't be having this conversation. But Jermain was running on fumes.
"Taylor agrees.
"I didn't finish him in the second round because I didn't have the upper-body strength I should have. I tried to get him out of there, but he wouldn't go - and I was tired," Taylor said.
Taylor's supporters are encouraged by the weight limit of 166 pounds for the rematch, as opposed to the middleweight limit of 160. The stipulation means that even if Taylor wins, he won't recapture the world middleweight title - but that doesn't seem to matter to Taylor.
"This is the most important fight of my career, right now," Taylor said. "I'm putting it in Coach's [Nelson's] hands, but I'm putting it in mine too, because I know exactly what I have to do.
"I got my butt kicked the last time in that ring and I'm a better fighter because of the lost. We had a great training camp and I'm in good shape. I'm at the top of my game and I know I will come away with the victory.
"Bet on boxing at WagerWeb.com
No comments:
Post a Comment