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Jermain Taylor
Statistics
Real name	Jermain Taylor
Nickname	Bad Intentions ("The Pride of Little Rock, Arkansas")
Weight	Middleweight
Nationality	American
Birth date	August 11, 1978
Birth place	Little Rock, AR
Style	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	27
Wins	26
Wins by KO	17
Losses	0
Draws	1
No contests	0

Jermain Taylor (born August 11, 1978, Little Rock, Arkansas) is the current Undisputed World middleweight boxing champion. Taylor currently has an undefeated record of 26-0-1, with 17 wins coming by way of knockout. He is married to former Louisiana Tech and former WNBA player Erica Smith-Taylor. He is a graduate of McClellan Magnet High School, Class of 1997.

Since early in his professional career, Taylor had been touted by many as being the heir apparent to middleweight king Bernard Hopkins. Taylor dominated all of his opponents at the beginning of his career, scoring wins over respectable fighters such as Raul Marquez and William Joppy (although both were at the end of their careers). On February 19, 2005, Taylor defeated the previously unbeaten Daniel Edouard via TKO in round 3. With this win, Taylor earned a title bout against Hopkins, who had unified the four major world middleweight titles and was rated by Ring Magazine as the #1 "pound for pound" boxer in the world.

Taylor fought Hopkins for the undisputed middleweight championship July 16, 2005. Taylor was more active than the slow-starting Hopkins early in the fight but missed most of his punches . Still winning the early rounds on the official score cards . Hopkins gradually became more active and maintained his dominating defense, Taylor continued to fight aggressively and won some of the middle rounds. In the last four rounds, however, Hopkins became the aggressor and battered Taylor, shrinking Taylor's lead on the scorecards. Nonetheless, Taylor survived the late surge and won the fight by controversial split decision to become the new undisputed middleweight champion.

The split decision was considered controversial by team Hopkins, most boxing fans and much of the ringside press. One judge, Duane Ford, awarded the twelfth round to Taylor, however if Ford had awarded it to Hopkins, then the fight would have been a draw. Hopkins argued that the decision was extremely controversial. However, the boxing commission decided that the twelfth round could have been scored either way. As listed in the original contract, Hopkins and his promoters would receive a rematch if Taylor won the first fight.

On December 3, 2005, Taylor won the rematch against Hopkins by a unanimous decision. Furthermore, Taylor had vacated his IBF title in order to make this fight happen. Overall, far fewer people considered this fight's decision as controversial as the first, even though Hopkins once again won many of the punch statistics^[1].

On June 17, 2006, Jermain faced off against the number one contender, Winky Wright. In a close fight, the judges scored it 115-113, Winky winning one and Jermain the other, and the final judge scoring it a 114-114 draw. The match displayed a contrast of styles; Winky used his peek-a-boo style to force Jermain into the corners where he had advantage. Jermain used his power punches to fight his way out of the corners, in an attempt to keep the fight in the middle of the ring where he was able to outwork Wright. Due to the draw decision, Jermain retained his title.

On December 9, 2006, Taylor fought Kassim Ouma at the Alltell Arena in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The match was made because Winky Wright pulled out of a December 2nd rematch, that had been previously scheduled. Jermain Taylor won by unanimous decision over Ouma retaining his title.

Taylor is known to be a huge fan of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks. Taylor gained immense popularity in the state for frequently mentioning how proud he was to be from Arkansas, and has visited the Arkansas campus to talk to various sporting teams. Taylor now sports a large Razorback on the back of his boxing robe, and "ARKANSAS" is spelled out prominently on his boxing trunks.

Currently, Taylor is scheduled to go head-to-head with light middleweight champion Cory Spinks May 19 in Memphis.

Taylor's amateur career was stacked with accolades beginning with the 1996 Under-19 Championship; he then won a pair of PAL Championships and National Golden Gloves titles and finished second and third at the 1997 and 1998 U.S. Championships respectively.

He then progressed to the next level in his amateur career by winning a bronze medal at the 1998 Goodwill Games.

A berth on the U.S. 2000 Olympic team followed. Taylor was the first boxer from Arkansas ever to compete in the Olympic Games. The progression of fights to qualify for a spot on the US Team was as follows:

• Defeated Fritz Roberts (Virgin Islands) TKO 2
• Defeated Luis Sierra (Puerto Rico) TKO 3
• Defeated Scott MacIntosh (Canada) on points
• Defeated Hely Yanes (Venezuela) on points

Competing at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Taylor ended up winning the bronze medal. The progression of fights at the Olympics was as follows:

Olympic medal record
Men's Boxing
Bronze	2000 Sydney	Light Middleweight

• Defeated Dmitri Usagin (Bulgaria) TKO 1
• Defeated Scott MacIntosh (Canada) on points
• Defeated Adnan Catic (Germany) on points
• Lost to Yermakhan Ibraimov (Kazakhstan) on points

• List of male boxers
• List of WBC world champions
• Reigning boxing champions

• Jermain Taylor's career boxing record
• Jermain Taylor.com
• Solid boxing Taylor's bio and profile

Preceded by Jermain Taylor	IBF Middleweight Champion 2005	Vacant Title next held by Arthur Abraham
	WBA Middleweight Champion 2005–present	Incumbent
	WBC Middleweight Champion 2005–present	Incumbent
	WBO Middleweight Champion 2005–present	Incumbent