Steward Steps Down As Trainer For Jermain Taylor

According to the latest boxing news, ESPN is reporting that trainer Emanuel Steward will no longer be training former middleweight champion Jermain Taylor. Steward had trained Taylor for little more than a year, seeing him through fights with Kelly Pavlik, Kassim Ouma, Winky Wright and Cory Spinks. Unfortunately, Taylor appeared to regress as a fighter during this time, knocking out none of his opponents, and struggling mightily with Ouma, Wright and Spinks.

Before being trained by Steward, Taylor had knocked out the majority of his opponents and had been very aggressive offensively. However, Taylor appeared to become much more of a boxer while under Steward’s guidlance, and was much less interesting to watch for many fans. Whether that is the fault of Steward or Taylor is largely unknown. Whatever the case, it appeared that Taylor wasn’t listening to Steward’s advice, as he would oftentimes not apply the corner advice that Steward was giving him inbetween rounds - advice that perhaps would have made Taylor a more effective fighter.

In his bout with Pavlik, Taylor appeared to ignore Steward’s advice telling him to box Pavlik rather than try to slug, much to Taylor’s detriment as he was eventually knocked out in the 7th round of the fight. Monthes earlier, many in the boxing world predicted that Steward wouldn’t be training Taylor for long, specifically because he appeared to be not listening to Steward in the corner.

For his part, Steward will continue training world champions Wladimir Klitscko and Kermit Cintron, as well as many other talented fighters. At this time, Taylor has yet to find a replacement for Steward. However, Pat Burns, a former trainer of Taylor’s, might take over the job though nothing is certain as of yet.