By Jason Kim: Former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Jermain Taylor (29-4-1, 18 KO’s) is expected back in the ring in April against possibly #11 World Boxing Council ranked contender Joachim Alcine (33-2-1, 19 KO’s), according to Dan Rafael. It might not necessarily be the 35-year-old Alcine, but someone similar to him and well known in the division.

They don’t want to put Taylor with someone at the very top of the middleweight division just yet, because he’s only had one fight in the past two years and it’s going to take a while before they put him in risky fights. But they want to find a recognizable world class fighter near the bottom part of the middleweight division to match the 33-year-old Taylor against in April in a fight that will be televised by SHOWTIME.

Taylor defeated Jessie Nicklow by an 8th round TKO last December in an impressive performance where Taylor fought almost the entire using mainly his left hand after injuring his right hand in the 2nd round.
Taylor is reportedly looking to get back in the ring as soon as possible, as he’s missed so much time after suffering a reported brain bleed in getting stopped in the 12th round by Arthur Abraham in October 2009 in the Super Six tournament.

Taylor, a middleweight for most of his career, was out of place in the super middleweight division and didn’t look good in losing to Carl Froch and Abraham. I don’t think Taylor was knocked out because he was facing anyone bigger than him, but rather he’s had conditioning problems since 2005 and they seemed to have gotten worse starting in 2007 when he was stopped in the 7th round by slugger Kelly Pavlik.

Taylor was gaining too much weight in between fights and then having to use his training camps as mini fat farms to take off all the weight. It left him drained and weak when it came to his fights and he’d wear down and get stopped in the later rounds.