Sam Soliman wants to avenge Hopkins against Jermain Taylor

By Raj Parmar - 08/24/2014 - Comments

soliman5441.jpgBy Raj Parmar: IBF middleweight champion Sam Soliman (44-11, 18 KO’s) has indicated he has added incentives for victory when he defends his title against former middleweight champion Jermain Taylor (32-4-1, 20 KO’s) later this year on October 8.

Soliman claims he is a big fan of middleweight legend and current light heavyweight champ Bernard Hopkins, whom Taylor dethroned back in 2005 to take the middleweight crown and in the process put an end to Bernard’s record of 20 straight successful title defences.

“Taylor defeated one of my idols in a Bernard Hopkins. I have admired Bernard for what he does in the ring and how he conducts himself outside the ring. He will upset Sergey Kovalev in November. I want to get revenge against Taylor for Bernard. I will defeat Taylor!” Soliman stated to Fightnews.com.

After beating Hopkins, Taylor enjoyed a brief run as middleweight king until he got stopped by a rising Kelly Pavlik in 2007. What followed was very tough stretch for Taylor as he lost four of five fights and seemingly lost all chances of ever reclaiming his past championship glory. Especially concerning was his knockout loss to Arthur Abraham in 2009, as after the fight Taylor was showing signs of brain damage when he could not remember details of what had taken place.

Jermain took two years off after the brutal loss to Abraham and has now won four fights in a row, albeit against very modest competition. A key change he has made is reconnecting with original trainer Pat Burns, who guided Taylor on an undefeated streak up to the title win over Hopkins. After taking out Hopkins, Taylor fired Burns and trained under Emmanuel Steward and then later childhood coach Ozzel Nelson. The results were a severe drop-off in performance as the success he attained with Burns was never able to be replicated.

Now with Burns back at the helm, Taylor hopes to become a champion again for the first time since 2007. However he will not only be fighting against a champion looking to hold onto his title, he will be fighting a man defending his title and also looking for payback on behalf of Hopkins.



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