By Jim Dower: I’m still wondering why former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Jermain Taylor (28-3-1, 17 KO’s) was invited to Showtime’s Super Six tournament instead of fighters like Allan Green and Sakio Bika. It seems as if Taylor is partially being rewarded by his popularity and from things that he did as a fighter in the past rather than in recent times. It could be that Taylor is being given a second chance.

Whatever the case, Taylor is going to have to produce against the best fighters in the super middleweight division, starting with undefeated Arthur Abraham (30-0, 24 KO’s), who Taylor will be fighting on October 17th, at the O2 World Arena, Kreuzberg, in Berlin, Germany.

Abraham, 29, is plenty tough with big power in both fists and fighting style that could be characterized as explosive. Of all the fighters that are participating in the Super Six tourney – Andre Dirrell, Andre Ward, Carl Froch, Jermain Taylor and Mikkel Kessler – Abraham probably has the biggest power of any of them.

It may not matter, though, if Taylor can take care of business and box Abraham from the outside. Taylor has the physical tools to win this fight if he elects to use his hand speed, jab and above all stay on the outside. Taylor couldn’t do that in his last fight against Froch in April, losing the fight by a 12th round knockout.

Froch pressured Taylor all fight long, forcing him to trade shots when he didn’t want to and sapping the strength of Taylor. That’s the one big problem for Taylor. If he’s forced to fight hard for a certain amount of rounds, Taylor ends up wearing down and losing the fight.

However, if Taylor is allowed to fight at a slow pace in which he dictates the pace of the fight, Taylor can win because of his quick hands and excellent jab. This is why Abraham can’t afford to lay on the ropes covering up like he did in his fights against Edison Miranda.

That kind of style won’t succeed in taking the fight out of Taylor. For Abraham to win this fight he’s going to have to walk Taylor down and make him fight hard so that he expends energy at a rapid pace. Abraham will have to borrow the blueprint set by Froch and Kelly Pavlik, two fighters that went right at Taylor and succeeded in wearing him out.

When Taylor gets tired, he stays tired for long periods of time while he slowly recoups his energy. Froch stayed on top of Taylor and didn’t allow him to get his stamina back in the second half of their fight. Supposedly, Taylor is working on his stamina for his fight with Abraham.

I doubt that Taylor will be able to get much improvement in that area, because it just seems that Taylor’s stamina will always be a problem, even if he trains 24/7 on building up his endurance. More likely, if Taylor works too hard on his stamina, he probably will end up coming into the fight over-trained and will end up losing even worse than if he trained as he usually does.

The trick to beating Abraham is to jab him constantly and take advantage of his low punch output. When Abraham does attack, he tends to charge forward and throw flurries for 20 to 30 seconds, usually near the end of the round.

Taylor needs to use lateral movement when Abraham makes his attacks and stay alert in the last 30 seconds of each round for Abraham’s wild attacks. Abraham has been fighting the same way since he turned pro six years ago in 2003, and he’s very predictable in how he goes about his attacks.