By Eric Thomas: Former World Boxing Council/World Boxing Organization middleweight champion Jermain Taylor is going to be extra careful while in Germany for his fight against German based super middleweight Arthur Abraham, according to the NWA Online. Taylor, 31, is going to eat out at a restaurant rather than eat at the hotel dining area that he’s staying at. Taylor will be drinking bottled water to make sure that nothing potentially could be slipped into his water that could make him sick. In addition, Taylor will have his gym in Germany checked for bugs or hidden cameras.

Obviously, this sounds a like a big deal, but there is a lot riding on his Super Six fight against Abraham and Taylor can’t afford to be beaten because of food or drink poisoning. Taylor has lost three out of his last four boxing matches in the past two years and at this point, he needs to make sure he gets by Abraham on October 17th.

Abraham, the local fighter, will have the benefit of fighting in front of a home crowd in Berlin, Germany, and because of that, he might feel a little less worried than Taylor does about the food and drink issue. Abraham is favored by many boxing people to beat Taylor. It’s hard not to see why. Abraham is undefeated at 30-0, and has knockout power in both hands.

Abraham might be the hardest puncher in the Super Six tournament in terms of single punch power. He doesn’t throw as many punches as some of the fighters in the tourney, but he usually doesn’t need to throw a lot of punches due to his big power. Abraham can take a lot of punishment and has survived two fights against the hard punching Edison Miranda.

If Abraham can be beat, it won’t likely be by knockout. He fought most of his first fight against Miranda with a broken jaw in 2006. It was a heroic move by Abraham, although dangerous because of the amount of blood loss and the potential for a blood clot from the broken jaw. Beating Abraham by decision might not be an easy thing for Taylor to do, though.

Visiting fighters in Germany sometimes complain about finding it tough to win a decision there. Taylor might have to do something sensational, like knock Abraham down to get a win, because the judges may end up being influenced by the loud German crowd who will be making a lot of noise every time Abraham throws a punch.

Taylor came into training camp for the Abraham fight lighter than unusual, and didn’t have to take off 20-25 pounds like he has in the past. Taylor feels that the weight loss and the long runs that he had to take in order to lose the weight in the past caused him to be weak in his past fights. Taylor wore down in his bouts against Carl Froch and Kelly Pavlik, getting beaten by both of them in the past two years. Taylor started out strong against both Froch and Pavlik, knocking each of them to the canvas in the early going but then fading quickly and getting stopped.