By Allan Fox: Former IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO middleweight champion Jermain Taylor (31-3-1, 19 KO’s) will be fighting on December 14th against 39-year-old journeyman J.C Candelo (32-12-4, 21 KO’s) on the undercard of the Adrien Broner vs. Marcos Maidana fight card on Showtime at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas, USA.
Presumably, the 35-year-old Taylor vs. Candelo fight will be the replacement fight for the loss of Victor Ortiz vs. Alfonso Gomez, which fell apart after Gomez suffered an injury and had to drop out of the fight. Golden Boy Promotions then moved Ortiz off the Broner-Maidana card and matched him against Luis Collazo on January 30th at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York, USA.
Taylor hasn’t fought since last year in October when he stopped Raul Munoz in the 2nd round in the 3rd fight of Taylor’s comeback. Taylor’s inactivity since that fight is troubling because it’s not exactly a good idea to take a year off between fights when you’re trying to make a comeback. Taylor was stopped in consecutive bouts by Carl Froch and Arthur Abraham in 2009. The knockout loss to Abraham was especially bad, as Taylor was flat on his back and badly hurt from the KO.
After two years outside of the ring, Taylor came back in 2011 and defeated Jessie Nicklow followed by Caleb Truax and the Munoz. In the Truax fight, Taylor was knocked down in the 9th round, but he was able to survive. It wasn’t a good sign that Taylor was put on the canvas by Truax because this is someone that he should have been able to outbox with ease.
If Taylor is going to make something out of his comeback then he’s going to need to speed up the amount of fights he’s been taking because taking a year off between fights will make it very difficult for him to get a title shot against one of the champions at 160. At the same time, Taylor is going to need to be selective in which champion he goes after because it probably wouldn’t be a good idea for him to challenge sluggers like Sergio Martinez or Gennady Golovkin due to their huge power.
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