By Allan Fox: The soon to be 41-year-old Sam Soliman (44-12, 18 KOs) is hoping to get an immediate rematch against IBF middleweight champion Jermain Taylor (33-4-1, 20 KOs), who beat him by a 12 round unanimous decision last October to capture his International boxing Federation 160lb title at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino, in Biloxi, Mississippi, USA.
Soliman suffered a knee injury in the 6th round, which led to him getting knocked down four times in the fight in the 7th, 8th, 9th and 11th rounds. Soliman is rehabbing the injury and he’d like to face Taylor in his next fight.
Soliman feels that because he gave Taylor the opportunity to fight for a world title when he was ranked at the bottom of the IBF’s rankings at #15, he should return the favor by giving him a rematch now.
Taylor won the fight by the scores of 116-111, 115-109 and 116-109. You’ve got to give Soliman a ton of credit for sticking it out and fighting with one leg for the entire 12 rounds of the fight, because he could have easily quit. Some fighters would have done so if they were in a similar situation.
Taylor’s situation is up in the air right now, as he has to take care of legal issues stemming from a shooting that took place before he fought Soliman. It’s unclear when Taylor will be able to defend his title even if he wanted to fight Soliman again.
“We gave Team Taylor a shot. It’s now in their hands. I respectfully ask Team Taylor to return the honor we extended to them, and let’s do it early next year. I have a lot of respect for Jermain Taylor,” Soliman said via Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. “Jermain and I have some unfinished business. I believe Taylor has the pride of a true champion and will grant us the rematch. I would do the same if I was in his situation.”
Taylor can likely make more money if he were to fight the likes of WBA champion Gennady Golovkin, Daniel Jacobs, Peter Quillin or WBC champ Miguel Cotto than if he were to fight Soliman again.
The Soliman is a good one as far as Taylor milking his title for an easy defense, but it’s not a fight that would likely give Taylor the kind of money he’d make in fighting one of the other top names in the middleweight division.
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