Super Six Minus One? Jermain Taylor Is His Own Worst Enemy

After watching Jermain Taylor's stunning 12 round knockout loss to former Middlewieght champion Arthur Abraham, I am left with only one conclusion about Jermain Taylor's career. He needs to retire.

 This is hard for me to say because I have long been a big fan or Jermain Taylor

and love the way he always brings his "A-game" to every fight. By that I mean his Arksanas game the man represents hard and has revitalized boxing in the South to an extent few other modern Southern fighters have.

Like Max Kellerman I thought he had the chance to have "cross-over" appeal and bring in casual fans

the way that Oscar De La Hoya did or Manny Pacquiao still does.  When Jermain Taylor beat Bernard

Hopkins he was an athletic fighter whose lack of skill wasn't an issue as long as he kept working.

Unfortunately, he never solved the technical difficulties that Manny Pacquiao and Oscar De La Hoya

did to achieve greatness. He still relies on being the most athletic man in the ring and often times he

is just ask Jeff Lacy.

The Arthur Abraham fight exposed yet again how not so far Taylor has come. Don't get me wrong Jermain Taylor looked solid in the ring against Abraham and won many rounds against the man we have to now favor to win the Super Six Tournament. He still relies to much on his pure athleticism to win rounds. Yet, even if he improves the technical side of the fight game he faces and even bigger challenge.

Still Jermain Taylor's trainer stated before the fight in a conference fight that Taylor had problems with weight throughout his career and "loved his Big Mac" the truth went unspoken. Taylor is asthmatic and this  the reason he gets gassed in these big fights against guys like Froch who he should rightfully defeat.

Both  that night and against Abraham you could visibly see him "wheezing" in the middle of the ring.

He isn’t the first fighter to suffer this problem. Former heavyweight contender Shannon Briggs also was asthmatic. In Taylor’s case it is clearly an issue with him getting knocked out in the final round of these big fights. It is unfortunate and with bad knockout losses in three of his last five you really have to ask how much more is worth taking. I think it is high time Jermain Taylor hang them up.  Even if we have to a  Super Six tournament minus one.