Jermain Taylor

Jermain Taylor (born August 11, 1978) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2014. He remains the most recent undisputed champion in the middleweight division, having defeated Bernard Hopkins in 2005, and in doing so ending Hopkins' ten-year reign as middleweight champion. This made Taylor the first male boxer in history to claim each title from all four major boxing sanctioning organizations in a single fight. He defeated Hopkins in a rematch six months later, making him the only boxer to have defeated Hopkins twice. Taylor retired as a world champion in the months that followed his capture of the International Boxing Federation (IBF) middleweight title for a second time in 2014, after making a substantial recovery from a brain injury sustained earlier in his career. He made his professional debut in 2001 and won his first 25 bouts, which included victories over former champions Raúl Márquez and William Joppy. Taylor, who began boxing officially at age 13, earned numerous accolades throughout his amateur career, starting with his achievement of the 1996 Under-19 Championship. He went on to win a pair of Police Athletic League (PAL) Championships and National Golden Gloves titles and he finished second and third at the 1997 and 1998 United States Championships, respectively. In 1998, Taylor won a bronze medal at the Goodwill Games. Then, in 2000, he earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic boxing team, becoming the first ever boxer from Arkansas to compete in the Olympic Games. At the 2000 Olympics, Taylor won a bronze medal in the light middleweight division. During his reign as unified middleweight champion, Taylor won an immediate rematch against Hopkins and defeated Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks, as well as fighting Winky Wright to a draw. Having vacated the World Boxing Council (WBC) and...