It is not the same Jermain Taylor who was the undisputed middleweight champion of the world who keeps getting arrested.
It isn't even "Bad Intentions," his fighting nickname, who is struggling to fit into society and doing things he never would have done a decade ago. Shooting guns. Beating up people, men and women. Threatening.
The "JT" who took Arkansas on an unprecedented ride from the 2000 Olympics until 2007 appears to live in name only these days.
It seems likely this Jermain Taylor took too many shots to the head.
Fighting is about hitting people, but when Kelly Pavlik, who seemed beaten early in the fight, used his windmill attack to take Taylor out in 2007 things started going downhill for Taylor.
Perhaps it started on that night in Las Vegas when he needed just one judge in the final round to give him the edge, and that's exactly what he got and stunned the world of pugilism with a win over Bernard Hopkins.
It was a fight that was almost stopped because of a deep gash in Taylor's head. Only cut man Ray Rodgers kept the referee away and used his magic to stop the bleeding.
When it was announced Taylor had won, the ring announcer called him, "The Pride of Little Rock Arkansas.' In that moment he was.
After a more convincing win in the rematch with Hopkins, Taylor switched trainers, going from Pat Burns who had led him to a 25-0 mark to Emanuel "Manny" Steward, but he didn't watch Taylor's training as closely as Burns had.
It would be fair to say Taylor was never in as sharp physical condition again.
Against Kassim Ouma, a title defense fight in North Little Rock, Taylor began to tire early and took a hard shot that left him bleeding over his eye. He rallied and won.
Then came Pavlik. Taylor had a commanding lead on all of the judges cards but with less than a minute to go in the seventh round, Pavlik nailed him with a right cross that jarred the champ into a corner, where Pavlik threw a left uppercut, a left and right hook and a right uppercut. All landed, as did the next two left hooks that put Taylor on the canvas and the referee stopped the fight.
In the rematch -- a unanimous decision for Pavlik -- both fighters took a pounding.
Taylor outclassed Jeff Lacy but disaster was just around the corner.
Going into the final round against Carl Froch, Taylor was ahead on two of the scorecards but with less than a minute to go in the fight Froch landed two rights that floored Taylor. When he got up Froch was hitting him with everything he had and Taylor couldn't even defend himself.
Almost six months later Taylor took on Arthur Abraham and was knocked out 10 seconds into the 12th round. Taylor was taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a severe concussion and reported bleeding from the brain.
Boxing gave him a mandatory 18-month vacation from fighting.
He tried a comeback against some lesser talented fighters, but it all unraveled in 2014 when he was arrested for shooting his cousin and for domestic abuse.
His dedicated and loyal wife quietly divorced him and moved to her hometown. Taylor rolled on to more arrests and more charges and last week was arrested again for domestic abuse.
This is not the same Jermain Taylor, who wouldn't have touched a woman in anger. No one will know unless an autopsy is done but JT could be suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which has become a worldwide concern.
Taylor could see some jail time, but what he needs more than anything is help.
Sports on 09/05/2018