Jermain Taylor has bigger problems than boxing.
In fact, those problems may have ended his comeback campaign for a very long time.
This is what his longtime promoter Lou DiBella said about Taylor's arrest Monday in Little Rock after Taylor allegedly threatened a family of five at gunpoint after the 5-year-old son of Thelton and Toya Smith dropped Taylor's championship belt:
"This is very disturbing to me and his management [which includes Al Haymon]," DiBella told Boxingscene.com. "We're very concerned over his mental state and his health. His boxing career is a distant second right now, and he has to deal with these ramifications.
"You try to do your best to help someone. I'm very upset and disappointed."
First, understand that this is not being written to garner sympathy for Taylor but to hopefully get him some help, because this is not the same Jermain Taylor who twice defeated Bernard Hopkins to become the undisputed middleweight champion of the world.
It was after that second fight against Hopkins that the problems began for Taylor.
For most of the world it looked like Taylor had everything: A beautiful, loving wife, Erica, children, a big, luxurious house on acreage that was gated, and more money than most people dream of ever having.
Quietly, though, he was making changes in his camp.
He fired trainer Pat Burns. He has since reunited with Burns and remains undefeated under his tutelage.
Burns is a disciplinarian, and suddenly after he was fired that was gone from Taylor's life. So was the daily attention from DiBella, who was put on a per-fight pay plan. Probably just as big was Taylor releasing Andrew Meadors, a local insurance executive who served as an advisor on financial and personal issues.
Meadors was the one who raised the money for Ozell Nelson, who trained Taylor as an amateur and was part of Team Taylor professionally, to go to the Olympics in 1998 when Taylor won the bronze medal. Meadors also helped Taylor open an account with Stephens Inc., one in which Taylor was supposed to make regular deposits.
Taylor was 25-0 before he changed his camp and 3-4-1 afterward, and it was after that fourth loss when things went south in a hurry.
In 2009, Taylor was knocked out in the 12th round by Arthur Abraham, and after leaving the ring, Taylor began to show signs of short-term memory loss. DiBella and Erica rushed him to the hospital, and they discovered not only a concussion but bleeding from the brain.
Taylor was mandated not to fight for two years, which he didn't. But shortly after returning to boxing, he began to get in trouble. There was an incident with a prostitute in 2012, and the only good thing Taylor did in 2014 was win the IBF middleweight championship.
In August 2014, he allegedly shot his cousin (Taylor is scheduled for a June trial), threw a brick through a woman's windshield and posted a controversial video of himself with a gun.
He was at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade Monday and then apparently became so enraged over a kid dropping his championship belt that he went for his gun.
He was arrested and faces five counts of aggravated assault, three counts of endangering the welfare of a minor and possession of marijuana. He reportedly had been drinking as well.
Considering the recent trend, it was easy to understand why Little Rock District Judge Alice Lightle set bond at $50,000 on Tuesday morning and warned Taylor that she didn't care who he is and to stay away from that family.
No one is supposed to be bigger than the law.
Things only got worse Tuesday afternoon when Circuit Judge Leon Johnson revoked Taylor's bond that stemmed from the 2014 incident involving his cousin, which sent Taylor back to jail.
Lou DiBella is right. Taylor doesn't need boxing right now.
He needs help before it's too late.
Sports on 01/21/2015