Last week Jermain Taylor was arrested for the third time in less than a year, this time in a rehab center where he allegedly assaulted another patient.
The aggressive television/Internet program TMZ published pictures of the victim on the Internet, and he definitely looks like he was worked over by someone who knew how to throw punches. He had several abrasions and stitches below his left eye and in his left eyebrow. Both eyes were still swollen almost shut.
For some reason, it took almost two weeks for the assault to be made public, but as soon as Judge Leon Johnson was asked for a warrant he wasted no time ordering Taylor back to jail, saying he was a danger to himself and others.
This is not the way it seemed Taylor's life would go.
Almost a decade ago he had knocked off Bernard Hopkins and was the toast of the boxing world. A good-looking guy who didn't talk much, he had children and a beautiful, devoted wife who was always there for him.
Yet, it seems Taylor preferred the tidal waves of the ocean over the gondola ride of grace.
Before he was knocked out by Arthur Abraham in the final seconds of the 12th round of a fight in Germany, he was already making the news for things other than boxing. Not good things.
After that knockout, when he reportedly bled from the brain, and during an 18-month mandatory medical leave from boxing, things turned worse.
Taylor was on a comeback trail when he blew up his life.
In some ways it is very difficult not to feel for Taylor, who many now think is suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a condition caused by too many concussions.
At Christmas Karaoke, sponsored by 103.7 FM, The Buzz, in December 2013, Taylor and his wife, Erica, were there for her to perform. She sang Diana Ross' "In And Out Of Love."
The world already knew she had stood by her man through many personally embarrassing moments, but three months after singing that song she quietly filed for divorce.
Everything was done but the child support when Taylor began to get into more trouble. He was charged with shooting a man, assaulting another at the Martin Luther King Parade and now beating up a patient at the rehab center. He also made a couple of absurd videos and posted them, one introduced his fiancee while the divorce still wasn't final.
It has always been easy to feel for Erica and the children, but don't let her know because she has very privately put her life back together.
She's a school teacher, author of a successful children's book and recently participated in a WNBA prospect camp that had 90 hopefuls, most just out of college. She's also coaching and teaching boxing.
It had been 11 years since she was drafted by the WNBA, but she was one of 26 who made the All-Star team at the camp.
Before his second fight with Hopkins, Taylor talked openly about not liking his sport, that he didn't want his children to grow up to box and that he did it to make a living.
"We are trying to bash each other's heads in, what is to like about that?" Taylor said that day.
Outside, a protection fence was being built around the pool to keep the children safe.
There were numerous cars and four-wheelers in the garage and driveway. The home was hidden from curious eyes up a hill and surrounded by trees. It had a privacy gate. It should have been idyllic.
Not long after Taylor defended his title against Hopkins red flags started to appear. Little things that grew into bigger things. Erica Taylor went the distance and then some for the man she fell in love with when she was 16.
For her children and for herself she had to move on.
Now, what happens to Jermain Taylor is largely up to the judicial system.
Sports on 05/31/2015