#15 IBF Jermain Taylor (32-4-1, 20 KOs) will be challenging IBF middleweight champion Sam Soliman (44-11, 18 KOs) in a little over a week on October 8th at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino, in Biloxi, Mississippi, USA.
Taylor hasn’t done much to deserve a world title shot, but that doesn’t matter because he’s been selected by Soliman’s management due to his name recognition and obviously because he’s perceived as an opponent that Soliman can likely beat.
Dan Rafael of ESPN sees the 40-year-old Soliman coming into this fight with a ton of confidence even though he doesn’t have much in the way of punching power. He knows that he’s facing a guy who has been knocked out three times in his career in stoppage losses to Kelly Pavlik, Carl Froch and Arthur Abraham.
“Sam Soliman is going to come into this fight mainly with confidence,” Dan Rafael of ESPN.com said. “He’s coming off of a title victory over Felix Sturm in Germany where it’s very difficult to win, so he definitely is going to have confidence coming to the United States. He also has a strength with his awkward style. He’s very much a pain in the neck to fight. He’s all over the place. He throws with both hands from both sides, so he’s complicated to take on. And also he knows the kind of opponent he’s up against. He’s aware of his history.”
Soliman’s awkward style could give Taylor a ton of headaches in this fight. It doesn’t matter that Taylor has better hand speed and punching power. Soliman’s high work rate, and the odd angles that he attacks with is going to make it difficult for Taylor to adjust to. Then there’s also the Taylor’s stamina problems. He’s run out of gas in the fights he’s been knocked out, and that could be a problem for him in this fight. If Taylor gasses out against Soliman then we may see Taylor get stopped once again.
“The reason why Jermain Taylor was out for 2 years are so was because he suffered a brain bleed in a fight and ended up taking quite a bit of time off,” Rafael said. “He came back and passed a ton of tests. In the last fight in December, Jermain Taylor looked pretty darn good. Soliman knows the history of the fighter he’s facing and he also knows he’s been stopped a number of times devastatingly so. Even though Soliman’s not a big puncher, you think he’s probably got confidence going into this fight knowing who he’s facing.”
