06.12.06 – By Mark Stein: WBC/WBO Middleweight champion Jermain Taylor (25-0-1, 17 KO’s) will be defending his middleweight titles on Saturday night against challenger Kassim Ouma, (25-2-1, 15 KO’s) at the Alltel Arena, in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Ouma, 27, a former IBF light middleweight champion, will be making move up in weight, fighting for the first time at middleweight when he takes on Taylor. As such, the 5’8″ Ouma will be at a tremendous height and reach disadvantage against the 6’1″ Taylor, and will likely be forced to come inside if he wants to make contact with the longer armed Taylor.
More than that, however, Taylor has a huge advantage in hand speed and power, making it even tougher on the smaller Ouma. That said, with Taylor, he tends to fade over the course of his bouts, and by the 10th, he’s often in full retreat against good fighters, like Bernard Hopkins and Winky Wright. For Ouma, a fighter with excellent stamina and who throws lots of punches, often as many as 100 per round, this would give Ouma decent chance at winning an upset victory over Taylor.
Taylor, 28, a former Olympian boxer, is making his first appearance since fighting to a draw with Winky Wright in June 17, 2006. The outcome was controversial, as many people were mixed in their opinions about the bout.
For me, I saw Taylor winning the fight, mostly due to his superior power and speed, which enabled him to win many of the exchanges. However, Taylor appeared troubled by Wright’s jab, that proved to be a great equalizer in the later rounds of the fight, when Taylor’s eye become closed shut from the repeated impacts of Wright’s jab.
If there was any type of opponent that would give Taylor problems, it would have to be someone like Ouma. His pressure, combined with his awkward southpaw stance, is a tough formula to beaten, even under the best circumstances. Until his recent 12-round decision loss to Roman Karmazin, in July 14, 2005, Kassim Ouma was almost unbeatable at light middleweight. However, Karmazin, an excellent inside fighter, appeared to get off to a quick start, landing a huge amount of big shots in the early rounds.
Ouma seemed to be knocked off of his game plan and stopped throwing his usual wide amount of punches, and instead followed Karmazin around the ring. Later in the fight, though, Ouma seemed to snap out of it, as he took the fight to Karmazin. By then, however, it was too late, for Karmazin had already built up an insurmountable lead, and eventually won by unanimous 12-round decision by the scores of 108-118, 110-116 and 109-117. Despite losing the fight, Ouma learned a big lesson, which was for him to stay busy from the start of his fights, and not to wait until it’s too late.
Since losing to Karmazin, Ouma has won his last 4 fights, defeating Alfredo Cuevas, Francisco Antonio Mora, Marco Antonio Rubio and Sechew Powell.
The key to victory for Taylor, it would seem, is for him to avoid getting caught up against the ropes, like he did against Wright. In addition, Taylor has to stay outside, use his jab and his excellent right hand to control Ouma’s constant pressure. If he can keep the fight at a distance, Ouma will be essentially powerless to make the fight competitive and will be forced to eat a lot of punches when he attempts to land. As for Ouma, he has to quickly get inside on Taylor, and try and keep the fight there, where has a distance advantage over the former Olympian. When Taylor attempts to move back outside, Ouma has to immediately get back inside and punish him with body shots.
Admittedly, Ouma has his work cut out for him, since Taylor has the size and speed advantages in this fight. I personally don’t think he’ll have enough persistence to stay on top of Taylor for the full 12-rounds, and thus will likely lose by a lopsided decision. Nevertheless, Taylor for all his skill, he fights as if he doesn’t know how to combine all his abilities into one cohesive package, which will give Ouma his only chance, no matter how slight, on Saturday night.