In 2005, Jermain Taylor outpointed the great Bernard Hopkins to win the undisputed middleweight championship, and then beat him again in his first title defense. That was when Taylor was a rising star in boxing, a 2000 U.S. Olympic bronze medalist tabbed by many for greatness.
Nearly a decade later so much has changed, both in and outside the ring. In August, Taylor allegedly shot his cousin multiple times and also fired a gun at another person (and missed) after an altercation inside his Little Rock, Arkansas, home. Taylor was jailed, charged with two felonies (first degree domestic battery and aggravated assault) and faces decades in prison if convicted. The cousin survived and Taylor is out of jail on bail.
In the ring, Taylor would go on to suffer four losses in a five-fight stretch, including three brutal knockouts between 2007 and 2009 to Kelly Pavlik, Carl Froch and Arthur Abraham.
The third of those knockouts, a crushing 12th-round destruction against Abraham in Berlin in the opening stage of the Super Six World Boxing Classic, seemed to have ended Taylor's career. He suffered a small brain bleed, withdrew from the tournament and stepped away from boxing.
But boxing was all that Taylor knew and after a long break, he was restless. He also was healthy. He passed a battery of neurological tests administered by some of the world's top doctors from the Mayo Clinic to the Cleveland Clinic, and he wanted to fight again.
With all of his tests normal and medical professionals saying that he was at no greater risk of injury than any other fighter, the Nevada State Athletic Commission -- which has some of the most rigorous licensing standards in boxing -- gave him a license and Taylor, returning to middleweight from super middleweight, launched a comeback in December 2011 after 26 months out of the ring.
Now, nearly three years later and having won four fights in a row on the comeback trail -- although none against a top contender -- Taylor is about to do what many could not possibly have fathomed the night he was scraped off the mat in Germany after being so violently knocked out by Abraham.
Taylor will once again fight for a world title when he challenges Sam Soliman of Australia for his alphabet belt Wednesday night (ESPN2/ESPN Deportes, 9 ET) at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi.
"[Adviser] Al Haymon told me it would happen and when he says something he delivers, always," Taylor told ESPN.com. "It's a blessing come true. I've [been] praying for it and now I got it. I trained hard for it. I feel like I'm a lot smarter and hungrier than I was when I was younger. I understand what this means now. I think I took things for granted before."
There are those who will scream from the hilltops that Taylor should be not be fighting because of his past history of a brain bleed. There also are those who say Taylor does not deserve the title shot based on having not earned it with any significant victories in several years. And there are still others who believe Taylor should not have the privilege of fighting for a title because of the shooting incident. (Taylor had to receive special permission from the court in order to travel to Florida for training camp and to Mississippi for the fight. His next court appearance is tentatively set for Oct. 15.)
The 36-year-old Taylor (32-4-1, 20 KOs) has heard the criticism and could not care less what anyone thinks about his getting the opportunity against Soliman.
"It's too late for me to worry about any of that," Taylor said. "It doesn't make a difference what they say. I already got my shot and I am not going to pass it up."
Taylor and his team did not want to discuss the legal case for obvious reasons, but Taylor said, "Everything I went through had a great affect on my life. It was all for the best. Now I can appreciate the hard work I have put into this, getting up and taking those long runs, making sure I am in shape and properly prepared to fight. I respect that now and what it takes. I know what it was for. I'm so motivated. I'm doing this for me."
When Taylor came back, he reunited with original trainer Pat Burns, who had led him to the world title before Taylor fired him.
Burns, with a military style of training, is a no-nonsense kind of guy and said he could not have been more pleased with how Taylor trained for the fight with the 40-year-old Soliman (44-11, 18 KOs), who will be making his first title defense since outpointing Felix Sturm on Sturm's turf in Germany to claim the belt by unanimous decision in May.
"I can tell you that Jermain worked extremely hard in camp," Burns said. "All he has to do is execute the plan. Soliman is awkward and a tough guy but Jermain should be OK. It's not a walk in the park. Jermain is smart enough not to underestimate anyone.
"The way he trained for the Hopkins fight was absolutely phenomenal. As a result, Jermain won the undisputed title. Then we had the separation and when we got back together I didn't see the fire that I knew he had in him. Then something clicked in him and this opportunity came up. He came to camp and I was so happy to see the fire in his eyes, the willingness to do the extra stuff. I really, really worked him hard in camp. He certainly is physically and mentally prepared. He has the talent and the experience and the physical conditioning to win this fight."
If Taylor, who has not fought in 10 months and went 14 months between fights before that, was distracted by his legal case, Burns said it was not apparent.
"If there were any distractions, he has done a marvelous job of not showing it," Burns said. "I worked him to death on the track and on his strength program and in the gym. If there were any distractions he wasn't showing it. If he's got something he's ticked off about, we had this conversation that he needs to embrace whatever is going on. If he's mad about something, carry it over into the ring and be the bad guy in the ring. Take it up a notch. I don't want anybody to get hurt, hurt in the ring but I want him to go in there and hurt somebody if you know what I mean. I want him to throw that 95 mph fastball on this guy's ribs. I want him to make a statement physically."
If Taylor loses, he and Burns very well know it could be the end of Taylor's career.
"This is the end of the road if we don't get this," Burns said. "This could very easily be his last fight. Or it could be the steppingstone to another big fight. At 36 and with everything that's happened, he's come to that realization. I want him to live up to [his nickname], 'Bad Intentions.' I want him to be a badass for however many rounds this goes."
Taylor did his strength training for the fight in Miami and then moved to Ocala for the sparring part of his camp. He said he literally did nothing for the weeks he was there but focus on the fight and train every day. Even Sundays.
"Before I was going through the motions," Taylor said. "If I was this focused none of those guys would beat me, not Kelly Pavlik, not Abraham, nobody. After the Hopkins fights it was all downhill from there. I didn't respect what I had. Now that I look back I would have trained harder, been hungrier. Now I am hungry. No way this guy beats me. I don't care what this boy does, I am going to beat this guy up."