Fight of a Lifetime

It must be strange for Jermain Taylor to finally be fighting as middleweight champion in his native city of Little Rock, only to discover that the big story is about the other guy.

Then again, when it's Kassim Ouma’s story you’re talking about, you're bound to play second fiddle, hometown favorite or not.

I won’t go into the details of that story here. Suffice it to say that when Ouma was six, he and his classmates in Busia, Uganda were kidnapped from their school and forced to serve as soldiers in the nation’s bloody civil war. For the rest of the saga, I recommend that you turn to this excellent Bernard Fernandez piece on maxboxing.com. It tells the tale beautifully and sets up the enormous implications of tomorrow’s fight for Kassim the Dream, which could include a possible return to Uganda. In the past few days, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has indicated publicly that a pardon for Ouma is a possibility, which would end his nine-year exile.

But enough politics, and on to tomorrow night’s fight. It’s almost impossible to imagine that Ouma will manage a fairy-tale victory against Taylor – the size differential is just too great. Jermain is 6’1” and probably walks around at 190. In fact, this may well be his last fight at middleweight, as he has come out recently saying that he just can’t make 160 anymore. He’s too damn big. He's thinking about moving up to 168 and challenging Joe Calzaghe, and if he does that, he'll be big at super-middleweight too.

Meanwhile, Ouma is 5’8” and could probably fight comfortably at 147 if he wanted to. He is a relentless puncher and has a hell of a chin, but he does not have a lot of power or ballast and will get manhandled in the ring by a fighter of Jermain’s size. His work rate may baffle Jermain early (Jermain is easily baffled), and if the big Arkansan tries to keep up with Kassim punch-wise, it may cost him if the fight goes, say, past the seventh round.

But I doubt it will go that way. I’ll be rooting for Ouma, more because I’m not much of a fan of Taylor's style than because of the Ouma story. But if I had to lay money down, it would all be down on Jermain. I’m thinking TKO in the fifth to the seventh.

Ouma Fighting Memories As Well As Taylor (maxboxing.com)
Uganda: Museveni Speaks Out on Ouma (allafrica.com)