The other day, Jermaine Taylor dropped out of the Super Six. That was quite a fall. He quit. He was beaten, had lost one too many times for his, and all his fans’ liking and it was time for him to man-up and admit what had become obvious: At this moment, in this environment, in his condition, he did not belong in the Super Six.

Maybe we should have more of these Super Six kinds of tournaments, unglamorous as they might seem. You see, in boxing, it is easy for any comer to up and claim that he is good enough for this and that and the other title shot. That they should fight this and the other person. That they are ready. That so and so and the other is ducking them.

What is true though, is that if you picked 6 of the top fighters in any weight class, using a bunch of criteria to select the fighters, you will typically end up with a good representation of the top of that weight class. If then you ask the fighters you have selected to fight each other in a round robin tournament to determine who among them should earn the right to fight for the championship, you will if nothing else find out who is not only the badassest of the bunch, but more so, whose badassitude quotient can stand up to a comparison with, say the most venomous of serpents. One would; a) have to be real badass fight after fight to win, and b) ridiculously high in badassitude quotient to keep winning and c)dripping with pure badassitude to win it all.

For the longest time, I thought Jermaine Taylor was a badass and that from the way carried himself in and out of the ring, he had plenty of badassitude to spare. Then Pavlick kicked his ass. And then again. Before we knew it, he had lost 5 straight. I like to think that it is a credit to the abundance of badassitude he used to have that he was invited to the Super Six. But alas, I think he is done. In boxing, some guys last while others don’t. He lasted as long as he was going to. Jermaine Taylor is no longer a badass. Jermaine Taylor, as a boxer, no longer has any badassitude.