Middleweight champion Jermain Taylor's career has changed over his past three fights. In those fights he has two wins over middleweight great Bernard Hopkins and a respectable draw with pound for pounder Winky Wright. But, something happened along the way during those fights; Taylor seemed to have lost his bad intentions. Before Taylor stepped into the ring with Hopkins, his nickname (Bad Intentions) fit his ring persona well. He was a fighter who was tearing other fighters apart. This is not to say that Taylor's last three fights were not unimpressive or meaningful, because they definitely were. I'm just saying we have not seen the same intensity in his bad intentions in a while.

    This Saturday, Taylor will finally get a chance to display his bad intentions again when he takes on former IBF junior middleweight champion Kassim Ouma. People may be asking right now... What do you mean? Did he just now rediscover his bad intentions? No, he's going to be finally fighting a guy who will actually let him let loose a bit. In Taylor's last three fights he was fighting two of the more crafty and slick fighters in the game. Taylor did what he had to do, and won or at least drew in very close fashion. Now that he is facing Ouma, Taylor can let loose a little bit.

    I'm not saying Ouma is a bad fighter; in fact he's a solid fighter. Since losing his IBF crown a year and a half ago, Ouma has been on a roll. He has reeled off wins against Marco Antonio Rubio and top prospect Sechew Powell. By now everyone knows Ouma's story, his childhood in Uganda, etc., and nothing that could happen in the ring would ever compare to what he has already been through.

    He's a great story and a solid fighter, who has already won a world title. So, why am I sounding like Taylor is in for an easy fight? Well, it's all about styles. Part of my reasoning for saying that Taylor can let loose and display his bad intentions once again is the fact that he can and will be a crowd pleaser once again. He had trouble doing this in his fights with Hopkins and Wright because of their styles, and Taylor was doing what he had to do to be successful.

    Now that Taylor is not fighting a fighter with the slickness of a Hopkins or Winky he can get back to slugging a bit more, and looking more like the old "Bad intentions."  Does this mean he will blow Ouma out of the water? No. It just means Taylor can be more relaxed and fans should be in for a more eye pleasing fight. Ouma is a fighter who can box, but doesn't mind slugging, and no knock on Ouma, but he does not have the slickness of Hopkins or Winky, (most don't). So, yes, we should be in for a better fight and a better Jermain Taylor. This might be the first fight where Taylor really gets to show off what he's learned under Emanuel Steward.

    Now all this being said, Taylor needs to have an impressive fight. Even though Taylor fought Hopkins and Winky three times and didn't lose, some of his critics believe that he lost some, if not all of those fights.

    Another bottom line is that Taylor's last three fights have been skin tight decisions, nothing to write home about. So, it's time for Taylor to pull off a big victory. A victory with no doubts, and a victory with no critics saying that he got bailed out by the judges again. A victory with nobody saying he got a hometown decision like his Olympic teammate Jeff Lacy did last week.

    Taylor just needs to get back to winning and winning with bad intentions. Kassim Ouma, though he's solid, should provide the style that will allow Taylor to live up to his ring name once again. But just unleashing is not enough, Taylor needs a big win and on Saturday night we will see if he can do just that.