Former world boxing champ Taylor arrested for assault

WASHINGTON: Former world middleweight boxing champion Jermain Taylor was arrested Wednesday on domestic assault charges, Arkansas television station KATV reported.

Taylor, who turned 40 earlier this month, was booked in Pulaski County Jail on charges of third degree domestic battery and aggravated assault, according to an arrest report seen by the Little Rock station.

The police report said Taylor was taken into custody at his home after be punched a woman, held a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her.Area police arrested Taylor in July of last year after he was accused of attacking a woman he was dating, police reports said, with prosecutors later dropping the charges.

The report also said Taylor was given a 19-year suspended sentence in three separate cases, a battery incident at a substance abuse treatment facility and aggravated assault charges from a Martin Luther King Day parade in Little Rock in January 2015 plus battery and threatening a woman in August 2014.

Two months later, Taylor fought the final bout of his career, defeating Australian Sam Soliman at Biloxi, Mississippi to win the International Boxing Federation middleweight crown for the second time.

He was later stripped of the crown for being unable to defend it due to legal issues and a ring return never materialized, ending his career with a record of 33-4 with one drawn.

Taylor won a light-middleweight bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and won his first 25 professional fights, defeating Bernard Hopkins for the undisputed middleweight crown in 2005 and winning a rematch to reach 25-0.

His next fight was a draw with fellow American Winky Wright and his only career losses came soon after, to American Kelly Pavlik in 2007 and 2008 and to Britain’s Carl Froch and German Arthur Abaraham in 2009.