Middleweight champ Taylor facing new gun charges

AFP/Little Rock,Arkansas International Boxing Federation middleweight world champion Jermain Taylor is facing assault charges in Arkansas after allegedly pulling a gun on a family. Taylor is charged with aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a minor and a misdemeanor of possession a controlled substance—a small amount of marijuana. A representative of the district court in Little Rock, Arkansas, confirmed to AFP that on Tuesday Taylor entered an automatic not guilty plea to the charges. Television station KTHV in Little Rock, the Arkansas state capital, reported that Taylor had posted $50,000 bond and been released on Tuesday. Thelton Smith, the man who claimed Taylor threatened to kill him and then shot at him, told the station that he and his wife and children were taking pictures with Taylor and his title belt on Monday when Taylor became violent and angry, accusing Smith’s son of dropping the belt. Taylor was already facing charges over a shooting in suburban Maumelle, Arkansas. The 36-year-old Little Rock native is a former undisputed middleweight world champion. Taylor hung up his gloves for two years after suffering bleeding in the brain and losing four of five fights over two years before returning to the ring in 2011. He regained the IBF belt on October 9 with a unanimous 12-round decision over Australian Sam Soliman in Biloxi, Mississippi, a victory that took Taylor’s record to 33-4-1 with 20 knockouts. ESPN reported that Taylor’s title defence against Sergio Mora, scheduled for February 6, is off and unlikely to be rescheduled. Promoter Lou DiBella told the sports network that Taylor had suffered a broken rib in a recent sparring session. “His fight on February 6 was going to be cancelled due to a legitimate injury, a rib fracture, but this obviously is a shocking development no matter what the exact details are,” DiBella told ESPN. “It leads myself and his management to be more concerned with his well being, his mental health and his future than his boxing career.”