But by 2009, he was coming off two losses to Kelly Pavlik — including one by knockout — and Taylor moved from the 160-pound middleweight class to the 168-pound super middleweight limit to challenge for Carl Froch’s world title. Although Taylor was ahead on two of the three judges’ scorecards, Froch knocked out Taylor with 14 seconds left in the 12th round. Six months later, Arthur Abraham brutalized Taylor in the final round with one punch that felled Taylor as if he had just stepped off a cliff. Only six seconds remained in that bout when it was stopped.

After the fight, Taylor asked his wife, Erica, and his promoter, Lou DiBella, in what round he had been stopped. He asked again a few minutes later. And again a few minutes after that. That was when Taylor’s team knew something was wrong, and soon after, Taylor, who had a brain bleed and a concussion, temporarily stepped away from the sport. His health, he knew, was at stake.

“I’ve seen a guy who I was with at the Olympics training camp, and he can’t even talk now,” Taylor said. “His brain swelled up, and his speech was slurred. I don’t want to be like that. But he chose his sport. I chose this sport. And I love it.”

It was in part for that reason that he wanted to return to boxing. That and because he does not want his children to see those brutal defeats mark the end of his career.

So he called his former trainer Pat Burns, who was fired during Taylor’s original middleweight title run, to see if they could work together again.

“No, no, no,” Burns said. Taylor flew to Miami to persuade him. Burns wanted Taylor to undergo neurological tests before he would commit to working with him. Taylor said he had been tested in his home state, Arkansas, but Burns still was not convinced the fighter was fit for a return.

Instead, Burns persuaded Taylor to visit the Mayo Clinic. He sent him to the Cleveland Clinic, and the stringent Nevada Athletic Commission. All three cleared Taylor to fight. “We’re ready to go, right?” Burns said an eager Taylor had asked him after the testing was complete. “Nope,” Burns said. “We’re going to take another six months off.”