Home-Schooled

Bernard Hopkins draws strength from his roots. His unprecedented 20 defenses of his middleweight title, his toughness, even cruelty, in the ring, would not have happened, he believes, had he not grown up on the tough streets of Philadelphia, had he not spent five years in prison for robbery.

The 40-year-old Hopkins figures that should give him a rough edge over his opponent in Saturday night’s middleweight title fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Indeed, at first glance, 26-year-old Jermain Taylor -- quick with a smile, humble in manner, appearing almost oblivious to pressure -- seems worlds apart from Hopkins.

So much for perceptions. Taylor, as it turns out, didn’t exactly grow up in Pleasantville. As a matter of fact, he faced adversity even earlier than Hopkins.

Like age 5.

It was then that Lee Taylor walked out of his Little Rock, Ark., home, walked out on his wife, Carlois, and their three daughters -- Tamicka, Tamara and Gussie, each a year apart -- and Jermain, the oldest by a year.

It was then that Jermain, though he couldn’t comprehend it at the time, became the man of the house while still a little boy.

While Carlois did double duty as a nursing assistant, greater and greater responsibility was placed on Jermain’s little shoulders as he grew. He learned to wash dishes, do the laundry and, yes, even change diapers.

Play outside with his friends? Forget it.

Along with the mundane chores came a frightening situation for Jermain when he reached his teens. One sister fell off her bike and broke a hip. With Carlois at work, it was up to Jermain, the teenage father figure, to call paramedics and comfort his sister until help arrived. With his sister subsequently in a body cast, Jermain had to carry her around the house.

“Who hasn’t had problems?” Taylor says, looking back with a shrug of the shoulders on his 6-foot, 160-pound frame. “Everybody’s been through something. We got by, though I don’t know how.”

Taylor was quiet in his youth, his isolation from a normal childhood heightened by a speech problem that caused him to stutter.

But when he was 13, he discovered an outlet for his pent-up emotions: boxing. When a cousin began training at a gym with Ozell Nelson, Taylor tagged along.

“He didn’t show me no special deal,” said Nelson, who will be in Taylor’s corner, along with fellow trainer Pat Burns, on Saturday night. “He was just another kid.”

Talent aside, Taylor had a bigger hurdle standing between him and the ring: Carlois.

“His mother did not want him to box,” Nelson said. “Jermain kept bugging me to talk to her. But his mother told me in a real, real firm manner that, ‘There is no way my son is going to get brain dead.’ ”

Six months passed, months in which Jermain kept nagging his mother to let him put on a pair of gloves. Then one day, Nelson passed the Taylor house as he was making his daily rounds in his pickup truck, collecting the regulars at his gym who were all too young to drive.

“The family was outside, raking leaves,” Nelson said. “I shot the gas because I didn’t want Carlois to think I was trying to pick up her son. But she ran out and flagged me down.

“ ‘I am not after your son,’ I said.

“ ‘Take him,’ she told me, finally giving in. ‘He’s all yours. Do with him what you want.’ ”

Carlois might have changed her mind if she had visited the gym. When Jermain turned 14, Nelson put him in the ring with his son, Lendrick, who was a year older. Lendrick gave Jermain a thorough whipping.

“Don’t feel bad,” Ozell told Taylor. “Stay with me six months and I guarantee you will beat Lendrick.”

Taylor stayed and, sure enough, he went on to return the beating to Lendrick, a first step on a path that has led to Saturday night’s fight.

After winning various amateur titles and a bronze medal at the 2000 Olympics, Taylor is unbeaten in 23 professional fights, winning 17 by knockout.

A true father himself now -- he and wife Erica have an infant daughter, Nia -- Taylor also occasionally sees his father, the man who abandoned the family.

“He made his bed and now he has to sleep in it,” Taylor said. “I know he regrets what he did when he sees me up there fighting and knows he is not a part of it. But he has to deal with it.”

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Shane Mosley, who twice defeated Oscar De La Hoya, has agreed to fight for De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions on a Sept. 17 card in Las Vegas.