Taylor stripped after fighting Hopkins-Hopkins-Winky-Ouma

In yet another in an endless string of credibility-destroying decisions, the WBA, in its infinite lack of wisdom, has stripped Jermain Taylor of its super championship and now recognizes Mariano Carrera as its middleweight champion.  Taylor was stripped despite a championship run of four fights against current world light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins, a rematch against Hopkins, followed by pound-for-pound candidate Winky Wright and then former junior middleweight champion Kassim Ouma.  As Taylor was preparing for his first fight against Hopkins, Carrera lost to a fighter who had 19 losses on his record, Paulo A. Sanchez.  But a December 2nd win over 38-year old Javier Castillejo (which resulted in Castillejo's corner attacking the referee due to a premature stoppage as Castillejo never went down) has now propelled him to the top of the WBA universe. Boxingtalk understands that Taylor's people requested a WBA sanction for his last two fights but were refused.  Boxingtalk, and anyone else with at least half a brain, will continue to recognize Jermain Taylor as the world middleweight champion, and by recognizing a clearly unworthy champion, the WBA seems to have hurt itself more than Taylor.   (3:45 PM)