Fights can be disappointing for a number of reasons. They turn out to be a horrible clash of styles, the fighters might not perform on the night or we could see something freakish, for example an accidental clash of heads in the opening minute, destroy a contest.

We saw one of those on a special episode of ESPN's Friday Night Fights, held on a Wednesday, as experienced Australian Sam Soliman (44-12-0-1, 18) lost the IBF Middleweight title to former unified world champion Jermain Taylor (33-4-1, 20). In a bout that really wasn't anything to watch back.

Early on the bout was a typical Soliman fight. Messy. Scrappy. It was awful, frankly awful. Sadly for Soliman his hopes of retain were ending in round 6 when he suffered a knee injury that effectively left him a sitting duck for Taylor's shots. Fighting on one leg Soliman was dropped numerous times in the second half of the fight as Taylor really couldn't miss him.

The knockdowns sealed the bout with no debate about the winner though a lot of conflicting views on both the winner and the loser.

The view from ESPN was that Soliman had fought a brave fight one 1-leg and that Taylor was back in the mix as a top Middleweight. The reality however is that Taylor isn't back. He beat a poor champion who was injured to win a title he won't hold for long, in fact we really doubt that he over-comes Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam in a mandatory title fight next year. As for Soliman this loss will likely be his final big bout before he looks for an easy or two to collect some late career pay cheques.

Both Soliman and Taylor are a long, long way behind the likes of Gennady Golovkin, in fact going on the fight tonight Golovkin would beat both Taylor and Soliman on the same night. It really was embarrassing to see this as a world title fight. We're sorry but whilst both men deserve a little bit of credit, neither should have been able to end the day as a world champion.

(Image courtesy of http://roundbyroundboxing.com)

The Middleweight division at the moment is, quite frankly, a bit of a mess. In our eyes the clear kingpin of the division is Gennady Golovkin who has run roughshed over the supposed contenders of the division like Daniel Geale and Matthew Macklin. Technically the "linear" champion is Miguel Cotto, the 4-division champion from Puerto Rico who stopped Sergio Martinez earlier this year.

Below Golovkin and Cotto there division is as incoherent as any other in the sport with no clear #3, #4, #5 or #6 .

One of the men hoping to make a case for himself as #3 in the division is IBF champion Sam Soliman (44-11-0-1, 18). The Australian veteran finally won a world title earlier this year at the age of 40, when he clearly out worked and out pointed Felix Sturm. The stylistically repulsive Soliman will be making the first defense of his title this coming Wednesday as he takes on former unified champion Jermain Taylor (32-4-1, 20).

On paper, and on paper alone, this looks like a good fight against a hard working but limited current champion and a former champion looking to recover past glories. In reality the fight is a farce. Soliman is quite probably a genuine top 10 Middleweight and he won his title the hard way by going to Germany and taking a decision over a then reigning champion. Sadly however what Taylor has done over the last 7 years should have been enough to keep him from any sort of a title fight. 

Over the last 7 years or so Taylor has gone 5-4, suffering a trio of knockout losses, including a very painful one to Arthur Abraham. He has scored only a single notable win in that time, beating the then ruined Jeff Lacy. It's also pertinent to add that he has just 2 wins in the last 2 years, and the first of those wins is only just inside that 2 year window. In other words, Taylor shouldn't near a world title fight, and recent out of the ring activity has further suggested that he shouldn't even be in a professional ring.

We've got to be honest. This is a disgusting match up that the IBF have happily taken a sanctioning fee for and the IBF should be ashamed. Soliman should retain his title here and hopefully send Taylor into retirement, and hopefully not the emergency room. Everyone involved here should be embarrassed. Bouts like this are a disgrace to hard working fighters and contenders who do their all for an opportunity and to see someone like Taylor here is really disgusting, especially given Taylor's recent antics out of the ring which suggest he's not fully in control of his brain like he was just a few years ago.

(Image courtesy of http://www.foxsports.com.au)