WBF Middleweight Boxing Champion Shannan Taylor of Australia is still in critical condition and on life support in an Australian hospital. It appears that Taylor lives just as dangerously outside of the ring as he does in it since he was rushed to Wollongong Hospital after a drug overdose. His doctors said they had planned on turning the life support machine off earlier in the day on Nov. 28 because they didn’t think he’d survive. However, his condition improved overnight and he was able to take 15 breaths out of every 60 on his own.
It was reported that Taylor was partying with friends on the night of Nov. 27 and they bought some cocaine, which turned out to be heroin. After taking the drugs, Taylor lost consciousness and some of his friends called an ambulance the scene which took the boxer and two other men to hospital. Taylor and one of his friends remain there while the other man has been released.
Wollongong police originally sealed off the house of one of Taylor’s colleagues as a possible crime scene, then said there weren’t any suspicious circumstances and the incident was ruled an accidental overdose. The 39-year-old Taylor has a record of 52-10-3, with 37 knockouts. He turned professional back in 1992 and won the Australian junior welterweight title in just his third fight. Taylor has fought most of his bouts in Australia, but traveled to Las Vegas in 2001 to take on WBC Welterweight Champion Shane Mosley and lost by a sixth-round TKO.
He won the Australian welterweight crown later in 2001 and added the country’s super middleweight belt in 2003. He added the vacant World Boxing Foundation (WBF) super middleweight title in 2004 and lost in a bid to win the IBF middleweight belt in 2006 when he lost a unanimous decision to Arthur Abraham. Taylor won the vacant WBF middleweight championship this October with a fourth-round TKO over Sintung Kietbusaba.
Fellow countryman and former world titleholder Jeff Fenech said he spoke to Taylor the night of his overdose and he said he was out on the town having a good time with some of the female boxers that he trains. Fenech tried to reach Taylor the next morning, but he didn’t answer his phone. He then received a phone call telling him the news. Fenech was Taylor’s trainer when he took on Mosley and the boxer admitted later that year that he had a cocaine habit, but had kicked it.
It’s believed that Taylor’s condition was stable on Nov. 29, but he was still on life support fighting for his life.
