For Jermain Taylor, who faces Freddy Cuevas at the Alltel Arena in Little Rock, Arkansas this Friday night as the headliner on ESPN2's 'Friday Night Fights', his bout last August against Sam Hill was the most frustrating night of his fledgling professional career. But it may have also been his most valuable fight.

For 10 rounds, the hard-hitting and athletic Taylor would chase and pound away at a reluctant Hill, who fought throughout the night in a defensive shell. An audience watching on HBO's 'Boxing After Dark' who had come to see an impressive knockout would instead be subjected through 10 rounds of predictable monotony. Taylor would win virtually every round but it wasn't exactly the eye-opening performance his handlers had hoped for.

But in the long run, it's exactly the type of experience that is infinitely more valuable than a string of first round blowouts. From that fight, Taylor has racked up five impressive stoppages, the last one coming on his return to the HBO airwaves in May, where he blew out Nicolas Cervera in four heats. Once he climbed the Hill, it's been downhill ever since.

"I learned a lot, actually," Taylor said of his experience against Hill last August. "Not every opponent comes to fight. So I gotta learn how to cut the ring off and keep my composure even though I'm winning. I still got to be aggressive and learn how to fight those opponents., because he did not want to fight."

That's one of the peculiar things about boxing, a reluctant foe is oftentimes more difficult to face than a guy who's actual intent is to win the fight. Hill was one of those guys.

"It was frustrating. I watched all of [Hill's] tapes and in all the other fights he came to fight," explained the soft-spoken Taylor, a bronze medalist in the 2000 Olympics. "I just took him out of his game plan."

Taylor's trainer Pat Burns believes that his fighter came out of that bout a more seasoned pro.

"I think that it was his first time he had to go ten rounds -- actually having to go ten rounds -- and he wasn't quite sure what it would be like if he expended more effort to get Sam out of there, who was just pretty much being a defensive-type fighter, looking not to get knocked out.

"And Jermain, not being sure of just how good of shape he was in and how much fuel he had in the gas tank, kinda held back and then late in the fight, tenth round, he realized 'Man, I could've really gone crazy on this guy and finished the job'. He learned a valuable experience because he's in such great condition when he comes into a fight."

And in his last two bouts against Cervera and Marcos Primera, he's shown an improved understanding of setting up his offense, controlling distance and working off the jab.

"He's on a roll," said Burns, who trains Taylor out of Miami, Florida. "He's getting stronger, more confident and he's distancing himself from the amateurs and that style. He's learning how to punch harder, set up punches, learning how to stay committed and he never had to do that in the amateurs and now he's doing it. He's feeling comfortable with it and it's given him confidence and he's not holding back, he's really going after it."

Taylor could always punch and was blessed with great physical tools but coming out of Arkansas, he did not have a deep a background as young fighters who come out of deeper pools of talent from cities like Washington D.C., Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.

Taylor, despite his Olympic pedigree, had to be built from the foundation up. But as the days, months and years go on, the learning curve has changed.

"We were talking about that today -- things have changed," agreed Burns. "In the beginning with Jermain I spent a lot of time just working on balance and teaching him how to throw punches -- not just tell him to throw a jab or a right hand or hook -- but actually try to teach him how to throw it properly with the proper balance. And I put an awful lot of time in on just basics and because of his physical ability to learn quickly I haven't had to go back to that."

And from learning simple mathematics and algebra, they can go on to boxing trigonometry and beyond.

"We're way beyond that point," Burns says. "So now I'm able to teach him a little bit of the subtleties in fighting and inside fighting and how to set guys up, how to read their faces, how to work angles, how to work a particular side of somebody and get the guy to turn in directions that you want them to turn because it's almost like you're playing a game of pool and you're looking three shots ahead where you want to be.

"We're so beyond the beginning, now he's grasping everything that I'm teaching him. He's just now starting to look like a pro in my opinion."

Taylor concurs with that.

"I feel like now I am a true professional fighter," he says. "I feel I'm peaking at the right time."

He would kick off 2003 by starching Lionel Ortiz in two quick rounds. Then he would face the rugged Marcos Primera and dispatch of him in five impressive rounds, using his heavy jab and quick hands.

"It was an excellent performance," Taylor said of his bout at the Statehouse Convention Center in late March. "I was at home, I was comfortable and all my punches came and landed correctly. I trained hard for that fight and all my hard work paid off."

Then his handlers would take step up in class by taking on the heavy-handed Cervera. Taylor would shine brightly in front of an HBO audience this time out on the undercard of Paul Spadafora's bout against Leonard Dorin. 'Bad Intention's' would stop Cervera in four.

"I was a little nervous in the first round but after that I kinda calmed down and started to put my punches together and everything started working for me."

It was the type of performance that had HBO's Larry Merchant saying that Taylor was no longer a prospect but had elevated himself into "a very good young fighter."

And The Ring magazine seems to agree as they now have him rated at number eight among all the 160 pounders in the world.

But this is still a precarious time for Taylor and his management. He is still far from being a finished product and will turn just 25 on August 11th. There's a delicate balance between rushing their fighter and matching him too easy and stagnating his progress.

For this fight his management switched opponents from Rene Orestegui to Cuevas.

"Once we finally got a hold of a tape of the kid, which took forever to do, we had basically chosen him on the virtue of his record and the fact that he held the WBC Intercontinental America's title. Once we finally got a tape of him, everybody, including ESPN and Lou DiBella, felt as though the guy really wasn't going to put up much of a fight," explained Mark Vaz, who has chosen most of Taylor's first 16 opponents. "He was just way too slow and easy to hit and that it would be a first round blowout and we wanted somebody more competitive for ESPN."

Perhaps a year ago, Orestegui would have been an acceptable foe, but not post-Hill and not after watching a high-profile fight with Vaz.

"His progress has really started after the Sam Hill fight, which is just about a year ago," said Vaz. "He's very hard on himself, he's his own worst critic and he felt as though he should have gotten Hill out of there. When he went back and looked at the tape, he saw spots where he hurt Hill and didn't realize to follow-up and coincidentally the De La Hoya-Vargas fight happened shortly there after and when I watched that with him, he observed the same thing I did -- that as soon as Oscar had him hurt, he went in and finished the show.

"He learned that that referee can be your friend, you get a guy hurt and you put the pressure on him and pick your spots, the referee's going to stop the fight and he's realized that when you get a guy hurt, when it's time to put the pressure on him, when it's time to be patient and go set the same thing up again. So from that point on he's really upped his intensity quite a bit."

And pretty soon he could be at the level where his fights will consistently be on HBO, where he and his promoter had signed with coming out of the Olympic games. Soon, the deal, like DiBella's dates with the network, runs out. Four of his bouts have been featured on HBO and unlike a Ricardo Williams, Taylor hasn't flamed out early in his career and is clearly one of the game's best young prospects who is also very marketable.

"I can't imagine HBO wouldn't want to continue their relationship with Jermain," said DiBella. "In fact I believe, I've been led to believe, that they do. They've made a big investment in him. Look, they did not have a big Olympian program, they really didn't. But they have featured Olympians. He's the guy that's risen to the head of the class from the guys HBO's featured."

While Showtime has spent a considerable amount of time and effort in moving fighters like Rocky Juarez and Jeff Lacy, HBO scrapped 'KO Nation' early on and featured selected bouts of Taylor and Williams.

"I have to believe with the investment they've made in him that they're going to want to continue with him," DiBella says. "And he's certainly done nothing lately to dissuade them. I'm knocking on wood that he's going to look sensational again on ESPN on August 8th and then I need to sit down with HBO and figure out how we can keep this kid active. He needs another opportunity before the end of the year, either on HBO or HBO Pay-Per-View."

Wherever he fights, Taylor's future looks bright and he's ready to look ahead.

"I think I'm standing tall right now," he says. "After this fight I feel like it's time to go forward. I'm ready to be on top."

KO OF THE YEAR?

Did anyone see Manuel Gomez getting off the deck against Jeff Hill to stop 'the Thrill' with a single right hand to the chin of Hill?

It looked for all the world that Hill, who floored Gomez early in round one, was in the process of finishing off Gomez before he got beat to the punch with a crushing right hand that sent him reeling to the canvas, knocked out. It was as exciting a one round fight as you'll see.

I keep getting the feeling that Don King will have Ricardo Mayorga face Cory Spinks (Stynx) instead of making a deal with Bob Arum to make a fight with Antonio Margarito.

So why not a Margarito-Gomez fight? I've seen worse match-ups.

JUNIOR

I've been reading where Hector Camacho Jr, who makes his not-so-eagerly anticipated return this Tuesday night on ESPN2, has a renewed commitment to the sport, he's focused, he's taking the game seriously, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Anyone else get the feeling that he's boxing version of the boy who cried wolf?

SUSPECT

Speaking of lazy southpaws, I guess the offers aren't exactly rolling in for Ricardo Williams, huh?

PRETTY EASY FIGHT

It looks like Floyd Mayweather will be taking on Julio Diaz on November 1st. I don't see this being much of a fight for 'the Pretty Boy'.

I guess Top Rank is cashing in it's chips with Diaz, who just two years ago was thought to be their brightest prospect.

FINAL FLURRIES

I gotta hand it to Richie LaMontagne, I found his 'shotgun' celebration rather tasteless but he did earn my respect with the way he kept fighting under tough circumstances against Dale Brown. Instead of packing it in, he fought on, and for that he earns a tip of the hat... I'll say this about Paulie Malignaggi, nobody feels indifferent about him. You either hate him or love him -- and that's exactly what you want in the game of boxing... I think Ishe Smith is a good but not great prospect.