It wasn't that long ago that Christmas meant just another cold December day for Arkansas middleweight contender Jermain Taylor. Abandoned by his father and left to care for his younger sisters while his mother worked, the little things that are expected by children during this season didn't always make their way to the Taylor home in Arkansas.

"Christmases were hard," admits Taylor. "There were a couple of times when I didn't have Christmas."

But like so many in the same situation, Taylor persevered and became not only a survivor, but a success. And when the bells start chiming this December 25, the 25-year-old has an entirely different outlook on things.

"I just feel like I'm blessed," he beams.

And he's got more than a few reasons to feel that way. Ranked in the top ten by all major sanctioning organizations (as well as The Ring magazine), the 18-0 (13 KOs) Taylor has progressed to the point where he's being considered for bigger and better things in 2004; he's headlining an ESPN2 Friday Night Fights card at the Mohegan Sun Arena on January 9 against Alex Rios (23-4-1, 18 KOs); and oh yeah, he'll have a special someone to share his holiday with ­ his new wife Erica.

"I'm just looking forward to having a great Christmas with my wife, looking for our tree, opening our gifts together," said Taylor, who got hitched in August. "That's something I always wanted to do. I've got everything I want. I'm blessed. The only thing I'm missing is the world championship. And once I gain that, I'm finished. You can't ask for anything better than that."

Now if he can just get hard-nosed trainer Pat Burns to give him a couple of days off.

"I doubt that," Taylor laughs. "It don't make a difference ­ I like training. Plus, she's a basketball player, so she'll be in the gym with me.

Not just a basketball player, as Erica Smith-Taylor is a starting guard for Division I Louisiana Tech, currently ranked 12th in the country. So she knows something about competing at the highest levels of a sport.

"She tells me to just train hard and keep your head up, no matter what happens," said Taylor.

He'll need to heed that advice in 2004, because once the new year rolls in, everything will change for 'Bad Intentions', with the possibility for great accomplishment present, but also great disappointment. Taylor's ready to take that step.

"I'm looking at a title fight in 2004," he said. "I want to step in the ring with the number one guy; whoever is on top at the time."

Unfortunately, the man atop of his division is not only one of the top middleweights to ever lace up the gloves, but a punishing old-school warrior with the ability and temperament to either end or severely hamper a fighter's career.

Just ask William Joppy about Bernard Hopkins. And after Joppy's one-sided beatdown at the hands of 'The Executioner' on December 13, you have to wonder ­ if Joppy is the legitimate number two (or at the very least, number three) man in the 160-pound weight class, what chance do the rest of the middleweights have?

Taylor was an interested observer of Hopkins-Joppy.

"I thought it was an excellent fight,' said Taylor. "Bernard Hopkins fought a helluva fight. He showed that he's still got it in him, and you can't take anything away from Bernard. But I also take nothing away from Joppy. He came to fight, but Bernard was just too much for him."

Hopkins, who seems to be getting better with age, doesn't fight like your typical 38-year-old. In fact, he doesn't fight like your typical 28-year-old. So how do you not only fight, but beat, Bernard Hopkins?

"You've got to be careful with Bernard because he fights with everything," said Taylor. "I've pretty much watched all his fights and I've never seen anybody stick with their jab and work the body against Bernard. If I was fighting him tomorrow, that's what I'd do. I'd use my jab and work that body. And I wouldn't let him dictate the fight. I would dictate the fight."

And what about the now legendary mind games played by the champion?

"I just won't get in it," said Taylor.

It's the type of fight that could set boxing on its ear ­ if it takes place in its proper time. Barring some unforeseen occurrences, 2004 shouldn't be that time for Jermain Taylor. 2004 should be the year of the contenders for the Little Rock native, a year in which he tests the waters of the big time and leaves no doubt as to his place among the elite.

So far that's the 2004 plan for Team Taylor, with a recent DiBella Entertainment press release citing that "former champions Raul Marquez, William Joppy, and Keith Holmes are on the radar screen."

With victories over the aforementioned trio, Taylor will have proven his mettle and gained the needed experience to take that championship leap.

"There is a lot of pressure," he admits. "I feel like I've got to look good every time I'm out there. But it comes with the territory. And if I didn't have it, I'd be wanting it."

That's the attitude needed for Taylor to lift his game to the next level, and now he just needs to pass the tests that go along with it. Because let's face it, in his 18 victories he's faced some decent opposition, but he hasn't really been tested. That fact has surprised Taylor as much as anyone.

"I train so hard, that when I get into a fight, I can adapt to anything," he said. "Whatever this guy wants to do, I do the opposite. And then I make the fight easy. Some of the guys I've fought, I watched tapes of them and said, 'man, this guy's good.' And then I get in the ring with him and I do whatever it takes to make him look sloppy. Me and the whole team have been working so hard in the gym that when I fight I'm a step better."

With each one of those steps, Jermain Taylor's reputation grows more fearsome, his skills get sharper, and his dreams get closer. And in a couple of years, Taylor may be on top of the middleweight division.

It's a long way from those days when he woke up with no presents under a missing Christmas tree.

He agrees.

"I don't like to dwell on those moments because I'm having a helluva Christmas now."