 On December 9, 2006, Taylor fought Kassim Ouma at the Alltel Arena in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Taylor hurt Ouma early in the first round and continued to control the fight through the middle part of the fight with jabs and hooks. During the second half of the fight, Taylor gradually began to tire and suffered a cut over the left eye. He allowed Ouma to back him into the ropes often as the fight came to an end. However, Ouma was unable to be effective with his punches. Taylor won the bout by unanimous decision with scores of 117 – 111, 115 – 113 and 118 – 110. Afterwards, the WBA announced that Taylor was no longer the holder of its Middleweight Super Championship. On May 19, 2007, Taylor went up against former Undisputed Welterweight Champion Cory Spinks at the FedEx Forum in Memphis. Taylor dictated the fight by staying away from Spinks and landing one punch at a time. He hurt Spinks with a right hand in the seventh round. Spinks, with a much shorter reach, had difficulty getting within a closer range against his opponent. Taylor landed 101 of 319 punches, while Spinks landed just 85 of 542. Taylor won the fight by split decision, with two judges scoring 117 – 111 and 115 – 113 in favor of him and the other scoring 117 – 111 for Spinks.
