 After the two losses to Pavlik, Taylor moved up to the super middleweight division. On November 15, 2008, Taylor defeated Jeff Lacy by a dominant unanimous decision to earn a mandatory fight against the winner of a bout between Carl Froch and Jean Pascal for the vacant WBC Super Middleweight title, a fight that was won by Froch. On April 25, 2009, at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Connecticut, Taylor fought Carl Froch for the WBC Super Middleweight title. Taylor was able to control the first two rounds of the fight. In the third round, Taylor knocked Froch down for the first time in his career with a right hand. Entering the final round, Taylor was ahead 106 – 102 on two of the judges' scorecards, while Froch was ahead 106 – 102 on the other. During the round, Froch landed two right hands that sent Taylor to the canvas. He got up, but Froch quickly went after him, trapping him against the ropes and landing a barrage of hard and fast punches. Taylor could not recoup or defend himself, desperately curling up against the ropes. Around 10 clean hard shots from Froch landed before the referee stepped in to stop the bout with only a matter of seconds left in the final round, earning Froch the technical knockout victory.
