Undisputed middleweight boxer Jermain Taylor will visit children being treated at the Arkansas Stuttering Center in the UALR Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 5, to talk with the kids about his own fight to knock out stuttering.

Stuttering is a communication disorder characterized with frequent disruptions in the forward flow of speech affecting 5 percent of preschool children. The Arkansas Stuttering Center offers services to evaluate children exhibiting the condition and treatment. The center also provides basic and advanced training for practitioners who work with people who stutter and their families.

UALR Professor Brent A. Gregg, director of the Arkansas Stuttering Center, invited Taylor to tour audiology and speech pathology facilities, including the clinic UALR operates with UAMS to treat a myriad of communications disorders. Gregg and Taylor first met while both worked on the wait staff at a local dinner playhouse while Taylor trained for the Olympics and the professor earned his master’s degree.

The two were reacquainted last summer when Taylor participated in an event raising scholarship money for UALR mass communication students.

The visit is part of Taylor’s fight week activities that will culminate in a bout between Arkansas boxer and Kassim Ouma for the undisputed middleweight championship of the world. HBO will present the fight live at 9 p.m. CST at Alltel Arena.