Jermain Taylor retained his world middleweight title on Saturday with a lacklustre split decision over IBF junior middleweight champion Cory Spinks in Memphis, Tennessee.

Taylor (27-0-1) drew boos from a largely home-town crowd by landing few serious punches on Spinks (36-4), who was stepping up in weight and managed to avoid Taylor for most of the dreary 12-round fight.

While Taylor, defending his title for the fourth straight time, was ahead on two scorecards (117-111 and 115-113), judge Richard Flaherty somehow scored the fight 117-111 for Spinks.

"He ran the whole time. I couldn't get my punches right," Taylor said.

"You can't take a championship running. You want to beat the champ, fight the champ. He knows that. He's been around fighting too long."

Spinks said he thought he had won.

The victory by Taylor may set up a title defense against undefeated Kelly Pavlik, who scored a technical knockout of Edison Miranda at 1:54 of the seventh round.

"I will fight anybody, anybody" Taylor said.

"If Kelly Pavlik is the best fighter out there for the most money, we're going after Kelly Pavlik."

The Pavlik-Miranda bout was hard-hitting and entertaining from start to finish, unlike the featured fight on the card.