He had his shortcomings but I thought Pavlik was a solid fighter. Good precise punching, solid chin, focused, etc. His drinking problem is most likely what led to his demise, but not at all a bad career.
Would it be too much to ask for Cotto ( Lineal Champion ), Taylor ( IBF title ) or Lee ( WBO title ) to fight GGG? Everyone knows who the best at middle weight is. The heavyweight divison was pretty bad when Tyson came to power. The only difference was Tyson's management made title unification's matches. GGG is being ducked.
Solid, yes. Good Champion? No. Pavilk had a limited amatuer back ground ( at welter weight ), holes on defense, just an okay chin, and was limited in his ability to adapt.
He was never stopped and only beaten by two elite men, at least one of which could have made anyone look foolish. He stopped Jermain Taylor when he was one of the hotter commodities around and had a few title wins. Again, Pavlik was no Marvin Hagler but I thought fairly highly of him.
Pavlik was better than anybody around today - apart from GGG. Today's MW division is extremely poor. Calzaghe was even weary of fighting Palvik.
does ggg even count as white? certainley not in the european=white sense of the word he's from asia and has mongolian style facial structure, if gg is white does that make light skinned chinese or arab people white? i don't really care, just an observation
Taylor has already been stripped and institutionalised. HNDNJ is fighting Lemiuex for the vacant title. Lee is fighting Quillin and contractually HAS to fight BJS if he wins. Yeah, Cotto is ducking. But keep up for gods sake!
50/50 fight for me, neither has a huge lhw resume to look at and i don't see a huge advantage gor either man in a specific area
All the greats at middle have jumped a division? Are Hagler and Monzon middle weights you consider great? GGG might have to move up to 168. I think he would take out Froch
I didn't mean only MW greats. And remember for them to have moved up back then , it would be straight to LHW. ggg ain't ever going to any LHW
Originally Posted by Mendoza View Post All the greats at middle have jumped a division? Are Hagler and Monzon middle weights you consider great? GGG might have to move up to 168. I think he would take out Froch Dino, Back then, fighters fought close to their weight limit. Light heavies these days fight no where near to 175 pounds on fight night. Take Kovalev for example. He weighed in at 174 then re-hydrated to 188 pounds on HBO's unofficial scale. This is a 14 pound weight gain. You're asking a 160 pound guy who says he can make 154 to fight people near 190 pounds. GGG can do it, but he should not have to.
Hard to say right now, while Kovalev has some big strength such as power and boxing ability he did take some hard shots off pascal in his last fight but did recover well and stopped Pascal convincingly. Moorer was a very good fighter at that level and I suspect a tough opponent with southpaw style but the future has some questions that will be answered about Kovalev that may help us answer that question