Kelly Pavlik is a machine!

Dont underestimate Calzaghe.

He can fight a number of different styles and is verry good at all of them. This means that he can always find a gear that throws his oponent off their game and sweep the late rounds. This makes him virtualy impossible to outpoint and he is verry durable which makes him hard to knock out.

He slaps like a girl because of his brittle hands but earlier in his career before the hand problems set in he hit with serious authourity.

Pavlik is certainly a fighter too watch and is only going to get better but at this stage he might be better off waiting untill Calzaghe retires before making a move on his super middleweaight and light heavyweigh thrones.

 

Pavlik and Pacquaio are the best fighters to watch in modern boxing. I get the hunch that Pavlik can be a ATG in the making.

 

Forget Lockett. Pavlik is un-defeated, the #1 gun at middle weight, is two or three years from his prime, and wants to fight the best. What more can a fan ask for? I am excited!

While I agree Pavlik needs top-flight opponents to move up in legacy, I think he is one of those fighters who is going to be defeat proof in the eyes of the fans. What matters most is he fought. And right now he’s kicking @ss and taking names.

Boxing is in a down period with the media. Back in the late 1970’s, Rolling Stone Magazine said a young Bruce Springsteen is going to be an important torch carrier for a down era and rock and roll. While I am not a big Springsteen fan, the kid delivered.

With Mayweather out of the picture, and De La Hoya looking for an exit strategy, boxing needs young star to pass run with its torch. That man might be Kelly Pavlik. When he fights, I‘ll be watching.

 

Seriously, Pavlik has a natural light heavies / cruiser body. He's just a very lean and low fat type of guy, which is why he can make 160. In a past thread, I said that the smaller 5’9” middles or shorter with elite level talent & ranking are becoming rare.



Pavlike vs Calzaghe would be a great match. If it happens in 6 months, I think Calzaghe can win a very unpopular type of decsion, the same way Lenaord beat Hagler.



However, give it a year or more, an Clazaghe will be too old to beat a very talented young gun.

 

You guys are starting to get me excited. I've seen a fair bit of him and have been impressed without thinking ATG. I'll be sure to watch closely from here on, with any luck he will get better and better and some good comp might appear soon enough.

 

Stanley Ketchel hit harder than Pavlik.

 

His KO% will drop if he steps up in competition.

I'd bet the likes of Wright, Calzaghe, Kessler, Hopkins would all go the distance with him.

 

Ahuh, and DLH is 35 so Cotto is going to knock him the **** out. Please, enough already.

They are old, but they can box and they are hard to hit. They have never been stopped for a reason.

As for Hopkins and WInky not being able to beat Taylor:
1. They both arguably did
2. Neither was on the verge of being Ko'ed by Taylor
3. They both fought a Taylor who was much more sure of himself than the one that faced Pavlik and was coming off absolutely disgraceful performances against Spinks and Ouma

How will they give Pavlik a close fight? Simply by using their boxing skills, which are superior to Pavlik's, even in their fossilised state.:good

 

Fair call there.

 

Taylor took it the second time round. And he probably would have survived the first fight too if he didn't gas out looking to KO Pavlik.

 

Yeah... the point being though, just because they're old, doen't mean they are necessarily going to get stopped. All three of those guys have proved they are mentally and physically strong over the journey of their careers. Now Pavlik might stop them all, I wouldn't be shocked if he did, but no way would I favour him to knock any of them out.

Even if he is, styles make fights, and I think Taylor had the success he did against Hopkins because of his flashy style. Hopkins is extremely hard to tag clean, even now, and with Pavlik's handspeed, I see him getting a look in at just about everything Pavlik throws.

Sure, but Taylor never had Winky or Hopkins in trouble to make me say gee, if he just hit a bit harder these guys would drop.

I actually thought Jermain fared better in the rematch. It was the first fight in ages where he didn't look bad. The first fight he got off to a good start, but he was done once he couldn't finish Pavlik off.

As for his mentality coming into the first Pavlik fight, you can't tell me he would have had the same confidence he had pre Ouma and Spinks. The Spinks performance was probably the worse performance by a top ten rated fighter p4p that I have ever seen. Can you think of a worse one?

I think his speed of hand and foot is average and his defence is a bit leaky, something a good boxer can expose - so long as they have an excellent beard, becuase they will get hit.

I don't think his chin is the best either, but I won't doubt his mental toughness after the first Taylor fight. Someone like Kessler might stop him if he tags him clear, but I would't bet on it.

 

I have a feeling everyone is talking about a different fighter than what I've seen of Pavlik, although I haven't seen his last fights, has he really changed that much? He looked one-dimensional, with rather poor defence from what I remember about Miranda and Taylor I fights.