Kelly Pavlik Logs In Worst Perfomance of His Career

I don't think so Tim.

 

The Pavlik in the ring was the same old Pavlik, the difference was Martinez.

Enough is enough.

 

I'm OK with Pavlik fans suggesting that Kelly may have declined, didn't train properly, can't make weight, cuts, etc., provided they do this:

Allow for the possibility that Pavlik never was as good as they said, and that perhaps they overrated him from the beginning.

I see all sorts of rationalizations for last Saturday, but the Pavlik fans here ignore the most likely one, the same one that most of us have maintained throughout. When forced to choose, they opt to trash Kelly rather than face the idea that they may have been wrong.

And that's too bad, because Kelly handled his defeat with grace and humility and deserves better from his ostensible supporters.

 

If anything, Pavlik looked better in the middle rounds than I've ever seen him.

 

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I agree. Which goes to the point that I'm not buying into the excuse that he wasn't his nomral self. He was. And martinez just took it to him. Case closed.


He should be back, though.

 

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He'll be back and he has a very good chance of winning. It was a close fight, however you look at it.

 

I don't think that's a measure of a poor mental state. Even the guys who beat Hopkins froze up in the ring, even Roy. Pavlik did no worse than Tito and Tarver.

There's nothing wrong with his mental state. Putting aside all the unconfirmed reports of boozing/slacking from Youngstown, look at the facts. He adjusted against Martinez after dropping the first four rounds; vs. B-Hop he shot his bolt in the last 30 seconds of the 4th, and began to cave in mentally when it missed (and Merchant made a characteristically perceptive comment about those last seconds being Pavik's last chance of getting into the fight). He dominated the middle of the fight. He didn't cry or quit on his stool when his faced was being cut to ribbons from all angles. He took the loss like a man and had a realistic view of the fight post-Martinez. No mental issues to speak of.

Like I say, it seemed to be a perfectly good version of KP mentally and physically, which gave Martinez a close fight and fought well in the middle rounds.

 

Yes Pavlik does have mental and emotional issues,when Hopkins schooled him he realised he wasn't the fighter he thought he was.
No version of Pavlik would have beaten Martinez.

 

Agree with you. He lost the first 4 rounds against Martinez, won the next 4 plus a KD, with momentum shifting to him. That doesn't seem like someone mentally fragile to me. He just wasn't expecting Martinez to change his pattern in the 9th and he got busted open for it. Pavlik will be fine.