The Kelly Pavlik Come Back Express: Who's on board?

I think there are some important factors people are over looking. I'll list a few.

1: Kelly was coming off a loss where he got his face butchered. Last night he seemed a little gun shy, and that is understandable.

2: Kelly used to be a very active fighter who fought 3-4 times per year. Over the past two years he only fought 4 times, and one of the opponents was Miguel Espino. I've watched Pavlik for a long time. He is the type of fighter who MUST stay active in order to stay sharp.

3: KP had not fought at all in over a year. He was rusty as hell, and it took about 8-9 rounds for some improvements to start showing up. I do not think Lopez would have lasted 12 rounds.

4: Kelly spent an awful lot of time these past couple years battling either a near fatal staph infection, or battling alcoholism. He just did two solid months in a hard core rehab center. He deserves some credit just for being able to get in the ring and fight reasonably hard for 10 rounds.

5: As far as I know "Anarci" is the only poster on ESB who had actually seen Lopez fight before last night. One thing I know for sure is that when you look at one of these obscure guys with padded records, like Lopez, you never know how good the guy actually is until he steps up. In my opinion Alfonso Lopez is considerably better than advertised.

6: Lopez has fought as high as 184 pounds, and spent the vast majority of his career at light heavyweight. He was by far the biggest, strongest guy KP ever fought. I think Kelly did okay with that aspect of the fight. He faced a bigger and physically stronger opponent, but he did not get bullied, and his chin held up really well.

Before the fight Team Pavlik said they did not know what Pav's next step would be. They did not know if he would try to go for a title shot, or fight another "tune-up" type fight. I hope they do another "tune-up" as soon as possible. Dyah Davis, Aaron Pryor jr, Fransisco Sierra, Brian Vera: any of those guys would be okay with me. Kelly just needs to put in rounds of boxing to bring the beast back out. I think if he'll take that route, he'll be more than ready to shoot for the moon early next year.

 

****in' aye right Boo.

 

right on, boo. Pavlik's coming back, he's knocking off all the ring rust and the monkies from his back. He beat Lopez who was a big question mark since no one really knew how good he was. I don't think Pavlik is ready to fight the class fighters of 168 yet but he should move on to someone like Vera or Pryor Jr. next.

 

:good

Sure Pav started what we'll call real ****in' slow there. But who the hell would have thought Lopez would be runnin' all over the ring, then lean down with his head out and charge at KP with arms flailin' until the octo-clinch.

At first, I was wondering what KP was gonna do with that, and he noticed the hook as he was comin in. KP had been landin that shot for a long ****in' time before those showtime assholes took notice of it. ( I usually like them, and esp. Tarver, but they did **** last night on that fightyep).

Turns out dude had a hell-a-cious chin and was tough as a mo' fo for sure. Had Kelly had even another minute or two, much less a couple rounds, he would have stopped Lopez without question. And back to the showtime assholes, I mean it was QUITE ****in' clear to me that after the first couple rounds most of those Lopez "flurries" were bein' completely blocked or they missed, but the commentary was like they were lightin KP up. Then I saw KP land a double jab and a big right hand and they didn't even ****in' mention it.:yep

 

C'mon guys,lets be realistic here,you know and i know any top ranked 168lb'er would murder Kelly.Lopez was an overhyped rookie.How many people had even heard of him before this fight ?

 

I don't think Lopez lasts the distance in a 12 rounder (or if he didn't milk that low blow for extra time, for that matter) but it was clear Kelly had to shake the ring rust off.

It's hard to look too deeply into this fight on the surface, what matters more to me is where KP goes from here. Boo was dead on the money when he said Kelly needs to fight to stay sharp- if Pavlik takes too much time off after this fight, it'll have been a waste. Not that Lopez is a bum, but Kelly will have wasted the benefits of the fight with too long a layoff. Get him back in the ring in 4 months, and I think last night's fight will prove to be useful as far as getting back into real fighting shape against the bigger fighters at 168.

 

How many times had you ever heard of Librado Andrade before he quit his job at the Jack In the Box to fight Kessler?

He's now a highly regarded opponent no?

Lopez proved to be tough and have a good ****in' chin, and though last night was the first time most of us had ever even seen him, bet you its not the last.

 

:good right on.

 

Pipe,Andrade had one good fight,he missed the opportunity to make a name for himself and was embarrassed in the rematch.Beating Stieglitz and allowing Bute to stay upright in that infamous 12th round hardly ranks him as a real life "Rocky Balboa".
Face facts,Kelly was able to boil down to 160 (all credit to him for doing so) and was able to kick ass against smaller opponents.Regardless of what his "out the ring" weight is,he will not have any physical advantage plying his trade as a SMW,and that i'm afraid makes him cannon fodder against the likes of Froch,Kessler etc

 

While we have seen Kelly better... lets have some perspective..

The guys is coming back from a year off... substance abuse..... I give him credit for coming back.... plus ring rust

its was a good win and keeps the train rolling in the right direction

 

He needs a good trainer I saw no improvements what so ever from him last night none .

 

He's needed this for years.

 

very entertaining fighter who always comes to fight. would love to see him comeback and rule 168.

 

Hopkins ruined him.

End Thread.

 

Im hopin we get to see more of lopez soon
IMO he did real good against a big name like pav