With Pavlik looking awful and being schooled against Hopkins how important is 2009 for him? Is it a make or break year? Firstly, it was far too soon to be fighting at l-hw but that was the fight that was out there for him so fair dos. However, once he takes his anger out on Rubio does a fight against Abraham become make or break for his career? If he lost would he fade way? His biggest wins have been against Taylor where for me, 'the style made the fight'. My concern is that Pavlik could be a one-trick pony and could get exposed again. Would he get anywhere near Paul Williams for example?
pavlik will be fine, he will still have a great career, and I would take him over PW right now in an instant. He just ran in to a much bigger and savvy fighter than he was in B HOP. Kelly is still the 160 KING.
I'm inclined to agree. It's not that Pavlik was exposed, it was Hopkins' way with fighters. Exposed is when something fundamentally wrong is highlighted by another fighter which lays down the blueprint for others. Let's see how many other fighters could do that to Pav, perhaps Dawson, Calz and err... that's it really. He's safe at MW and although Paul Williams is a great fighter, look at the later rounds in the Margarito fight. Can you imagine Pav doing that to him. Good night!!!
The problems Pavlik had with Hopkins are things that concerned me for quite awhile which is why I took Hopkins to beat him. He should KO Rubio. Abraham could give him problems but he must fight him sooner-than-later if he wants the fight because we have seen in the 2 fights where he went above 160 he had trouble and Abraham is going to SMW fairly soon. If a fight with Abraham takes place this coming year I believe it is make-or-break to an extent for Pavlik. If he wins or at least fights well even if loses he may be okay but if Abraham were to have a dominant performance then he's got serious trouble. I think a future showdown with Paul Williams would be a tough fight. Right now that's a toss up fight to me.
Pavlik has been 'exposed' (hate that term) all along. It's never been a mystery that his defense is porous and that he's a very stiff, orthodox fighter. What he does well, he does extremely well. But he'll always have difficulty with a fighter of Hopkins' caliber, with that kind of versatility and ring smarts. Not that there are too many of those fighters around these days.....
pavlik will come back strong, 09 wil be interesting, dont expect many mega fights with Pavlik involved
A lot depends on how Pavlik reacts to losing . Style wise Hopkins was a nightmare, but what experience Kelly got! But if The Ghost writes himself off like many boxing fans have just because he lost to a super difficult opponent, that experience goes for naught. My guess is Kelly comes back and kicks ass, including Abraham.
pavlik's loss to hopkins may be compared to hatton's loss to mayweather. both of them went up in weight to fight their respective bigger opponents and lost badly. but just like hatton @140, pavlik still remains the champ at middleweight. although they still are "the man" in their respective weight classes, both of them though lost their p4p top 10 status as a result of these losses.
dont forget how good hopkins is. pavlik needs to fight a few mandatories to get his confidence back and he will be okay. a show down with abraham would be great, late 2009 to early 2010.
I wonder if Pavlik is now going to change up his style, his come forward 1-2 was successful for a long time, and it seemed to make him feel it would work against Hopkins......WRONG! I am very glad he faced Hopkins and I am glad he got beat the way he did.......He needed it to learn, and it was better this way...he faced a well known respected fighter with no belt on the line, so now when he runs into another fighter with a style like Hopkins he will be ready and come up with a better strategy in order to win. If he he took this past match as a learning tool for the future, then expect him to come back very hard and better then ever, but If he takes this as "oh I was just off that night...hopkins isnt that good" then expect him to get schooled again the next time he runs into a crafty technical fighter.
They will take it easy on him, I expect him to knock over a couple of easy mando's, dont be surprised if Duddy gets a shot. Abraham is out of the question, they wont risk it. Overral a very bland 2009 for Kelly Pavlik.
I agree with this. He should still have a very good career, and I think he can still be dominant at 160. Additionally, I too believe he would beat Williams and do so with relative ease. There aren't too many fighters out there capable of fighting him the way Hopkins did, and I reckon in the long run, the Hopkins bout will have provided him with a great experience.
The problem with Sturm is that he is prettu big in Germany, he gets 5million tv viewers and pockets nice couple million euros for a defence, and his defences are never that good. The Germans dont seem to the kind of nation that pressure their champions to take on the sternest challengers, so dont expect Pavlik - Sturm to happen anytime soon.