Is Kelly Pavlik the USA of Americas version of Ricky Hatton?

I was just thinking of Monzon and what people would say about him today on ESB. Its very tiring to see people continue to disrespect Pavlik even though all he does is win and so so spectacularly.

Solid fundamentals are what he posesses: high guard, power, good timing, endurance, pressure, good punch variety, and great heart. He will be around for a long time.

I don't see why someone can't just be a fan of Calzaghe without constantly having to downgrade Pavlik.

 

they feel the heat

 

Aside from probably burning in the sun, Pavlik and Hatton aren't really alike in terms fighting style OR popularity. Might as well ask if Corey Spinks is the US Ricky Hatton since he too gets home town support.

 

i'm not a pavlik fan, i was rooting (and betting) for JT to beat him in both their contests, so i feel i am fairly objective when commenting on him... i'm STILL not much of a fan but AT THE SAME POINT IN THEIR CAREERS, pavlik in my mind is a way more accomplished fighter than hatton and on a different level in terms of skill and class... hatton's career is much more mature and i can't think of a single fight he has had where his performance has been as dominant and impressive as pavlik's in defeating his counterparts IN THEIR PRIME... hatton's most "impressive" victory was over tszyu and frankly that was a pretty lackluster win... then he lost to collazo and got the nod, scraped by a one-dimensional urango, beat JLC, got smoked by floyd and then survived lazcano... pavlik crushed miranda and JT the first time, then outboxed JT in a tactical rematch, and then crushes his mandatory (the latter being an easy win over an easy opponent, but hatton has had problems with his opponents in the same type of scenario ie lazcano)

it's completely irrelevant to say that calzaghe would beat pavlik as evidence that pavlik is the "us version of hatton"... what does that have to do with anything

 

I'm a fan of PAv., Calz., and Hatton. Pavlik is not the US version of Hatton. First of all, Pavlik is way more professional between fights, haven't heard anything about him getting fat between fights. Next, Hatton is way more popular in the UK than Pav. in the US. In today's Sport section of my San Francisco bay area paper, there was a small paragraph (3-4 sentances) on page 4 of last nights Pav. fight. Next, they fight completely different. Next, PAv. uses his strengths (height & length) to his advantage, and Hatton fights the way he does because of his size limitations. Moreover, Pavlik has proven himself against stiff competition over the last couple years, Hatton has struggled. The comparison is not really valid

 

Pavlik kicks ass, he dont get his ass kicked. Comparison ends there.

 

koysta had demolished mitchell in 3 rounds, 6 months before fighting hatton.

 

AM I the only one that has a problem with the grammar in the thread title? WTF is the USA of America. USA stands for united states of america so the question reads "is kelly pavlik the United States of America of Americas version of RIcky Hatton"

 

lacanzo is a much better fighter than locket, and to say the tszyu win was lack lustre means you didn't watch the fight or don't know what lack lustre means.

 

hatton is the more talented fighter, all pavlik has is power but hatton has a lot of underated attributes like speed and footwork. hatton is much better and it will be proven to you yanks when pavlik gets exposed by calzaghe.:hi:

 

This pretty much sums it up. Hatton is exciting, but obviously much more limited in both skill set and physical gifts. Also, people commenting that Pavlik is overhyped is a bit much I believe. Any fighter that comes along and crushes his competition at the highest level is going to get hyped. It doesn't mean they are OVER-hyped though.

 

I'm sorry to break it to you Yanks but Pav hasn't achieved half of what Hatton has. If goes on to do it then fine, but as it stands Pav has only beaten two world class boxers......lets keep things in perpective.

 

Pavlik has 3 really solid wins, including giving a rematch to a guy he upset the first time round.
Hatton on the other hand is a cherrypicker still riding off the back of 1 foulfest against Tszyu.
Pavlik is p4p in a way Hatton never was or ever will be.

 

You really are becoming/ have become a **** poster mate. Get a grip....

 

Now I'm going to have to break it down with this kind of bull**** being posted. I will leave the Calzaghe portion of this comment out of the equation considering that the thread is about the comparison between Hatton and Pavlik. Not Pavlik and Calzaghe.

With Pavlik having a couple of defenses under his belt, we'll start with comparing Hatton's attributes and record up to the same point in his career.

Hatton's best wins leading up to his title shot was against an extremely old and faded Vince Phillips, a limited Ben Tackie and probably the next best being Ray Oliveira. Of this group, Phillips has the best resume, but he was YEARS past being remotely competitive with even a top ten fighter, much less an elite fighter. His last big win against a legit top ten fighter had been six years previous with his big upset of Tsyzu. Tackie at this point was already faded coming directly into the fight with Hatton off of back to back losses to Sharmba Mitchell and Kostya Tsyzu. Then their is Oliveira, who's victories of note were against Vivian Harris and Vince Phillips over four years before the fight with Hatton.

Quite honestly looking at his opposition going into his fight with Tsyzu, the only reason I can see for him getting a title shot was the fact that he brought money to the table with his large crowds in Manchester. Tsyzu couldn't draw flies, and needed the money. (Remember the empty arena for the Tackie fight)? It certainly wasn't because he had beaten a bunch of top ten fighters to earn a #1 rating.

Pavlik going into his title shot against Taylor had beaten a slightly higher level of competition in Zuniga, Zertuche and McKart. The HUGE difference is that he beat Miranda also, who was viewed as being one of the top three or four middleweights in the world at the time. Pavlik had earned his way to a #1 ranking before the Miranda fight, but then solidified it with his devestating knockout of Miranda. It was the first time in recent memory that a fighter had to fight such a dangerous opponent to just get a title shot.

Now both fighters won their title bids via TKO, but Hattons win was against Tsyzu, who was a fighter who had three fights over a three year span going into their fight, and was obviously near the end of his career. (Hasn't fought since). Pavlik on the other hand KO'd Taylor who is still in his prime and was extremely active leading into the fight. Also, IMO Pavlik's win was much more definitive as opposed to Hatton spending a good portion of his fight wrestling with Tsyzu.

Hatton then proceeded to defend against Carlos Maussa, instead of either getting a rematch done with Tsyzu (who probably didn't want it) or finding a higher quality opponent. Pavlik gave an immediate rematch to Taylor which is obviously a much more dangerous opponent compared to Maussa for Hatton. Pavlik wins a technical, but exciting UD over Taylor and Hatton TKO's Maussa. Quality of win obviously goes to Pavlik.

Their second defenses respectively were against Collazo and Lockett. Both Pavlik and Hatton were heavily favored going into their fights. Pavlik absolutely destroys his opponent as opposed to Hatton losing his fight in the eyes of a lot of viewers.

Ending the comparison at this point shows the different level of class and competition that Pavlik has faced up to this point compared to Hatton at the same time in his career. In fact its almost embarrasing how much of difference there is. Moving forward all Pavlik has to do is have two or three more big KO wins over limited competition and he would have accomplished more than Hatton.

Hatton went from struggling against Collazo to having an extremely difficult UD against an incredibly limited Urango. Considering Hatton is supposedly underrated with his footwork and speed according to Hopkins54, then why is it that a fighter such as Urango, who style wise is taylor-made for Hatton gave him such fits?

Also, supposedly Pavlik "only has power" but Hatton has footwork and speed? Well even if this statement were true (which its not), it appears that Pavliks one attribute of power has taken him to greater heights then Hattons great footwork and speed. Pavlik's career so far has been spent dominating and Knocking Out his top level opposition, where Hatton has spent the better part of his career against top level competition struggling. He's been taken the distance against Collazo, Urango and Lazcano. That would be the equivalent of Pavlik being taken the distance against Lockett, Raymond Joval and Sebastian Demers. When I look at it, really the bar is set pretty low for Pavlik to be considered having the better career than Hatton a year or so from now.