For me Pavlik is the better fighter and as such it will be remembered as the better win. Feel free to turn this thread into a brawl.
Pavlik has achieved more beating the better opponent twice in Taylor (even if the second match was razor thin decision). The same Taylor who schooled Lacy himself. Pavlik also became Linear champion something Lacy will never do. Pavlik also has that excellent destructive win over Mandiera
I think the hopkins win was the bigger upset. Lacy was an upset only because Americans werent familiar with Calzaghe and underrated him. In the case of Hopkins-Pavlik we have seen a lot of each fighters and still Pavlik was expected to be a huge favorite.
In a very strict technical sense then you could always argue that Lacy had done more at super-middle than Pavlik did at light-heavy, which is where the respective bouts took place. After all, this is a weight governed sport. But yes at the time (for some unknown reason), in real terms the Hopkins win was considered a bigger upset.
I think at the time Lacy was considered a beast so Clazage's win was big at the time. Kelly was getting raves because of his KO over Taylor and Miranda and Pavlick was hot...I think in retrospect its close but Pavlick would be the best win by a small margin but Lacy was favored big at the time and was dominated by Joe so its close
Hopkins was a much better win. I don't see this as even remarkably close in historical context and perspective when comparing Pavlik and Lazy and the fact that Hopkins is in his 40's!
Lacy's subsequent decline following the frightening beating Calzaghe gave him seems to have devalued the win somewhat. I know it's all well and fine to speak in retrospect, but Pavlik never impressed me to the degree he did others prior to the Hopkins fight. The wins against Taylor were very good ones but Taylor had looked mediocre for some time at that point. Pavlik pre-Hopkins looked no better than Lacy pre-Calzaghe to me and he didn't look that good against a very limited opponent in Rubio. We've still to see how much the Hops beating has taken from him. I thought both Lacy and Pavlik would lose convincingly to Hopkins and Calzaghe respectively. If Pavlik get's his career back on track and racks up some impressive wins, then the Hopkins win will definitely stand for more than Calzaghe one. I'll reserve judgement until then.
Pavlik came into that fight much smaller than Hopkins. Ignoring the age thing, I don't hold this one against Pavlik. He could have handled it much better, but he WAS fighting a bigger, stronger man. The Lacy win is bigger IMO. It was a more thoroughly destructive and dominant win, and Lacy never really answered. Pavlik was always in the fight against Hopkins, always trying to make something work and coming forward. Lacy was just dead in the water, and took a humiliating stomping. Lacy was ruined by Calzaghe.
i would go with the lacy win as lacy was the new tyson and was going to hook calzaghe into the next week ,where as the pavlik win was not at middle it was at light heavy so pavlik had no real form at the weight i am in no way discounting the performance by hopkins which was of the very highest level ,but i feel that the hype surrounding lacy gives calzaghe the edge here
Anyone who had seen Jeff Lacy v Omar Sheika knew that the hype was not justified. And this was proved by Lacy's performance on the night, and all of his subsequent performances including being completely outclassed by Jermain Taylor. Anyone who had seen Kelly Pavlik knock out then outpoint Jermain Taylor knew that he had proven to be a damn good fighter. I believe his subsequent performances will underline this. Pavlik was always a higher class fighter than Lacy, and this is one of several reasons why Hopkins's win was significantly better.
