In a recent thread the question was who would win Dirrell and Pavlik, which made me think if Pavlik and Abraham fought what a great fight that would be. Even though Abraham seems to be better at 168 pounds now than Pavlik or more comfortable, who would win?
This fight really should have happened, it would have been a great fight. I pick Abraham but think it's pretty much a 50/50 fight.
aa knocks him..kp dont have the speed to deal with that beast..plus kp is garbage above 160...we have seen him against jt and bhop above 160 and he didn't look good in either fight
Kelly would pile up the points, but he doesn't have an amazingly wide shot selection. He shoots his punches pretty straight and AA would block most of them. I don't think Pavlik could take AA's shots once he started unloading. I'd make AA at least a 2-1 favorite in this one. edit: Didn't see that the fight had to be at 168. Easy night for AA. Pavlik's not all that impressive above 160
I imagine it'd be a rough night for both guys. Pavlik could do it but he'd probably stick his chin out and get it shattered. Pavlik let's himself get into situations he doesn't need to be in.
Abraham by KO, i'm not going to get sucked into the classic ESB overreaction just because he lost to a slick fighter.
Expect a lot of people change their mind over the weekend but that's okay, welcome to ESB! Now the ONE thing worth pointing out of Dirrell-Abraham which could be related to Pavlik-Abraham is King Arthur's stamina. I was very impressed how he was finally able to suck the air out of the ring in the later rounds when I absolutely expected trouble for AA based on the great stamina and strong finish Andre showed vs. Froch. Arthur finally was able to bring the draining pressure in despite getting his ass tagged all night, knocked Dirrell down, and you could feel danger for Andre's safe lead in the last 1,5 rounds, as AA is known for late brutal stoppages. But than he landed that stupid shot and sabotaged his own chances to turn the tables when he had the most chance. But at no point I felt Abraham was running out of gas and also showed the mental toughness necessary to beat Pavlik. Other than this, there's not much to say, Dirrell has movement and angles Pavlik has only seen in one fight, he's naturally bigger and stronger, hard to hit and multi-dimensional - that was the style to beat Abraham, not Pavlik jabbing in straight lines like Taylor did. Stay in front of Abraham (and Kelly won't dance around), and you're most likely gonna get KTFO sooner or later. That's why Dirrell did an excellent job, not letting AA fight in his comfort zone.
I still feel Abraham has the power to hurt Pavlik, who will rush and engage AA to a street fight. Should be an exciting fight, and hopefully we can see this in the future.
Pavlik. AA still opens up with wide shots when frustrated and down and Kelly throws straighter. Kelly came into camp at 185 with added upper body muscle and more pop in his punches than ever. AA still shows that he doesn't like getting hit, especially to the body and will still go to the ropes against a puncher. Dirrell split his guard FFS people. You think Kelly won't? Hell, Lujuan Simon split his guard.
