Coming out swinging Jermain Taylor has already started sounding off about his fight..

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF Jermain Taylor showed off his jab Thursday, while Youngstown's Kelly Pavlik proved once again he could take a punch.
And neither one was near a ring.
Nine days from their anticipated middleweight championship fight, Taylor fired a few shots at Pavlik — and his critics — by predicting an easy victory on Sept. 29 in Atlantic City.
"After I whup him, I'll finally get a little credit," said Taylor, the World Boxing Council champion whose latest fights have drawn criticism in the boxing community. "When I watch the guy [Pavlik] on tape, I don't see him doing nothing. He's a strong fighter. Other than that, he's nothing.
"I'm glad the hype [for the fight] is there, but I don't see him being even on my level."
Color counts
Taylor's promoter, Lou DiBella, went a step further, crediting Pavlik's booming popularity to his skin color.
"He's white," said DiBella. "He's called the ghost. It helps. Let's face reality."
When Pavlik was asked if the comments bothered him, he chuckled.
"No, I love it," he said. "That's an advantage for me if that's what he thinks."
Although the fight didn't necessarily need extra hype — tickets are close to being sold out, due in large part to Pavlik's fans in Youngstown — Taylor's comments are sure to stir up more interest. The Little Rock, Ark., native has been stung by criticism over his lackluster victories over Cory Spinks and Kassim Ouma over the past year and his controversial draw against Ronald "Winky" Wright in June, 2006. He also won two fights with Bernard Hopkins in 2005 that many felt could have gone either way.
"People lay a lot of criticism on him, but what the guy has done is beat quality fighters," said DiBella. "A couple didn't look pretty."
Taylor's record
In one breath, Taylor (27-0-1, 17 KOs) claimed not to notice the criticism, then reversed
himself.
"I'm not going to say it don't bother me," he said. "Yeah, it bothers me."
Although Taylor said he's focused and in shape, many observers feel he may be overlooking Pavlik. And Pavlik's one of them.
"He thinks I'm a slow white kid from the Midwest and I'm just going to come straight ahead," said Pavlik. "But he's got a lot of flaws in his game and I'm going to take advantage of it."
Pavlik (31-0, 28 KOs) will finish up sparring on Sunday — he had a 12-round session on Wednesday — and will leave for Atlantic City on Wednesday. Like most of his fights, he's trained in Youngstown, preferring the comforts of home to the isolation of a training camp.
"I look at it as an advantage," said Pavlik. "When I trained in [Las] Vegas, I had to go a half-hour to find hills, 20 minutes for a flat run. The gym was the only thing close. All in one "Here in Youngstown, everything is close — the YMCA, where I can swim, is five minutes away. The Ironman Warehouse is four minutes away. The gym is three minutes away. The park is five minutes away. There's no need to go away for training camp."
Pavlik also stayed in Youngstown for his last fight — a seven-round knockout over Edison Miranda in May — and his trainer, Jack Loew, brought in more athletic sparring partners to prepare for Taylor's style. Taylor is more of a boxer than Pavlik's more recent opponents, who preferred to slug it out in the middle of the ring.
"I'm going to throw a lot of punches with a lot more movement, like earlier in my career," said Pavlik. "I've been training like crazy — seven, eight hours a day.
"Camp is winding down and I'm feeling great. Now we're just going to do a little fine-tuning before the fight."