If You Could Change One Thing About Pavlik's Style..

Yeah, like Rocky 3! When Apollo teaches Rocky how to beat Mr. T with a Boom Box and a big ass mirror.

 

Co-sign:good

 

i would tell him to dbl fn jab then fire jack lowe , lol no most of you guys said it more head movement. he needs to be alil more faster also but he can hit hard

 

Agree. Anyone one of those things and he would improve alot.

And he's not bad the now is he, so it would be good.

Nigel Benn improved his head movement no end, and it made a huge difference. If Kelly did the same he be a different animal.

 

I think that the first thing you have to do with a 26 year old fighter as good as Kelly is recognize his limitations. Pavlik is never going to move around the ring like a Prime Tommy Hearns, defend like Sweat Pea, counter punch like Salvador Sanchez, box like SRL, or suddenly develop prime Roy's hand speed.

Now you look at what he does well. I absolutely love what John David Jackson said; "Kelly is comin'. An ass whoopin' don't mean **** to Kelly Pavlik. He's gonna make ya fight every minute of every round."

He's tough, he's aggressive, he's resilient, he has one of the best 1-2's in the sport today. He has seriously heavy hands on both sides. He actually has a very powerful left hook, but he doesn't use it enough. He has an uppercut that'll put ya to sleep in a hurry, but doesn't use it enough. He is a murderous body puncher, but has a bad habit of head hunting. His lead foot is often either to close ( leaves ya to square) or to far out (puts ya at to much of angle and costs ya reach and power.) these are just a few points for the sake of illustration.

With a kid like Kelly you keep it simple. Work in a lead left hook with lateral movement, Get him back to the same ferocious body punching he was doing prior to the Zertuche fight. Work on the lead right. Toss in a bit more liberal use of the uppercut. Work on keeping those feet at the right distance from each other. Throw in a little more head movement. Now, take him to the place where he can do these things as well as he does the double-jab/right-hand. Do this and you've got a ****ing monster on your hands.

 

I been thinking the same thing about Lacy and Calzaghe. :think

 

It's not his style I'd want to change, it's his athleticism. That's his major drawback for me.

He is as slow as a snail, and yes he's pretty stiff. It's okay being upright, Carlos Monzon was upright for the most part, but its like Kelly has no upper body flexibility.

 

That's not realistic. Speed and atheleticism are usually more genetic than learned. You're not going to turn KP into a super fast, highly coordinated athlete. He is what he is. That's why I said keep it simple, and focus mostly on refining the things he already does fairly well.

 

I don't think their training philosophies will mix very well. Hopkins hasn't touched junk food in 20 yrs. Kelly likes to pound wings and drink alot. If he trained liked Hopkins did, he would go alot further.

 

I realise that.

But I don't see that much wrong with his style. He's working to the best of his ability in there as far as I can see. Most of the things I'd like him to do require an increase in his athletic performance. He could at least work on some more fast explosive drills rather than whooping the **** out of a tyre.

Okay, maybe I'll say boxing IQ. I do believe that can be learnt. Bernard Hopkins was not so smart as he is now without the experience he built up. From that he'll realise when he has to do something different, when to go to the body or the head, when to hold etc.

Maybe footwork too. This requires a degree of athleticism to be completely proficient, but I don't believe he can't improve that from the terrible state it is currently in.

 

Footwork, head movement, upper body and lateral movement can all be taught to a degree. However, you can't play the bully and the slick boxer at the same time. I think if you tried to change Kelly around to much, you'd just ruin him. 95 amature fights and 35 in the pros; his current style is something that has been developing since he was 9 years old. Chances of him ever needing to fight someone as cagey as Hopkins under the same circumstances are pretty slim.

With a few minor adjustments no one at 160 would be a serious threat, unless AA were to get lucky, and that could happen.

 

I don't think it would be a question of luck. Pavlik would know what AA does, he's not unpredictable except for the fact you don't know when he unleashes. His gameplan is not unexpected. If one of them take you out, it is a bad mistake and good work from Abraham to make it happen, rather than any luck.

Of course you wouldn't change anybodys entire style. That never works. There are always tweaks to be made, like Steward did with Lewis, Roach did with Pacquiao (although this was a drastic overhaul long-term). Pavlik's technical pressure would be far better if his footwork is faster and more precise. That would put him in a better position to attack against fighters that pose difficult stylistic challenges. He looked stuck between the back and front foot against Hopkins, classic sign of either a lack of know how or footwork. Like I said, IQ and footwork could solve a lot of the problems.

If he had Joe Calzaghe's footwork he could be a killer. Of course that is difficult to imagine without an increase in mobility. It starts with the right training methods and then the theory, and then putting it into practice via sparring so everything comes together on fight night. It's a slow and long process, but its possible to make big improvements over a long period.

 

Very good post, and "get lucky" was a poor choice of words on my part. I'd love to continue this conversation, but I have to go earn some money. Take it easy Iceland!

 

Fair post, for sure. Good to see you still care.

IMO, the height difference is gonna be huge vs. AA. In previous fights, against fighters who would burst at him, like AA will, this is a time when those long ass legs are good. He easily steps back out of range and then can quickly get back in. Just as long as AA doesn;t keep him spinning like Mr. Hopkins, I don't see how he can do it. My opinion of course, and I'm just a fan.