It's hard to say. I think Pavlik's loss was attributed to a combination of factors, but one that stood out was what seemed to be a lack of a game plan from Loew. It's true that styles make fights, but not every mobile boxer has the guile, smarts, and experience necessary for them to relax enough to stay on their feet against a fighter they know has a devestating right hand punch. It's true that Pavlik seemed flatfooted, which was likely due to his focus on tire flipping, weight lifting, and other strongman style excercises that didn't focus on things like footwork, angles, and bending at the knees or the basics of being a fleetfooted boxer. Then again, as he said in his first fight against Taylor, that after being floored his strongman style training is what helped him to get up. And yes it's very likely to be true that Pavlik doesn't possess the athleticism necessary to be as fleetfooted as Hopkins, but unless he's against an opponent that doesn't have great movement, (Abraham), he won't have to be. What he will have to do is work on cutting off the ring and being more versatile with his arsenal of punches. But, in order to do that he might need to move on from Lowe regardless of the success that they've had because all Loew was telling Pavlik from what I could hear is that he need to double up his jab and throw that right hand. That's the same formula for every fight! Hopkins is a genius in boxing. Hopkins eats, sleeps, and breaths boxing. And while if someone said they knew that Hopkins was going to bring it penitentiary style they're probably lying, you would think that Pavlik's trainer wouldn't have underestimated Hopkins. Then again, 90% of the media did if not more. The fact is that while Pavlik definitely needed to improve his footwork, I wanna know where was his left hook? He had Hopkins in position several times during the fight where Hopkins was moving to his right, (Hopkins said it himself that it was his gameplan all along), but no where in site was a left hook or at least a jab, hook. While it may not have won him the fight, if Pavlik would have disguised a hook behind a jab or feinted a jab and threw a hook every once in a while, he could have at least discourged Hopkins from going to his right, and set him up for a big right hand. Where was Loew's advice?
Agreed. All I heard froom Kelly's corner was the same thing I heard when Kelly was having problems against Taylor in the rematch "Double the jab and throw the right hand"....think thats plan A, B, and C....guess what Jack? That doesn't work against everybody!atsch Kelly has been trained to be one-dmiensional....but that one dimension has brought him success so they thought, why deviate from it? Same thing that happened with Tito.... I do think maybe its time for Kelly to find a new trainer....but than I ask myself, does Kelly really have the athletic potential to be much more than he already is? He's a tall, lanky, flat-footed kid with heavy hands. Don't know if you could, or if you even should try and turn him into a slick boxer. But he does need to learn to move a little better and switch up his punch variety...instead of just deonding on straight punches.
I agree that he needs a new trainer. The fact is that the small time trainers 99% of the time cannot cut it at the top levels. You need a championship trainer if you want to get to be a champ and stay a champ.
He should still be a come foward pressure fighter, he's tough enough and punches hard enough to use that style which is natural for him. I agree that he needs to work on being lighter on his feet, bending his knees to avoid punches, feinting, and throwing more variety. He needs to learn to adapt. BUT, he will need to definitely work on being mobile against opponents who can stand up to his punches and don't have good footwork themselves, IE Abraham.
A new trainer and manager perhaps. What a dumb move going up 10 pounds to face Hopkins, who win or lose, never has been close to being knocked out and always makes his opponents look bad. He should have done as Larry Merchant mentioned, faced Rubio on Saturday and then waited to fight Abraham.
No way should he leave Loew! That's a knee jerk reaction, Loew's the guy who got him this far, and as stated by BodySnatcher, superstar trainers are overrated. Even if somebody was giving him spot on advice, Pavlik was getting his ass outclassed that night. He was in shock of what was happening and that completly took him out of his game. Never before had he fought someone his own size who could stand up to his punches, he's always been able to walk everybody down. Against Hopkins he had a man - a hall of fame legend- able to stand in front of him, neutralize most of his attacks and withstand anything that ever did get through. That was a learning experience! What Hopkins did to Taylor in defeat lead to Burns getting replaced by Steward -learn from that mistake! Jack Loew should definitely stay as head trainer. Accept the fact Kelly was going to hit the wall in this fight against Bernard, but he's fully capable of becoming better due to this. I also think it's knee jerk reaction to send him back to 160, a weight he hurts himself to make. It's just a matter of time before he becomes weight drained and get embarrassed at that division. If there's anybody to blame, it's Bob Arum, I said from day one this was foolish fight to make. He wouldn't let Kelly fight Winky, but he'd send him up in weight against the guy who beat Winky easy all to chase Calzaghe.
Yes... every time you lose a fight to an ATG, who happens to be en excellent defensive fighter, and bigger then you, you need to ditch the waste of corner space....
They tried fight Rubio, HBO shot it down. HBO also refused to pay for Abraham-Pavlik til next year. Yet Lamply freely criticized both Pavlik and Abraham for taking these standbye fights and not fighting each other right now. Lamply's an *******.