Kelly Pavlik v. Tommy Hearns @ 160

leonard was taking punishment from hearns all night long and as soon as ray taps hearns, his legs wobble and he gets hurt. I like tommy but his jaw is literally glass.

 

Hearns KO in 4.

 

Too early to tell.

 

Hearns was a legend of course. But if he did show one flaw it was his less than stellar chin. Juan Domingo Roldan had him hurt badly. So did James 'the heat' Kinchen. Kinchen even complained about Hearn's excessive holding in that fight. Pavlik is still a work in progress. He probably will never face fighters as great as Hearns faced because they are simply not around now. At least in the middleweight and super-middleweight divisions. Even though he is in the infancy stages of establishing his legacy - Pavlik is a special fighter already. Based on what I've seen I think he has the punch, skills, chin to take out Hearns.

Pavlik KO 9 Hearns in an incredible slugfest with skill.

 

It's much too early to surmise anything conclusive about Kelly Pavlik. I will say with much diffidence that Kelly looks to be the type that strains against a good delivery system. Miranda landed on him but he was able to manage; Zuniga and Zertuche both landed but he was fine. How was it then that Jermain Taylor was able to rock him in less than two rounds of boxing?

That is a clear advantage for Hearns especially when, relatively speaking, Taylor isn't even a remarkable specimen when discussing good delivery systems.

What he's amassed for ring credentials fail to impress so far. Hearns wins.

 

Hearns was stopped by exhaustion against a good puncher in Leonard, was stopped by a heavy punching relentless Hagler and was stopped by another heavy punching relentless Barkley.

There is no shame there and his jaw was not glass.

I agree that if Pavlik can survive late, he has a chance because he is yet another heavy puncher. But that is a mighty big "IF" because the Hearns that came in against Hagler would be strongly favored to hurt the step-to-slow Pavlik. That demon speed would overwhelm the mechanical style of Kelly -especially at this juncture. Time will tell what happens to a fully developed Pavlik.

But I'll tell you, Pavlik has a good chin at least, and Edison proved it, and may have even dented it. But he is there to be hit... his distance is too close and he doesn't have the quickness or flexibility to allow confidence in his ability to evade the quick concussions that Hearns would deliver. I love the kid, but I'm holding my breath every time he gets into an exchange because that little bean head is there to be cracked.

The other bean head who is better with distance negotiation and head movement and overall skill combined with demon speed, Hearns, will most likely win by early KO.