Kelly Pavlik's defense.

Got heart as well. Quite a good chin I thought, he took alot of punches from Taylor after the knockdown. He stayed in there.

I like him.

 

Its aight. Needs to work on his footwork little be more. But Im more impressed by his relentless pressure and ability to make the necessary adjustments... To beat this guy, you are going have great stamima, and a stiff jab... Because if you get into the championships rounds and run out of gas, its lights out:dead

 

He isn't that good defensively, but he catches more punches than he is given credit for. I'd like to see him sharpen up his defense, move his head more, and work on his footwork.

 

It's a good point, and many people don't see it. It's not the pretty stuff - no fancy head movement, but he slips, and catches a lot of punches, and is a sound defensive fighter. He gets very little credit for this part of his game, mostly because he can also take a good punch. Great athlete, great fighter - like this guy a lot.

 

Its still **** though in comparison to other fighters on his level. Even at 154-160 you have Spinks, Karmazin, Forrest, Abraham, Sturm who are all leagues above Pav in terms of defence. The only person I would really rate on the same level is Taylor, who is also pretty woeful defensively. At 168, Bute, Mundine, Calzaghe, Kessler are ALL much better defensive fighters then Pavlik. Pavlik's defence is still very limited all things considered.

 

..with his face. :good :yep

 

Kind of a basic statement but, I think Kelly is a better boxer than he appears. He's faster and defends better than most believe. I am really interested to see how good his defense is, and what adjustments he makes for Taylor II. This should really tell a lot about his future.

 

yeah even though his defense isn't the best, he is fundamentally sounder than people give him credit for.. it's not like he's some crude powerpuncher

 

I think one of the keys to rating Kelly's defense lies in realizing we have NEVER seen him with his face all ****ed up. A few bumps and bruise, but never anything serious. Why? Because he is much better defensively than people generally give him credit for. In the Taylor fighting even the comubox numbers were very inaccurate. Taylor got credit for a lot of punches that bounced of Pavlik's gloves and forearms. Pavlik tends to parry blows rather than slip them, and than can be a bit deceptive. However, he ain't no Pernell Whitaker, and that's for sure. Offensively he's a machine. Defensively there is much room for improvement. However, if his defense was as good as his offense, they'd have to make him fight two guys at once in order to make it fair!

Boo

 

His problem is his reflexes are slow (relatively slow)

 

kelly pavlik has the quintesencial stand up european style.

he is a tall fighter for the weight , so he does not need to duck and weave his way inside and uses the basic european fighters tools of
left jab/ right cross.

he can mix it up because of his power by walking through fighters like say miranda, but his basic statergy is still the european one.

which despite critics saying is robotic style it is still effective if you have the tools to use it and pavlik does.

 

Seems a bit slow on reaction when getting hit ....

 

:good
Great post sean.