Kessler vs Pavlik at 168

Agreed.

 

Agreed, Pavlik isn't as good at above 160. Kessler is 168 naturally, and moves very well at that weight, and is much more skilled. Kessler would beat Pavlik at 168. He's a great inside fighter, and the only reason Joe Calzaghe beat him is because he's JOE CALZAGHE . Real boxing fans know that Kessler is top class.

 

Kessler UD

Kessler is more polished at this point in time.
Kessler is the naturally bigger man.

Pavlik will fill out his frame as he gets older. If I remember correctly he is only 26 years old. He needs to clean out the middleweights before heading up. Unfortunately its pretty bare at 160 with the exception of the dildo-hat wearing Abraham and the off chance that Arum stops acting like a turd and negotiates with William's people. Those are really the only two fights for Pavlik at middleweight that I'm interested in seeing.

 

kessler ko 10

 

Kessler has been effective against opponents that want to fight heads up. He completely offset Librado Andrade, and made Calzaghe eventually essentially give up and choose to easily win the fight from the outside. Pavlik would be the slower version of himself in this fight, so the Andrade fight wouldn't necessarily be that bad a comparison, although of course Pavlik is a much better boxer than Andrade. But at 168, his punch output is lower than Kessler's. And Kessler's defense is the same as fighters like Juan Diaz and Manny Pacquiao. They have their hands held up high, and fight fast and dynamically on the inside, so their activity level tends to function as their defense, making them only exploitable by highly skilled boxers. Pavlik's offense functions as his defense too, but he has shown that he is easily hittable in all of his fights, including the ones where he won by dominant KO, which is most of them.

 

-And for those who wants to see for themselves, check out Kessler-Häussler here (All 3 rounds.. )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rksTHkbvj94

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOkR9ciEiqk