McClellan vs Pavlik

McClellan probably had too good a chin to lose to Pavlik, imo. Granted, jackson's ability as an overall puncher was fading because he was half-blind, but he did land a fair amount of huge punches on Gerald's crap defence. That combined with the Benn fight shows me someone that could really take a punch...even if he was turned to mush because of it.

Pavlik's slower, just as hittable, doesn't hit as hard, and isn't as durable. McClellan's short career and lack of proven success against a variety of styles gives some pause - pavlik was a big, very game fighter that hit hard himself, but he seems to be someone that as another puncher, is well suited to be a showcase opponent for the faster starting GM... then again, Benn was supposed to that as well. Difference might be that Benn had an underrated defence by that point, with a good bob and weave/ level changing slip and counter game.

 

Pretty much this.

 

I think Pavlik’s technical skills are being sold short. Beating Taylor on points isn’t easy.

 

Pavlik's technical skills are solid but nothing special. He was able to beat Taylor on points in the rematch mainly due to Jermain's notoriously bad stamina in the late rounds.

 

Pavlik was a slow starter and wasn't really defensively sound which makes him vulnerable to McClellan's early onslaught. Hard to see Pavlik survive against the power and aggression of McClellan considering how much in trouble he was against Taylor who didn't punch anywhere near as hard as McClellan.

Still, I don't think it's out of the question that he could possibly survive the early rounds and mount a comeback late in the fight. But more than likely I just see McClellan overpowering Pavlik and finishing him within 4 rounds.

 

Regardless, it’s the only fight of Taylor’s 160 career in which he went down on the cards and the only other guy to ever be on the cards against him was Abraham.

 

Kelly was tough, offensively sound and accurate but wasn't the quickest of hand and was right there to be hit. I don't like the combination against Gerald.

On the flipside, Nigel Benn was there to be hit, too.

I think this is closer than an early blowout but I do see Gerald breaking him down.

 

Back in those days it was much closer to 160 by necessity because back then the weighed in same day as the fight. Nowadays, guys have 24 hours to rehydrate which is supposed to be safer and in some cases, it is.

 

And, the fact that Taylor had an incredibly low Ring IQ. Quite frankly, he had an incredibly low IQ outside the ring.

 

The exact same was true for McClellan.

 

Taylor is one of those guys that really fell apart kind of quickly but in hindsight, you could see the wheels starting to fall off before Pavlik. He battled hard to hold onto his title against Winky but looked like **** against Ouma especially in the later rounds and Cory Spinks damn near pulled the upset in a stinker of a fight. Manny Steward was done with him after the Spinks fight and his post Pavlik career was loaded with brutal KO losses that clearly affected his mental health. The Abraham Ko was especially brutal and at the time looked to be career ending.

 

I just watched McClellans demolition job on Julian Jackson in the rematch and I must say that was damn impressive. I loved Kelly Pavlik and he's one of my favorite fighters but he got hit too much, I think he'd do well early on but McClellan would catch him with with too many clean punches as the fight went on and the ref would most likely wave it off late in the fight.

 

168 Benn was still an offensive minded puncher at heart for sure, but he had much better reflexes and had developed a more well-rounded style with much better upperbody movement and use of angles from the knees and waist than an upright, rigid guy like Pavlik. It's very hard to see Kelly getting into a lot of those same low defensive angles to slip and counter that saved Benn from an early knockout and allowed him to turn things around.

 

Remember all the folks after the first Taylor bout claiming Pavlik would beat Monzon?