Monzon vs. Pavlik

To be fair, I've seen Pavlik's reach listed as 78" by a number of other sources. It's more or less trivial compared to the weight/height/style issues, though.

 

That is a taller, rangier fighter shuffling back to maintain the distance against a guy looking to charge inside. Keeping away, getting off a few shots, moving away again, getting off a few shots, stopping the other guy getting off. Don't get me wrong: he's doing it with tremendous precision, and anyone who can stop Bennie Briscoe in his tracks has obvious vim. But I don't think it's reminiscent of Hopkins.

You made a statement about how Monzon is "arguably better" at every aspect of the game that Hopkins used to beat Pavlik. That sounds pretty sweeping to me.

 

I would have thought you could have conjured something more damaging than that. Monzon can probably "handle" Pavlik, but there's no precedent for him doing it how Hopkins did.

 

That's absolutely not what I was saying. I was saying that Monzon didn't fight pressure fighters the way Hopkins does, and that it's not in his nature to lead with unpredictable potshots or to pull off a slick counter-punching role. The whole point of the thread was to try to establish that Monzon generally deals with come-forward types by catching them on the way in and tying them up if they're smaller (Griffith, Napoles, Briscoe) or by staying on the outside and trying to set up the right hand if they're more upright (Benvenuti, Mundine). Given that, I was suggesting that someone like Pavlik (big, heavy, powerful, active, tough) presents a difficult package for that kind of strategy.