My Consession...(last page...new post)

Just saw your above post

 

For what it's worth, here's my take:

I had a really hard time with deciding who I wanted to win. Ultimately, I just decided to watch the fight. I really gained respect for both fighters in the end.

Pavlik looked like a man who was focused and prepared for the biggest fight of his life. He was confident and in great condition. It takes a lot for a guy to get knocked down the way he did and not only get up, but keep moving forward and fighting his fight unshaken.

I don't fault Taylor for immediately leaving the ring. Very few people have been in that situation and I think it's a reaction more than a conscious decision. Everyone reacts differently and I don't think it's fair to try and play mind-reader unless you've had a very similar experience. I think he kept himself composed in the post-fight interview, all things considered. I always liked him as a person and I really felt for him because I could see that he was heartbroken over the loss. I really hope that he comes back and has a great career.

With regard to who was winning prior to the stoppage, I had Pavlik slightly ahead. When rounds are close, I tend to score in favor of the guy pressing the action, especially if he is driving the other fighter backwards. I think Pavlik was landing a greater number of substantive punches. His jab was snapping Taylor's head back almost every time it landed. He also landed a couple very nice body shots, which are the kinds of punches that don't recieve enough merit on judges' score cards in my opinion.

I think that ultimately Pavlik scored the knockout by working behind the jab. It backed Taylor up, kept him off-balance, and created openings. It was also damaging and I tend to agree that there was an accumulation effect that occurred. I do not believe Taylor has a bad chin. He took some very good clean shots early in the fight and looked unphased.

Taylor is an extremely skilled athlete and has enormous potential to be a great fighter if he can overcome his demons and really learn from his fight experience up to this point. I think that he would have had more success against Pavlik if he incorporated more offense and lateral movement. In my opinion, he did way too much face-to-face fighting while looking to counterpunch. If he used his superior speed offensively, he could have taken the initialtive away from Pavlik and kept him off-balance and would have won more rounds, at least on my scorecard.

 

quite a bit were blocked but the ones that landed did so much damage. each one that did land put taylor in a worse state until that less left hand that put him out.