Pavlik is a much better boxer than he's being given credit. Even in the Martinez fight, you could see him countering and blocking much faster punches than what Froch would hurl at him. My problem with Pavlik is, he's had a big break, caused by... undesireable reasons. God knows how he'll return from such a break. If this was a prime Pavlik I'd see the fight ending in one of two outcomes, Pavlik by decision or Froch by KO. But as it stands, Pavlik's been too inactive to make a call.
against martinez, he came into camp at 190, barely got down to 160 (went to rehab) and rehydrated to 178. i would imagine that if he comes into camp right and everything goes according to plan training wise, he'll rehydrate up around 178 again.
Pavlik has a steel jaw and has never even been close to being KO'd. He took about 10 flush power shots from Taylor in round 2 and got up immediately.
Yep, the guy's plenty big, this Froch is too big for him is nonsense. He's never been KO'd either and when he has been put down (like against Taylor) he's shown he has the heart and will to get up and keep going.
Pavlik is damn near 6' 3", and he started struggling to make 160 way back in 2006. Actually, Team Pavlik made the weight issues public in 2006. In my opinion Pavlik showed signs of weight drain and dehydration as far back as the Zuniga fight in 2005. That's pretty easy to see if you compare video from 2002 with video from 2005. Kell Pavlik is 6' 2 1/2" and depending on who you ask, he has somewhere between 76 and 78 inches of reach. He is walking around at close to 190 pound, and by all reports he is in excellent physical condition. This idea that Pavlik is a small SMW is ridiculous. Even at 168 he's still one of the biggest in the division. This poll is also a bit silly. Froch is gettng seriously over rated because of his win over AA. It's easy to look good when your opponent looks like a heavybag on rails. Pavlik is getting seriously under rated based on a loss to the P4P #3 fighter in the world. Pavlik spent part of his "training camp" drunk in Florida, spent 10 days of his "training camp" at The Betty Ford Center, and was released weighing 180 pounds just 10 days before the fight. Under those circumstances Kelly still won 5 rounds, put Martinez on his ass, and blacked both his eyes. The historical record makes it very clear that at MW or SMW The Ghost is at least 14 seconds better than The Cobra. The only question is when Pavlik returns will we see Kelly "The Ghost" Pavlik, or Kelly the washed up former champ? I'm banking on the former rather than the latter.
