Yeah maybe right, kessler would probably knock Pavlik out, whereas Joe would out work him over the distance.
Kessler's a big boy and is bulkier than Pavlik. Anyone that fights Kessler needs to have good speed and agility or else he'll wipe them out, as he did to Beyer, Siaca and Lucus. Even then only half the problem's solved, as we saw with Mundine who had the agility and leg speed to avoid being taken out, the hand speed to land punches, but not the power to do the damage required to halt Kessler rolling forward and dictating the fight. In fact Kessler's power made Mundine reluctant to throw combinations which ended up being the difference between Mundine losing to Kessler and Calzaghe beating the Dane.