Vito Antuofermo vs Kelly Pavlik

Many people who post on this thread will only consider the exhausted and weight drained Pavlik that fought Martinez. That guy may very well lose to Vito.

The version of Pavlik that ran over Miranda and beat Taylor twice would stop Vito inside 10 rounds. The size differrence between Kelly and Vito is enormous. Pavlik is to big and to strong. Vito only had 69" total reach, and to make matters worse, he had short arms even for a guy 5' 8".

Vito would have a very hard time getting past Kelly's jab, and if he did get inside, he'd be inside with a bigger, stronger, man who is pretty good at rough housing.

Vito was a tough *******, but in this one, tough ain't enough. Pavlik has pretty much all the advantages.

 

I would imagine a Vito win!

Vito was a notorious slow starter, and could give away a couple of rds or more depending on if this is 12 or 15 rds???? in the middle rds I would see Vito imposing his will, uping the work rate and working the body. By the late rounds I believe he would be in complete control....and would not be surprised to see a late stoppage:

over 12 Vito 116-112
over 15 Vito KO 14

the only way I see Pavlik having a chance is if Vito cuts...I don't know what boo sees, but I don't see Vito getting dropped let alone stopped by Pavlik! To me totally different class of fighters!

 

I think you are insane.

 

I just don't see how Antuofermo keeps Pavlik from putting the double jab/Right hand to work. He wasn't particularly fast, did not employ great lateral movement, his defense was okay but no better, he'd give up 6" of reach and 7" of height.

In addition, under the same day weigh in rule, Pavlik is a light heavyweight. The over all difference in size is enormous.

 

I like Pavlik in this one.

 

Didn't you say something similar for Pavlik's bout with Martinez, only to make further excuses for Pavlik being out of shape afterwards? The Hopkins fight as well, I believe. Are we to believe that whenever Pavlik loses he is simply out of shape, despite the fact that the best fighter he ever beat was a Jermain Taylor who's since been exposed as nothing special? Miranda is trash, nothing outside of a puncher. What are we to gather from Pavlik beating him? In reality, he's totally unproven against even a fighter the caliber of Vito. If size is really all you have to go on, than I won't take your opinion seriously. Vito has more than enough strength, durability, and rugged resolve to push Pavlik completely off balance from his standard comfort zone. He simply has no adaptability.

 

Cool match-up.

Antuofermo is the more skilled fighter for my money. Contrary to boo I think he would take away Pavlik's jab and right hand and get inside, making height and reach irrelevant. He's awkward to find and deceptively clever defensively, and it's very difficult to stop the guy getting to his preferred range (Hagler couldn't do it), even if he has to soalk up a fair amount of punishment to do so. This is something that Espino was able to do actually - admittedly not against the best version of Pavlik - but he was still able to make Pavlik fight an uncomfortable inside fight and take some points off him. Pavlik goes forward, not backwards; if his opponent also goes forwards he's going to get inside.

On that basis, it's easy to look at this and say Antuofermo's skills would pull him through. On the other hand, one shouldn't overlook the physical side of things. Pavlik is (was) extraordinarily big at 160 and does (did) hit very, very hard. Antuofemo was never the biggest Middle for my money - he always looked more like a LMW - but he compensated it for it in work rate and toughness. Overall I think Pavlik's power and size might just be a little too much in a war, and I can see Vito getting bloodied up and stopped around the 8th-9th, possibly while ahead on the cards, in a FOTY-level slugfest. Could be wrong though, and Pavlik might just not find Antuofermo enough to do damage and end up dropping a UD.

And yes: Pavlik can fight inside - not brilliantly, but well enough to ride things out when Antuofermo gets in close and to do damage of his own with that uppercut.

 

Yeah, I think Miranda is definitely more than a gatekeeper, and just running over such a big animal like that was very impressive. Definitely says something about Pavlik's physical attributes at the weight.

 

Phillyfan, completely agree with your take on the fight, although I think it would be a distance fight.

Scartissue

 

vito for me here i think he gets inside and simply outworks pavlik to take a ud ,of course there is alawys the chance that vito could cut up bad enough to get beaten but i still go for vito

 

I think people are looking at 2010 Pavlik, and not Pavlik at his best.