my point exactly, I dont think Pavlik is elite YET. He fought 1 championship fight, and if people believe that holding a belt makes u elite then,I guess every1 that has a belt is elite then. Its safe to say that. If pavlik defends his belt against a couple big names and wins in grand fashion. Then he becomes elite 2 me, until then he is an A fighter, not an A+ fighter
I view elite in another way. Its like Basketball 2 me Kobe Bryant is an elite player, Tracy Mcgrady elite but you cant say Gilbert Arenas is on there level. Hes nice, but ELITE I dont think so. Pavlik needs more fights against big competition be4 I call him elite. Thats kinda how I view elite. Elite means 2 me that you are above and beyond every1 else, and Pavlik is not that 2 me, not in my eyes. He can get there no doubt, but its 2 early 4 me 2 say that right now Elite fighters (Prime)Pernell WHitaker, Roy Jones, Floyd Mayweather, Muhammad Ali, Evander Holyfield just 2 name a few Do you see what Im tryin 2 say, am i being unreasonable by not saying Pavlik is an elite fighter?
Pavlik, elite? Please! I respect him as the current middle weight champ. He has a long way to go to be considered elite. Before Miranda and Taylor he was vitually unknown and considered highly overrated. He proved many people wrong (including me!) and has looked impressive. Could he be elite, hell yea. But not yet. Not even close.
Middleweight is pretty weak right now with Tayor and Miranda moving up. The only decent fight I could see would be Abraham. But that's not the point. To be elite, you need to beat the best out there over and over. Miranda, altough I think is great, many consider not to be. Taylor, I too consider great, some would disagree. But even if you DID consider both of these fighers to be great, I beleive Kelly needs to continue this domination over the next few years for him to be labled 'elite'. Hopkins is elite. Kelly can not be put into this catorgory with only 2 top wins.
I no he is probably not elite top 10 pound4pound, but Cristian Mijares has fought & won 4 times this year, including winning his WBC world title in his 1st match this year back in January. Pretty impressive if u ask me.