Taylor was one solid punch away from stopping Pavlik in the second round of there first fight. How would the next couple of years been different for both guys if Taylor had won back in 2007? Taylor would have stayed at middleweight defending his belts. Probably never fighting at 168 avoiding the KO loses to Froch and Abraham. Apart from Abraham there was no huge punchers at 160. Would he still be undefeated today? Pavlik would not get a rematch easily having been blown out in the second round. Would he go to Germany to face Abraham or Sturm for an alphabet title or mabye go up to 168 straight away. One thing is for sure he would not have been embarressed over 12 rounds by Hopkins.
Pavlik is the most overrated boxer today. His best wins are against overrated boxers, Taylor and Miranda.
Its a good question. I think Taylor would have gone up to 168lb and eventually got beaten like he did. In fairness to Taylor hes never ducked anyone. As for Pavlik I think he would have stayed away from boxing the European fighters (thats not to say they're better or worse) and built himself back into contention to fight for one of Taylors old belts when Taylor goes up to 168lbs
