Who wins? I'm talking prime versions of all three of them. I've only seen 1 Pirog fight and that was a year ago, I forgotten his strange style. How good is this Pirog dude? The general impression is that he is not coming back because of a shoulder injury so let's not get into that one.
Pavlik over Abraham at 160, by a moderately wide decision. (117-111; Abe coming on late) 168lb, Abraham maybe stops Pavlik. (though 168lb Abe sucks too, compared with his middleweight self - Pavlik's drop is just greater) Pirog if he is as good as he seems/seemed to be should be able to outbox either of them...but we haven't yet/never did get to find out if he is/was as good as he seems/seemed.
Pavlik and Abraham at 160 were just a lot better than they were at 168 that's for sure. Yeah we did not see him in enough adversity. Judging from the scorecards, he was trailing in the fight against Danny Jacobs, what do you make of this? It is a big statement to say he'd outbox prime Pavlik and Abraham. I do feel Golovkin would beat Pav and Abra too.
Style wise, Pirog matches up better to Abraham than he does with Pavlik. Abraham and Pavlik at MW, while far from immortal or HOF-bound, were both pretty beastly. Something often forgotten about the two of them.
If I remember correctly, it was a clear case of Pirog up 3-1 or the fight was even going into the KO round. Jacobs was unproven at the time and it was seen as an easy way to get him a vacant title. Most people hadn't ever seen Pirog fight before. Jacobs was cancerous and sick, but I don't want to take anything away from Pirog's beautiful stoppage of him against the ropes. That was a great punch. But a "prime" Pirog showed plenty of limitations against 154 pound Javier Maciel (who is underrated himself, but far from the type who would consistently give massive trouble to the top guys at 160 at the time). I scored the fight wide for Pirog but almost all of the rounds were close and some of them were very close. I'm not sure Pirog could handle Abraham at MW, who wasn't the turtle he became at SMW. Abraham up at SMW from the Dirrell-Froch-Ward days? Shoot, Pirog's style matches up with Abraham's predictably limited output and defensive posture very well. So, I might go so far as to say Pirog does much better against SMW Abraham than he does against "prime" MW Abraham. As for Pavlik, I think Pirog would lose a close decision where he looks good in making Pavlik miss but ultimately would be outlanded and unable to thwart Pavlik's size and feared double jab... OK, the double jab was a joke, but I would pick Pavlik. One of those fights where had they fought when Pavlik was peak and champion, everyone would have been claiming he was exposed despite a close victory, would be my guess.
Overall great post, Smoak, but - you're pulling the Maciel card? To argue against the h2h ability of Pirog?? Maciel is a beast of a light middle, and while he didn't belong at middle he made the most of the opportunity he got and fought a very smart fight. I'm not sure the Maciel of that night couldn't win a piece of the MW title from some of the weaker guys to hold them in recent years (for instance, the Soliman of right now?) - and Pirog fought him, and still clearly beat him (despite Maciel basically shredding his scouting report by using a completely different style than usual) with a bad back. I actually rate that, not Jacobs, as the feather in Pirog's cap and the best evidence of him being a h2h boss. :conf
I just watched the Jacobs-Pirog fight. I had Jacobs ahead, I personally don't see how Jacobs could have trailed that tbh but Pirog looked the more dangerous fighter throughout and seemed to land the harder shots but they were no way near as frequent as they should have been. Jacobs was also snapping Pirog's head back on multiple occasions. V.good post thanks. There really was no answer to the KO punch that Pirog landed, but Jacobs now must keep his hands up and keep his footwork on point, he was not in a decent position and Pirog with his awkward timing got the KO.
Pirog was 6'1 and typically threw 90-100 punches per round so you're basing your prediction off almost entirely inaccurate info. Also as IB mentioned prior to the Maciel fight was when his back injury first started he almost cancelled that fight because of it.
