In a recent press conference, WBO/WBC middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik said that he’s looking forward to his rematch with former middleweight champion Jermain Taylor in a PPV fight at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, on February 16th. Last time out, Pavlik destroyed Taylor, stopping him in the 7th round of their bout in September. This time, the fight will be held at 166 lbs, at Taylor’s request. The added weight likely won’t make much of a difference in the ultimately outcome as both fighters technically way the same weight while not in training, so it will pretty much a non factor. “You know what’s going to happen next fight.
I”m going to be in there throwing a lot of punches and trying to make Jermain fight,” Pavlik said. Making it no secret, just like last time, Pavlik is promising to come directly at Taylor and force him to exchange punches with him. It’s a strategy that served Pavlik well, as his handspeed and boxing ability aren’t on par with Tayor, and if he were to stay on the outside, Taylor would likely out-box him and earn a 12-round decision. Taylor made it easy for Pavlik last time out because he didn’t even try to box him, as if he were attempting to beat Pavlik at his own game. It wasn’t the smartest thing to do, as it turned out.
“I’ll work on some things I did wrong and look at the mistakes Jermain made. He’s going to come back with a lot to prove and I’ll be looking for the best Jermain Taylor in this fight.” Pavlik probably knows that Taylor will elect to box him this time out and he will no doubt have a plan of action of how to counteract this strategy. However, despite the fact that Taylor made a huge mistake of trying to slug with Pavlik, he still was quite effective up to the point of his knockout, as he was leading at the time of the stoppage. Likewise, Taylor has dropped Pavlik in the 2nd round, and came close to stopping him in that round.
If Taylor hadn’t rushed himself so much, placing his punches better, he might have stopped Pavlik in the round. Instead, Taylor threw a wild flurry, missing almost all of the shots and ending up tired and punched out for his efforts. Pavlik quickly recovered in the next two rounds and took the fight to Taylor, just as before.
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