Could Pavlik Have Found Any Worse Opponent Than Lockett?

By Boxing News - 06/05/2008 - Comments

pavlik5437.jpgBy Michael Lieberman: As this Saturday’s bout between WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (33-0, 29 KOs) and his badly out-matched challenger Gary Lockett (30-1, 21 KOs), few fans are seeing this fight as being a competitive one. Indeed, Pavlik is currently a 10-1 favorite over the once-beaten Lockett and it’s getting hard for people to see this fight as being anything then what it is – a horrible mismatch of the grandest proportions.

It’s disappointing that of all the potential opponents that Pavlik could have chosen in the WBC & WBO, he selected from the bottom of the division, taking a fighter completely unproven against any top level opposition. It would seem that Pavlik, if he wanted an easy fight, he could have at least taken a fighter from the top 10 rather than a bottom feeder like Lockett. In the past few weeks, I’ve watched a number of Lockett’s fights, specifically bouts against Yuri Tsarenko, Lee Blundell and Kai Kauramaki. In each case, however, Lockett has proven to be unable to block a straight right hand thrown at him. For that matter, he’s not particularly good at blocking lefts or anything thrown his way, they all seem to get through his guard.

To say that his defense is poor would be me being too generous. As far as I can tell, Lockett just holds his gloves feigning that he’s going to protect himself, but the only time he succeeds in blocking a shot is when it’s directed straight at his gloves, even then I noticed that it still gets through to his face.

That’s not a good thing considering that he’s going up against Pavlik, a fighter who is arguably the hardest puncher in the middleweight division. Lockett has pretty decent power of his own, which is why he’s been able to get away with having such a nonexistent defense all these years, I suppose. Then again, most of the fighters that Lockett has fought have largely been scrubs, not even C-level fighters. It’s not hard to pile up easy knockout wins when your fighting someone with a 5-5 record.

I can’t really say why he’s not every stepped it up against top level opposition until now, other than to come to the conclusion that he’s an underachiever or something. Whatever the reason is, it’s enabled Lockett to retain an impressive record that appears to be much better than the boxing skills that he actually possesses.

I personally am very disappointed in Pavlik’s choice of opponent, for he seems to be really scraping the bottom of the barrel in selecting a fighter as low quality of Lockett. Pavlik should have a chosen someone like Sebastian Zbik, Miguel Espino, or Khoren Gevor. At least those fighters have some ability, despite their low ranking and could give Pavlik a decent fight for a round or two before being mowed down.

With Lockett, however, you have a fighter well below those standards, one who will be a sitting duck for every big shot that Pavlik takes. Believe me, Pavlik is going to decapitate Lockett in short order, and make a freeway out of his head with right hands coming in like cars. One thing I’ve noticed about Lockett is that he often bends slightly to his right when getting prepared to throw a shot, telegraphing his attempt to throw. Pavlik no doubt has seen this and will clock him at the first opportunity.



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