Pavlik vs. Mora: Why Does Kelly Keep Going After Bad Fights?

By Jim Slattengren: WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (35-1, 31 KOs) is quickly turning out to be one of the worst middleweight champions we’ve had in some time as he’s about to fight his third dull opponent in Sergio Mora (21-1-1, 5 KOs) since winning the titles in September 2007 with a 7th round stoppage victory over Jermain Taylor.

On June 27th, Pavlik, 27, will be defending his World Boxing Council and World Boxing Organization titles for the third time against less than stellar opposition at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

You would think that Pavlik would be the type to go after some real quality fighters given his blue collar upbringing in Youngstown, Ohio. Unfortunately, it hasn’t turned out that way as Pavlik initially defended his title against British fighter Gary Lockett in June 2008, stopping an over-matched Lockett in the 3rd round.

However, even if Pavlik hadn’t fought Lockett, he had been looking at fighting John Duddy, which for all practical purposes was the same thing as fighting Lockett. Either way, boxing fans were looking at a mismatch between Pavlik and his opponent in June 2008.

Next, Pavlik went after 44-year-old Bernard Hopkins in a non-title bout that many boxing fans felt was a money grab on Pavlik’s part. The fans thought that Pavlik would have too much power and youth for Hopkins to deal with, but they were badly mistaken as Pavlik was beaten badly in a one-sided 12-round decision.

Pavlik was exposed in the fight being one-dimensional and slow of hand and feet by the forty-four year old Hopkins. Presumably, having learned his lesson about moving up in weight to fight bigger fighters, Pavlik then went back down to the middleweight division where it was hoped that he would start taking on talented middleweight contenders like Peter Quillen, Hassan N’Dam and Gennady Golovkin.

Instead, we saw Pavlik take on Marco Antonio Rubio next, a limited fighter with poor footwork and hand speed, and a little power. Naturally, Pavlik easily defeated Rubio by a 9th round stoppage in February. The bout was horribly dull with Pavlik stalking Rubio around the ring for eight rounds and hammering him at will.

It was a fight that I could see watching on ESPN or free television but not on a premium pay channel like HBO. Now, we have Pavlik fighting Mora, 28, a former World Boxing Council light middleweight champion. Mora defeated an out of shape Vernon Forrest by a 12-round majority decision in June 2008.

However, an in shape Forrest proved that the defeat was just a fluke by soundly beating Mora by a one-sided 12-round decision in September 2008. With that defeat, Mora finds himself as Pavlik’s opponent for June 27th. How or why Mora was chosen based on this defeat is beyond me.

Who knows? Maybe it made Mora look better that he was defeated recently, because after all it would mean that he was less of a threat to Pavlik. Whatever the case, it’s quite unusual that a fighter that was just beaten is picked as a title challenger. What a brilliant move.

To make matters worse, the fight will be PPV. I can just see the tons of boxing fans looking forward to purchasing this fight.

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