Pavlik vs. Williams: Is This a Step too Far for Kelly?
October 12th, 2009
By William Mackay: WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik has already been exposed last year by former middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins, who spanked Pavlik royally in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision in October. Pavlik was never even in the fight and took a bad beating from the then 43-year-old Hopkins. Excuses came up later for this and that, but the fact remains Pavlik got dominated by Hopkins.
On December 5th of this year, Pavlik will be fighting Paul Williams, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Williams, 28, is one of the best fighters in boxing and has won titles in the welterweight and recently the light middleweight divisions. Few boxers want to fight Williams because of his long reach and busy work rate.
Pavlik, however, isn’t afraid to fight Williams and perhaps feel that he is insulated from being beaten by Williams because Paul is moving up in weight to fight him. That could be, but Pavlik wins most of his fights by knockout and isn’t the type of fighter that generally out-boxes his opponents.
Pavlik does, however, usually outwork his opposition but he never averages 80 to 100 punches per round like Williams. Pavlik might do well to throw 50 or 60. This is where the problem could be for Pavlik in his fight with Williams. Pavlik won’t be able to keep up with Williams’ enormous work rate and will have to figure out a way to slow Williams down or else end up losing the fight and his titles along with it.
Pavlik has excellent power and does well against fighters that are directly in front of him, but he isn’t someone that will be able to handle getting hit as often as Williams will be hitting him on December 5th. Pavlik is counting on Williams slowing down once he starts landing his power shots. But Pavlik could end up being the one that shuts down offensively.
This is essentially what happened to Pavlik in his fight with Hopkins. Bernard got off to a good start in the first three rounds and Pavlik seemed almost to give up after that and looked to be going through the motions in the final nine rounds. This is great that Pavlik chose to fight a quality fighter like Williams, because boxing fans are going to love this fight.
With that said, I think Pavlik is going to get dominated by Williams and the outcome may be eerily similar to the Hopkins fight. Pavlik hasn’t proven anything since he was defeated by Hopkins. Bernard made Pavlik look slow, and one dimensional. Pavlik won his next fight after that against Marco Antonio Rubio in a 9th round stoppage victory. That win didn’t prove much for Pavlik because Rubio was so limited and just basically stood in front of Pavlik until he was mowed down in the 9th.
Tags: 21 Responses to “Pavlik vs. Williams: Is This a Step too Far for Kelly?”
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most of u guys are right. but for the rest of u knuckleheads, accept that pavlik will be married to those belts for a long time.
Williams is no Hopkins. Williams has a lousy defense and very little power. In Nov 0f last year he was essentially punched around the ring by Margarito. That is not much of a selling point for Williams who will no doubt have more power as a middleweight , but still isn’t ready for that division. Against Pavlik, Williams gets clobbered in 7.
Pavlik is way overrated boxer with a one dimensional style of fighting that lacks the ability to adapt. Hopkins showed everyone that. I think Williams will outbox and out think pavlik all night long and on top of that he will be able to take pavliks best shots well. Williams will out punch pavlik to a UD win
I am worried about all the smoke that we have seen hovering over Youngstown. Is Pavlik still a motivated fighter or are the stories of him partying and not taking good care of himself true?
If Pavlik is motivated I believe he will win the fight. Williams isn’t all that hard to hit and has been out boxed in the past. He has movement but its more routine than reactionary. Meaning you can time him and figure him out.
If Pavlik has been nothing more than a drunk since the Hopkins beat down than Williams will win and look fantastic in the process.
at 160 kelly is to much for him/ he was beat before he got in the ring with hop he did not want that fight and can not go up in weight yet
If Pavlik closes distance mid to late knockout if Williams can hit and run and sit down on a couple good punches we got a fight.
What did bhop expose? That pavlik can’t adapt. You stop his a game working and there is no alternative. Pavlik isn’t smart enough to change it up even when he’s walking into a barrage of punches.
I’m so tired hearing Bhop exposed him , Bhop exposed him ,Bhop exposed him ! What did he expose ,that Pavlik could lose to a Hall of Famer ? For God sakes Williams got beat and hurt by Carlos Quintana , all of Williams strap riders don’t like when you remind them of that !!!P-Wills robotic autopilot flurries of meaningless inaccurate punches might make him LOOK good for a couple of rounds until Pavlik realizes that they can’t hurt him . Lights out for P-Will ,round 7-8 !
VKE is got this right on the nose and that’s exactly where pwill will get hit
True he doesn’t have great knockout power, but he’s started to sit down more on his shots, particularly against Wright. Pound for pound the best out there at the moment which unfortunately he can’t prove until someone like Moseley or Mayweather get the nuts to fight him.
Doesn’t matter if you can’t break an egg if the other guys lands a quarter the number of shots – ask Margarito. Williams’ footwork is second to none, Pavlik’s is basic. Williams on point or a late stoppage.
I see a trilogy.Kelly takes the first one,Williams the next two.
Pavlik only beat bums, except jermaine.T
hopkins exposed him, regardless of weight e.t.c
kelly is going to get beaten up.
paul williams is soooo underated.
Pavlik has had a padded record. He beat a Jermaine Taylor that was built up to be more than he is. The one time that Pav was in against a great fighter, he was made to look like a rookie receiving a boxing lesson. PWill is avoided and extremely dangerous. Look for this to be another boxing lesson. 12 round unanimous decision for Paul Williams.
I think pavlik wins by ko. you can’t compare williams to a legend like hopkins, hopkins is super smart in the ring and makes every fighter look bad these days.
This fight will answer a lot of questions. I read an article in the ring a while back in which Pavlik sounded like he felt that he had already reached the mountain top and had already attained Greatness. I have always felt that Pavlik is a good fighter with very real chance at becoming a great fighter. In the Hopkins fight Pavlik looked like a fighter that had started to believe what the press had been saying and he payed the price for it. The fighter that showed up for the Hopkins fight would not have beaten Miranda or Taylor. The biggest question is will Pavlik the fighter that wants to be great or will Pavlik the fighter that already thinks he’s great show up for the fight.
williams moves nothing like bhop, this is a totally different fight then that, plus pavlik doesnt have to gain so much weight n be a slow fighter, its gonna be a battle!!!! pavlik to ko in late rounds
No, Pavlik is under rated. He was beat by an absolute legend in Hopkins. Hop would also outpoint Williams. Pavlik will KO williams late on.
Certain parts of this article made me wonder if William Mackay has ever seen a Pavlik or a Williams fight. Ole Willie here really ought to do his research. Pavlik has had a couple dozen fights where his punch total would have exceeded 1000 had they gone the distance, but the poor bloke on the other end couldn’t take the punishment.
And what’s with this nonsense about PW hitting Pavlik more than any others have? Winky spent a good share of his fight with PW standing around like he was waiting for a bus, and PWilly still only landed less than 24%.
Margarito stood flat footed in front of Paul and slipped his jab repeatedly. There was one round where PW threw 102 punches and only landed 20!
The man can’t break and egg, and his accuracy is atrocious. Pavlik KO5 Williams.
Pavlik was always overated and Williams is avoided but overated by allot of hardcore fans
I go with Williams UD
I think the fight will be boring
if you are the middlewight champ, you are the far step.
if williams decides to stay in there and trade, he will be put to sleep,
if anything williams should take a look at pavlik/hopkins
meaning paul needs to stick and move, kelly is horryble on the move.
willimas is going to feel to make a statement by staying in there with kelly, and he will lose,
kelly by k’o in the 9th