Pavlik-Taylor: Does Jermain Have a Plan B?

By Boxing News - 01/30/2008 - Comments

By Chris Thomas: With little more than two weeks to go before the big showdown between former World Boxing Council/World Boxing Organization middleweight champion Jermain Taylor (27-1-1, 17 KOs) and new middleweight WBO/WBC middleweight champion undefeated Kelly Pavlik (32-0, 29 KOs) at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada, many fans are wondering what Taylor, 29, will be able to do differently this time to change the outcome.

Taylor, perhaps thinking a higher weight would help him against Pavlik, has opted to have the fight fought at a higher weight of 166 lbs, six lbs higher than the normal middleweight limit of 160 lbs.

It’s unclear whether this small amount of weight will have a significant outcome in the large scheme of things, since Taylor looked plenty strong at 160, and didn’t show any visible signs of being weak from having taken off weight. More than that, their last fight, a 7th round TKO win for Pavlik, came down to him Taylor not being able to take the huge winging shots from Pavlik rather than something that had to due with weight. Last time out, Taylor seemed to go into the bout thinking that he’d try and trade shots with the Pavlik.

Indeed, Taylor appeared to be exclusively thinking knockout as he went at Pavlik earlier on, succeeding in knocking him down in the 2nd round. No doubt, it looked as if Pavlik, 25, was surprised as well because he didn’t appear ready for Taylor’s big shots in the 2nd round, and spent much of the round taking tremendous punishment. However, when Pavlik was still standing afterwards, Taylor didn’t have the energy to continue fighting a in a brawling style, although he continued trying as he stood directly in front of Pavlik throwing shots.

Taylor’s punches came fewer and fewer as the rounds went by, yet he continued to stick to trying to punch with Pavlik. It seemed almost insane at the time, because Taylor was going against his usual style of boxing. Instead of adapting and going to a plan B, focusing on using his jab, Taylor fought back and forth with Pavlik until the bitter end in the 7th round.

Certainly, now Taylor must realize his mistake, knowing that he was wrong in thinking that he had the power and punching style to match Pavlik at his own game. However, it’s unclear whether Taylor understands his mistake, because he often tends to fight in the same style as his opponents. Case in point, his battles against Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks, both of which bouts turned into dull boxing chess matches in which Taylor used his jab and right hand as his primary weapons of choice. In using that style, Taylor was clearly the superior fighter, and had little problems winning either bout.

Unfortunately, Taylor, so far, seems to be able to separate himself from the fighting style of his opponents in his recent bouts. This is worrisome, because unless he can change his style, and go back to staying on the outside, using his jab, he’ll very likely run into the same problem as last time out and get stopped by Pavlik. I certainly believe that Taylor has the power to match Pavlik early in a bout, say the first few rounds, but after that Taylor historically fades and loses much of his power. His punch output drops as well, leaving him vulnerable to losing rounds.