By “Big” Nate Anderson: It’s often difficult for fighters to defeat the same opponent in rematches, due to a natural let down that seems to occur when going over old ground. Some of it may be over confidence, while others are perhaps fear based, knowing that your opponent will be determined more than ever to gain revenge. For WBO/WBC middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (32-0, 29 KOs), he’s going to have to work hard to prevent falling into the category of fighters that fail in their rematches when he goes up against former middleweight champion Jermain Taylor (27-1-1, 17 KOs) on Saturday night at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Only five months ago, Pavlik was on the verge of being knocked out by Taylor, who dropped him with a big right hand in the 2nd round. Pavlik got up, and took a hail of shots to the head without going down again. It wasn’t only because of his excellent chin that he survived the round, but more of a case of Taylor having rotten aim, missing with many of his follow-up knockout shots. After the 2nd, Pavlik really didn’t have much to worry about, though he did continue to lose rounds to Taylor, as far as getting knocked out because Taylor had run out of gas.
It’s an unsettling feeling, I think, realizing that the only reason you won a fight is because your opponent got tired while trying to finish you off. If the fatigue of Taylor is taken away, he appeared to be the better fighter on the night, showing better speed, power and skills during most of the fight. However, Pavlik came out on top by the virtue of his good stamina, which allowed him to keep punching at a steady rate long after Taylor had tired himself out.
One would assume that if Taylor has been working on his stamina issues, he may indeed fight a better fight next time around, perhaps enough to win the fight. If anything, even if Taylor’s stamina is essentially the same, he’ll likely be alert enough to know that he needs to pace himself so that he doesn’t expend his energy too quickly like last time out. Taylor will likely stay on the outside this time out, knowing that his best chance at victory is to use his fast hands, strong jab and foot movement to keep the lumbering Pavlik bottled up. It’s going to be almost like a case of cat and mouse, I imagine.