By Nate Anderson: Middleweight contender Gary Lockett (30-2, 21 KOs) still hasn’t made up his mind as to whether or not he’ll continue his boxing career. However, he did tell Setanta Sports that he plans on making his decision public in September, which one would hope is a confirmation that he intends on continuing with is career. Lockett, only 31, doesn’t like the idea of going back to fighting lesser fighters and bouts that are against “non-title fights and British title fights,” according to Setanta Sports.
After working his way to the number #1 ranking and fighting WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik for the championship on June 7th, and losing by a 3rd round TKO, Lockett doesn’t like the idea of having to work his way back up slowly against lower echelon fighters for much less money. One might expect, Lockett received a huge payday in his fight against Pavlik, and naturally he probably doesn’t relish the idea of fighting for much less money against 3rd tier fighters once again. Who can blame Lockett, though?
He showed against Pavlik that he has a lot of power and good boxing skills, enough to land some really big shots against Pavlik. After the fight, Pavlik said that he was hurt by a couple of the shots that Lockett landed. The fight ended far too early for Lockett to show what he’s truly capable of in the ring, but even in the short course of the fight, Lockett looked good enough to beat top fighters like Felix Sturm, the WBA middleweight champion, top prospects John Duddy, Randy Griffin, Sebastian Sylvester, Marco Antonio Rubio and Raul Marquez.
Though the jury’s still out about how good Lockett’s chin is, his power is perhaps the best in the entire middleweight division, even slightly better than Pavlik. The problem here, though, is that Lockett doesn’t have the chin to stand up to his own power, which was his undoing against Pavlik in their June 7th bout. If Lockett can somehow work on his defense, and learn to protect his fragile chin a little better, I can see him winning a title in no time. He does, however, to continue fight good opponents and not go back to fighting the lower level fighters that he’s faced for most of his long 12-year boxing career.
Obviously, Lockett is upset about his loss to Pavlik, and this is why he’s still undecided about his career. It’s only natural given the disappointing loss, because after all, this was only his second loss in his career, and first in six years since losing a 12-round split decision against Yuri Tsarenko in 2002. The knockout artist Lockett would later avenge his only defeat with a 10-round decision over Tsarenko in 2003. No doubt, Lockett would more than like to likewise avenge his defeat to Pavlik if given the opportunity, but it’s not likely to happen due to the one-sided nature of his 3rd round TKO loss to him.
I think Lockett would be making a huge mistake if he were to retire, because he has the talent and power to become a champion if given the opportunity and the right opponent. I’m not sure if he’ll ever have the chin to defeat a fighter like Pavlik, but with his enormous power, and with a little more defensive work, I think Lockett is more than good enough to beat Sturm, Arthur Abraham or any of the fighter top middleweights in the division.
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