By Dave Lahr: Having been a big fan of middleweight Kelly Pavlik (34-1, 30 KOs) for a couple of years, it’s caused me great concern to see him taking ever increasing beatings in many of his fights since 2005, each appearing to get worse as he increases his level of competition. Now some people would say that it’s worked for Pavlik thus far, that he’s only been beaten once in his career and is the current WBC/WBO middleweight champion of the World.
That’s all true, I admit, but I feel that he can’t go on for much longer without getting something taken out of him in terms of his future heath. He may not see it now, but eventually at some point in the future he’ll start seeing the effects of his wars. Long before that, he’ll start losing, maybe sooner than we think. It’s already started with Pavlik’s loss, a 12-round unanimous decision, to Bernard Hopkins in October.
Coming straight at Hopkins for the entire fight, showing zero lateral movement, poor defense, Pavlik tried to overpower the veteran Hopkins with crude skills. It was like a kindergartner trying to paint a Rembrandt with a crayon.
Pavlik had no chance and was beaten almost senseless by Hopkins, and made to look really bad in front of a worldwide audience. But the worst part was all the punches that Pavlik took in the fight, bloodying his nose, reddening his face and making him look groggy at the end. If this was the first time that it had occurred, perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad, but it wasn’t.
Pavlik has taken a terrifying amount of punishment in six out of his last nine fights, starting with his bout with Fulgencio Zuniga in October 2005. Pavlik would eventually win the fight by a 9th round stoppage over Zuniga, but in the process Pavlik was really hammered and took a lot of shots.
The same thing happened in bouts with Jose Luis Zertuche, Edison Miranda and Jermain Taylor, all fights that Pavlik was hit often. I can’t really put my finger on the problem with him, because he seems like an intelligent person, very articulate and totally unlike a normal boxer just to hear speaking.
Yet when he gets into the ring, he tries to run over his opponents with power shots and thinking little of the finer points of boxing, like defending himself. I knew when I saw him fight Miranda in 2007, it was only a matter of time before he fought someone that would either take advantage of his lack of defense by knocking him out or else staying away from him and beating him with movement and fast punches, similar to how Hopkins beat him.
Sure enough, it happened. I just didn’t think it would happen so soon and against a fighter as old as 43-year-old Hopkins. Pavlik may not have much to worry about in his next fight, a title defense against his #1 WBC mandatory challenger Marco Antonio Rubio on February 21st, because Rubio is badly over-matched in this fight and will be lucky to see the 2nd round.
That said, Pavlik is going to continue to take increasing amounts of punishment in the coming years, especially when he takes on someone like Paul Williams or possibly a young Daniel Jacobs at some point. When that happens, I don’t see good things happening for Pavlik, as he’ll likely lose and get stopped in the process.
Sooner or later, Pavlik is going to have to try and fix his flaws, change his style of fighting or else he’s going to end up mumbling by his 30s and barely understandable. I think he’s got it in him to change the way he fights, but he’s got to do it soon because he’s taken a career’s worth of punishment in the past three years and he doesn’t need to take any more if possible.
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