By David Lahr: I don’t if it was me or what, but WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik looked like he’s lost some hand speed in the year that he’s been out of boxing. Seriously, Pavlik looked like he was punching underwater for most of the fight. I thought there was something wrong with my television for a while there, because Pavlik seemed like he was throwing in slow motion against Miguel Espino.

In the end, Pavlik’s slow hand speed didn’t hurt him because he was able to knock Espino down three times and stop him in the 5th, but I was still shocked at how much slower Pavlik looks now. At 27, soon to be 28, I don’t see Pavlik finding his lost speed anytime soon. As a fighter ages, he doesn’t tend to get any quicker with his punches. On the contrary, the slow down little by little year after year until their reflexes deteriorate to the point where they start taking beatings.

I can see that happening to Pavlik in the not too distant future. I wonder what happened to him, though. Was it the time off from boxing or was it the punishment that Pavlik took in his lopsided 12 round decision loss to Bernard Hopkins last year? Sometimes a bad beating, like the one that Hopkins inflicted upon Pavlik, can have an aging effect on a fighter.

Pavlik fans will likely say that Pavlik got the win, and so why an I concerned about Pavlik’s hand speed. Yes, Pavlik won the fight, but he had an easy mark in front of him with Espino. I don’t think the guy belonged at the number #3 position in the WBC rankings, and might have been better suited for the middle of the pack in the 2nd tier. Of course, Pavlik is going to be able to stop a fighter like Espino.

If he couldn’t, then I would be really worried for Pavlik. He needs to work on trying to improve his diminishing hand speed somehow. I don’t know that it’s really possible, because you really can’t get any faster once your reflexes start going on you. But I think he needs to try, because Paul Williams, and other top middleweight contenders, will light Pavlik up if he goes up against them looking as slow as he did against Espino.

I don’t know what happened to Pavlik’s speed. I looked at some of his fights from a year ago, and he looked a lot faster than compared to now. Last night, Pavlik looked like a slow George Foreman in the 2nd part of his career. It was like he was waddling out there against Espino.

Pavlik needs to stay at middleweight as long as he can, because if he moves up in weight to the super middleweight division, he’s going to have problems with the quicker fighters at that weight class. The middleweight division is really poor right now and Pavlik might do well unless he fights Sergio Martinez or Paul Williams, but at super middleweight, I see nothing but problems for Pavlik.