By Jim Dower: In an article at Vindy.com, WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (36-1, 32 KO’s) says he thinks that he changed the career of former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Jermain Taylor (28-4-1, 17 KO’s) after stopping him in a brutal 7th round stoppage three years ago in September 2007. Since that loss, Taylor has been defeated three out of his last four fights, with two of the losses being knockout defeats.

Pavlik says “You look at Taylor. The [Carl] Froch fight, he [Taylor] was winning that fight until the last round. Even when he got dropped, he could have took another knee and he was up so far on the scorecards, he could have still won the fight. And with him and Abraham, past the sixth round, he went into survival mode, like he said ‘I don’t want to get knocked out.’ And I think that’s maybe from when I fought him.”

Pavlik isn’t the only one that believes that he might have changed Taylor’s career for the worse. Other fans, both boxing writers and fans, suspect that the knockout that Taylor experienced against Pavlik in their first fight might have made him more susceptible to future knockouts. That could be the case, but it also could be a situation where Taylor had reached a point in his career where he was now fighting big punchers and his defense and chin wasn’t up to the task.

If Taylor had met up with Froch, Pavlik and Abraham early in his career, chances are that Taylor would have been knocked out then too. He hadn’t fought anyone close to having the power of those three fighters early in his career. The one change I can see in Taylor that I think has affected him even worse than his ability to take punches is his stamina.

Taylor has had issues with his stamina since 2005 in his two narrow 12 round decision wins over Bernard Hopkins. Taylor fought well for six rounds, but then faded badly in the last rounds and looked exhausted at the end of both fights. Taylor’s stamina issues continued to plague him in fights against Winky Wright, Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks.

Taylor fought well for the first six rounds in all of those fights, but then looked tired in the stretch run. Even in the first Pavlik fight, Taylor gassed out after knocking Pavlik down in the 2nd round. Instead of getting his wind back in the next round like most fighters would do, Taylor continued to look gassed out until he was eventually stopped in the 7th. You could say that Taylor’s stamina problems might be a big factor in why he was stopped by Pavlik, Froch and Abraham. In each case, Taylor was knocked out when he was tired.

Pavlik faces Sergio Martinez next month on April 17th at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Martinez will be the best opponent that Pavlik has fought since Pavlik was soundly defeated by Hopkins in October 2008. Pavlik’s opposition since that fight has been badly lacking. Since the Hopkins loss, Pavlik has faced Marco Antonio Rubio and Miguel Espino, two fighters that aren’t exactly household names for boxing fans.