By Dave Lahr: Tonight at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, Sergio Martinez (44-2-2, 24 KO’s) will challenge for the titles of WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (36-1, 32 KO’s) in what is a big test to see if the Ohio native Pavlik is truly the best middleweight anymore. Pavlik, 28, has done next to zero since being humiliated by an older 40+ Bernard Hopkins in 2008. Pavlik has fought twice since then, beating mandatory challengers Marco Antonio Rubio and Miguel Espino in 2009, but looking painfully slow, utterly predictable and something of plodder on his feet.
Although Rubio and Espino were ranked high in the middleweight division, the talent level between them and Pavlik was fairly dramatic. The fights did nothing to increase Pavlik’s stature among boxing fans, who largely weren’t interested in seeing those fights. Pavlik’s staph infection on his left hand caused him to miss out on the one opponent that boxing fans cared to see Paul Williams. Weeks after Pavlik pulled out of the fight with Williams, he was able to be fit enough to fight Espino last December.
Only three thousand fans showed up for the fight, which was another mismatch and not a particularly interesting fight because of the non-competitiveness of the fight. Pavlik fans would point out that, aside from being beaten up by the aging Hopkins, Pavlik has done all that he’s asked in defending his WBC/WBO titles. That’s true, but his lack of quality opponents has hurt him badly, along with his one-sided loss to Hopkins.
That was an opponent that the younger Pavlik was supposed to beat and he didn’t. But not only did he lose to the 44-year-old Hopkins, but he got dominated by him though 12 rounds. But Pavlik’s lack of interesting opponents has done a real number on him. In a way, it’s a lot like IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, who despite beating all of his challengers for the past four years, has turned off fans with his lack of quality opposition and his dull manner in which he beats them.
Pavlik hasn’t been boring in his fights, but he has looked slow and pretty basic with his fighting style. Tonight, Pavlik is going to be fighting the 35-year-old Martinez, a fighter who is very quick on his feet, with an awkward style and who punches from a variety of different angles. It doesn’t matter that the 5’11” Martinez is smaller than Pavlik and doesn’t punch nearly as hard as him.
What makes him so good is that he’s hard to hit cleanly and difficult to land more than one big punch at a time. Pavlik, a slow fighter under the best of circumstances, isn’t good unless he can put combinations together. He’s not a one punch knockout fighter. He can stun his opponents with a big shot, but if they’re quick on their feet like Martinez, Pavlik won’t be able to add to the damage. Martinez is good at recovering from being hurt and smart about clinching.
It’s safe to say that Pavlik is fighting a superior fighter than himself in terms of boxing skills. Pavlik can’t beat Martinez if this fight turns out to be a boxing match for 12 rounds. Pavlik is too slow with his hands, too slow on his feet and too slow at reacting to movement. His only chance is to try and knock Martinez out. Pavlik’s work rate isn’t high enough to cause Martinez to wear out like he did in the 2nd half of his last fight against Paul Williams in December.
In that fight, Martinez jumped out to big lead in the first half of the fight but then seemed to tire from the high work rate from Williams in rounds seven though twelve. I still thought that Martinez won the fight, but you could see that he was tiring from the pressure in the second part of the fight. Pavlik pressures but he doesn’t throw a lot of punches like Williams. He also is slower on his feet and isn’t as good at cutting off the ring like Williams did against Martinez. For this reason, I feel that Pavlik is going to get out-boxed and exposed again for his lack of speed, punch variety and work rate.
Comments are closed.