By Sean McDaniel: WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik is facing a tough bout this Saturday night against Sergio Martinez at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. This is a fight that the bigger punching Pavlik has to win if he’s to retain any credibility with boxing fans. Pavlik was already been beaten by 44-year-old Bernard Hopkins on 2008, but was able to hold onto his titles because the fight was held at a catch weight instead of at middleweight.
Since then Pavlik has breezed through the poor opposition and has been able to retain his titles. On Saturday night, arguably the best light middleweight in the division will be moving up in weight to challenge Pavlik for his titles. Kelly will have the size and power advantage but Martinez will be the much quicker fighter. Martinez will have to find a way to deal with the big power and size of Pavlik.
The trick for Sergio is to stay out of Pavlik’s way, because if he has a target directly in front of him, he’s very good. No doubt Martinez has been watching the Hopkins-Pavlik fight over and over again and noticing how Pavlik struggled when Hopkins was using any kind of movement in the fight. Apparently, Pavlik wasn’t at his best that night suffering from recent injuries and an illness. It’s unfortunate that Kelly didn’t cancel the fight with Hopkins because that fight really hurt his standing.
Whatever the case, Martinez will be looking at that fight and likely using the same fast attacks that Hopkins used to dominate the slower Pavlik. What Hopkins did was use lateral movement, which kept Pavlik from being able to set up his offense in any real way. When Hopkins would cross to the side of Pavlik, he had Kelly off balance and unable to throw with any power. It was literally as if he tripping over his own feet because he seemed unable to shift his feet to get to Hopkins.
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