By Chris Williams: Few boxing fans were impressed with Kelly Pavlik’s recent 10 round majority decision win over Alfonso Lopez on the Manny Pacquiao vs. Shane Mosley undercard on May 7th. Pavlik won the fight by a 10 round decision but appeared to barely nick it, despite what two of the judges’ scored it for him with the scores of 98-92 and 99-91. I had the fight scored 95-95, as did one of the judges.

Teddy Atlas of ESPN2, was very impressed with Pavlik’s performance in that fight and thought he showed good head movement and the use of his left hand. He thinks Pavlik needs one or two more fights to further develop before he can become a factor in the super middleweight division.

Here is what Atlas had to say about Pavlik during last night’s Friday Night Fights telecast: “I was impressed a lot more than a lot of people thought. All I heard was how bad Pavlik looked. I even heard that he was a shot fighter. He had his alcohol problems and came back. I thought he looked great. He moved his head a little bit more, he developed a counter left hook. He had a guy in front of him [Lopez] that wasn’t a world beater but was awkward, a guy that was coming forward. He countered. He didn’t walk into punches. I saw improvement in Pavlik. I really liked what I saw. I think he needs to continue improving. He has a long left hand. He needs to educate it more, hook off it, uppercut off it; let it talk a little bit more. Sometimes when goes defensively, moves his head better, like that but sometimes he handcuffs himself going defensive too long. He needs to go defensive, turn the offense on right away so guys don’t put punches together on him. He can still fit in there. A little bit more development. Let him get one or two more fights under his belt. I like him the other night.”

I saw some improvement in Pavlik’s game, to be sure, but not much. He looked to be the same fighter that lost to Sergio Martinez last April and unless Pavlik improves a lot more in the next two fights, I see him getting whipped badly if he’s put in with a guy like IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute or WBA champ Andre Ward.