WBC/WBO middleweight champion Jermain Taylor (27-0-1, 17 KOs) has been heated all week long leading up to Saturday’s fight with #1 challenger Kelly Pavlik by the many fans and sports writers that have brushed off his career and given him slim chance at winning. Most of the criticism has been centered around Taylor’s lackluster performances against Cory Spinks, Bernard Hopkins, Winky Wright and Kassim Ouma, who Taylor struggled against. Though Taylor defeated Spinks, Ouma and Hopkins, he looked almost uncoordinated as if he didn’t know how to box properly despite his quick reflexes.
Most of the fans and sports writers were expecting the 29-year old Taylor to continue to knockout his opponents like he did earlier in his career, before he became a champion. Unfortunately, since winning the title in 2005, Taylor has been on a dry spell in which he’s been forced to earn tough fought decisions or – even worse – being held to a draw, such as the case against Wright in June 2006. However, Taylor blames his poor performances on the styles of his opponents, most of which are defensive-minded fighters, the type that are difficult to land effectively against. Taylor says that he fights better against fighters like Pavlik, the type that come directly at him and try to take him out.
By Sasha “Kozlov” Baranov: With a little more than a week to go between World Boxing Council interim heavyweight champion Samuel Peter’s (28-1, 22 KOs) bout with Jameel McCline, I thought it would be interesting to consider what Peter’s chances would be like in a rematch with IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (49-3, 44 KOs). In that bout, fought on September 24, 2005, Peter knocked Wladimir down on three separate occasions and had him on the verge of being stopped in the bout. However, two of the knockdowns were the result of illegal rabbit punches to the back of Wladimir’s head, and thus should have been negated by referee Randy Neumann. Wladimir was guilty of his own issues as well by continuously clinching Peter whenever the Nigerian fighter got in close. 
Former WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev (46-1, 34 KOs) makes his first appearance since losing his heavyweight title to Ruslan Chagaev on April 14th when he takes on undefeated Canadian Jean-Francois Bergeron (27-0, 19 KOs) at the EWE-Arena, in Oldenburg, Niedersachsen, Germany. Both fighters are 34, although Bergeron has faced exclusivly soft opposition in his native Canada. Valuev is in the rebuilding stage of his career after losing a controversial 12-round majority decision against Chagaev, a bout in which Valuev appeared to tire badly in the latter rounds of the fight. 
According to the latest boxing news, WBC interim heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (28-1, 22 KOs) has a new opponent for his October 6th title defense at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The newest possiblity is Jameel McCline (38-7-3, 23 KOs), who is currently scheduled to fight DaVarryl Williamson on the undercard of the October 6th bout. Apparently, Showtime, the cable television company, aren’t enthralled with Peter’s other choice for an opponent, Andrew Golota, who they voted not to use his as an opponent for Peter, perhaps remembering the multiple times he frozen up when challenging for a title and lost badly. 
Former two-time WBO heavyweight champion Herbie Hide (40-4, 39 KOs) destroyed an unwilling Romanian Mircea Telecan (5-17-2, 3 KOs) in the 1st round on Friday night at the Hansehalle, Luebeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Hide, 36, now fighting as a cruiserweight, dropped Telecan twice in the first round before the referee Arno Pokrandt stopped the horrible mismatch at 1:16 of the first round. The odd thing was, Telecan fell down twice in the first minute of the fight without ever really being hit. On the first occasion, As Hide threw a punch that missed by a mile, Telecan backed up and fell down as if he was hit. 
Heavyweight prospect Odlanier Solis (4-0, 3 KOs) TKO’d the old trial horse journeyman Marcus McGee (19-14, 9 KOs) in the 2nd round on Friday night at the Hansehalle, Luebeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Solis, the 2004 Olympic heavyweight Gold medallist from Cuba, knocked McGee down with a combination followed by a short chopping right to the head in the 2nd round. McGee was able to make it to his feet but was badly hurt, causing the referee Arno Pokrandt to halt the fight at 2:14 of the 2nd round. 
Former 2004 Cuban Olympic featherweight Gold medallist Yuriorkis Gamboa (5-0, 4 KOs) flattened Argentinian Nestor Hugo Paniagua (17-4-1, 14 KOs) in little over one minute of the 1st round on Friday night in Hansehalle, Luebeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Gamboa, 25, knocked Paniagua with a left-right combination seconds into the fight. After getting up, Gamboa was immediately on him pounding him with combinations and driving him across the ring. 
35-year old Audley Harrison (21-3, 16 KOs) was injured in an automobile crash while coming out of a training camp in Vero beach, making it necessarily for him to cancel his bout with Paul King (5-18-1, 1 KOs), which had been previously scheduled for September 29th. Harrison, the former 2000 Olympic Gold medallist in the Super heavyweight class, was driving his vehicle onto U.S. Highway 1, when another vehicle failed to give him access onto the highway, resulting in a crash between the two vehicles. Harrison sustained serious injuries to his wrist, hand, shoulder, chest and head. He reportedly had an MRI done on his most serious injury, to his shoulder. At this time, Harrison stated that he’ll need a minimum of six weeks to rehabilitate his injuries enough so that he can continue training and move forward towards his comeback bout. It’s unknown whether that will still involve the journeyman King.
By Gary Jones: After a week of watching Ricky Hatton get constantly embarrassed over and over again by Floyd Mayweather Jr,, Hatton finally showed a little courage at Manchester when he let loose with a couple four letter words directed at Mayweather. It was funny, but also sad, mainly because Hatton had stood by in earlier press conferences, smiling silently and chewing his gum with a ridiculous look on his face like he was too embarrassed to respond. But once in Manchester, Hatton suddenly gets brave and finally responds now that he’s backed by thousands of his fans, many of them singing English songs, cursing and drowning out any comments made by Mayweather. 
By David Lahr: At the recent press conference in Manchester with Ricky Hatton (43-0, 31 KOs) and Floyd Mayweather Jr. (38-0, 24 KOs), Hatton commented that Mayweather “fights like a woman” and “fights on the back foot,” meaning that Mayweather tends to fight in a mostly a safety first defensive posture to avoid taking shots from his opponents. However, what Hatton fails to realize in saying this, though, is that all of the former great boxers of the past, for example, Sugar Ray Robinson, Muhammed Ali, Ezzard Charles and Jack Johnson, as well as boxing stars of the present, like Roy Jones Jr., and Chris Byrd, use the same style of fighting with most of their weight on their back foot.