25.09.07 – By Scotty Crouse: Boxing fans can be a difficult group to please and are often more fickle in their loyalties than a seventh-grader in love. One bad fight can lead to fans jumping off a fighter’s bandwagon as if it were on fire. One good fight and a new hero, or “savior”, emerges quicker than a Vitali Klitschko injury before a big fight..
Still, it’s hard to fathom the fall from grace experienced by middleweight boxing champion Jermain Taylor over the last few months as he heads into his super showdown with Kelly Pavlik on Saturday. Taylor has fallen in the eyes of the boxing public more rapidly than a typical televangelist and this without losing a fight!
Granted, he has looked less than scintillating in his last couple of fights and anything but the kind of world champion that inspires confidence and keeps fans watching and cheering. But it’s hard to remember when an undefeated champion has taken such a beating outside of the ring, especially when he has yet to take one in the ring. In his last five fights he is 4-0-1 against two future hall-of-famers and all current or former titlists. Yet, Rodney Dangerfield, if he were still alive, would get more respect than Taylor does right now.
Meanwhile, Kelly Pavlik has become hotter than the latest Harry Potter novel. The night he knocked out Edison Miranda and Taylor struggled to barely outpoint Cory Spinks in the lackluster main event of the same card, the boxing world almost immediately anointed Pavlik heir apparent to the middleweight throne and dismissed Taylor like last month’s NFL pre-season scores.
So why is it that so many previously on Taylor’s bandwagon have now filled Pavlik’s with the same confidence and enthusiasm that once belonged to the champ? Look no further than the aforementioned double-header on May 19 when Pavlik impressed the boxing world with a brutal bludgeoning of Miranda and Taylor depressed even his most ardent fans with a soporific snoozer against Spinks.
While many fans thought Taylor might be avoiding the extremely dangerous puncher Miranda, Pavlik not only agreed to fight him but actually fought him! Pavlik was not in the least bit intimidated by his power and pre-fight posturing and was willing to wade through some wicked punches and beat Pantera in a performance that would have made any former middleweight champ proud.
Taylor, meanwhile, looked bewildered by Spinks’ fleet-footed and evasive tactics while weakly attempting to catch up to and punish a smaller fighter who only recently moved up from the welterweight division. While Pavlik willingly waged war against a devastating puncher, Taylor struggled against a smaller opponent who was more cyclist than pugilist and who probably couldn‘t pop bubble wrap. Not that Spinks isn’t a pretty good fighter, it’s just that the middleweight champion should’ve handled him more easily and impressively than he did. On that particular night it was Pavlik who behaved like the middleweight champion of the world, not Taylor.
So, the most intelligent, and clearly most popular, scenario when the two meet in the ring is that Jermain Taylor’s run at the top of the middleweight division comes to a painfully decisive end, right? Well, as Taylor probably thought as he chased Spinks around the ring, “Not so fast.” There are several reasons why a rush to such a conclusion could be premature and downright wrong.
Consider that their respective opponents made a huge difference in how they looked in their last fight. Pavlik looked awesome against Miranda, a brawny, free-swinging slugger with a big heart, bigger punch, but limited skills. One could argue, however, that Miranda was the ideal opponent for Pavlik. Pavlik was one of the few fighters against whom Miranda didn’t enjoy a size and strength advantage. He was right in front of Pavlik and as easy to hit as yesterday’s lottery numbers. Pavlik had to forge his way through some thunderous shots in order to land his own–and he took them well–but the excitement of his performance might be a notch above the actual skill of his performance.
Pavlik’s willingness to engage was matched only by Spinks’ effort not to. Against Taylor Spinks avoided violence like a Buddhist monk and ran around the ring like he was getting paid by the mile. The fact that Spinks is a southpaw simply made things that much more frustrating for Taylor. Sure, the middleweight champ should have developed a strategy in training which focused on cutting off the ring, cornering Spinks and punishing him once trapped. Whether he had a plan or not, he certainly didn’t or wasn’t able to follow it. But it’s difficult to know how anyone else, Pavlik included, would have fared against Spinks under the same conditions. Needless to say, Miranda’s one-dimensional, stationary style allowed Pavlik more opportunity to shine than Spinks’ elusiveness.
Taylor’s experience should be a major factor in this fight as well. Clearly Miranda was the biggest step up of Pavlik’s fairly ordinary career. But just how good Miranda was is still debatable. He had lost a close and ugly fight to Arthur Abraham, even after giving him a broken jaw, but had defeated Howard Eastman and Allan Green, yet not without some difficult moments in each fight. One thing is reasonably sure–he’s not in the same boxing stratosphere as Bernard Hopkins or Winky Wright. And concerning talent, he’s probably even a cut below Kassim Ouma and Spinks.
The fact that Taylor has yet to overwhelmingly impress anyone since winning the title is due in part to the ridiculously high level of his opposition. Taylor is still a young fighter who has been learning on the job against some of the world’s best–and most awkward–fighters. It is entirely possible that when he gets into the ring against Pavlik, his most inexperienced opponent in several years, that the vast seasoning he has gained in his last five fights will be glaringly obvious.
Styles should also play an important role in the outcome of this fight. Taylor has grown accustomed to facing slick, defensively-minded, counterpunching southpaws and one wonders how he will react to a guy like Pavlik who is the exact opposite. Pavlik will be right in front of Taylor and should be easier to find than overalls at a Monster Truck Rally. If Taylor doesn’t hit him, he ain’t trying.
So far, Pavlik has shown a sturdy chin, particularly in the Miranda fight. The evidence of a sturdy chin, however, has come at the expense of a sturdy defense. Taylor has above average speed and should present Pavlik with a level of skill and talent he’s never seen before as a professional. It isn’t presupposing too much to imagine Taylor’s punches doing greater damage than Miranda’s because he should be able to land more of them–provided that he actually throws them.
Conversely, Taylor has the best defense Pavlik has encountered. Pavlik is accustomed to attacking opponents who are reasonably easy to hit. Taylor doesn’t remind anyone of Pernell Whitaker, but compared with how easily Pavlik was able to hit Miranda he’ll be the Invisible Man. Additionally, with all the talk centering around Pavlik’s ability to take a shot, Taylor’s chin is still relatively unknown and untested because he has yet to face a puncher like Pavlik. The more he can make Pavlik miss, the better. But when Pavlik does connect–and he will at some point–if Taylor is able to take the punch it will be a very long night for Pavlik–or possibly a very short one.
There certainly is a lot to like about Kelly Pavlik. He’s young, strong, talented, is built and punches like a light-heavyweight, appears to have cojones the size of medicine balls, and is definitely not afraid to engage in a shootout and fight like the middleweights of days and eras gone by.
But should he be regarded so highly based mostly upon one impressive win and Taylor so blatantly disregarded based mostly upon one unimpressive win? Probably not.
Taylor has to know this is the fight that makes or breaks his career. This is the fight that either proves his critics and doubters correct or reopens the tailgate on his bandwagon and lets them climb back on. The good news for Jermain Taylor is that it isn’t up to public opinion. Come Saturday night it’s all up to him.