Photo Credit to US PresswireBoxing is the only sport in the world where there are times you can’t be helped by any amount of wisdom, support, fans, skill, training, experience or trash talk. Even with all those things combined, Jermain Taylor slumped to the floor in the seventh round in a fight that can only be rationalized as the upset of the year.
I won’t join with all of those who will now pretend they were not surprised. Lots of people will now have to paraphrase their predictions of a Taylor rout. I thought Taylor was the stronger fighter and that the body and the conditioning would prevail. I was looking for a “renewed” Taylor, anxious to demonstrate a willingness to mix and overpower.
At first, the fight seemed to follow the expected pattern with Pavlik down in the 2nd round. But I always did believe that Pavlik had heart. It was heart that made him dust off the cobwebs and finish the round, battered but still on his feet. And it was heart that made him come roaring back to rock Taylor with powerful and accurate punches which backed him to the ropes.
There’s never been any doubt about Pavlik’s heart or his killer instinct. With Taylor in the corner, he moved in to deliver the right punches, uppercut, left hook, left anything… At that point, a puff of wind would have blown Taylor down.
So Youngstown Ohio, home of many great fighters, is back on the map again. And so it is with boxing: Kelly Pavlik’s rise led to Jermain Taylor’s fall.
4 comments:
That stoppage was pure bullshit! When Kelly was out on his feet the two times he hit the canvas the ref was willing to let the fight go. They no longer wanted to see Jermaine on top and the first chance they saw that they could derail him they did! He wasn't even given a count he was still comprenhensive and ready to fight. Whatever though he'll knock his ass out in the rematch.
I've yet to see the fight because I was watching Bad Chad Dawson. I notice that Emmanual Steward didn't complain of an early stop to the fight. Did Taylor? Not so far. Steward said he knew they were in trouble. The rematch clause says they have to fight at 168...
Even with Pavlik down in the 2nd round, why did Taylor let him go in the 3rd, 4th, etc?... He was being his usually cautious self and going for the point win. He was way ahead on the scorecards...
One's thing's for sure... Taylor's stock is down. He'll have to KO somebody real quick because there are lots of people who were questioning him before.
I picked Taylor to win so the outcome reflects why boxing is boxing.
I don't think this fight had a standing 10 count or a knock down clause ...no matter, the ref did what he was supposed to do and that is protect a fighter from obvious injury. When you slump down and are getting pummled on the way down that my friends when its time to end it.
First off Pavlick only went down because he dropped is guard and let him hit him. He was being cocky. He was winning before that. He is the champ and always will be. If you know anything about boxing witch I do. Trained with Jerry Rosenberg and now with Olympic fighter Mirhav Pavlik was the true winner. HANDS DOWN.
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