By Mark Vester
Jack Loew, trainer of WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (32-0, 29KOs), feels his fighter did more than enough to deserve the fighter-of-the-year honors for 2007. The year was huge for Pavlik, going from an unknown to a major player in a span of twelve months.
In January, Pavlik began the year with a highlight reel knockout of Jose Luis Zertuche in eight, followed up with a seven-round knockout of Edison Miranda in May and closed the year with another seventh round knockout, over Jermain Taylor to capture the WBC/WBO middleweight titles in September. All three fights were televised by HBO and his next, a rematch with Jermain Taylor on Feb. 16 in Las Vegas, will be televised on HBO pay-per-view.
Loew, speaking with Robert Morales of the Press-Telegram , said Pavlik should be the clear winner, feeling his fighter did more to deserve the honor than Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Miguel Cotto.
"He stretched Zertuche. That should be knockout the year outside of Nonito Donaire's (of Vic Darchinyan). And then you turn around and everybody told us to fight Miranda. They thought we were crazy the way we fought him. He handled Miranda and beat him up," Loew said. "And then, I mean, look, Jermain Taylor fought Bernard Hopkins twice, he fought Winky Wright. Everybody keeps saying how great them guys are - Bernard and Winky - and Jermain beat them and Kelly destroyed Jermain. You take away that second round, he handled that kid."
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