Quote from Frank Warren:
Former world middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik has checked out of rehab where he has been battling a drink problem.
If he wants to fight James DeGale, I'd make that one in a heartbeat this year.
If Pavlik comes back strong who would win between him and DeGale?
Well if Kelly comes back strong then Degale goes to sleep. Despite somewhat feeble footwork, Kelly can still cut a ring off quite well, and his straighter, more powerful punches would spell the result for in all honesty, a very green Degale.
It's easy to look good in your early fights when you're an accomplished amateur.
Degale fights with his hands down and is the type who fights with overconfidence, so he gets hit with punches that he shrugs off to throw and land his own flashier punches. If you watch Degale, he doesn't even try to box in most of his matches (because they are utter mismatches), so he is more worried in looking to toy with his opponents than to actually box them.
This I believe will be part of his downfall against Pavlik, although I know he won't be that stupid against elite opposition like Kelly, I just don't hink he's used to fighting an intelligent fight over the course of 10-12 rounds.
Maybe in 10 fights DeGale will have developed enough to beat Kelly, but not at this stage in his career.
I don't know the only thing that can save Pavlik in the ring is if he gets a new trainer and team. They all suck. I know he's loyal but that's his downfall. He needs better instruction then "quintuple that ****in jab kelly"