after rewatching this fight I have come to a couple conclusions
Lopez is pretty skilled, very determined with a good chin and had a good plan in place
Pavlik started slow, shook off some rust and started to really put it together in certain parts of the latter half of that fight
my initial impression on scoring that fight was that it was much closer, rewatching it showed me that Pavlik actually slipped, blocked many of Lopez' very well thrown combinations and landed the much harder blows winning him every round in my book except 2 and 9. 7 was a close round but to me the difference was that Lopez couldn't seem to land with much authority at least consistently and Pavlik showed to be pretty heavy handed at this weight class.
Give Pavlik another couple fights at this division and he could be back near the top of a very talented heap.
I scored it 7-3 Pavlik and 3 of the people at my house said lopez won and I was crazy, I said you gotta understand how they score a boxing match plus Pavlik made Lopez miss, more than the punch stats showed imo. Aside from the fact Pavlik gets hit, he's a banger he is gonna take some shots, he just gives them back harder, his stamina wasn't where it should be, and his hand speed looked slow but he will do.just fine at smw
I think the Showtime announcers made the fight to be closer than it actually was. Lopez did fight a nice fight tough for someone who has never fought at that level.
Good observations and I agree with you. Lopez was not a joke, and people aren't noting that when talking about Pavlik. I had it 7 rounds to 3 for Pavlik initially, and I haven't watched it again.