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By Sammy Rozenberg - The entire town of Youngstown, Ohio came down to the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City to witness the crowning of a new star as Kelly Pavlik (32-0, 29 KOs) came off the deck to stop Jermain Taylor (27-1-1, 17 KOs) in the seventh round to capture the WBC middleweight title.
The fight lived up the hype as both guys came to fight with a loud, pro-Pavlik crowd cheering on the action.
Taylor jumped on Pavlik in the first round with power punches to begin at a quick pace. Pavlik began to come back with a longer jab to set up his big shots. In the second, Taylor caught Pavlik flush with a right to stun him and followed up with a barrage of punches to send him down to the floor. Pavlik made it up, appearing to be in serious trouble, and was able to hang on for his life as Taylor tried as hard as he could to finish him off.
In the third, Pavlik came out stronger than before, pushing forward and went right back to work with his long jab and hard power punches. In the seventh, Pavlik caught Taylor with his own flush right and made him wobble to the corner. Pavlik immediately rushed in with big combinations and uppercuts that had Taylor out on his feet and slumping to the floor in a half conscious state. At that point, referee Steve Smoger jumped right in to stop the fight.
It was a performance for the ages. Few ringside observer thought Pavlik would never make it out of the second round. Even former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis thought the fight was over when Pavlik went crashing down. [details]
The fight lived up the hype as both guys came to fight with a loud, pro-Pavlik crowd cheering on the action.
Taylor jumped on Pavlik in the first round with power punches to begin at a quick pace. Pavlik began to come back with a longer jab to set up his big shots. In the second, Taylor caught Pavlik flush with a right to stun him and followed up with a barrage of punches to send him down to the floor. Pavlik made it up, appearing to be in serious trouble, and was able to hang on for his life as Taylor tried as hard as he could to finish him off.
In the third, Pavlik came out stronger than before, pushing forward and went right back to work with his long jab and hard power punches. In the seventh, Pavlik caught Taylor with his own flush right and made him wobble to the corner. Pavlik immediately rushed in with big combinations and uppercuts that had Taylor out on his feet and slumping to the floor in a half conscious state. At that point, referee Steve Smoger jumped right in to stop the fight.
It was a performance for the ages. Few ringside observer thought Pavlik would never make it out of the second round. Even former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis thought the fight was over when Pavlik went crashing down. [details]
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