Taylor, Pavlik, and the middleweight championship

[Jedi Kasra]

A lot of people criticized Jermain Taylor's run with the middleweight championship. He won the middleweight championship by beating Hopkins via split decision, with two judges giving it to Taylor 115-113, while one gave it B-Hop 116-112. His first defense was the rematch with B-Hop, with all three judges giving it a unanimous decision with 115-113 scores. He then defended it against Winky Wright, who is very tricky and gave Shane Mosley two tough fights, Kassin Ouma, who was a decent opponent, and Cory Spinks, a good fighter, but not a great fighter. He beat Ouma by UD and Spinks by an SD. So then we enter Pavlik. He was an unbeaten fighter, who really had beaten one decent fighter in Edison Miranda, the same who broke Arthur Abraham's jaw. Then Pavlik knocks out Taylor, and most people are psyched. Why? Taylor, while he won against good, quality opponents, was not that impressive. People on the other hand thought that Pavlik was exciting, due to his KO power. So in the rematch, Pavlik outpoints Taylor in the non-title catchweight fight. I personally thought Taylor did enough to win, but the jueges felt differently. Pavlik has engaged in two catchweight fights, thereby not risking his title, and has defended his title against two tomato cans in Gary Lockett and Marco A. Rubio, and is looking to defend his title this summer against former WBC jr. middleweight champ Sergio Mora, who doesn't deserve to be fighting Pavlik. Remember, Mora turned down a fight with Taylor reportedly because he didn't like the venue. What the hell? Mora isn't a true fighter, folks, who the hell in their right minds turns down a fight with the world champion. Mora will be beat down by Pavlik, beacuse he isn't a good fighter.

The whole point of this is, you can criticize Taylor all you want, but he beat more quality opponents that Pavlik has so far, and if he meets Abraham in the fall, probably ever will. Pavlik got exposed against B-Hop, and I think Abraham has just enough skill to KO the Youngstown phenom.

[boxasmash]

whilst pavlik's defences have been piss poor, he did fight taylor at 166 and hopkins at 170 after holding the belt, it just wasnt defences. so you cant put much hatredn on him for that.

[Jedi Kasra]

True, I suppose, a win is a win. But he got wiped out by B-Hop. I just think people shouldn't be so quick to criticize Taylor and shouldn't be so eager to crown Pavlik as "the best middleweight of this time", just based on his two defenses and the upcoming defense against a crappy fighter like Mora.

[larryx]

taylor was hated because of the way he got the belts...imho......

[mathed]

HBO was all on Taylor's sack until he lost to Pavlik and then they were all about Pavlik. I think a lot of people are swayed by the big feature production shows that HBO does like the 24/7 ones. When the fights come on, the HBO commentators all hype up the fighter that HBO plans to make money off of.
I think that it's kinda like songs on the radio, the more you hear the songs the more you think the song is really good. The more you hear hype about a fighter, the more you think they are the next best thing.

I feel that Taylor has more skills than Pavlik, but Pavlik provides more excitement in fights and excitement is what the fans want, so he gets hyped up as the best even though Taylor has never been exposed like Pavlik was by BHOP. Taylor just got caught by a good punch, while Pavlik got schooled the entire fight.

[Welter_Skelter]

His official defences have been Jokes.. But his 2 optionals were against Quality guys.. Guys as Good as Taylor and Hopkins.. OH WAIT!!!!

Lockett and Rubio would give Spinks and Ouma a run for their money if they fought.. don't you think...??

No matter how **** Pavlik is... he still beat Taylor twice.. so I wouldn't be dissing Kelly while trying to big Up Taylor..

That would just be silly..

[TEDetc]

I'd rather get schooled than knocked out tbh.

[ИATAS]

The reason Taylor got criticized so much is he arguably lost three fights (Hopkins twice and Winky wright) then fought a couple smaller guys in very uninspiring, boring fights. People felt Taylor was HBO's guy and got some gift decisions. In other words, lots of people didn't feel he was a legit champ or a deserving champ.

Now if you compare that to Pavlik's two title defenses (rubio/lockett) as of now, sure taylors "reign" was better, but Pavlik is still champ and he did become champ legitimately by KO'ing Taylor. If he beats Arthur Abraham, that's a great win for him and definitely improves his resume. Also the Middleweight division lacks names and depth, so it will always be difficult for Pavlik to really have an impressive run, but I suspect he will move up in weight anyways.

[mathed]

I thought the fights with Hopkins were really close and could have been a draw on the first one. I think Pavlik and Taylor are both awesome guys to watch fight so I don't hate either one, but Taylor is usually a decision boxer. As cut as he is, he doesn't really ko a lot of guys while Pavlik does.

I would rather get schooled than ko'd too, but I was just saying that bhop showed a fundamental flaw in Pavlik that other guys can focus on...angles and slickness bother Pavlik. Taylor got caught by a flush punch by a guy who ko's everyone, which is something that can happen to anyone and be prevented with good defense.

I think that Pavlik's reign seems to be better than Jermain's because of the ko wins- the fans eat it up

[MELLY-MEL...]

True, I suppose, a win is a win. But he got wiped out by B-Hop. I just think people shouldn't be so quick to criticize Taylor and shouldn't be so eager to crown Pavlik as "the best middleweight of this time", just based on his two defenses and the upcoming defense against a crappy fighter like Mora.

never heard anyone EVER call pavlik the best mw of all time. Nor is he even remotely close!!!!!