Kelly Pavlik v Sergio Martinez middleweight title fight
Kelly Pavlik makes a long-awaited return to fighting high-calibre opposition on Saturday night as he seeks to earn the universal recognition his undoubted talent deserves. The WBC, WBO and The Ring middleweight champion fights Sergio Martinez in his toughest bout in years, having mainly fought second-rate contenders since taking the titles.
His phenomenal victories over Edison Miranda and the double over Jermaine Taylor may live long in the memory but on a calendar they were some time ago. A morale-crushing defeat against Bernard Hopkins is the only true talent that Pavlik has taken on in the intermitting space.
“The Ghost” was schedule to fight Paul Williams in December but he disappeared from the fight siting a staph infection in his hand. To be fair it did sound nasty, but he’s fully recovered now and had a tune-up fight against Miguel Espino, who he comfortably dispatched in five rounds.
Where was the Williams fight after that though? Poor-old Williams has to be one of, if not the, most avoided boxer of all time. He’s been avoided by big names his whole career, the awkward pugilist is about as popular with his rivals as Don King would be at Mike Tyson’s birthday party. Williams has to be the No.1 contender, but who does Pavlik fight next? Martinez. Who did Williams beat last? Martinez. What does the man need to do, to get a shot?
That’s taking nothing away from the Martinez. The Argentinian is a calculated, gutsy fighter and exciting to watch, he likes to come forward and has fast, solid hands. At 35 years old he’s been around for a while and now seems to be enjoying an Indian summer to his career. Despite his defeat to Williams he did put in a decent shift, knocking down “The Punisher” in the first and the two really went at it for the full 12 rounds.
The year 2009 will be remembered by Pavlik as an absolute nightmare, his staph injury saw him bed-ridden for a large chunk of the year. His private life was called into question with tales of wild nights out and coupled with accusations of ducking it hasn’t endeared Pavlik to the public. Ironically this is the very thing he originally made his reputation on as a blue-collared brawler.
We know what to expect from The Ghost. He is a boxer with a coalminer’s mentality, a workman-like performer who throws punches all day long. On his day he is top-class, powerful and strong defensively, anyone who doubt’s his ability should remind themselves by checking out the Taylor and Miranda fights, but at the same time Pavlik needs to go back to producing those sorts of performances. The differences between Pavlik’s and Martinez’s style is day and night, which always makes for a good match-up.
The next few years will be crucial in Pavlik’s career. It is now 18 months since the Ohio-born fighter was defeated by Hopkins. Pavlik struggled with the 170lbs catch-weight and Hopkins used it against him in a virtuoso display. There’s no denying Pavlik is the No.1 middleweight but to get a true challenge he needs to look at moving up the divisions like Taylor did, so he can take on fighters like Arthur Abrahams, Lucian Bute or Carl Froch. However sometimes you get the impression with Pavlik that he’d rather stay in his comfort zone, especially the way Hopkins took him apart. Perhaps he is concerned his power will not be quite as effective at 168lbs and but if he doesn’t move up he will become to the middleweight division what the Klitschko’s are to the heavyweights.
Realistically Pavlik should take this fight. As the younger man and the champion he will be the favourite, but Martinez is always in with a chance. Their difference in styles should dictate how this goes; Pavlik needs to deal with Martinez’s movement, Martinez needs to deal with Pavlik's forceful onslaughts. Power should prevail by the end of the night.
Hopefully this will set up a much-sought after Pavlik v Williams super-fight. It’s the one that should cement Pavlik as the undisputed middleweight champion and after that The Ghost can start looking at a few of the guys currently out fighting in the Super Six Series.
Either that or he can keep plugging along fighting whatever substandard fighter turns up next in the 160lbs division. Thus his nickname will be even more fitting, as he never appears in the ring with anyone half decent.
Prediction: Pavlik, ninth-12th round KO
As good as Martinez is it’s hard to see him dealing with Pavlik’s power. He could take him the distance but ultimately The Ghost possesses a knockout shot in his arsenal that the Argentinian has no answer to.
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