Was Kelly Pavlik sick last Saturday?

There was no reason for Pavlik to look SO sluggish at 170 pounds. I mean he looked really slow in there.

Of course it could just be covering for a bad performance. The elbow injury was not something that should have effected him too much, and I’d think Pavlik with a case of bronchitis might have coughed a lot with that much moving around. But I am not a doctor.

Either way, he got smoked and has to recover from that.

The thing is that Kelly prolly walks around 175… and just looked like crap at 170. He got his ass handed to him.

It isn’t unlike when Oscar went up to 160 when he walks around 165.

I don’t think Kelly should be fighting above 160 anytime soon without someone( ie a dietitian and conditioning coach ) supervising him when he prepares for a fight.

He did say after the fight: “I have no excuses. He gave me a boxing lesson.”

But only he knows the real answer. We just can’t judge over that.

When Jack Loew said they were trying to add muscle mass to his calves. whut?

He was SO lacking spark that it does seem possible that he was unwell, and I would have thought that with his frame/height he could move up better? Also, did Calzaghe move up in weight to fight Hopkins, even though I’m not sure how much by, and still look good even though his whole career he fought at a lower weight? So maybe it shouldn’t really be just the weight that made him look so listless?

Kelly Pavlick was horrible in that fight against Bernard Hopkins. A 43 year old embarresed a 28 year old phenom. Kelly Pavlick has to train a lot harder to defend his title.

Crucial omission in my previous post, I meant to write ’didn’t’ (rather than did) Calzaghe move up in weight and still look good etc. So maybe its not just that your body gets used to performing in a certain way, given that Calzaghe was a lower weight all his long career(just as an example).

who’s the boxer Pav has faced before Hop? Nobody. If Abraham gets through next weekend, that should be a mandatory defense for Pav.

I was disturbed after the fight by Pav’s actions. Have you ever seen an undefeated fighter dismantled so systematically and stay in the ring to listen to Hopkins’ purposefully audible motivational ear whisper? ‘Sure Hop, yea, absolutely, you’re right, ok, I’ll be back.’ Hopkins said something to the effect: ‘if I have to I’ll come down to Ohio and come to your house with a baseball bat’ if that’s what it takes to motivate you. ‘sure Hop, ok, I won’t let it get me down Hop’.

Maybe his motives were pure, maybe Hop really has the best intentions for the future of the sport and for Pav. But, really? In the ring? With a baseball bat? Maybe a phone call in a week would’ve been a little more appropriate….if Hop’s not completely and totally self-absorbed.

And if I’m Pav: Get out of the ring. You just got destroyed by a Luby’s frequent flyer. Re-consider the ‘Me and Jack go way back’ philosophy and figure out how to put some punches together.

The weight was not the factor. Some mysterious bronchial infection was not the factor. Pav got exposed by a cagey veteran, but that’s not a good enough excuse for the middle-weight champ in what should be the prime of his career.

The one factor, strictly my opinion of course: Pav was bothered, not just in the second round, but through the fight by Hop’s wicked countering. Above and beyond the speed, Hopkins’ impressive and continuous movement and the ‘move towards his right hand game-plan’, Hop’s ability in every round to sting Pav with counters was the bottom line of this fight.

What irked me while watching the fight was Manny’s commentary. If you knew the answer all along, why couldn’t you get a specimen like Taylor to execute the game plan?