Pavlik decisions Taylor in underwhelming rematch

Photo © Jae C. Hong/AP

Kelly Pavlik went to 33-0 with a 12-round unanimous decision win over Jermain Taylor tonight in Las Vegas, winning on official scores of 117-111, 115-113 and 116-112.

Media scores differed somewhat. Yahoo! Sports analyst Kevin Iole had it 115-113 for Pavlik, and the ESPN crew was mixed, with Dan Rafael at 115-113 Taylor, Kieran Mulvaney 116-112 for Taylor, and Darius Ortiz 115-113 for Pavlik.

My BLH scorecard had it 116-112 for Taylor, same as ESPN's Mulvaney. And I really didn't think it was all that close.

[Ed. Note: Kieran Mulvaney let us know that the ESPN cards were initially tallied wrong. He had it 115-113 for Taylor, and Dan Rafael had it 114-114.]

Where was Kelly Pavlik's destructive power? Jermain Taylor fought a hell of a smart fight, beat Pavlik to the punch most of the night, hurt him more, and showed just HOW superior his hand speed was.

But enough about the scoring. It is what it is, and Kelly Pavlik won, no matter what anyone else thinks. That is the official decision. Pavlik remains undefeated, and Jermain Taylor is now 27-2-1, tailspinning as he makes his way to 168 pounds. Jermain needs a big win, and he needs it fast.

But let's talk about the fight. It wasn't bad. But if this fight ends up in my top 20 at the end of 2008, consider it a poor year for boxing. The fireworks of their initial encounter never surfaced tonight, and the two men put on what I felt was an entirely underwhelming affair. I'm not even stingy about fights. I really loved both of Mayweather's fights last year, for different reasons. I thought Vivian Harris-Juan Lazcano was one of the more intriguing fights of 2007 -- not a great fight, but a really interesting bout to watch.

Pavlik-Taylor II never sucked me in like a great fight does to you. The magic just was not there. It never truly felt like a major event, which it surely was. This was a huge fight. But it didn't deliver.

And not every big fight does or will. For every Cotto-Mosley that is as excellent as anyone could hope for, you get a fight like Pavlik-Taylor II that just doesn't quite take you to that place. It's not a knock on either man. They both came to fight and both fought with heart. But the aura of the big fight atmosphere wasn't there tonight. Even when the crowd would roar, it was more in anticipation for that which did not come to pass.

Congratulations to Kelly Pavlik, even though I thought Taylor won tonight. You can't ask for a better guy to be carrying the middleweight flag than Kelly Pavlik. And I hope Jermain shakes it off and moves forward, just like he did after the first loss to Pavlik. Go to 168, Jermain. Show 'em what you've got. I have no doubt that Jermain can go into that division and take the crown that Joe Calzaghe leaves behind.

On the undercard, Fernando Montiel blitzed Martin Castillo with a fourth round body shot knockout to retain the WBO super flyweight title, maybe setting up a unification bout with WBC champ Cristian Mijares, who retained via split decision over Jose Navarro. I had Navarro a 115-113 winner, but it was a very close fight. Their skills matched up quite nicely. The one qualm I really have with that fight is the one judge that scored it for Navarro. He had it 120-108. I have no clue what he was watching, or who paid him off. In the opener, Ronald Hearns beat the hell out of Juan Astorga before the referee called it off in the eighth and final round after Astorga went down for the second time in the fight. Astorga could have finished the fight, probably, but there was no point. He never won a round.

In notable untelevised fights from Vegas, Brian Viloria officially stepped up to 112 pounds and beat Cesar Lopez via eight-round unanimous decision, and Argentinian myth Sergio Gabriel Martinez won a four-rounder -- yes, a four-rounder -- over David Toribio. Does Martinez, at age 32 and with a record of 42-1-1, ever plan on fighting anybody?

We now head into next weekend, when HBO brings us the heavyweight unification title bout between Wladimir Klitschko and Sultan Ibragimov, plus Joe Louis: America's Hero Betrayed, which we've all heard is just can't-miss television. The story of Joe Louis is one that really needs to be told in an honest manner, from someone like HBO that can really get it out there. Some folks really don't know what Joe Louis went through, and that's a shame. Mr. Louis is one of our all-time greats, a man to be truly respected on all fronts, and what happened to him was a shame.

Other Results from Saturday night

Nikolai Valuev destroyed Sergei Liakhovich in Bayern, Germany, winning on unanimous decision scores of 120-108, 120-108 and 120-107. Yes, that means Liakhovich did not win a single round on any of the three judges' scorecards. On the undercard, Kali Meehan scored a third round TKO over Jeremy Bates.