As I recall, the majority of the forum picked Pavlik. The boxing media was close to split, but I think there were slightly more picking Taylor. But over here, Pavlik was seen as the favorite going in. Taylor had been looking shitty for quite awhile.
Amazing fight and one of my favorite MW fights of all time. Those 2 put on a great show and Pavlik made an awesome comeback. Taylor was never the same fighter after that.
Seems a lot of guys take a dip or even a huge nose dive after their first loss. It's worse if that first loss is via KO.
Rewatching Pavlik-Miranda, it was a very good fight too. Larry Merchant was right, it was crunk Pavlik was a killer against the ropes. All 3 of his KO wins that year came when he stopped guys against the ropes (Zertuche, Pavlik, Taylor). And they were vicious stoppages. Kelly really put ‘em together when it was time to finish them. I love Pavlik-Taylor 1 as it was a classic fight, I thought for a little bit that the fight might be over in 2. Pavlik did a good job surviving and Taylor did a poor job finishing. He also probably expended too much energy. Jermain seemed to be a tense boxer in the ring so that probably sapped away from his stamina. I didn’t notice when watching it live how Pavlik was slowly breaking him down. Pavlik was beginning to catch Taylor with some consistency and Taylor was beginning to momentarily stop in his tracks from those hard punches. It was getting to him. So those 2 long right hands in the 7th that took away Taylor’s legs and basically made Taylor a sitting duck for Kelly…they weren’t out of the blue like I first kind of thought. Kelly wore him down with all those hard punches until Jermain’s chin couldn’t take it anymore and his legs went to jello.
Still fun and exciting to watch. Taylor for sure had his moments but to me, it looked like he was running out of gas every time he attacked Pavlik with combinations. After that Pavlik had his momentum. Back and forth. But Taylor looked more sloppy and less careful in his defense. Pavlik never let him rest and collect himself. Great fight.
Yeah Zac came over as he mentioned here he lived in San Diego and another forum member picked him up on the way. This was pre cell phone era (kind of i believe it was 2007) so we had no idea what was in store. He sat on a couch near someone he didn't know and was relatively quiet and polite. We discussed boxing history and he was condescending but definitely knowledgeable (he was possibly thrown off as I was 18 or 19 at the time and he thought i was much older) and before main event someone hit the lights (probably 10 or so people there) he told the guy not to touch his leg. If I recall correctly "Free Ike" didn't want to come as he was worried about Rubio being there. He asked "jaws" if he could use his computer and check this forum and pulled up a saved porn video while my parents and many strangers were in room and said "throat gaggers...nice" then went on a few bizarre tirades but I don't want to quote him on here as it was a long time ago and my memory could be slightly off.
Awesome. FreeIke was a weird dude as well. He had a lot of bravado online, but obviously was a very shy man in reality
Yeah I wouldn't say free Ike is shy. Alot of members here met him as well and I'd say they can attest but from what I see nowadays nearly everybody is gone :( I still remember when Rubio's post were exposed, because back then seems like outing anyone who didn't want to be was a no no. Good times
