Originally Posted by
El Gamo
Let’s not take anything away from the kid. The win was very impressive. But, as usual, the media is getting carried away on a single win. The same way they got carried away with Miranda’s first round knockout of middleweight Willie Gibbs on HBO.
Pavlik says that Miranda was nothing more than fighter who was overhyped by the media and to a significant degree he’s right. The same thing seems to be happening with Pavlik, who is a much better boxer-puncher than Miranda, but also has some serious defensive loopholes of his own. The kid could hit and take a hit, but also gets hit too much for his own well being. If not for his sturdy chin, he could have been the fighter to taste defeat because Miranda landed plenty of leather as well.
The Pavlik PR machine is moving full steam now. Promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank says Pavlik will be bigger than Oscar De La Hoya ever was. Pavlik has the potential to be big, but he doesn’t have the charisma or the looks to ever be as big as someone like De La Hoya. De La Hoya was one of the few fighters in the history of the sport to create a following among a demographic of fans who barely followed boxing. Pavlik is not the kind of fighter to cross that line.
The boxing media is getting too carried away with this one. We all have high hopes for the kid, but to automatically peg him as a fighter to destroy Jermain Taylor is ridiculous. Think Jeff Lacy. He punched and dominated his way through the super middleweight division until he ran into a roadblock called Joe Calzaghe, who badly dominated him for twelve rounds in their 2006 UK clash. Not only was Calzaghe labeled as a serious underdog, few gave him a prayer of lasting the distance. Nobody could have predicted such a domination of Lacy, but the media built him up as an unstoppable monster. Prior to the bout with Lacy, Calzaghe was not necessarily impressive in the ring with his slap-punching style, but he decisively won his fights.
As history has shown, the public falls in love with punchers like Lacy. Pavlik has the perfect style to feed that love. Sometimes that love gets overblown and blinds many of us from the truth.
Some excellent points there right? (I got it from another site)
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