Pavlik beat Taylor twice. There is no score to settle; there is no maybe next time. End of story. And Taylor lost four of the 7 rounds to Pavlik in the first fight and if you are running out of gas in the first half of a fight, you don't belong boxing on the elite level. No, it wasn't that he ran out of gas, it was that he was beat by a better boxer. Don't take credit away from Kelly for that win. The second fight was more of the same, but in that fight Taylor fought until the ending bell and still lost. In the second fight, it was Pavlik's right that put the fright in Taylor. In terms of Froch, there are two ways to look at his Taylor fight. The first view is kinder on him: he travelled across the pond to fight Taylor in the biggest fight of his career. The crowd was heavily on Taylor's side and the stadium was packed. It is normal that Froch would take a few rounds to get in his groove. I was at the fight and we could sense that the tide began to turn at around round 7. Championship rounds are called championship rounds for a reason - that's when champions are made. The other way to look at Froch's victory over Taylor is that he was outclassed and Taylor just ran out of gas. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Froch proves he is among the best at 168 if he beats Dirrell because beating Pascal, Taylor, and Dirrell back-to-back-to-back, is no fluke.
Anyway, the post was about Taylor's chances against Abraham. My problem with this is not that the fight is in Germany because Jermain Taylor is pretty well-known and liked in Germany; Abraham shouldn't have too much of a bias. I'm sure Abraham would get the nod in a close fight, but he should get the nod in a close fight. Taylor can outbox Abraham for the first four or five rounds, but I question what happens when Abraham connects. Taylor can win if he can stay away from AA's big punches; I, however, don't see that happening and this will be another instance of Abraham beating a previous victim of Pavlik. My main criticism of Abraham is that his biggest victory is over Khoren Ghevor. You can't really claim to be the best if your biggest victory is over Ghevor. Ghevor is very good. Don't get me wrong, but you get my point. It's a shame Sturm wouldn't fight Abraham. That would have settled a lot at middleweight.
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