A few things.

One, Miranda is a very good fighter. IMO, it is being overblown a tad, but nobody picked Willie Gibbs to beat Miranda. And Miranda TAGGED Pavlik with some excellent right hands. I mean clean. But Pavlik never even seemed hurt to me. It was a lot different because Miranda was a legitimate opponent. He was overhyped a bit, but still withstanding, he beat the hell out of Arthur Abraham and only lost on point deductions. So it's not like he was some bum fighter. I don't even think the Ricardo Mayorga comparisons are valid. Miranda punches surprisingly straight in their fight. His motions were a bit long, but it wasn't like he was out of control and off balance in there. Miranda knows how to land a punch.

He does have some holes in his defense but he compensates for it by banging back. I know it's not exactly pleasing to us on the forum, especially nowadays when almost every champion in boxing has a sound defense. But he has a style that wins him fights and wins him rounds, and offensively he is very sound. So yeah he has holes in the defense, but he's a take some to give some type of fighter.

As for him being a bigger star then De La Hoya, I doubt it. But he has one huge thing that nobody ever seems to want to talk about. He's a white kid from the midwest fighting like the middleweights of old used to fight. Blue collar, lets his fist do the talking. And that will attract fans no matter what. ESPN had him KOing Miranda in their top plays on Sportscenter and talked about the fight fairly early in the fight. He's a white kid who can fight, and America can REALLY get behind that. I would love to see him get on network TV.

Thirdly, he has the style to beat Jermain Taylor. Or at least make one hell of a fight out of it. His defense is leaky, but Taylor doesn't do anything but throw one punch at a time and he's lucky if he gets that off nowadays.

Jeff Lacy is a little different. Jeff Lacy choked. He got the Super Bowl commercial, he grew the beard, went in the English soccer jersey at the weigh in, and he choked. Of course Calzaghe is probably the bigger man but it was to much to soon for him. He had Calzaghe standing in front of him, which is what he wanted, and he didn't do anything. Plus, Calzaghe beat him up on the inside, where no one thought he could. But still, style nightmare.

There is no one like that at 160. Hopkins has gone, Wright says he will stay around 168, and no way in hell Calzaghe fights the guy. It's Jermain Taylor at the division and I honestly think he will batter Jermain. And I hate that because I really like Taylor.

He is being hyped, but where there is smoke, there is fire. And in this case, it is a gotdamn inferno. He really has potential to be BIG. To show that type of heart, oh my God that was just unbelievable to take those shots.

Can you imagine how big of a fight Kelly Pavlik versus John Duddy would be?

I get what you're saying Gamo, it's easy to get carried away, and Pavlik looked far from perfect. But if you look at him in the context of this division, and you really got something. And Arum is getting old, he's going to push Pavlik just as hard as he did Hagler and De La Hoya now.

Honestly, I watched the whole fight today and I am legitimately excited. Kelly Pavlik is going to be a star. Maybe not on De La Hoya's level, but who wouldn't want to see him fight?