*Breaking News* It's OFFICIAL - Miranda vs. Pavlik on May 19th on HBO*

[global]

I'm honestly surprised so many people are so high on Miranda. IMO, he's even more rough around the edges then Lacy was. An active fighter with a warriors mentality and mean punching power. A

Imo Miranda and Lacy are worlds apart in regards to one punch power.

[amat]

I'm honestly surprised so many people are so high on Miranda. IMO, he's even more rough around the edges then Lacy was. An active fighter with a warriors mentality and mean punching power. A

Imo Miranda and Lacy are worlds apart in regards to one punch power.

Yeah they are that was really just to grab's people's attention. Although I would kill to see Lacy versus Miranda.

[The Rookie Fan]

Two number one ranked middleweight contenders will clash for top challenger status in the division when Edison Miranda whos #1 by the IBF and Kelly Pavlik whos #1 by the WBC collide on May 19th at FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee. This intriguing middleweight contest will be the co-feature on the Jermain Taylor vs. Cory Spinks “Border Battle” middleweight championship card on HBO.

This is starting to look like a good card. Should be a great match up between Miranda and Pavlik. These are the kinds of fights that the boxing fans wanna see.

Add to that the JT vs Spinks and a possible clash between the winners and we got mayor exitment.

[Pantera]

I'm honestly surprised so many people are so high on Miranda. IMO, he's even more rough around the edges then Lacy was. An active fighter with a warriors mentality and mean punching power. And picking him to beat JT is something I thought barely anyone would do.

I like Kelly's chances. Pavlik has a mean right hand a sneaky left hook. Pretty good fighter and a very astute puncher. He knows how to punch and he doesn't waste to much in doing so. Very straight puncher and very accurate, always a deadly combination.

Miranda on the other hand is just an animal. Not all right around the edges, he's not exactly patient but the guy is one of the more intimidating fighters in the game. Pavlik is going to have to be all there mentally and not be scared of Miranda if he wants to win the fight. He can't be moving backwards if he wants to beat Miranda, doesn't mean he has to be moving forward but he can't fight off the back foot. Easier said then done but you're not going to expose any holes in Miranda's defense backpeddling and that has been something that I've seen Pavlik do a couple times. More of a lazy habit imo, but if he does it against Miranda he better watch the fwock out.

He has the tools to beat Miranda, and it could very well happen. But to do it he needs to stand his ground, sneak that left hook in on Miranda, follow up and then circle around. Or do something to that extent. A lot of people say that you beat Miranda by keeping him outside, well I don't totally agree. He has a very tight defense on the outside, it's basically a shell it's when he is moving in and looking to make something happen where his defense opens up and that's where Pavlik is going to have to do his work. And his arsenal of punches seem to be made for a guy like Miranda but there is always that X factor of a huge Colombian power house coming at you and whether or not you can keep your poise. But if he can, if he can stay composed and catch Miranda in transition even if it means abandoning the jab a bit, laying a trap for Miranda to open up and come inside then so be it. Again, the X factor. But if he can, it very well could be a frustrating night for Miranda. And that's not at all far fetched. I mean the one time Green opened up he dropped Miranda as Miranda was moving forward. Howard Eastman, caught Miranda moving forward. The blue print is there just no one could execute it. Pavlik is a guy with that capability.

But on the flipside, if Pavlik loses, he loses big in this one. Miranda's blows are like missals in the air, they may be a bit loopy and they may take a while to get there but they bang hard.

I'm going to go ahead and predict a Miranda KO but I wouldn't be surprised to see it go the other way. Like I said Miranda has more then enough tools to beat him, it's knowing how to use them that counts. And big fight inexperience could cost him here. A win for either fighter is huge imo.

This is one I'm going to be able to catch. Glad too, I know there has been talk in Ohio about this one for years, even before both were real big. Should be fun. I'm a lot more excited for this then I am Allen Green - Edison Miranda yet when that fight got signed it seems people were more excited. I never saw it in Allan.

You have some good points here. But a few things... one, Miranda got dropped by Green when he was actually moving backwards (more of a skip) to avoid a punch. He was off balance and got hit with a tremendous left hook. He was never hurt.
Against Eastman he was hurt. But again, he was not moving forward. They were in the middle of the ring and Eastman came over the top with a good right when Miranda's defense was not there. He has fixed this problem since that fight.

The other X factor is that Pavlik has looked no more than decent in his past fights against lower level guys. If he looked only decent against this level of opposition, how is he going to look against one of the p4p hardest punchers and most aggressive guys in the sport? If he would have look amazing in his last few fights I would say he has a chance at this level. But since he hasn't shined at the lower level, I got a feeling he will fail miserably against the top level of fighters (imo Miranda is the top at middleweight).

[JT Rock]

Pavlik will shit his pants when Pantera lands the 1st good shot.....Miranda is the next Middleweight Champ, no doubt

[CutMeMick]

Pavlik will shit his pants when Pantera lands the 1st good shot.

CC#485 JT that sh*t! made me laugh.....

Hes gonna need this come fight night

[JT Rock]

#1317 to you.... Yea poo his pants or fall through his arsehole, one or the other

[El Gamo]

I love Pantera,his attitude and his style but I honestly feel this will be a difficult fight for him. Remember,Pavlik may not have fought anywhere near the same level of fighters,but then Pantera has never fought someone as hard hitting as Kelly. Also,Kelly's straighter shots could be telling,Miranda tends to loop his punches. Pavlik also throws a tremendous amount of leather. However,I think Pantera';s D is slightly better,I mean Kelly is WIDE open and against Miranda,that's bad!!!

believe Pantera will win eventually. I feel he will be knocked down early but once Kelly realises just HOW hard Miranda hits,he'll lose. I favour Miranda,late ko BUT it'll be far from easy. Pavlik looks like a badass fighter.I'll be rooting for Edison though and if he wins this,he is early fighter of the year contender and they need to get JT's ass in the ring,NO excuses!!

[No Contest]

Kelly Pavlik has a secret weapon tho....his corner is gonna dangle a roadkill squirrel in the corner to distract Miranda.

[JT Rock]

I love Pantera,his attitude and his style but I honestly feel this will be a difficult fight for him. Remember,Pavlik may not have fought anywhere near the same level of fighters,but then Pantera has never fought someone as hard hitting as Kelly. Also,Kelly's straighter shots could be telling,Miranda tends to loop his punches. Pavlik also throws a tremendous amount of leather. However,I think Pantera';s D is slightly better,I mean Kelly is WIDE open and against Miranda,that's bad!!!

believe Pantera will win eventually. I feel he will be knocked down early but once Kelly realises just HOW hard Miranda hits,he'll lose. I favour Miranda,late ko BUT it'll be far from easy. Pavlik looks like a badass fighter.I'll be rooting for Edison though and if he wins this,he is early fighter of the year contender and they need to get JT's a** in the ring,NO excuses!!

Allan Green can crack... He was all fired up confident and talking shite until he tasted the power of Miranda and then he bitched around the ring all nite

[amat]

You have some good points here. But a few things... one, Miranda got dropped by Green when he was actually moving backwards (more of a skip) to avoid a punch. He was off balance and got hit with a tremendous left hook. He was never hurt.
Against Eastman he was hurt. But again, he was not moving forward. They were in the middle of the ring and Eastman came over the top with a good right when Miranda's defense was not there. He has fixed this problem since that fight.

The other X factor is that Pavlik has looked no more than decent in his past fights against lower level guys. If he looked only decent against this level of opposition, how is he going to look against one of the p4p hardest punchers and most aggressive guys in the sport? If he would have look amazing in his last few fights I would say he has a chance at this level. But since he hasn't shined at the lower level, I got a feeling he will fail miserably against the top level of fighters (imo Miranda is the top at middleweight).

Yeah I was off on Green, I could have sworn it was Miranda moving forward. And while Miranda wasn't moving against Eastman, he had just moved forward and opened up his defense and that's when he got caught. And when has Miranda looked spectacular? Aside from Gibbs, he has always looked pretty good and relentless but never anything I would call special imo. Pavlik looked good against Zertuche. He got hit against a real awkward guy but that's about it.

Pavlik gets hit a bunch, and that will be his doing in imo. But those straight shots are just so damn hard to ignore against Miranda.

[southakron314]

They are both very powerful punchers. Pavlik throws strait shots that almost every time in a fight find there mark with drastic results. On the other hand Miranda throws looping hands. Remeber he is facing a guy who is 6' 3" and Miranda is 5' 10''. When he throws those looping left or right hands he will be reaching up exposing that side of the face. Pavlik needs to keep circling to the right to keep that distance between him and that big right hand. The strait shot is usually the more true shot. I like Pavlik in this one. He has the better jaw and the straiter hands.

[southakron314]

Like I said I believe that the ghost will win this won. For 6'3" and 160 pounds he swats. Pavlik has a great jaw and all he needs to do is circle to his right to keep away from Miranda's big right hand. Miranda is my height about 5'10''. Miranda also throws looping shots. Its going to be very challenging for him to land those big loopers to the head so look for the body attack. If Miranda goes high too much, Pavlik (who is a strait puncher) will connect. Pavlik is also a very classy guy from Youngstown Ohio. I'm rooting for him as a northeast Ohioan would for another. The kid is a class act from one of the toughest cities in America. Go Pavlik.

[CFH]

I didn't realize there was such a height differential between Pavlik and Miranda, that could be a factor in the fight. That being said, Allan Green is listen at 6'2 on boxrec, and Pavlik is listed at 6'2.5, so maybe it won't matter all that much, we all saw how Miranda handled Green - One clean right hand in the first round and Green fought scared for the rest of the fight. I really hope Miranda win this one, though I wouldn't be all that surprised to see Pavlik take it. Although, Pavlik has never fought anyone even remotely close to Miranda skill/power-wise, if Zertuche hit even half as hard as Miranda does, Pavlik would've been counting light-bulbs in his last fight. Miranda has also had by far the tougher opposition in his previous fights.
Pantera by TKO.

[BoxingGorilla]

Pavlik will swallow some teeth on his way to a TKO loss.