Kelly Pavlik vs. Sergio Martinez

[jmt225]

Tonight on HBO, WBO Middleweight Champion Kelly Pavlik will put his belt on the line against Sergio Martinez, in what should be a GREAT fight.

Pavlik, with a record of 36-1, once promised as boxing's "Next Big Thing" is still trying to rebound from his one loss, which was against Bernard Hopkins back in October 2008. Since then Pavlik's 2-0, but those two win were against mediocre opponents, to say the least.

However, Sergio Martinez is anything but mediocre. He's 44-2-2, and holds two Middleweight Titles of his own. Serigo is also coming off a loss, but it was in what was arguably 2009's Fight of the Year against Paul Williams (pound for pound perhaps the best boxer in the World), so you know he's looking to rebound immediately and keep his name among the best Middleweights in the World.

Both these guys come to bang, and with both having so much on the line, this fight should be an absolute war. I'm telling you, after watching Strikeforce tonight on CBS, flip over to HBO. You will not regret it. And even if you're too tired or have other plans, HBO's great about replaying the fight all throughout the weekend, so try and catch a replay if you want to check it out for yourself.

 

[jmt225]

This actually turned out to be a great back-and-forth fight, as predicted.

Basically, to sum it all up, Sergio Martinez controlled the first 3 or so rounds of the fight with his movement, right jab, and straight left. It took a while for Pavlik to find an answer for it, but he did so in the middle of the 4th and started to gain control of the fight. He figured out Martinez, and started hitting beautiful counters and beating Martinez to the punch in every exchange. He even was able to knock Martinez down in the 7th with a short right uppercut. However, unfortunately, Martinez would gain back control of the fight and completely dominate it from the 8th round through the 12th, after a cut on Pavlik seemed to take the life out of him. I think if it weren't for that cut, Pavlik would have cruised through the fight, but some people just cannot not handle it when see/feel their own blood.

So, yeah... Martinez won a unanimous decision, and he deserved it. Hopefully we'll get a rematch between these two though. Pavlik definitely deserves a shot to win the WBO Middleweight Title back. It was a great, great fight, and I'd love to see another one between the two.

 

[The Roid Rage]

Perfect review of the fight, I thought it was a good one too. I was a little disappointed in Pavlik the way he handled the cut as you mentioned. I've never really seen him take one so I never really figured it was a problem for him, one of those unanswered questions like a fighters chin sometimes. Looks like we got the answer last night. I was very impressed with Martinez really controlling Pavlik, he hasn't been one to let people get their way in his better performances, but I wouldn't say this was one of them. I would like to see the rematch though because I am pretty sure both of them would do better the next time now that they know what to do against each other. They'd both have to find different ways to beat each other than in this fight, and that would be interesting to see. Yet another sweet delivery from Boxing this year with a lot more to come.