Kelly Pavlik vs Paul Williams Fight Preview
The Ghost and The Punisher Fight For the Middleweight Title
Aug 18, 2009
Update: This fight has been rescheduled to a likely December date due to an injury to Kelly Pavlik's left hand.
This is a fight that Kelly Pavlik needs to win. After his lopsided loss to Bernard Hopkins and a "that's what you're supposed to do" victory over Marco Rubio, Pavlik needs to lay the proverbial wood to Paul Williams. Hopkins was virtually written off by the media as a washed up old man after losing to the feather-fisted, but persistent and slippery Joe Calzaghe. Then Hopkins made Pavlik (27) look old.
The loss was a severe blow to the Top Rank star's confidence. It was the kind of loss, lopsided and, at times, amateurish, that makes fighters question their past successes. Where they real? Have I just been lucky? Have I suddenly lost it? In Williams, Pavlik has chosen another mover and shaker that he must deal with.
Paul Williams Uses Lateral Movement
It was Hopkins' lateral movement that frustrated Pavlik and it's lateral movement that Williams will employ against the middleweight champion. (Pavlik's middleweight titles were not on the line for the Hopkins fight, which was set at a catch weight of 170 pounds). Williams (28) is tall (6'4"), lanky at 160, and looks like some sort of caricature of himself as he works in the gym. All gloves, elbows, and knees bouncing up and down, side to side, and around in circles, Williams works feverishly to train himself not to stand still, or stand too close.
Kelly Pavlik Powerful Puncher
At 6'2" Pavlik is also a tall middleweight who has used his height advantage well. A hard puncher, Pavlik's straight right hand, driven to its target by broad shoulders and excellent technique, effectively separates men from their synapses. He wasn't able to land that right against Hopkins, who couple his elusiveness with an economy of output that Ebenezer Scrooge would be proud of. Sometimes fighters get hit because they get greedy.
Williams is moving up in weight, while Pavlik hinted that 160 was getting tough to make when he was training for his first Jermain Taylor fight. So does the advantage lie with the man moving up in weight, or with the man struggling to stay down in weight? There's no way to know for sure. Williams has never been a one-punch KO artist, so the heavy-hands trophy goes to Pavlik. One hundred punches per round are the norm for Williams, especially since he gets to eat basically what he wants. Energy should be no problem for the Punisher. Williams gets the punch output trophy.
Paul Williams Has The Advantage Over Kelly Pavlik
Lateral movement and all-around defense has to go to Williams too. The likely winner in this contest is Williams. Most of the advantages are his and a decision victory for the Punisher is the most probable outcome. Unless he gets greedy.
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