Taylor v Spinks/Miranda v Pavlik tonight 2:30 am(SKY Sports 2)

Big Ears

Well this morning Jermain Taylor defends the Undisputed World Middleweight title against IBF Light-Middleweight champion Cory Spinks . Spinks is a good skillfull fighter but I expect the physical advantages of Taylor to be too much and Taylor should come through comfortably on points .

However the real fight tonight is Edison Miranda v Kelly Pavlik , which is pretty much being recognized as a #1 contender bout(officially by the WBC and unofficially by everyone else . Of course this excludes the paper champs as contenders .

Both are big hitters who are slightly unproven . Despite having seen plenty of Miranda recently the boxing world is still pretty much unsure of how good Edison Miranda really is . He became the first man to stop Guyanan/Brit Howard Eastman who is(was) a World class operator . He fought Arthur Abraham in his next fight for the IBF title . Miranda broke Abraham's jaw in two places and generally left the Armenian a mess(charges have been brought against Abraham's corner for letting him continue) but amazingly Abraham battled on and won on points with the help of an amazing 5 points deducted from Miranda !(some believe this was harsh , some believe Miranda should have been thrown out for his 'tactics') Anyway Abraham would have won a razoer thin MD on the cards without the deductions .

In his next fight Miranda stopped wanna-by contender Willie Gibbs in a round and in his fight after that Miranda won a decision over Super Middleweight prospect Allan Green on points . Very worringly though Miranda was floored . He did however floor Green twice in the 10th and had him going when the bell sounded for the end(a 10 round fight) . Miranda can fight and has a good punch , but his defense is questionable and his chin has question marks .
Miranda is 28-1-0(24 ko's)


Kelly Pavlik has a lot more questions about him and is certainly unproven , he has mainly dealt with guys along the level of Willie Gibbs but has dealt with them well . He is extremely tall(6'2 1/2) but actually has a 1/2 inch smaller reach than the 5'11 Miranda . Whenever I've seen Pavlik I've been impressed but he hasn't faced anywhere near the the level of fighter Miranda is . The question is can he rise to the occasion . Pavlik also has loads of power and as far as I'm aware has never been down or looked hurt . He is a pressure fighter and will meet Miranda head on . Pavlik is 30-0-0(27 ko's)

Expect a KO as both fighters will be looking for it , I'm going to predict a bit of a shock and I see Pavlik stopping the Columbian around the 10th .


Undercard sees prospects Andre Berto , Ronald Hearns(son of Tommy) and Chazz Witherspoon(cousin of Tim) . Berto looks like the real deal , the other two need a lot of work .Jose Navarro is also fighting in a tune-up before his fight with Jhonny Gonzales for the WBO Bantamweight title .(and no that's not a typo , it is spelt Jhonny)

cowzerp

i thought spinks was skillfull but taylor was not deserving of this win-he just done the bare minimum-:(
miranda v pavlik was awseome and i believe pavlik will easily beat taylor if taylor has the balls to take the fight, this fight made my night..

Dodge

Well done on tipping up the Pavlik/Miranda fight. Superb stuff. As good a fight as I've seen in a while

Fell asleep during the main bout

Big Ears

Miranda v Pavlik was a great fight and it'll be up there as a contender for fight of the year . You never knew when or who would end it up until the end of the 6th where it looked like Miranda had nothing left .

As for the Taylor fight , Jermain has bad intentions alright..........hell bent on robbing the viewers of the will to live . I stopped scoring the bought after the 3rd , it was just too boring to bother .

I hope it's Pavlik next for Taylor , he'll either be forced to fight or get knocked out .

nacho libre

Based on last night's performance, i think Pavlik would give Calzaghe problems too.

RealJohn

Based on last night's performance, Taylor doesn't deserve to fight Calzaghe anyway. I'm disappointed in myself for staying up to watch it. I should have gone to bed after Pavlik against Miranda.

Don't get me wrong, I like a good defensive fighter. I'll watch PBF, Winky Wright, Hopkins at their defensive best but Taylor is a disgrace in my opinion. Well, maybe disgrace is an overstatement but when you show more desire in the press conference than in the ring, there's something wrong.

Spinks wasn't able to hurt Taylor and Taylor knew it yet he still did the bare minimum. For me, he won it by a point because he won the last round (on my card anyway) in which I'd say he threw more punches than in the majority of the rest of the fight and it was still boring to watch it.

The sooner somebody beats him, the better it will be for boxing.

Pavlik against Miranda on the other hand deserved to be the main event. Pavlik was very impressive keeping Miranda on the back foot all night in spite of Miranda's usual dirty tactics. I'd love to see Pavlik take the belt off Taylor next but I think it's a pretty good bet Taylor will line himself up another easy payday if he can before he gets forced into a hard fight.

For the record, I'm not convinced Pavlik would beat Taylor by the way, I just think Pavlik deserves to have it and Taylor doesn't.

cowzerp

i think pavlik knocks taylor out early on-the man is a beast!!

Big Ears

cowzerp wrote:

i think pavlik knocks taylor out early on-the man is a beast!!

I actually fancy Taylor to beat Pavlik , Taylor is capable of a lot more than he showed last night and is prepared to do just enough to win . As HBO's poster boy he will always win a decision if it's close and I think his chin is too solid and he is too defensively sound to be knocked out at middleweight , even by a big hitter like Pavlik .

Despite what I said in my original post Pavlik has been down in his career(once) and is open to counters . He did gas a little against Miranda too(understandable seeing as the pace and ferocity it was fought at) and has never been past the 9th . Taylor isn't going to knock out Pavlik that's for sure , but I would fancy him to scrape another razor thin decision by winning most of the last few rounds with Pavlik tiring badly .


I'm gonna guess Taylor's next opponent will be Sergio Mora , good money for what should be an easy win .

cowzerp

We'll have to have a friendly bet if it comes around! i think taylor was spineless, i admire boxer type boxers for there skills-years ago i remember asking my trainer what type of fighter i was? he replied, paul your an attacking boxer-this meant i boxed like taylor but in an attacking fashion, the other options where boxer or fighter-taylor is not willing to take part in a fight and i dont think he'd have the option versus Pavlik.

Big Ears

cowzerp wrote:

We'll have to have a friendly bet if it comes around! i think taylor was spineless, i admire boxer type boxers for there skills-years ago i remember asking my trainer what type of fighter i was? he replied, paul your an attacking boxer-this meant i boxed like taylor but in an attacking fashion, the other options where boxer or fighter-taylor is not willing to take part in a fight and i dont think he'd have the option versus Pavlik.

His heart doesn't really seem to be in it(that's what money can do to you) but Pavlik has vulnerabilities that weren't exposed last night .

I'd love to see Pavlik knock out Taylor but I just couldn't see it happening , and I think Taylor could pull his usual trick and win a close decision .

nacho libre

Big Ears wrote:

His heart doesn't really seem to be in it(that's what money can do to you) but Pavlik has vulnerabilities that weren't exposed last night .

in fairness to him, i think he was just unmotivated fighting against Spinks hence his lacklustre display. A fight with Calzaghe is one where he has something to prove. So you'll see a much better performance from him in that fight.

cooker3

The Miranda Pavlik fight was just amazing. 1 of the best fights I have ever seen and was a rather good contrast to the Taylor. My god that was dull. I think the sky panel were correct, the guy doesn't seem to love the sport, he does what he needs to and that is enough.
I would love to see Pavlik fight him if only just to see Taylor actually try in a fight!

Lucas10101

Spinks should win..

cowzerp

He lost already-lol

Dodge

Lmao

dlofnep

lol

pavlik looked solid.