It was a strange night at the MGM Grand Garden arena. The most entertaining undercard was a non-TV bout between Brian Viloria and Cesar Lopez. The main event ended with two fighters who couldn’t say enough nice things about each other in their post-fight love fest. The main undercard fight was described by one observer (who was not me because I am not this witty) as being “sponsored by Sominex” because it was so slow. Jermain Taylor and Kelly Pavlik fought an entirely different type of fight than the kind we were expecting, and I forgot where I parked my car and wondered around the parking garage for a full hour after the fight. Strange night.
 

Jocelyn Has a New Favorite Boxer

    Some people found the first undercard match, an eight-round, junior middle weight bout between Juan Astorga (12-2-1, 7 KO) and Ronald “The Chosen One” Hearns (18-0, 14 KO) to be uninspiring, but those people weren’t me (and they weren’t anybody who enjoys watching a well-trained fighter). It was the first time I’d been able to see the son of  Thomas “Hitman” Hearns fight live, and it was a pretty, pretty thing to see. Ronald Hearns fights like a natural athlete who has spent every single day in the gym, for hours each day, with an equally talented and well-traveled boxing father … by which I mean Ronald Hearns flights like you’d expect him to fight. In what was essentially an over-match against Astorga, Hearns showed poise, a great overhand right, and a constantly active jab that he doubled up and frequently followed with a sharp left  hook. He fought like a smart fighter, showing a naturally bred understanding of when to maneuver his opponent around and when to take opportunistic advantage and attack. He utilized his huge reach advantage efficiently and effectively. Essentially, he fought a technically perfect fight while also taking chances, and it was great to watch.

    Hearns dropped Astorga twice leading up to a fight stoppage at 1:10 in the eighth round. Normally, I would not enjoy watching a fight where one fighter was apparently so over-matched. But Hearns is a captivating fighter, and not just because he brings a name with pedigree to the ring. I’m not sure how much longer he can hold out at junior middleweight (he’s 6’ 3” and to say he was “lean” at junior middle would be an understatement), and who knows if he has the media charisma of his father. But he is almost 30 years old, and I’m hoping we see him rise to national attention soon, because he’s a great fighter to watch if you like fighters who combine great natural ability with great ring smarts.
 

    I would love to say that I enjoyed the rest of the undercard. I’d love to say the rest of the crowd did, too. But I can’t say that. And I happen to be of the school of people who usually really enjoys the high punching action of super flyweights, but it was not to be tonight.

    The first super flyweight match, a twelve-rounder for the WBC title between Jose Navarro (26-4, 4 KOs) and Cristian Mijares (34-3, 3 KOs) was twelve endless rounds of counter punching with seemingly no strategy other than to counter punch. Mijares eked out the win on a split decision, with judge Chris Wilson scoring the bout 115-113 Mijares, Adelaide Byrd scoring it 117-111 for Mijares and Doug Tucker giving the edge to Navarro at 108-120. Navarro threw a total of 1222 punches, which is the second highest count of all time for a 115 pounder. Unfortunately, he only landed 15% of those punches, while Mijares fought a much more efficient fight, landing 30% of his 842 punches thrown. I, meanwhile, anxiously awaited the main event and played memory retention games with the man sitting next to me (can you name seven professional sports teams whose names don’t end in “s”?). The fight was obviously so close that the judges scored it rather significantly differently, and I suspect it won’t be the last fight between the two fighters.

    Following those twelve rounds, Martin Castillo (33-3, 17 KOs)  took on Fernando Montiel (36-2-1, 27 KOs) for the WBO Super Flyweight title. Despite the similarities in their fight records, the fight was a mismatch, with Montiel taking Castillo down by TKO at 1:56 in the fourth round. And to be honest, I think we were all ready for the main event at that point. Or at least I can tell you that most of the crowd was actively suggesting that Castillo stay down so we could get on with the night.
 

-Photo Credit: Armando Cabrera-
Pavlik vs. Taylor: The Epic Was Pretty Epic

    Let me just start by saying that I know I picked Taylor to win, but I also said that it was because I didn’t think that Pavlik would be the same fighter without a hometown crowd behind him.  Pavlik DID have a hometown crowd with him. The MGM Grand Garden Arena felt a lot like Atlantic City last night, except that the drinks were more expensive, the cocktail waitresses used a little less hairspray to poof their hair out and Donald Trump was blissfully absent. Ohio was in the house though, and they were loud. I’m actually not sure I’ve ever seen so much Aeropostal collected in one venue. There was absolutely zero question who the crowd was backing, and it was the skinny white kid from the Midwestern Tundra who apparently lands hits that feel like cement blocks. 

    The flight was close, and you couldn’t take your eyes off of it. Pavlik (33-0, 29 KOs) came on strong in the early rounds, but Taylor (27-2-1, 17 KOs) fought back to close out each round and then in the late-middle rounds as well. If you were at the MGM with me, you would have heard my brilliant joke about how Taylor’s late round flurries in the last thirty seconds were symbolic of every man I’ve ever dated. The punching was hard, with Pavlik frequenting the body and actually inflicting some damage on Taylor in the eleventh round. Gone were the big punches, scarring jabs and moments of wondering if a knockdown was about to happen that marked the first fight. Both fighters fought a more reserved, structured fight. Taylor stayed off of the ropes, unlike in the first encounter where he let Pavlik punch himself out near the ropes. Pavlik adjusted his game plan to deal with Taylor’s altered game plan of relying on counter-punching more heavily. But both fighters provided many moments of excitement,  with flurries of hard hitting combinations in a fight that had frequent momentum changes. Going into the later rounds, most had the fight as deadlocked as it could be. Pavlik suffered a bloody nose in the eighth, Taylor was clearly staggered by a blow to the body in the eleventh. But, despite slowing the pace near the end of the fight, both fighters continued to throw hard punches throughout. Taylor showed superior hand-speed and probably had a better fight strategy, but in a fight where every blow was answered by another, the official results were as close as you would expect.

    In the end, the scorecards all agreed on Pavlik, who was the aggressor through most rounds as well as the more consistent puncher, with the final scores being 117-111, 115-113 and 116-112.

    Taylor was gracious in defeat. As Taylor’s promoter Lou DiBella said in his post fight press conference, “We thought we eked it out, but it’s not the kind of fight you bitch about. Jermain fought an intelligent fight. He fought the right fight. It was a fight that was hard to score and evenly matched.”

    Taylor suggested that if he could change one thing, he may have stayed out of the pocket more often instead of staying inside to take Pavlik’s inside punches.

    It was an ending of sorts for Taylor, who has already stated, along with his management, that he’ll never fight at 160 lbs again, though he’ll rematch Pavlik at a higher weight such as the 164 lbs they fought at as many times as Pavlik wants. For now, though, Jermain Taylor’s immediate plans are to go fishing, which makes sense when you consider his busy, back-to-back fight schedule over the last year. After that, Taylor will explore fighting at 168 lbs. Though Taylor suffered a loss, most agree that his overall boxing stock went up on Saturday night in the MGM because of his smart and persistent fighting, and he should be able to secure good, headline matches at 168.

    And it was a beginning for Kelly Pavlik, who can no longer be considered a fluke winner in a supportive Atlantic City environment. Pavlik is sure to capture the public’s attention in an even greater way now. More importantly, this fight marks Pavlik’s first time going a full 12 rounds, and he did it in high-end fashion. As Pavlik said, “It was good to get the twelve round thing out of the way, and more importantly, I didn’t just go twelve rounds, I went twelve rounds with Jermain Taylor.”

    Pavlik is exploring weight classes as well, though he has no immediate plans to move away from 160 lbs. “I don’t want to just give up the belts, it was a long road to get them,” said Pavlik, “We’ll go down to 160 lbs and stay there as long as it’s healthy.”

    In the end, the fight lived up to the hype and entertained everybody. And it was a turning point for both fighters. Jermain Taylor will make even more changes in his career path. Now, already full of management and trainer changes, he’ll explore another weight class. Pavlik is now the one to beat at 160 and is charismatic enough that he could propel himself to super star status in the right situation. It wasn’t just a fight, it was a chapter changer.
 

Notes: Maybe This Fight Should Have Been in AC

    I love the MGM, and I love fights in Vegas, but paid attendance at the Pavlik/Taylor Epic wasn’t all that it could have been. A total crowd of 11,200 attended the fight with paid attendance of 9,700. And even though the undercards were championship bouts, they fought to a sparsely populated arena. Maybe everybody was on a win streak at the blackjack tables, but one has to wonder if, even though Vegas is boxing central in the US, two eastern fighters wouldn’t have pulled a fuller house in an east coast venue.

    In the meantime, Vegas is only a month away from Marquez vs. Pacquiao at the Mandalay Bay on St. Patrick’s Day weekend, with hype and ticket sales building already.
 

Editor's Note: Our sincere thanks and appreciation to Mr. Andrew H. Olson, President of Magna Media International and  his hard-working staff for making this coverage possible.