Round by Round – Weekly Boxing Notes

By Dave “Large” Larzelere
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Unfriendly Ghost
The biggest fight of 2008 so far gets under way on PPV tomorrow night at the MGM Grand in Vegas – the Kelly “The Ghost†Pavlik/Jermain Taylor rematch.
Back in September, Pavlik stopped Jermain in the seventh round after having been very nearly knocked out himself in the second. It was a knock-down drag-out bloodfest for the undisputed middleweight title, a donnybrook that many people called the 2007 Fight of the Year.
Although Pavlik’s 160 belts are not on the line on Saturday (the fight is being contested at a catch-weight of 166), it’s still one of the most heavily anticipated boxing events of the young year. The Vegas odds are Pavlik –185 and Taylor +155. As I’ve expounded upon elsewhere, I think these are still very generous odds for Taylor, who promises to do nothing different in this fight than he did in the first, which begs the question, “Jermain, do you, uh, remember what happened in the first fight?â€
Pavlik is better at just about everything there is to be better at in the ring – longer reach, better jab, straighter, heavier punches, better instincts, better beard. Just plain better. If you’re planning to buy this one, make sure you’re watching from the opening bell, cause it could get late awfully early in there.
If you haven’t yet seen Pavlik’s brutal right-hand artistry, take a look below as he puts Jose Luis Zertuche to sleep in a fight from last January.

147 Adjustment
Carlos Quintana’s shocking upset of Paul Williams already has had ramifications for the many-headed hydra that is the welterweight division, the most obvious being that Quintana’s name is now in the mix for a meaningful fight in the spring.
There was some talk of Antonio Margarito taking Quintana instead of the scheduled Kermit Cintron bout on the Cotto/Gomez undercard in April. That’s unlikely. A stronger possibility has Quintana in the ring with Sugar Shane Mosley at the end of May, although Zab Judah is also being mentioned for that fight.
Myself, I wonder if Quintana won’t be fighting Andre Berto sometime soon. It seems like a natural make – Berto’s ready to step up and certainly wants a belt to legitimize himself as a welterweight player, while for Quintana, Berto might prove another young, heavily-touted scalp to add to his growing collection.
147 Adjustment II
Another effect of the Quintana victory is the rumor that a Miguel Cotto/Ricardo Mayorga fight is already made for July 19th. What does this have to do with Quintana? Well, Cotto destroyed Quintana two years ago, Quintana destroyed Paul Williams last week, and Paul Williams beat Antonio Margarito this past summer.
Margarito was rumored to be Cotto’s opponent in July, but by the commutative property he’s just not looking like such an essential challenge anymore for the Puerto Rican superstar.
My take on the situation is this – Williams losing to Quintana made such a muddle of the accepted wisdom on the 147 rankings that Cotto’s team is now thinking that they can afford to avoid the pack altogether and just bide their time until Money Mayweather is ready to mix it up for mega-dollars. On that score, Mayorga is a perfect make for Cotto – big name, low risk.↵