A Look Back at Pavlik-Taylor, Part Deux

By Dave “Large” Larzelere
12 Rounds
I understand the rationale of 12-round fights and I’m down – I remember watching Mancini/Kim like it was yesterday, and if 12-rounders mean less fighters getting seriously hurt, it’s the right thing to do.
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That said ... MAN do I miss 15-round fights. Three huge fights stand out in my mind in the past year that definitely might have been different if they’d gone 15 – Margarito/Williams (good chance Margarito would have gotten Williams), Cotto/Mosley (either guy could have gone in that one), and now Pavlik/Taylor II, where I think everyone could see that Jermain probably would not have lasted through a 13th round, let alone to 15.
It’s cruel and unusual, I know, but when I’m watching a fight like the one on Saturday night and one guy’s clearly ready to go and then it ends at the 12th, it sort of feels like I’m watching a bullfight and right before the matador goes in with the muleta, they call off the whole thing and go to the scorecards. The whole point of the thing is that the matador gets gored or the bull gets the sword. If neither of those things happens, well, it ain’t over yet. The 12-round limit is a necessary reality, but it does leave a man unsatisfied sometimes. And I can’t help but think about this – if they stopped fights at 12 rounds back in the day, Tommy Hearns would have beaten Ray Leonard in ’81 and Joe Frazier might have beaten Ali in the Thrilla.
Apologize?
Jermain came into the ring to Timbaland’s “Apologizeâ€. If you don’t know this song or if you don’t immediately agree that it is an extremely wack song to make a ring entrance to, check out this video.

THAT, Jermain, is what should be done while listening to this song, writing sad letters with quill pens on parchments and looking at flowers and crap. NOT walking into a boxing ring to throw down. This was an egregious decision that not even your illmatic fringe-sleeved robe could redeem.
The Future
Lots of clues as to the future for both men in the post-fight presser. Lou DiBella reiterated that Jermain has fought his last fight at 160 pounds and now is officially a 168. Pavlik said that he had spent too much time chasing the middleweight belts to jump up just yet, but intimated that making the weight is a problem and that he may only have a few 160 bouts left in him before he has to move up a class. And evidently, both men are anticipating another Pavlik/Taylor fight in the future, probably at 168. When Pavlik hugged Jermian in the ring, the first he thing he said was “we’re gonna do this again someday.â€
No Tito
Looks like there will be no Pavlik/Felix Trinidad fight at the Garden this summer, because Tito’s father, also his trainer, has said that Tito struggled to make 170 to fight Roy Jones and cannot make the 160 limit. In that Pavlik is resolute about defending his middleweight crown, it looks like the Pavlik/John Duddy bout is back on, a potential slugfest that should make all fight fans very happy indeed.↵