Pavlik destroys Lockett

I’m going to go over every fight of the weekend in this post, not just the middleweight fight.

Gary Lockett vs Kelly Pavlik
This was the only boxing match of the weekend that went the way I thought it would. Kelly Pavlik is an animal in the ring. The amount of pressure he puts on his opponents is great, and there’s not a man at middleweight who I think could handle it for the full 12 rounds. Enzo Calzaghe made the right call in stopping that one after the 3rd knockdown, there was no need for Lockett to take any more punishment. The only middleweight I give a chance against Pavlik is Winky Wright but I don’t think even Wrights defence would hold up over the 12 rounds.
While I’d have no problems with Pavlik staying at middleweight and ruling with an iron fist, I think the best fight would be to take on Joe Calzaghe. Calzaghe would have to drop back down to 168lbs in order for the fight to be fair, but I don’t think he’d have any more trouble making the super middleweight limit then he did a year ago. A loss for Calzaghe would be a blow to his legacy, but not a monsterous one. A loss for Pavlik in my opinion wouldn’t mean too much because Joe’s a more experienced fighter and a bigger fighter. This is a fight that should be made now before Calzaghe gets too comfortable at 175lbs, if he fights there again then the chances of him making 168lbs and being as effective as he was drop.

Juan Manuel Lopez vs Daniel Ponce de Leon
I didn’t think it would go more then a few rounds and I was right, except that I thought it’d be de Leon who would emerge victorious. Lopez fought smart, he let de Leon come to him and he countered effectively. de Leon was way too eager to get out there and brawl in my opinion, he should have fought a bit mroe reserved instead of chasing Lopez around throwing punches. There’s some good fighters at this weight division, and I’d like to see either of these guys fight the real champion Israel Vazquez. Even though I think he’d outlast both of them, both fights would be a war.

Sergio Mora vs Vernon Forrest
I haven’t seen this fight yet, but I’m very surprised that Mora was able to hang with Forrest, let alone beat him. Forrest always has a habbit of fighting down to his opponents level (like he did the first time he fought Ricardo Mayorga), but even in saying that I really thought Mora wouldn’t have enough substance to his game to deal with Forrest. This division is pretty boring, none of the champions will fight each other and not many of them are worth watching to begin with. Infact, Mora’s victory makes this worse because he dethrones the one champion who was worth watching and replaces him with himself. Hopefully someone comes along and cleans up this mess quickly, this division used to be fun.

Carlos Quintana vs Paul Williams
There’s no better way to set the record then with a first round knockout. Williams seemed more prepared to deal with Quintana’s movement and he used a stiff jab well to set up the short left hand that rocked him, then he opened up to take Quintana out. Now that Mayweather has ‘retired’, Williams should fight the winner of Cotto-Margarito for the right to call themselves the real champion at welterweight. Despite Williams’ impressive performance, I’d pick both Cotto and Margarito to beat him.

Celestino Caballero vs Lorenzo Parra
I haven’t seen this fight either (and I’m unlikely to) but I took a risk and it didn’t pay off.

Prediction Results
I had another shocker. I don’t like it when I get more wrong then I do right and I thought I’d get at least four of these fights right. Still the only fight that really went the way it should have on paper was the Kelly Pavlik fight, and I at least got that one right. It was a pretty unpredictable week for predictions in both MMA and boxing.