Welcome all to another instalment of my boxing critique and genius, for those of you new to the website I am journalist/editor Sal. Once again today I shall pull no punches!
Today’s article is my post fight report (let me rephrase that), post submission report, between Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik and Gary “The Rocket” Lockett. I cannot recollect what the fight was billed as but a more apt billing would probably have been “Natural Disaster”, as the land of Wales has had its fair share of weather hazards from hurricanes to floods, but this is probably the first time a Ghost has blown over a Welshman!
As boxing fans, the alarm bells should already have been ringing when the respective trainers did more verbal sparring then the actual fighters! In fact, this was to be the only fight in which the Welsh camp actually won! Jack Loew hailing from Ohio was never going to have neither passion nor the articulate sharpness of the fiery Italian Enzo Calzaghe.
The best Loew could come out with, occured during an interview with Joe Scalzo saying
“If Joe Calzaghe fought Kelly, he’d be in trouble. There’s no way he’d beat Kelly. He’s just a slap-happy Welshman.”
And also
“Enzo can teach Lockett to slap like a girl - just like Joe Calzaghe does.”
Enzo responded in humorous and angry fashion by saying
“I had to go on the internet because I’d never even heard of this person Jack Loew and all I found was that he paves driveways …. once Lockett has dealt with Pavlik and Loew is out of boxing, then he can go back to paving.”
I think we can safely say Enzo won that fight, but was this Loew trying to stir up tension before the fight or was he trying to coax Joe Calzaghe into a future fight?
Now to the fight, which was definitely less entertaining and as predictable as Wile E. Coyote never eating Road Runner!
Round one, the first minute and a half was, as you would expect, nothing more then both men checking each other out, a number of shots were thrown, but none with any conviction. However, the three best punches up until the last 90 seconds had come from Lockett, who threw three looping rights over the top on different occasions.
Pavlik suddenly sprung into life with two good shots that pushed Lockett back toward the ropes, he then started applying the pressure, looking for a bingo punch opening, but nothing came of it. Pavlik ended the round much the aggressor but Lockett had got through with a few decent shots and stood up to the pressure towards the end.
Round two started out much the same as the first ended, with just Pavlik applying pressure using basic one-two’s and long range straight shots. In between, Lockett would try a single shots but not combinations and was telegraphing his punches; Pavlik was easily out of range.
At this point you could see the pressure and amount of shots were going to take their toll on Lockett who couldn’t get close enough to land. With a minute and twenty-five seconds left on the clock, another basic one-two had Lockett taking a knee for the first time, as the referee administrated the count.
Lockett got up, only to take more punishment. Pavlik did nothing too spectacular, just the same one-two combination and long rangy shots. Lockett had no lateral movement which allowed Pavlik to hit at will, wherever and whenever he wanted. With twenty seconds left Lockett went down on one knee again from another straight right hand and looked visibly bloodied and shocked. The bell saved him before Pavlik could capitalise.
Round three, a few wild shots from Lockett but none really landing, at least he finally threw something!
Lockett finally starts to look for his own shots instead of watching the ones hitting his face, he catches Pavlik with a good straight left followed with a one-two, the left made Pavlik wince. With about a minute and fifty seconds left, Lockett threw away his good work and the time he had taken recovering as he went for a big right that Pavlik side stepped and nailed Lockett with a big counter.
Lockett covers up but does nothing to stop Pavlik throwing more shots, a few hooks and a punch lands close to Lockett’s forehead and down he goes on a knee again, he beats the count and wants to carry on but the corner throws in the towel.
Now for the summary, what did we need this fight for? The clash was a fight between two very different levels of fighters, Pavlik is obviously on the world stage and Lockett just reaffirmed to me he is little more than a domestic level fighter.
The Ghost? The only thing Ghostly about Pavlik is his complete lack of combinations, he reminds me of a bad compere who had forgotten his lines before introducing the comedians
“one-two, one-two, one-two mic’ check”
As for Lockett, I wondered if Pavlik was ever going to accept his proposal, he was down on one knee so many times!
This fight was really made to try and bait Joe Calzaghe into the fight, as Pavlik and his camp would know if he did a number on Lockett, it would make a number of people say
“well if he can beat this Welshman then…? ”
The problem for Pavlik is that Joe Calzaghe will get hit anywhere near as often, he’s also very aggressive and has a high punch output, Lockett probably threw less punches in the whole fight than Calzaghe throws in half a round!
What reason is there for Pavlik being deserving of a fight with Joe Calzaghe? His best two wins are against Edison Miranda and Jermain Taylor, what other major scalps does he have on his boxing CV?
The answer to that is none! Before anyone points to him beating Taylor, who had beaten Hopkins, who Calzaghe struggled against, this is basically clutching at straws.
Hopkins did not want to box or fight Calzaghe and basically went in there to steal a victory, his knockdown was a flash and then he tried every dirty trick in the book. No one looks good against a guy who wants to hug you all the time!
The other problem for Pavlik is he campaigns at middleweight so does anyone really think he will be able to outmuscle and bully Calzaghe? If Pavlik wants to tempt Calzaghe into a fight, the only legitimate way is to step up to super-middleweight and destroy one of the current champions or a major fighter Calzaghe has faced like Kessler or Lacy.
The problem with this is that both these men would destroy Pavlik and Kessler is a bigger, stronger and better boxer than Pavlik. The bottom line is that Pavlik hasn’t earned right to fight Calzaghe or even the respect of the ten-year unbeaten champion!
http://www.pandorasboxing.com | Sal - Journalist / Editor
