COMPUBOX POST-FIGHT ANALYSIS
June 9, 2008 - by CompuBox
The 1927 Yankees. The 1989 Loyola-Marymount Lions. The 2007 New England
Patriots. Wayne Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers. What do all these teams have in
common? All are known as juggernauts who pound opponents into submission
with sheer offensive firepower. Defense? It didn't matter to these squads
because the objective of every game, no matter what the sport, has always
been to score more points than the other guy.
This past Saturday night at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall, WBC/WBO
middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik once again prove he is cut from their
cloth as he bombed out mandatory challenger Gary Lockett in three brutal
rounds. The victory raised "The Ghost's" record to 34-0 (30 KO) and at age
26 he is at the beginning stages of his physical prime. A frightening
prospect indeed for any fighter between middleweight and light heavyweight.
When "The Buckeye Banger" is at his best, he uses his 6-foot-2 1/2 inch frame
and 75 inch reach to keep his shorter opponents within that "90 percent"
hitting zone, and that's exactly what he did to devastating effect to the
5-foot-10 inch Lockett (now 30-2 with 21 KO). Pavlik began the fight with
his jabbing and power punching in excellent synchronization as he landed 14
of his 49 jabs and 17 of his 38 power shots - and Pavlik's connect total in
each category exceeded that of Lockett's combined 13 of 38.
His proper distance established, Pavlik really went to work in the second
and forced Lockett to take two voluntary knee-downs, both courtesy of
trademark rights. With such a courageous and willing target before him,
Pavlik's sole focus became landing as many hooks, crosses and uppercuts as
possible. The fact that 35 of his 41 second round connects were power
punches spoke to how successful he was offensively. Conversely, Pavlik's
threshing attack limited his challenger to a mere 9 of 27 overall.
Lockett demonstrated admirable "bottle" in the third as he landed a solid
right and a hook against a hell-bent-for-leather Pavlik, and the truncated
round was the least lopsided statistically as the challenger halved
Pavlik's total connects (20-10) and power shots (14-7). The action in the
ring, however, proved the end was near. A final right drove Lockett to his
knees for the third time, prompting chief second Enzo Calzaghe to throw in
the towel at the 1:40 mark.
Pavlik was 92 of 214 overall (his 70 punches per round slightly below his
customary 79 per round but above the middleweight average of 59) and he
landed an impressive 55 percent of his 119 power shots. The jab was of
little consequence for the Ohioan, but his 26 of 95 (27 percent) was still
superior to Lockett's 14 of 39 (36 percent). For the record, Lockett was 32
of 89 overall (a 30 punch-per-round average) and 18 of 50 in power
connects, both of which work out to 36 percent accuracy.
With this sterling performance, Pavlik re-established the destroyer image
created by his spectacular victories over Edison Miranda and Jermain Taylor
in their classic first encounter. Only time - and meticulous negotiations -
will determine whether he'll get the chance to detonate his TNT against the
jaws of another pair of fellow unbeatens: IBF middleweight champion Arthur
Abraham or Lockett's Welsh compatriot Joe Calzaghe.
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