Breaking down Pavlik Vs Williams

When I first saw Paul Williams fight, an almost 6 feet two inches tall welterweight, the things I heard about him was confirmed. He really is a freak of nature! He is so long and tall, and yet manages to go down at 147lbs, and still able to punch with power and move with speed, and add the advantage of being a southpaw, he is one dangerous opponent for anybody in welterweight. That is why no body wants to fight him at that weight division. Therefore he moved on to the higher weight divisions such as junior middle weight with good results beating good fighters, such as Ronald Winky Wright, along the way. After that fight, unable to find ballsy dance partners in Jr. Middleweight, decided to go after bigger boys in the middleweight division, wherein Kelly Pavlik is the reigning king.

So when I heard about Kelly Pavlik vs. Paul Williams was announced, I thought that this is where Paul Williams truly belongs, with the bigger guys!

Williams reminds me of Thomas “The Hitman Hearns”. Hearns is also a very tall welterweight that moves with speed and power. Still, boxing has never seen the likes of a welterweight world champion with a freaky eighty two inches reach, like Williams.

I like watching Kelly Pavlik fight. Whenever he goes up in the ring, he is not there to dance or to run, he is there to fight. And in each round, his punches have only 1 intention, and that is to take his opponents out ASAP! He usually walks up to his opponents straight
upfront and bombs them with jabs and straights at long range. His best defense is his relentless offense. He will keep coming at his opponents forcing them in the defensive position. And because of this fact, Kelly Pavlik can and will be countered, as Bernard Hopkins has proven. Jermain Taylor was successful in countering Pavlik during the early rounds of their first fight.

Kelly Pavlik needs to do a lot of adjustments in this fight. If he uses his usual “All offense” straight-forward style, it could mean “lights out” for “The Ghost”. Then again, as the saying goes, you can’t just change a fighters’ style with only 1 training camp. If Kelly Pavlik walks straight up trying to land his usual “one-two” combinations, he would be a perfect long-range target practice for Paul Williams. Pavlik’s significant advantage on almost all of his previous fights is that he was the taller and longer fighter. Except with the Bernard Hopkins fight, he had no problems doing his straightforward attacking style throwing left jabs and right straights because of his height and reach advantage. And because of his longer reach, comes leverage and power. That is why so many Pavlik opponents found themselves on the canvas at the end of their fight with the “Ghost”. But this time, although Kelly Pavlik would be 1 inch taller

than Paul Williams, Kelly will not be the longer fighter than Williams. In the tale of the tape, Williams will enjoy a very significant “seven inches reach advantage”. That’s more than half a foot longer! Pavlik has never fought an opponent with this kind of arm length. So he needed to figure out a way to adjust to that. Another very important factor for Pavlik to consider is the fact that Paul Williams is a "southpaw". Sure, "The Ghost" may have fought other tall fighters before, but how many of them are tall, long armed and southpaws? Not too many huh? The thing is where the heck would Kelly Pavlik find sparring partners that has the same built, same size and same stance as Paul Williams? I'm sure there will be difficulty in finding them. Paul Williams on the other hand needs to prepare facing bigger guys. Kelly Pavlik is a big middleweight. And with bigger weight, comes bigger power, stability and better durability.

As we all know Kelly Pavlik is one heck of a power puncher. So Williams needs to be weary of Pavlik's heavy hands. Pavlik's style is very similar with that of Antonio Margarito. Therefore, this could play into William's advantage as well. "The Punisher" is very familiar to Pavlik's style of fighting. Paul knows he has the reach advantage and he needed to use that, to keep Kelly at bay, staying away from Pavlik's power punches. Keys to victory: In order for Kelly Pavlik to win this fight, he needs to study the video of Paul Williams versus Carlos Quintana. He needs to amp-up his defense. He needs to slip those long jabs and straights, go inside and counter punch. For Paul Williams, he needs to do what he always has done. I guess if he can do it to Winky Wright, he could very much do it to Kelly Pavlik too. My prediction, Paul Williams by decision.