What the experts think - Media coverage

Excerpts from some of the media covering Saturday's Pavlik-Taylor fight:

Chris Mannix, SI.com

"There is a belief in this world that boxing is dead. There is a belief the sport is plagued by dull fights and managed by corrupt promoters — whose only interest is keeping an alphabet soup of title belts around the waists of their fighters. There is a belief that when the icons of the sport (Floyd Mayweather, Oscar de la Hoya, Bernard Hopkins) walk away, the sport will be left with scores of average fighters who possess a fraction of the skills of their predecessors. One can only hope those critics made it down to Atlantic City Saturday night. Showing an immense heart and a destructive right hand, 25-year old Kelly Pavlik (32-0) dethroned Jermain Taylor (27-1-1) to become the undisputed middleweight champion in front of 10,127 partisan fans — 5,000 of which made the 430-mile trek from Youngstown, Ohio — in Boardwalk Hall. Pavlik survived a second-round, 15-punch onslaught from Taylor that sent him careening to the canvas to recover and pummel Taylor with a series of devastating right hands in the seventh that left the former champion crippled on the canvas."

Canadian Press

For the past seven years, Kelly Pavlik's nickname of "The Ghost" seemed a perfect description for a boxing career progressing in relative obscurity. Two fights were all it took to put Pavlik out front and at the top of the middleweight division. With his stunning seventh-round knockout of undisputed champion Jermain Taylor on Saturday night, Pavlik (32-0, 29 knockouts) suddenly finds himself in control of his immediate future. Depending on numerous factors including promoter Bob Arum's mood, that could include a date with Irishman John Duddy in New York around St. Patrick's Day, or possibly in Wales against undefeated super middleweight Joe Calzaghe. It may take that long for the glow of Saturday's victory to wear off. The win came in front of more than 10,000 people in Boardwalk Hall — the majority of whom were Pavlik's hometown supporters from Youngstown, Ohio. "He's proved everything we'd dreamed he would," Arum said.

Ed Mulholland/US Presswire

"The match was threefold in it significance. First, it had all the makings of a barn burner. The pedigree of Taylor vs. the blue-collar hero Pavlik. ... Second, the event marked the return of big-time boxing on the beach. ... Thirdly, the fight marked the rebirth of boxing itself: arguably the best nine-week stretch in the sport's history. If this bout proves to be a sign of boxing's near future, well, all involved should be excited. Particularly the spectators. But as lovers of the sport have come to know — and sometimes relish — they will just have to wait and see."

George Willis, New York Post

"Emanuel Steward had talked all week about how Jermain Taylor was going to knock out Kelly Pavlik. But amid a raucous crowd at Boardwalk Hall, it was Steward attending to a slumped over and badly hurt Taylor, who saw his reign as the middleweight champion come to an abrupt end. Pavlik, who weathered a second-round knockdown, scored a stunning seventh-round knockout to win the middleweight championship in a dramatic fight. Taylor (27-1-1), who was making his fifth title defense, was ahead all on three of the judges' scorecards, padded by the second-round knockdown where Pavlik was in severe trouble and barely survived. But Pavlik, in his first major fight, stayed poised. He kept using his own jab, trying to set up a power right hand. Yet even when it landed, Taylor seemed to take those shots well. But not in the seventh. Pavlik delivered a clean right hand to the head behind a left jab, clearly rocking Taylor. Soon he was out, slumped and dazed in the corner. " 'He was gone,' " said referee Steve Smoger, who didn't count past two."