Pavlik vs. Taylor

Jermain Taylor has never seemed like a middleweight champion to me.

Looking at the 29-year-old's résumé – which includes two victories over Bernard Hopkins and a draw against Winky Wright – I sound like a crazy man for saying this. But I watched all three of those fights and Taylor didn't do all that well.

Hopkins should have won both fights – I'm not sure what the judges were saying. Hopkins outboxed Taylor and showed much less damage after the fights. The Wright fight was much closer, but Winky had the fight except for that last round.

Taylor's a tall, strong fighter with a long reach. But his opponent on Saturday, Kelly Pavlik, is even taller and has seems like he has more power – 31 wins, 28 KOs. In May, he had a decisive victory over up-and-comer Edison Miranda in one of the most entertaining fights of the year. Seven rounds of nonstop action before getting a TKO in the seventh round.

That same night Taylor scored a dull split-decision victory over the smaller Cory Spinks.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens on Saturday. Can Taylor's suspect chin handle Pavlik's power, or will he prevail and live up to his potential?

I think Pavlik's going to run the tables on Taylor. He is too big, too strong. Pavlik via KO in 8.