CHESSNOID

I saw the great fight last Saturday between Jermaine Taylor and Kelly Pavlik. It was on HBO and so they will repeat it a million times. If you don’t have that, no worries. There are plenty of people who post the fight. I use to put the videos here, but recently figured out I can put the youtube link here and it will play inside the Snap popup. Check it out! The internet still amazes me.

Back to the fight. Pavlik (31 wins, 28 knockouts) has an undefeated record of wins but more impressive a 90% knock out rate. That is better than Mike Tyson’s record. You wouldn’t believe it by just looking at him. He seems like a nice guy. Taylor (27 wins, 17 ko’s) also sported a perfect record until this fight. His record is more impressive because he has fought high caliber boxers like Bernard Hopkins twice and Winky Wright and went the distance with them.

Pavlik was doing great up till the 2nd round but then he got rocked. His legs became like rubber and he could barely stand. Taylor caught him with a punch that should have kept him down. For whatever reason, Taylor became too excited and punched himself out that round. He became a little fatigued leading up to the 7th round. Most will argue Taylor was winning the fight by points up until then. I would agree with the majority. Then in the last minute of the 7th round, Pavlik catches him with a punch that didn’t look like anything, but then followed it up with a combination that puts the once undefeated Talyor on the canvas. Of course, when they show the whole thing in slow motion, you get to see the real damages the punches did and where they actually land. This was like a Rocky movie where the underdog is losing, gets knocked down, hangs on to dear life, rallies a comeback, then knocks out the champion of world. The unknown Pavlik has earned the respect of many boxing fans and I hope he continues to have exciting fights.

This weekend has another great fight scheduled between Manny Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera.  I like Pacquiao and pick him to win.  The only thing I see is that Barrera is a true boxer who can outbox most fighters.  Pacquiao is a a true slugger who puts out a ton of powershots and never lacks endurance.  He did have trouble with Marquez in the past who he knocked down 3 times in the first round, but then seemed to get outboxed for the remaining 11 rounds to have a decision go the judges as a draw.  I don’t think Pacquiao will let that happen again, but he seems to be having alot of things unfocusing him for this fight.  Major signs would be not showing up for sparring sessions.  Again, I hope he wins but it really wouldn’t surprise me if Barrera comes in with a plan to outbox him.

The stock market indexes are breaking ceilings and posting new highs.  Lots of good news coming out kept the momentum alive from last week when the Fed cut rates.