American world middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik spoke of his delight after his unanimous points victory over Jermain Taylor.
WBC and WBO champion Pavlik defeated the former title holder 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113 in a fight which had no knockdowns.
The bout was a rematch of September's WBO title fight, won by Pavlik.
"Nothing will top the first victory over Jermain Taylor but it was a great win," said Pavlik.The fight was contested at a catch weight - an improvised weight between middleweight and super-middleweight - of 166lbs (75.2kg), but Pavlik now intends to return to the middleweight limit to defend his world championship belts.
He could now face Gary Lockett in a mandatory defence of the WBO title, if the Welshman wins his next fight on 22 March in Cardiff.
"It took me seven years to win the title. I plan to keep it for a while," added Pavlik.
Taylor was happy with his performance despite seeing his record drop to 27-2-1.
"I knew it was a close fight but I guess he won the last couple of rounds," said Taylor.
"He's a strong fighter and I give him a lot of credit. I expected a tough fight and I sure got it."
No comments:
Post a Comment