Jermain Taylor doesn’t do a lot of trash talking, so it was up to his famous trainer, Emanuel Steward, to fan the flames for Saturday night’s middleweight championship fight against hard-punching Kelly Pavlik at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
Steward was on the receiving end of several gracious remarks from Pavlik’s camp during yesterday’s press conference in Manhattan. But he wasn’t as kind to Pavlik, the Youngstown, Ohio, native who is the No. 1 contender to Taylor’s WBC/WBO titles.
“If they do respect me, respect this prediction which I normally don’t make,” Steward began. “Jermain Taylor will knock out Kelly Pavlik.”
Steward went on to say the fight, which most predict will be a toe-to-toe slugfest, wouldn’t be competitive beyond the first round. Taylor has faster hands, better coordination and is in tremendous shape, Steward said.
Taylor, an Olympic bronze-medal winner, also has fought in a number of big fights and has faced better opposition like Bernard Hopkins and Winky Wright. Pavlik, Steward said, has nothing like that on his resume.
“He’s stepping from junior high school to college and that’s going to be a major factor,” Steward said. “When the bell rings, he’s going to know he’s in the ring with the middleweight champion and it’s a whole different league.”
This will be the fourth fight Steward and Taylor (27-0-1, 17 KOs) have worked together. The three previous fights were against southpaws and Taylor was hardly impressive, getting a draw against Wright and out-pointing Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks, who both had moved up from junior middleweight.
Pavlik is 31-0 with 28 KOs. The fight is scheduled for 12 rounds and will be televised live on HBO. A few tickets remain available.