WBC and WBO world middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik beat former champion and rival Jermain Taylor, in a non title fight at catch weight in Las Vegas last week, a result that must push Pavlik towards the top 10 pound-for-pound fighters around.

The fight had a lot to live up to following the first encounter, where Pavlik stopped Taylor in the seventh, a bout that promoter Bob Arum said was the second best middleweight contest he had seen. (“Marvellous” Marvin Hagler against Thomas “The Hitman” Hearns in 1985 was his best).

The second contest between the two men was as close as the judges’ scorecards of 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113 suggested. In truth, it looked to be a fight destined to go the distance early on.

Taylor started the more aggressive of the two middleweights, however, he looked flat footed in the first round and his hands were low. To compensate, Taylor needed to pick them up or move his head, thus making it harder for Pavlik to hit. The man from Little Rock, Ark. did neither, and Pavlik caught him with a clever combination of a left jab and a hard right to the head, which was enough for the Youngstown fighter to win the first round.

The third round saw a slight change in tactics from Taylor. In the first two rounds, he was getting pushed back by Pavlik’s impressive jabbing. However, Taylor was now starting to counter punch and was taking more of his opponent’s jabs on his gloves. The fourth round was when the realization hit that this fight was going the distance.

Taylor was using the ring and counter punching well, although you felt he needed to open up sooner rather than later if he was going to claim the victory he came to Las Vegas looking for. By the eighth round Pavlik was starting to edge, I had it all square after six, and Taylor’s jabs to his opponents head were not causing him problems. Taylor needed to land a few good body shots if he wanted to win rounds but he kept moving around the ring and jabbing to the head. In the 11th, and after some good body shots by Taylor, Pavlik managed to get him on the ropes and was landing some good shots, Taylor knew he needed to stay well away from the ropes and to his credit managed to get himself off the ropes. This resulted in him holding Pavlik and giving the impression that he was starting to tire.

Although this was a non title fight, there were a lot of pride and bragging rights at stake and both boxers desperately wanted the win. But Pavlik deserved to edge it on points.

Although he came out second best, it is not all over for Jermain Taylor. He won a lot of respect for the way he conducted himself before, during and after this showdown. There was a lot of mutual respect from the men in the ring with them touching gloves at the end of numerous rounds.

Before the fight, Taylor replaced his trainer, Emanuel Steward. The man who replaced Steward, who has taken charge of the corners of such greats as Thomas Hearns, James Toney, Julio Cesar Chavez, Lennox Lewis and Oscar De La Hoya, is Ozell Nelson, who has never been in charge of the corner for a professional. However, he did discover Taylor as a 13-year-old at the Arkansas Boxing Club and guided him through his amateur career.

Nelson doesn’t think that it’s a problem he had never taken charge of a professional corner before Saturday, and he’s right. Sometimes a fighter needs somebody in the corner who he respects, responds to and who knows him inside out. Naseem Hamed never looked the same after he left Brendan Ingle, who had trained the Prince from when he was a youngster. WBA and WBC world cruiserweight champion David Haye’s trainer, Adam Booth, hadn’t trained anybody professionally before ‘The Hayemaker’. The most important thing is that the fighter has complete trust in his cornermen.

As for Pavlik, well he is guaranteed a hero’s welcome when he returns to his native Youngstown, Ohio, a city that really gets behind its star man. During the first encounter in Atlantic City, half of the 10,129 people in the crowd for the first Taylor fight had made the 400-mile trip from Youngstown. In neighboring Longstown, Ohio, the General Motors plant was shut down for the day so the workers could stay at home and watch the fight. Next up could be a mandatory defense against WBU champion Gary Lockett, providing he comes through his fight on March 22. After that could be a blockbuster fight against Lockett’s fellow countryman and undisputed super-middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe. If this was to happen, it would likely take place in November or December after Calzaghe’s fight with Bernard Hopkins. It would be a fitting fight for the Welshman to leave the sport on.

Whatever happens in the coming year, Pavlik will keep his feet on the ground and not get carried away with his own hype, a trap many boxers fall into. The type of man that Pavlik is outside of the ring is best demonstrated after his first fight against Taylor, when he left his check for $666,750, his share of the, $1.1-million payday, in his hotel room. It was only when they were halfway to Philadelphia that his dad realized what they had left behind. It is difficult to imagine the same happening to a Mike Tyson or Floyd Mayeather and shows that Pavlik can endear himself to the wider public than Ohio.