A. few thoughts on Pavlik/Taylor II, and an appeal to an unknown soul who may have some of my memories. That is if they didn't toss them in the trash.
The Kelly Pavlik vs. Jermain Taylor rematch was close; most of the boxing writers I talked to in the press room afterwards had scored it a one or two round fight. We were all basically split as far as who we thought won, but no one was willing to be dogmatic about their opinion.
As I saw the fight from press row, Taylor seemed to control the first half of the fight with his handspeed and effective counters. According to my notes, the tide began to turn in round six as Taylor's punch output waned and Pavlik kept chugging along. The "crowd noise" shots were still coming from Taylor, but with lesser frequency. Eventually, Taylor seemed content to attempt stealing rounds with a hard combination after he heard the ten second warning.
I'd love to say more but my memory is poor and I lost my notes somewhere in Las Vegas. Fortunately, I managed to peck out most of my fight report on my laptop from my notes in between rounds. I don't type well enough to use only the laptop. I scribble what I see in the ring into my little notebook, then use that precious 60 seconds between rounds to get it on the hard drive.
Someday, maybe, I'll risk using only the laptop at ringside, but not any time soon. Until then, I'll go get me another cheap spiral bound notebook. I'd rather have the old one back, since it has notes from several fights and interviews in it. If anyone reading this happens to have found some nearly illegible scratching on a small spiral notebook, please email me. Next time I'm in Vegas I'll buy you a beer.
