Kelly Pavlik, 26, knocked Gary Lockett down twice in the second round and once in the third to win by TKO in his adopted hometown (for fights, anyway) of Atlantic City, New Jersey. A Welshmen with some power, the 31-year-old Lockett lacked the lateral movement that could have possibly prolonged the fight. Instead, Lockett stood in front of the taller, rangier Pavlik (34-0, 30 KOs) who threw jabs and straight rights down at him, like a medieval warlord rolling boulders down on hapless peasants.
Those jabs and right hands from the middleweight champion opened up body shots which opened up more head shots which…you get the point. Lockett’s trainer, Enzo Calzaghe, mercifully through in the towel after the third knock down in round three.
On the undercard, Juan Manuel Lopez (22-0, 20 KOs) stunned Daniel Ponce de Leon (34-2, 30 KOs) with a right hook, dropping de Leon, who got up on jello legs, but staggered right back into the fire only to be battered about the ring and finally dropped again by another right hook from Lopez.
Lopez matched de Leon in power, but it was his superior boxing skills that helped him take de Leon’s WBO super bantamweight title. De Leon controlled the first 30 seconds of the fight with his aggressive but awkward attack, while Lopez patiently waited for openings, which de Leon’s rank amateur style provides in abundance.
With an exciting style and enthusiastic Puerto Rican fans (Lopez is from the same town in Puerto Rico that Miguel Cotto is from), the 24-year-old Lopez can expect a lucrative career under promoter Bob Arum’s wing.
