LAS VEGAS -- Kelly Pavlik didn't beat Jermain Taylor in the punishing fashion he did five months ago. He just won again, unanimously.
Unloading a steady diet of jabs, with an ever-present dynamite right that wobbled Taylor in the 11th round, middleweight champion Pavlik remained unbeaten and left the ring unswollen as Taylor walked away disheartened with a puffed-up right eyebrow after the non-title rematch Saturday night in front of 9,706 at the MGM Grand.
Judge Patricia Morse Jarman gave Pavlik a 115-113 edge, Dave Moretti had it 117-111, and Glenn Trowbridge scored it 116-112. Pavlik won the last six rounds on Moretti's card, and four of the last five on Jarman's, sweeping the last two rounds unanimously among judges.
"Inside pressure was the key tonight," Pavlik said. "My fight strategy was to put pressure on him and back him up. My jabs and punches landed more than his. . . . Rounds 10-12, I was finally landing the body shots. Taylor was tiring. I could feel him exhaling after I hit him."
Punch stats showed Pavlik landing 89 more than Taylor, with 42 more jabs. Taylor did well in moments. The judges noticed Pavlik's activity.
Pavlik (33-0) was denied his 30th knockout by a game Taylor effort.
"I thought I was doing pretty good," Taylor (27-2-1) said. "I thought it was a close fight and I thought I won. . . . I guess he won the last couple of rounds. He's a strong fighter."
In September, Taylor surrendered his two middleweight world title belts to Pavlik in a seventh-round pummeling closed by a huge right uppercut that forced Taylor to slump in a corner as referee Steve Smoger waved off the action.
A rematch clause negotiated before the first bout called for the second bout to be at a non-title 166-pound limit. Taylor earned a purse of $3 million and Pavlik earned $2.5 million.
Taylor raised eyebrows by dismissing Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward in favor of his amateur corner man, Ozell Nelson, but redeemed himself with a style that was heavy on conditioning, defense and smarts. He'd jab, circle to his left, and avoid Pavlik's devastating right. He stayed out of corners. He scored some impressive combinations, and judge Jarman gave him rounds 4-7.
"We expected a much tougher fight, and we sure got it," Pavlik's trainer, Jack Loew, said. "Once we started backing him up [later] we took away a lot of his aggression."
