Pavlik fight | The countdown begins

Saturday night’s main undercard bout between Andre Berto and David Estrada just finished, which means Kelly Pavlik’s bout with Jermain Taylor is on deck.

Between one of the rounds of the Berto-Estrada fight (which Berto won by 11th round TKO in a very entertaining bout), HBO showed footage of Taylor sparring on the scoreboard, drawing a chorus of boos from the decidedly pro-Pavlik crowd. The next round break brought Pavlik footage, drawing loud cheers.

No matter what happens tonight, this much is clear: Pavlik is going to have a HUGE fan advantage. The arena is about 85 percent full right now (the attendance is 10,127 in a place that holds 12,000) and there are white Team Pavlik shirts all over the place, particularly in the upper sections. Only the really bad seats are empty.

Incidentally, my prediction is Pavlik by KO in the 9th. Taylor’s too good to get hit early, but Pavlik’s power is going to slow him down. No one can take his punches for 12 rounds and Taylor doesn’t have the power to knock him out.

Stay here for round-by-round coverage of the main event.