Jermain Taylor earned respect in the ring Saturday night.

Jermain Taylor earned
respect in the ring Saturday night.

LAS VEGAS — At 5:30 Saturday night, Youngstown middleweight Kelly Pavlik walked out of his penthouse suite on the 29th floor of the MGM Grand surrounded by his trainer, his father, his family and his friends.

He looked straight ahead, never changing expression, never losing focus. No titles were on the line that night, but reputations were. Pocketbooks were. Legacies were.

As Pavlik reached the end of the hallway, he passed the reception desk. Suddenly, someone spotted comedian Howie Mandel and shouted out, “You going to the fight?”

Mandel smiled.

“I gotta work,” he said. “But good luck. Have a good one.”

Four months earlier, Pavlik had walked from his average hotel room at Bally’s for a half-mile down the Atlantic City Boardwalk, taking in the sites and the fans.

It was a simpler time. But fame changes things. On Saturday night, Pavlik took the service elevator to the bottom floor and avoided the crowds.

There would be no distractions. There couldn’t be. After knocking out Taylor in the seventh round in September, everyone in Pavlik’s camp expected a tougher rematch.

And they got one.

They got a 12-round slugfest. They got a test of endurance and heart. They got the toughest test of Pavlik’s career.

Pavlik, who has a history of hand trouble, hurt both his hands and thinks he may have broken his right in the seventh round. But he kept going. And after 12 rounds, the crowd hushed and the fighters waited. Then ring announcer Michael Buffer announced, “and the winner by unanimous decision, and still undefeated. ...”

The crowd roared. Pavlik lifted his arm. The celebration began.

Pavlik’s “O” did not go.

“Nothing will top my first victory over Jermain,” said Pavlik, “but it was a great fight.

“Jermain taking the rematch made boxing better.”

It wasn’t a more exciting fight, but it was a better one. The fighters traded brutal punches. They traded body shots. They traded blood.

Before Saturday night, Pavlik (33-0, 29 KOs) had never gone 12 rounds. His longest bout came in October 2005 when he knocked out Fulgencio Zuniga in the ninth round. But even though Pavlik is a knockout artist, he never shied away from his training. He always knew he might need to go 12 rounds someday, so he always prepared for 12 rounds.

“We expected a much tougher fight,” said his trainer, Jack Loew, “and we got it.

“Jermain Taylor came to fight.”

Now. Know this. It was a close fight. Both boxers fought better tactically, and Taylor almost won the fight with defense. In the weeks leading up to the fight, Taylor’s trainer, Ozell Nelson, stressed the need for Taylor to return to his amateur roots.

Stick and move. Box. Don’t worry about the knockout.

Taylor followed the plan.

“I thought I won the fight,” he said afterward, and many agreed. Unanimous decision or not, he fought one of the best bouts of his career.

“Taylor was better than he was in the first fight,” said Pavlik, “and I was better too.”

As the fight dragged on, the pro-Pavlik crowd inside the arena waited for the knockout. And waited. And waited.

It never came. Whenever Pavlik got Taylor into trouble, he got out of it. But by the 10th round, Taylor started to tire. Pavlik landed some body shots.

The fight began to turn.

“I could hear him tiring,” Pavlik said.

Added Loew, “Once we started backing him up, we took away a lot of his aggression.”

Taylor (27-1-1) will move up to super middleweight after this bout. He will do so with his reputation intact, having earned respect in the ring Saturday night. Only three other fighters have gone the distance against Pavlik, and it was all six rounds or fewer.

“Jermain becomes a player in the 168-pound decision,” said HBO analyst Larry Merchant. “If he fights some of those guys in that division, especially the older guys, he could be favored.

“He’s still the only fighter to beat Bernard Hopkins in 15 years. That has to count for something.”

Taylor wasn’t a “Ghostbuster.” But he wasn’t the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man either. As famed boxing writer Bert Sugar has said of Pavlik, “He looks like Olive Oil, but he punches like Popeye.” You’ve got to be tough to stand in there.

But it was Pavlik’s night. A knockout would have been great, but a decision’s fine. It’s like hoping for a goodnight kiss and getting a hug instead. You’ll take it.

Pavlik’s road to fame was paved with “Bad Intentions.” He’s got big things ahead.

And as Mandel might tell you, that’s no joke.

XJoe Scalzo is a sportswriter for The Vindicator. Write him at scalzo@vindy.com.