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Taylor ignores criticism ahead of fight with Pavlik

Jermain Taylor defends his World Boxing Council middleweight title against Kelly Pavlik in a battle of unbeatens today.

Taylor brings a record of 27-0-1 with 17 knockouts to the bout, but has drawn criticism for the style with which he has defended his title in recent points verdicts over Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks.

On the same card in Memphis headlined by Taylor-Spinks last May, in which the champion from Little Rock, Arkansas, won on a split decision, Pavlik stopped highly touted Edison Miranda of Colombia in the seventh round to improve to 31-0 with 28 knockouts.

Even so, Taylor predicted he would retain the WBC crown and his lightly regarded World Boxing Organization belt with relative ease.

"Kelly, you're a strong fighter and you're coming to fight," Taylor said in New York this week. "I'm coming to fight, too, and I'm going in there looking good and beating Kelly down -- and you'll all know I am the middleweight champion of the world," Taylor said.

"As far as the media is concerned, write what you want to write. They say `He hasn't looked good the last couple of fights,' but I'm in the best shape of my life," he said.
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