Kelly "The Ghost: Pavlik is pretty fly for a white guy. Pretty strong too. Just ask Jermain Taylor.

In front of over 10,000 fans--most of them Pavlik's--at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall Saturday night, Pavlik withstood a scary 2nd round to knock out Jermain "Bad Intentions" Taylor in the 7th and become the new 160-pound champ. Pavlik, a scrawnily-built pasty white boy from Youngstown, Ohio, who doesn't appear all that tough, made Taylor and his trainer Emanuel Steward eat their words with his pure punching power. Turns out the devil's in the details.

Ironically, Taylor lost his title in what was shaping up to become one of his best performances since beating Bernard Hopkins for the title in 2005, which in itself was a controversial win. The subsequent rematch, and wins versus Winky Wright, Kassim Ouma, and Cory Spinks were all subpar performances for Taylor, who was criticized for fighting smaller opponents who can't punch. In the 6' 2" Pavlik, Taylor faced his first real test against a big strong middleweight, and appeared to be doing exceptionally well early on. Taylor landed a right hand seconds into the 1st round and looked like the quicker fighter, as Pavlik plodded forward trying to land a one-two combination. Pavlik's jab proved superior to Taylor's, as it backed the champ up, but Taylor had a fire lit under him and was the early aggressor. In the 2nd round, Talor landed a right hand and left hook that dropped Pavlik and had his nose and mouth bleeding. It looked as if Taylor was on the verge of a spectacular KO win, but Pavlik hung on to survive the round. Pavlik launched a comeback in the 3rd with taylor punched out from the previous round, backing into the ropes and letting Pavlik throw long-range punches. Although Taylor did a good job of slipping Pavlik's right hands, the strategy would come back to haunt him, as ghosts usually do.

The middle rounds were Taylor's as he proved the more versatile boxer and better able to use angles. But in the 7th, disaster struck. After backing up into the ropes, Pavlik nailed Taylor with a straight right hand that sent the Arkansas native staggering into the corner with a bewildered look on his face. Pavlik then rained hard, heavy punches on Taylor, including an uppercut through Taylor's guard. Taylor crumpled to the canvas like a sack of potatoes, and the title changed hands in what was a thrilling, unrelenting battle.

Pavlik, 32-0 (29), won Taylor's WBC trinket, but most importantly became the Ring Magazine undisputed pound-for-pound middleweight champion. A rematch clause in Taylor's contract stipulates a non-title bout at 164 lbs--since Taylor can no longer make the 160-pound limit, but it seems possible that two will fight at middleweight again. A rematch would probably result in the same outcome--as the psychological advantage for Pavlik would be huge. Other interesting matchups for the new champ would be fights against Germany's Arthur Abraham--another undefeated power puncher--or the winner of the Joe Calzaghe-Mikkel Kessler super middleweight bout.

In defeat, Taylor, 27-1 (17), showed his fighting spirit--something many critics thought he lacked. But it was Pavlik--who was seriously hurt and arguably outboxed--who showed real mettle by coming back to conquer the man who bested him in the amateurs.

Neither Taylor nor Pavlik remember the deatils of that bout, but neither will forget last night's.