Written by Scott Swerbinsky

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Youngstown's own Kelly "The Ghost" Pavlik beat the snot out of fellow top middleweight contender Edison Miranda last night on the undercard of Jermain Taylor's snoozer of a split decision win over Cory Spinks. Sadly, after Taylors fight, he already started laying the groundwork for weaseling out of a fight with Pavlik, who is rapidly climbling the ranks of the best pound for pound fighters in the sport. My cousin Scott reviews last night's scraps ...

Last night boxing showed fight fans both sides of the sport.

In the first fight at the Fedex Forum in Memphis, we saw an action packed slugfest that made me get out of seat and cheer. In the so called main event, it appeared as if a dancing contest was going on that nearly put me to sleep.

Youngstown's own Kelly "The Ghost" Pavlik did nothing but cement his right for a title shot. He beat the living daylights out of Edison Miranda in route to a seventh round TKO. Pavlik looked sharp most of the fight and was dropping bombs and hammers all night to the face and body of the overmatched Miranda. From the opening bell to the referee's stoppage, you could just see the heart of a champion in Pavlik. Every round was non-stop action and going at a frenetic pace. It seems as if both fighters were running a little out of gas near the fifth round. Pavlik then found his second wind in the sixth and starting pouring it on. The fight to become the number contender could have easily been stopped in the sixth but referee Steve Smoger decided he wanted Miranda to get beat up even more. The seventh round started and it shouldn't have. Miranda came out and look wobbly and goofy and his corner even told him if he didn't do anything soon they would stop it. Pavlik decided to stop it for them as he landed a few hard shots and turned Miranda's lights out for the evening.

In the main event, Jermain Taylor retained his titles in one of the hardest to watch fights I have seen in some time. It really can't even been called a fight. Cory Spinks landed eighty two punches in the entire match. Eighty two. One of the judges, who should never judge again, gave the fight and nine of the twelve rounds to Spinks. He really must have been asleep. Taylor cleary won as he was moving forward the entire night and chasing the dancing running away challenger. It was just awful. The other two judges had Taylor winning, giving him the split decision in this snoozer.

Kelly Pavlik is now in line for a title shot against Taylor. Or is he?

The hard to figure out sport of boxing needs to do something. There are too many fights that should happen that never do. The main reason? Money, of course.

When being interviewed after the fight by HBO's Larry Merchant, Taylor was asked if he watched the Pavlik-Miranda fight. He stated yes and said Miranda was overrated. Merchant then began to fire excellent questions at the middleweight champ. "Who will you fight next?" he asked. "It has to be Pavlik right?" Taylor then went on to say he will fight whoever will make him the most money.

With a possible fight with Joe Calzaghe looming, Taylor more than likely won't step in against Kelly Pavlik. If he doesn't, it will be a damn shame.

Pavlik has done everything to deserve his title shot. He is one classy kid who never runs his mouth or bad mouth's boxing's horrible politics. All he does is step into the ring and beat up the guy in there with him.

The real main event lived up to the hype and was very exciting as Ohio's own Pavlik gave us fans something to cheer about. I look forward to seeing "The Ghost" fight again soon, no matter who he takes on.