By Ron Borges

In boxing, as with ballroom dancing, you need the right partner. Saturday night in Atlantic City, Jermain Taylor will have the right partner.

That has not been the undefeated middleweight champion’s fate for quite some time. Not since his rematch with Bernard Hopkins has he been in with the right guy to showcase his athleticism and he has paid a high price for it, and a highly public one.

The fact is Taylor may indeed be a better athlete than he is a fighter but that doesn’t mean he can’t fight given the right set of circumstances. Kelly Pavlik seems likely to provide those circumstances.

Pavlik can punch, especially with his right hand, and he comes to the arena for that purpose. He is not there to prance or dance. He’s there to execute. He is the hangman and Saturday night he will be at Boardwalk Hall to do that at Taylor’s expense. Pavlik will be there to punch, which is why, unless he is extremely fortunate, he’ll be in the wrong place.

After twice defeating Hopkins in close decisions that many disputed, Taylor faced three of the most God awful opponents one could imagine. Three guys with whom you could not look good regardless of what you tried and frankly, by the third one, Taylor didn’t seem to be trying all that hard.

Winky Wright is arguably the finest defensive fighter in boxing. Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks are not but they are difficult southpaws who though far smaller than Taylor moved better, were mentally tougher on the nights they got in with Taylor and were like gnats at a picnic. Not fatal but troublesome to those trying to enjoy the entertainment.

That didn’t make either of them victorious but it did make them able to create doubt about Taylor, both among people in boxing and within his own camp. Taylor himself may enter Saturday night’s fight wondering just who he is as well, which is why he’s glad to be facing a tall, strong, one-dimensional opponent who though a dangerous puncher is more a catcher than a pitcher.

Until 10 months ago, Pavlik (31-0, 28 KO) was just another in a long line of Midwestern fighters from whom little was expected. Promoted by Bob Arum, he had an advantage over many of his ilk plus a powerful right hand as an added bonus but until he stopped Jose Luis Zertuche in January and then stunned Edison Miranda several months ago in what was supposed to be a fight that set the scene for Miranda to challenge Taylor, few people were talking about the fearsome challenger Pavlik figured to provide for the middleweight champion.

Now they are but not because of any sudden improvement in Pavlik. Rather it is because boxing is, and always will be, the sport of illusion. Boxing is about false reality and carefully crafted self-delusion. It is about fiction more than facts and trickery more than anything. Pavlik, unless I miss my guess, will prove to be too much of all of these things for his own good when all is said and done.

Taylor (27-0-1, 17 KO) may not be what many in boxing insisted he was after his first fight with Hopkins and he surely has not progressed from that night in the last 18 months, even after a change was made in his trainer from Pat Burns to Emanuel Steward. But he is still a big man for a middleweight and, more importantly, a better athlete than Pavlik. Frankly, he’s a better fighter too although admittedly he hasn’t looked like it of late.

Taylor has a long, stinging jab, great balance and good movement for a big man despite a bad tendency to retreat straight back when under assault. He has athleticism far in excess of the plodding Pavlik and a big heart, as he showed late in his fights with Hopkins. So if Kelly Pavlik comes to do as promised, if he comes to fight, Jermain Taylor will have what he has been looking for. He will have a perfect foil, an opponent who appears to be more dangerous than he actually is.

Pavlik’s confidence is soaring after stopping Miranda. He has trained hard for this moment and he believes his press clippings and the internet odes to his punching power. As he said recently, “Once I land a punch anywhere on his body he’s going to retreat back to running, trying to survive.’’

If Pavlik is right about that, he will be middleweight champion before sunrise. If he’s wrong, and the bet here is that he is, he’ll be a sleep by midnight.

That’s because Pavlik has one thing in common with all top journeymen - a fatal flaw. His is the worst of flaws for a prize fighter. Kelly Pavlik is a catcher.

If he were playing for the Cincinnati Reds or the Cleveland Indians that would be fine, but he’s coming out of Youngstown, Ohio to box, an occupation that is a dangerous one for a catcher.

If he truly is counting on Taylor retreating as he did against Ouma and Spinks in the latter rounds, he may be in for a rude awakening because unlike them, Taylor will not find his target so difficult to hit because Pavlik is no Wright and no Spinks and he’s nowhere near as busy as Ouma. Despite his talk of throwing 90 punches a round (up from 70 when he first started talking about his punch count), Kelly Pavlik does not pose the kind of problem his predecessors did to Taylor and therein lies his own problem.

“It’s going to be a tough fight for about one round,’’ Steward boasted on Wednesday. “If Kelly Pavlik respects me as much as he says he does then he should respect this. Jermain Taylor will knock him out.’’

Steward is not one for bombast and even those words were said in a respectful tone. Respectful, but heartfelt. Some felt they were said more to push his sometimes reluctant champion’s buttons rather than to put fear into Pavlik but his point seems well taken. Steward sees in Pavlik what the world doesn’t want to see. He sees a dangerous puncher, to be sure, but also a guy whose defense is worse than an NBA team’s on the road for the third game in five nights.

Jermain Taylor has been looking for someone like this for quite some time. Someone who will be in front of him and open to be hit. Kassim Ouma is too busy for that, although he was a lot less busy against Taylor after taking a beating for a eight rounds than he usually is, a fact many observers seemed to miss once Taylor began to retreat and coast late in the fight.

Spinks is too slick for that. He is a difficult southpaw to figure out, a ghost who clinches and slips away far more often than he punches. And Winky Wright? Well, we all know what Winky Wright is. He’s better on defense than the Baltimore Ravens.

Pavlik, meanwhile, has promised to come to Boardwalk Hall and be the living embodiment of Jermain Taylor’s nickname. When your alias is “Bad Intentions,’’ an opponent promising to aim same at you might cause some fighters to sweat. Not so Taylor. As a matter of fact, he’s looking at it as a welcome departure from what he’s had to put up with in his last two fights.

“I predict pain,’’ Pavlik said once when asked how he thought this fight would go. “I will exploit all his bad habits. It’s going to be a tactical brawl.’’

That would be a first. There is nothing tactical about a brawl but the champion is hopeful Pavlik will be a man of his word. If a brawl is what Pavlik is looking for then Taylor has promised he won’t have far to go to find one.

“I finally got a man that’s not a lefthander,’’ Taylor said with relief. “Pavlik will not run. He’s coming to fight but he has no idea what he’s getting in with. I hope he comes to fight because I don’t back down from a fight.

“Styles make fights and Pavlik’s style makes for a perfect fight for me. I know every time I go into the ring it’s with high expectations. The fans’ job is to expect me to look a certain way. If I don’t do it, they get mad. So do I.’’

Steward firmly believes there will be no reason for anyone to be angry with Taylor this time except for Pavlik’s parents because he sees no way the challenger will deliver on his promise, although he may well be on the delivered end of some pain.

“Jermain Taylor has the faster hand speed and better coordination,’’ Steward said. “Kelly is going to be right there the whole time – right in front of him. I predict a knockout. This fight will not go six rounds.’’

Not surprisingly, Steward believes when that knockout comes it will be Jermain Taylor who delivers it in no small part because the champion has grown weary of his critics chastising him for winning in a manner they find displeasing. Criticism can sting as much as a harsh jab and Taylor has felt the hot leather of both too much of late, especially after his split decision victory over Spinks on May 19. He likes neither and intends to avoid both this time. To do that, he intends to come to Boardwalk Hall with the same intentions as Pavlik. Bad ones.

“I know I’m a lot better fighter than I’ve looked lately,’’ Taylor (27-0-1, 17 KO) said. “The last couple of fights I looked like crap but styles make fights. I think he’s the perfect style for me. He earned the right to fight me but what I see in him is a guy who’s going to get beaten up.’’

That’s what most often happens to a guy when he finds himself in the wrong position inside a boxing ring and that’s where Kelly Pavlik – a game guy in the wrong place with the wrong style - will too often find himself Saturday night: catching rather than pitching.