Seventh heaven for Pavlik

Pavlik, 25, had been floored by Taylor in the second round and was lucky to reach his corner, but fought his way back into contention before unleashing a flurry of punches in the seventh round that left the 28-year-old champion slumped in his rival's corner.

Casting off the caginess that had marked his previous and much-criticised title defences against southpaws Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks, Taylor had gone toe-to-toe with his challenger to deliver an exciting spectacle from the first bell that had the crowd on its feet.

Backed by the noisy support of what seemed to be the majority of the fans inside the Boardwalk Hall, big-punching Pavlik, from Youngstown, Ohio, was happy to meet fire with fire.

With Pavlik parading a perfect 31-0 record and Taylor also unbeaten at 27-0-1, something had to give.

Taylor was making the fifth title defense of the undisputed crown he took from Bernard Hopkins on a split decision in Las Vegas in July 2005.

Taylor held off Hopkins in a rematch five months later before the draw on his record came against Winky Wright in June 2006.

Since then his title defences against Ouma and Spinks had been lacklustre affairs that had drawn plenty of criticism in the media.

But Taylor turned slugger in Atlantic City and after the exciting, evenly-matched first round, it was the champion who landed the first major blow of the fight in the second as he delivered a barrage of punches to Pavlik's head and body that first sent the challenger reeling and then dispatched him to the canvas.

Pavlik took the mandatory count from referee Steve Smoger but still looked out of it as Taylor went back in to finish his man off. Somehow, Pavlik managed to stay upright and hang on and in the third round he came powering back into the fight.

Pinning Taylor into one corner after another, Pavlik was able to land time and time again to the champion's head and body before unleashing a thudding right to the cheek that had the crowd gasping.

This time it was Taylor who rallied, fighting his way out of trouble from his own corner as the third round came to a close.

Pavlik was finding plenty of success with his jab, picking off Taylor almost at will as he moved the champion around the ring. But it was a stunning power punch that sent Taylor reeling back into Pavlik's corner midway through the seventh.

Pavlik again sent a left jab through the Taylor defences before delivering a crunching right that shook the champion to his core and sent him back-pedalling into the corner.

Pavlik went straight after him continuing the assault with a stunning series of punches, a right upper-cut to Taylor's chin followed by a clubbing left hook and then another left that had his man sinking to the floor and out of the fight.

Pavlik had enjoyed the vast majority of support inside the Boardwalk Hall and his victory was greeted with pandemonium in and out of the ring as the boxing world began to come to terms with a new middleweight champion.

In the main support, Andre Berto came through a thrilling battle with David Estrada to win their WBC and IBF welterweight title eliminator with an 11th-round TKO.

Estrada was stopped one minute 17 seconds into the 11th, seconds after taking an eight count from referee David Fields, having been floored by a thundering straight right from Berto

Berto, a 2004 US Olympian, stretched his unbeaten record to 20-0 - while Estrada slipped to 21-4 - and earns the right to face IBF champion Kermit Cintron and the winner of the WBC title showdown on December 8 between Ricky Hatton and Floyd Mayweather Jr..