Pavlik earns 21st win with TKO

Pedro Ortego failed to answer the bell for the seventh round.
By BOB ROTH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
STRUTHERS -- Even with an injured right hand, Kelly Pavlik's vicious body shots were too much for Pedro Ortega.
Pavlik (21-0) earned his 19th career knockout on Friday when the Ortega's corner wouldn't allow him to answer the bell for the seventh round at Struthers Field House.
"He is a very strong kid who is a very hard puncher," said Ortega, a native of Tijuana, Mexico. "Those body punches he continued to throw round after round just took too much out of me."
Manager's decision
Ortega's manager Romulo Quirarte made the decision to stop the fight.
"I have to respect his decision because in this business, there is always another fight," said Ortega (30-14).
Pavlik came out aggressive in the first round, sticking his shorter opponent with hard left jabs. Pavlik went after Ortega with a two-fisted barrage in the second round, at one point landing a picture-perfect 1-2-3 combination.
But after a solid right to the head, he didn't throw his right again in the round.
Injures hand
"I hurt the first two knuckles of my right hand," Pavlik said. "Right away I said to myself, Not this again."
"When Kelly hurt his hand and came back to the corner after the second round I told him to suck it up and he did," said Pavlik's trainer Jack Loew.
Ortega, who is a defensive fighter, began to come on in the third round, but Pavlik repeatedly answered with solid left hooks to the body that had the Mexican fighter wincing.
In the fourth round, Ortega landed a series of punches in what was his best attack of the fight, but Pavlik answered with a two-fisted attack to Ortega's body and finished the round with a solid right to the jaw.
Took over fight
Ortega came out for the fifth round with a good right hand lead, but Pavlik started to take over the fight, delivering several punishing shots to the body.
Kelly finished the fifth round with a solid left hook followed by a harder right hook to Ortega's rib. Pavlik then landed a solid left hook to the head and a series of hard lefts and a rights to the body. A solid 1-2 combination near the end of the round seemed to spell doom for Ortega.
Ortega's corner had a short conference after the bell. Soon after, the fight was over.
"When Kelly told us about his hand we said just go to the body and he did what he is so good at doing," Loew said.
"This guy was very smart as he knew to stay away from my power," said Pavlik. "But because of the body shots, especially to his ribs, I knew it was only a matter of time before he went.
"I told Jack in the fourth round that he was going soon, but I had to be patient because Ortega is dangerous and I didn't want to give him any real good openings."
Set up for hooks
After Pavlik hurt his hand, he used his right to set up left hooks to the body and shots to the ribs.
"I knew they were doing the job for me and I knew there was no way this guy could go the distance," Pavlik said.
Earlier in the night, Steven Luevano earned a ninth-round TKO over Cleveland-native Freddie Neal.