Opponent Miranda spouts much disrespect

By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- Last week, as trainer Jack Loew was thumbing through a boxing magazine at the South Side Boxing Club, the talk turned to Kelly "The Ghost" Pavlik's opponent in this weekend's fight, Edison "Pantera" Miranda.
Miranda grew up in poverty in Colombia and said he sometimes had to eat roadkill to survive.
The claim didn't impress Pavlik.
"He ate roadkill growing up?" Pavlik shouted. "Yeah, well, I ate SpaghettiOs."
Loew laughed.
"You still do," he said.
Miranda, the International Boxing Federation's No. 1 contender for the middleweight crown, no longer needs to worry about what he eats. Nowadays, people pay more attention to what comes out of his mouth than what goes into it.
This weekend's fight is no different.
Prediction: pain
"Kelly Pavlik is a very unlucky guy," Miranda recently said on his Web site, www.panteramiranda.com. "When I step into the ring, I will turn into a monster and destroy him.
"I will not stop my attack until Kelly Pavlik is laying on the ground for good. If he is stupid enough to get up, he will get hurt badly."
And that's just the beginning. Over the past few months, Miranda has claimed he'll "make The Ghost disappear" and dismissed Pavlik's prior competition as "20 sick men and seven blind guys."
He's claimed that he'll beat Pavlik so bad, "I do not think he will make it to the post-fight press conference. I will embarrass him in front of the world."
Another warning
He even warned Jermain Taylor, the World Boxing Council's middleweight champion, that he should wait a few minutes before entering the ring for Saturday's fight at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn.
Pavlik and Miranda are fighting on the undercard of that night's Taylor-Cory Spinks title fight.
"After I knock out Pavlik, it will be my turn to face Taylor," said Miranda, 26. "He just better hope I take my gloves off and leave the ring before he steps in or I may be the first boxer in history to get two KOs [knockouts] in the same night."
In any other sport, quotes like these would cause a sensation. But in boxing, it's no big deal. When asked about them, Pavlik shrugged.
"It's boxing," he said. "Sometimes when boxers have no self-confidence, they try to talk themselves into victory."
Toughest opponent
That said, Pavlik (30-0, 27 KOs) is bracing himself for the toughest fight of his career. Miranda (28-1, 24 KOs) is coming off an impressive unanimous decision over Allan Green on March 3.
His lone defeat came last September against Germany's Arthur Abraham. Miranda broke Abraham's jaw in two places in the fifth round of that fight, but couldn't finish the job and eventually lost the decision.
"If you break someone's jaw, you should win the fight," Pavlik said.
Like Pavlik, Miranda is a strong puncher. But Pavlik said Miranda's only good with his right hand. He also doesn't think Miranda's chin is 100 percent.
Miranda was caught by a left hook in the Green fight and collapsed against the ropes.
"He fights like a bully," Pavlik said. "He likes to back up the other guy and that's when he does his damage. But everyone knows my style. I don't back away. I stand up and fight back.
"He's going to be in trouble. We're going to make him eat roadkill through a straw for the next three weeks."
scalzo@vindy.com