By JOE SCALZO

By JOE SCALZO

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

MEMPHIS — For the past few months, middleweight Edison Miranda waived his Miranda Rights, choosing not to remain silent.

On Saturday night at the FedEx Forum, Youngstown’s Kelly Pavlik did it for him.

With 1:54 left in the seventh round of a 12-round middleweight bout, after a flurry of punches by Pavlik, referee Steve Smoger stepped in, wrapped his arms around Miranda and stopped the fight.

Pavlik (31-0, 28 KOs), realizing what happened, jumped up in the middle of the ring and raised both arms.

His trainer, Jack Loew, ran into the ring and started dancing hysterically, celebrating the biggest win of his young fighter’s career.

Dad reacts

“I’m still ready to throw up,” said Pavlik’s father, Mike, after the fight while waiting for his son to complete the mandatory post-fight drug test. “I don’t know how many more of those I can take.

“I just want to see if he’s OK.”

He was. And after Saturday’s win, his career will be doing even better. Pavlik entered the fight as the World Boxing Council’s No. 1 contender and the NABF middleweight champion. He’ll likely get a title shot after the victory.

Pavlik landed 242 of the 549 punches he threw (45 percent), including 46 percent of his power punches.

Miranda (28-2), meanwhile, landed just 111 of 504 (22 percent) and after catching a second-wind in the fifth round, his best shots couldn’t hurt Pavlik.

Although Miranda landed a few good punches, Pavlik had regained control by the middle of the sixth round. He knocked Miranda down twice in the sixth, nearly ending the fight.

In the first minute of the seventh, he had Miranda backed into the corner and it was just a matter of time before it ended.

“What a fight,” Loew said. “When you fight Edison Miranda, you know you’re going to get hit. But Kelly took his best punches, and he just backed him up and hunted him down.

“I don’t think there’s a middleweight fighter out there that can beat him.”

Entry

Pavlik entered the ring to heavy metal music at 10:30 p.m. wearing an orange metallic robe with the American flag held up behind him. His head was clean-shaven.

Miranda (whose nickname, Pantera, means “panther” in Spanish) entered to Latin music, wearing a multi-colored robe with the Colombian flag.

Michael Buffer announced the fighters, but saved his trademark “Let’s get ready to rumble!” call for the main event. The fight began at 10:35 p.m. with the arena about one-third full.

The first round started with a flurry and didn’t stop. Both fighters landed power punches, and the crowd went nuts at several times. Pavlik was smiling as he came back to his corner.

The second round was about as entertaining as it gets with both punchers landing massive punches. Midway through the round, both started to tire and the punches weren’t as powerful.

The third through fifth rounds were more typical, but many observers ringside called the bout one of the best they’d ever seen.

The fight was televised by HBO.

After a successful amateur career, Pavlik went pro in 2000 and worked his way up the ranks, drawing praise for his punching power.

He won the NABF title by knocking out Fulgencio Zuniga in 2005 and has since beaten Bronco McKart (July 2006) and Leonard Pierre (November 2006 at the Chevy Centre in Youngstown). His last fight was a eighth-round knockout of Jose Luis Zertuche in January in Anaheim, Calif.

Pavlik is a graduate of Lowellville High School. He and his girlfriend of six years, Samantha, have a 1-year-old daughter named Sydney.

For more about the fight, go to www.vindy.com/more.

scalzo@vindy.com