Sunday, May 20, 2007
Kelly Pavlik — MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Youngstown’s Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik took his biggest step toward becoming the WBC middleweight champion when he stopped Edison Miranda in the seventh round on a TKO here at the FedEx Forum.
Pavlik (31-0, 28 KO’s) dominated every round until referee Steve Smoger stepped in an stopped the fight.
Pavlik now becomes the undisputed No. 1 contender for the middleweight championship, and hopefully he will meet the winner of Saturday’s featured bout between WBC champion Jermain Taylor and Cory Spinks.
The fight was televised live on HBO and all the preliminary film was about Miranda and what a difficult time he had growing up in Columbia and how he turned his life around.
But once the fight began it was all Pavlik, who had won all six previous rounds and was well ahead in the seventh.
He knocked Miranda down twice in the sixth round, and HBO announcers felt the fight should have been stopped.
When the seventh round started Miranda was in no better shape, and as Pavlik knocked him down for the third time referee Steve Smoger stepped in and stopped it at 1:54 of the seventh round.
“We just stuck to our game plan,” said the victorious Pavlik. “We felt that we had to keep him going backwards because he can’t fight when he’s going backwards.”
The bout was billed as the “Fight of the Year” by HBO, who expected a better bout than what was to follow in the featured championship bout.