Bronchitis, bursitis hurt Pavlik
Pavlik vs Hopkins
Kelly "The Ghost" Pavlik lost to Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins by unanimous decision in a 12-round bout Saturday October 18, 2008 in Atlantic City. Photos by William D. Lewis.
Fight NightFans
Kelly Pavlik Fight Night
By Joe Scalzo
The setbacks may have contributed to a lackluster performance on Saturday.
YOUNGSTOWN — Kelly Pavlik admitted Tuesday he took antibiotics in the days leading up to his bout with Bernard Hopkins after being diagnosed with bronchitis on the night of Oct. 14 — four days before fight night.
Pavlik, who lost a 12-round unanimous decision on Saturday, also got a shot of penicillin three days before the bout, prompting his handlers to discuss postponing the fight.
The illness was the latest setback in a training camp that saw Pavlik miss several workouts and sparring sessions due to an inflamed bursa sac in his left elbow.
Members of Pavlik’s camp — several of whom were unhappy the revelations were made public — were unanimous in saying there is no guarantee Pavlik would have beaten Hopkins had he been at 100 percent.
But they also felt Pavlik would have been more competitive had he been completely healthy.
“We all learned a good lesson,” said his father and co-manager, Mike Pavlik. “We know now that if he’s not completely healthy, we shouldn’t go ahead with the fight.
“He’s a tough kid and I think he’ll come back with a vengeance. If not, then it’s time for him to retire.”
A comparison of the fight statistics from Saturday night with his previous fights confirms what many observers felt after watching the bout and what Pavlik admitted afterward — namely, he wasn’t as sharp or as active as he’d been in previous bouts.
Pavlik threw just 463 punches over 12 rounds (39 per round). He landed 23 percent.
By comparison, Pavlik threw 845 punches in his rematch against Jermain Taylor in February at 166 pounds (compared to 170 on Saturday), an average of more than 70 per round. He landed 39 percent. That fight was Pavlik’s only other bout to go 12 rounds and his only other recent bout to be fought above 160 pounds.
Pavlik threw 460 punches and landed 32 percent over seven rounds against Taylor in September — 65 per round — and averaged more than 80 during the first two rounds against Gary Lockett in June, then threw 45 in the third round before the fight was stopped. He landed 43 percent in that bout.
“I just couldn’t get off,” Pavlik said of the Hopkins bout. “My arms felt like they were 100 pounds each.
“I’ve never felt like that in the ring. I’d get to my corner and Jack [Loew, his trainer] would say, ‘You’ve got to do this,’ and I couldn’t do it. Even when I was throwing punches and hitting him, there was nothing on it.”
Pavlik injured his elbow during a sparring session three weeks into training camp. His left elbow collided with the right elbow of his sparring partner.
“It sounded like two wooden baseball bats hitting each other,” said Pavlik.
Pavlik’s elbow filled up with fluid and bothered him over the next five weeks. He met with several physical therapists but the problem persisted, prompting him to skip workouts at Rocky’s gym and the Ironman Warehouse. (His distance training remained unchanged.) Pavlik also had to cut back on his sparring. His father admitted there were several discussions over the past few weeks about whether to postpone the fight, but Pavlik insisted he continue.
On Oct. 9, nine days before fight night, Mike Pavlik had an hour-long discussion with his son about postponing it, but with the fight already in the final stages and thousands of Youngstown-area fans planning to attend, those talks were shelved. Pavlik then had twice-daily therapy sessions on his elbow over the next four days.
“It was feeling really good, but we also weren’t doing anything to test it,” Kelly Pavlik said.
While warming up in the locker room before the Hopkins bout, Pavlik said he felt sluggish and didn’t have the same snap on his punches, but hoped he’d be fine in the ring. He wasn’t, and by the seventh round, Mike Pavlik said he was hoping someone would throw in the towel.
When asked how he avoided a knockout, Pavlik said, “I don’t like losing and I definitely didn’t want to get stopped. You just suck it up and get through it. There were only two times in that fight when I was legitimately hurt and felt off-balance.”
Loew, who credited Hopkins for fighting a “great fight,” repeated his post-fight mantra that the camp had no excuses for the loss.
“If they wanted to postpone the fight, they should have,” said Loew. “As a team, we made a decision and we have to live with it. It’s our stupid [selves] who put him in the ring and we learned a valuable lesson.”
Loew said he won’t make that mistake again.
“I don’t care if it’s a four-round preliminary fight or a world championship fight,” he said. “If my fighter isn’t 100 percent healthy, we’re not going to go.”
He also said Pavlik will stay at middleweight. Loew opposed fighting at Hopkins at 170 pounds when the fight was arranged in July, but went along with it when Pavlik gave the OK.
“He’s a middleweight,” said Loew. “We’re sick and tired of moving up in weight to fight someone. If someone wants to fight us, he’s going to have to come down to 160.”
scalzo@vindy.com