Pavlik: ‘You know I’m coming to fight’

Pavlik vs. Espino press conference

Video

By Joe Scalzo

The challenger again thanked the champ for the opportunity to fight for the title.

YOUNGSTOWN — Kelly Pavlik tried to liven up the press conference at Youngstown State University with a little hometown trash-talking.

“Did you know there is no known cure for the bite of a Penguin?” he said Wednesday, turning to his promoter, Bob Arum, chairman of Top Rank Boxing.

When Arum managed a small smile, Pavlik shrugged and said, “That wasn’t a good one.”

OK. How about a joke?

After praising the members of Team Pavlik, Pavlik threw out this line: “We have a really good staff,” emphasizing the last word.

Silence.

“You guys didn’t get that one either,” he said, shaking his head.

Maybe not. Or maybe people aren’t yet ready for jokes about staph infections, which has plagued the champ in recent months. Either way, the effort was appreciated, if not the execution.

With three days left before Saturday’s middleweight title fight at Beeghly Center, there wasn’t much left to say, which made for one of those pre-fight press conferences that are long on thank-yous and short on, you know, interesting quotes.

Even the turnout was lackluster, with about a dozen fans joining media members for the open-to-the-public presser.

The challenger, Miguel Espino, repeated his now-familiar lines about being grateful for the opportunity.

Pavlik’s trainer, Jack Loew, repeated his now-familiar lines about not overlooking Espino.

And Espino’s trainer, John Bray, managed about three sentences — which was about two more than he said at two previous press conferences.

When a reporter complained to Loew about the lack of trash-talking in a sport notorious for it, he smiled and said, “Well, I wanted to use the line about Espino being dropped more than Tiger’s trousers.”

Unfortunately for the talkative Loew, Team Espino hasn’t really given him much of a chance to jab outside the ring. His fighter will get that chance Saturday and, hopefully, it’ll be more interesting than Wednesday.

Pavlik assured everybody it would.

“You guys know my style,” he said. “You know I’m coming to fight.”

Pavlik (35-1-0) will make his third title defense against Espino (20-2-1). Doors open at 7 p.m. for the pay-per-view event, which features a live feed of bouts in Mexico also on the telecast as well as preliminary bouts in the ring at Beeghly.

scalzo@vindy.com