Pavlik’s star has dimmed, but there’s time to recover

Pavlik vs. Espino weigh-in

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Kelly Pavlik and Miguel Espino at the official weigh-in on Friday, Dec. 18 at Youngstown State University in anticipation of their Dec. 19 fight. Both fighters made weight.

By Joe Scalzo

Tonight’s fight could be the first step in the journey to a major revival.

YOUNGSTOWN — When Kelly Pavlik’s co-manager, Cameron Dunkin, flew into Pittsburgh International Airport earlier this week, he heard people all around him ripping the Steelers.

“I bet they weren’t ripping them last year,” Dunkin said. “It’s a tough world we live in. What have you done lately?”

Dunkin knows that first-hand. When Pavlik won the middleweight title with a scintillating seventh-round knockout of Jermain Taylor in September 2007, he was praised as the savior of boxing.

But after losing to Bernard Hopkins in October 2008 and suffering through an awful 2009 that saw him miss 10 months due to a staph infection while piling up bad headlines, he’s become boxing’s favorite whipping boy.

“Listen, as fast as they jump on you, they jump off of you,” Dunkin said. “Look at Tigers Woods. Did he start losing golf tournaments? Did he punch out a golfer and hit him with a club? No. He cheated on his wife, like [a lot] of Americans.

“If Kelly gets one good fight against [WBA middleweight champion Felix] Sturm, one good fight against [IBF super middleweight champ Lucian] Bute, one good fight against Paul Williams, all is forgiven, brother.”

Winning tonight’s fight against Miguel Espino, however, won’t do much for Pavlik’s image. Pavlik is as much as a 20-1 favorite in some circles and he’s taken plenty of heat from Williams’ camp, who felt Pavlik exaggerated his hand injury in order to duck a scheduled Dec. 5 fight with Williams

“All the vicious talk among the Web site guys, the other fighters and the stupid manager of Williams [George Peterson] saying this is all a sham, an excuse not to fight Williams, it’s ridiculous,” Top Rank Boxing chairman Bob Arum said. “All they have to do is check the medical records.

“You get all this crap out there and people believe it.”

When Pavlik won the title, he was mentioned in the same conversation as top boxers such as Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. But those fighters made their names by winning big fights, and Pavlik’s wins over the likes of Gary Lockett and Marco Antonio Rubio over the last two years don’t exactly qualify.

To get back on top, he know he needs to do more than beat Espino. He needs to dominate, then beat bigger and better fighters in 2010.

“It’s an unforgiving sport,” said three-time trainer of the year Freddie Roach, who trains Pacquiao. “Let’s face it — you’re only as good as your last fight.

“That’s the thing about [mixed martial arts]. You’re allowed to quit and you’re allowed to lose. In boxing, you can’t quit or lose. And it’s devastating when you do.”

Ironically, Roach split with Hopkins before the Pavlik fight because he felt the then-43-year-old Hopkins was endangering himself by taking a bout against such a big puncher. But Hopkins won by unanimous decision, and Pavlik was hit with the “overrated” label by many in the boxing world.

“He got exposed a little bit by Bernard Hopkins, who’s a great fighter,” Roach said. “It’s not a disgrace to lose to a guy like that. But he’s older and so forth and Kelly just had trouble with that lateral movement.

“I think Kelly will come back. He’s a dedicated kid and he seems like he’s in good shape for this fight. I hope he’ll do well.”

ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael and Yahoo.com’s Kevin Iole — two of the most respected boxing writers in the country — both wrote big stories about Pavlik for Friday, but they focused more on Pavlik’s attempt to rehab his image than tonight’s fight. Pavlik is aware of the criticism, but has repeatedly said it bothers his camp much more than it bothers him.

He also feels he’s held to a different standard than other boxers who take long layoffs, especially since the layoff was due to injury, not personal choice.

“The thing is, if I was out of it [boxing] because I was doing jail time or I was looking at another sport or picking up another hobby, that’s one thing,” Pavlik said. “When you have a serious medical condition and there’s nothing you can do about it, it’s [the talk] not that frustrating.

“Yeah, I do want to fight. Yeah, I wanted to stay active. But it’s out of my hands at that point. The only thing you can do is hope for the best and work on the therapy and getting better as fast as you can.”

Pavlik admits he still isn’t as sharp as he was in 2007, but took the Espino fight both to keep his titles (which the WBC and WBO were threatening to strip) and to shake off the rust before taking big bouts in 2010.

He’s just hoping he’ll be sharp enough to win big. A lackluster win — or, worse, a loss — would be devastating to his career.

“A loss [tonight] would set him back a long time,” Roach said. “He’s hoping to get back up there and that’s why it’s a big night [tonight].”

scalzo@vindy.com