On the comeback trail

By Joe Scalzo

PAVLIK vs. Rubio

After loss,

win crucial

for ‘Ghost’

this time

For much of the last three months, Kelly Pavlik has stayed out of the spotlight, but it’s not due to a hangover from his loss to Bernard Hopkins in October.

“After about a week, I put it behind me and moved on,” said Pavlik, who will defend his WBC and WBO middleweight titles on Feb. 21 at the Chevy Centre in Youngstown. “If that was me [that night], I’d say, ‘Well, let’s go back to the drawing board.’

“It was just a bad, bad night. What can I do? Great fighters lose fights and great fighters bounce back. I just said, ‘Well, I can’t dwell on this forever.’”

Pavlik (34-1, 30 KOs) vows he will be back to his normal self next week against WBC No. 1 contender Mexican Marco Antonio Rubio (43-4-1, 37 KOs).

“I’m ready for him,” Pavlik said. “He’s coming in to take my title.

“We’re definitely excited and anxious to get back in there. We have a lot of proving to do and we’ve been working on a lot of things during training camp. We’re training hard, as we always do, and we’re ready to put on a great show as always.”

Although Pavlik is heavily favored, the fight is shaping up to be an exciting (albeit possibly short) one. Both fighters are aggressive punchers who prefer to stand in front of their opponents and walk them down.

“That plays into our hands,” said Pavlik’s trainer, Jack Loew. “I think it’s a perfect opponent to put in front of us, but he’s tough.”

The 28-year-old Rubio, who could become the first Mexican middleweight champion, knows this could be his one shot at a title. He’s won his last nine fights, including a 12-round split decision over Enrique Ornelas on the undercard of the Pavlik-Hopkins bout.

“I’m just going to use my talent and my ability and my boxing skills [to beat Rubio],” Pavlik said. “We’re going to use angles — Rubio seems to have trouble with that — and use our hand speed.”

As important as the fight is to Rubio, it’s crucial for Pavlik, whose stature in the boxing world took a hit with the loss to Hopkins. Another defeat would be devastating, particularly since next week’s fight is tailor-made for rebuilding Pavlik’s image. It takes place in his hometown (the crowd of 7,000-plus will be 99 percent Pavlik fans) at his preferred weight (160, 10 pounds less than the Hopkins bout) against a beatable opponent.

“I think it’s really important to bounce back and look good,” said Pavlik.

The normally-talkative Loew has limited access to his fighter over the past few weeks, even with the local media, in order to avoid distractions. Making things easier was the fact that HBO isn’t televising next week’s bout. The network normally tailed Pavlik for a few weeks to gather footage for their 30-minute preview shows.

Team Pavlik also turned down requests from the national media before opening the doors to the Southside Boxing Club to reporters on Thursday.

“We’ve been pretty private,” said Loew. “It has nothing to do with the loss. We’re just getting back to the old ways.”

scalzo@vindy.com