PAVLIK’S PATH Fight history

Fight No. 2

PAVLIK (1-0, 1 KO) VS. NELSON HERNANDEZ (2-32-1)

Date: Aug. 5, 2000 Site: Alliant Energy Center, Madison, Wis. Result: Pavlik TKO, 1st round Pavlik: He was one of the dirtiest fighters. He taught me a couple tricks. The kid was definitely a journeyman and everybody said, “Be careful, this guy is really, really dirty.” So we go in there and, first thing in the first round, we clinch and he gets me in a headlock and takes his glove where the tape is on the bottom and starts scraping it on my forehead. So I gave him a shoulder and I’m the one who got a warning for it. Just a dirty fighter, but I think we knocked him out in the first or second round.

Fight No. 3

PAVLIK (2-0, 2 KOs) vs. FRANKIE SANCHEZ (0-0)

Date: Sept. 15, 2000 Site: Pepsi Center, Denver Result: Pavlik TKO, 1st Loew: Everybody talked about what a hard time we were gonna have, what a rough kid. And he actually went on to fight a couple of really good contenders. But I think every punch we hit him with, he fell. Pavlik: He was supposed to be one of the up-and-coming fighters out of Denver. He was also in that mixed martial arts, doing a lot of that cage fighting. Real tough opponent, game fighter but I think our work rate did him in. I hit him with a good body shot that took a lot out of him and then I feinted to the body again, and he covered up and I hit him with a hook and a straight right and the match was over.

Fight No. 4

PAVLIK (3-0, 3 KOS) VS. ANTHONY COLLIER (5-16)

Date: Oct. 15, 2000 Site: Nashville, Tenn. Result: Pavlik TKO, 1st Note: Collier retired after the fight, the first of seven fighters to retire after losing to Pavlik. The others are: Rob Bleakley, Robert Dasoyan,, Lenord Pierre, Mathias Bedburdick, Lafayette Randolph and, most recently, Gary Lockett. Pavlik: I just remember being in Tennessee for the first time and meeting Dolly Parton. I stood next to her and that was kind of nice. We were fighting at 154 [pounds] and they gave us eight-ounce gloves. Those are real small and I was like, “I know I can knock him out with eight-ounce gloves but this is gonna kind of hurt, too.” The kid was from Tennessee and we landed a couple good punches. Then I hit him with an uppercut and I kind of caught him real good. He was out. Cold. It was probably one of the better knockouts of my career, in the top five.

Fight No. 5

PAVLIK (4-0, 4 KOs) vs. LAFAYETTE RANDOLPH (4-2)

Date: Nov. 17, 2000 Site: Peppermill Hotel & Casino, Reno, Nev. Result: Pavlik TKO, 2nd Pavlik: That was another one of my ESPN fights. I think that was my second or third. He was a defensive guy, he fought kind of afraid. He didn’t throw a lot of punches and he was hard to hit, but I ended up catching him in the second round with my right hand and he backed into the corner. And once I get people into the corner, that’s where I do my best work. We ended up just hitting him with a barrage of punches and they stopped it.

Fight No. 6

PAVLIK (5-0, 5 KOs) vs. CEDRIC JOHNSON (2-1)

Date: Dec. 15, 2000 Site: Alliant Energy Center, Madison, Wis. Result: Pavlik TKO, 2nd Loew: He was a game kid with a lot of amateur experience. I think Kelly was just too big and strong for him. Pavlik: He actually came down here [to Youngstown] after that fight and started training here a little bit. He was a good fighter, really good amateur. That was one of our biggest tests coming in because he was fast and he hit hard. I got a little sloppy in that fight but I caught him with some good punches and I dropped him a few times and it just caught up to him. I hit him with an uppercut in the second round and that kind of changed the whole fight.

Fight No. 7

PAVLIK (6-0, 6 KOs) vs. MATHIAS BEDBURDICK (9-11-3)

Date: Feb. 4, 2001 Site: Lucky Star Casino, Concho, Okla. Result: Pavlik TKO, 3rd Loew: Kelly suffered a cut in that fight. They [the organizers] switched opponents. He [Bedburdick] ended up being a tall lefthander. He got cut and then we stopped him. Pavlik: He was a southpaw and he was my height. He didn’t have a good record but he was a dangerous fighter. We didn’t know he was a southpaw until I got the ring. I think I went the first round without getting hit — honest to God truth, you can look at the Compubox statistics. I was just boxing his ears off. Second round, I think I went a minute into that round without getting hit and then he threw this overhand left from God knows where and he caught me right on top of the head. That was the first time in my career I got buzzed. Then I went against the ropes and he started firing away and not one of them landed. Then in the third round, I started throwing some Mike Tyson combos, hitting him to the body and then shooting him an uppercut. After that, I threw a left uppercut and I put him out with an uppercut.

Fight No. 8

PAVLIK (7-0, 7 KOs) vs. TOMMY WALKER (3-1-1)

Date: March 23, 2001 Site: Sportscenter, Owensboro, Ky. Result: Pavlik TKO, 1st Loew: His wife was standing there watching and bragging about her husband and everybody asked who she was fighting and she says, “Oh, we’re fighting this kid from Ohio.” She had this little baby with her and they said, “Maybe you ought to go outside and just listen for the results.” She chose to stay and it was a terrible beating. Pavlik: One of the toughest guys. I beat up my hands. I hit that kid with everything. He looked he’d been through a meat grinder. I don’t think he moved his head and blocked a punch that whole round. I remember just hitting him and he’d grunt. Every time I hit him, he’d growl. I’m like, “Oh man, what do I have to do?” And finally we ended up stopping him at the end of the round.

Fight No. 9

PAVLIK (8-0, 8 KOs) vs. GRADY BREWER (7-1)

Date: June 8, 2001 Site: Ho-Chunk Casino, Baraboo, Wis. Result: Pavlik TKO, 2nd Loew: Grady Brewer actually won “The Contender.” I remember Kelly got a cut on his head. After he knocked him out on the way down, Grady Brewer’s arm caught him on the top of the head and cut him. Pavlik: Good fighter. He had a little bit of an awkward style. Good hand speed for the awkward style. We got in there with him and just wore him down. He made a mistake in the second round wanting to trade and I caught him with a hook. Then in the second round I caught him with a body shot and that just took everything from him. I remember just before I stopped him — this was a great one — I started hitting him with some mean body shots and I got him into the corner and hit him with a hook and an uppercut and he went down and got back up. He pretty much didn’t know where he was at. I came across, threw a right hand and hit him flush with that right hand and as he was going down, out cold, he came down with his elbow through my right hand and he cut me. I had to get staples. I was cussing like crazy on ESPN because when a guy’s falling down cold and he cuts me, it’s frustrating. My dad picked on me on the way home at the airport, calling me Frankenstein.

Fight No. 10

PAVLIK (9-0, 9 KOs) vs. MARIO LOPEZ (1-1-1)

Date: Aug. 4, 2001 Site: Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas Result: Pavlik TKO, 2nd Note: This was Pavlik’s first Las Vegas fight. He would go on to fight nine more times in Las Vegas, the most of any location. It was also his first scheduled six-rounder. The previous nine had been four-rounders. Pavlik: Tough Mexican fighter. Came to fight. The only thing I remember at that was it was good for the first round. I was boxing him pretty good, then I hit him with a hook [Pavlik clucks his tongue] and it sounded like somebody hit a tree with a baseball bat. And I seen him go down and he didn’t get back up.

Fight No. 11

PAVLIK (10-0, 10 KOs) vs. ROB BLEAKLEY (77-37-1)

Date: Nov. 21, 2001 Site: Holiday Inn Metroplex, Liberty. Result: Pavlik TKO, 2nd Note: This was Pavlik’s first pro fight in the Mahoning Valley. It was scheduled for eight rounds. Pavlik: That was a good fight for the hometown. Game fighter but he was just trying to wear me out. He’d been in there with a lot of people and his whole game plan was to get me in there and get me tired in later rounds and beat me. We just hit him with too many combos and outboxed him and in the second round I hit him with a good body shot and came back with a hook and the fight was over.

Fight No. 12

PAVLIK (11-0, 11 KOS) vs. ROBERT DASOYAN (11-6-5)

Date: Feb. 23, 2002 Site: Mandalay Bay Result: Pavlik KO, 2nd Loew: Russian kid. They said this would be a great test for Kelly. He hit this kid so hard he [peed] himself in the ring. Pavlik: Favorite knockout of all time. He’d never been knocked out or knocked down. If they played that knockout on ESPN or had a vote on worst knockouts, that had to be one of them.

Fight No. 13

PAVLIK (12-0, 12 KOS) vs. ERIC OLDS (4-2)

Date: June 21, 2002 Site: Orleans Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas Result: Pavlik KO, 1st Pavlik: The notorious kid who still believes to this day that I rabbit-punched him to the back of the head. He was another southpaw. I hit him with a good combo, then a straight right on the chin and his chin actually hit the middle of his windpipe, in his stomach. They had to put an oxygen mask on him.

Fight No. 14

PAVLIK (13-0, 13 KOS) vs. ABEL HERNANDEZ (5-3-1)

Date: July 30, 2002 Site: Lucky Star Casino, Concho, Okla. Result: Pavlik TKO, 1st Pavlik: I had a sore right hand. That was on ESPN, too. I pretty much fought him with my left hand and we ended up knocking him out with a combo.

Fight No. 15

PAVLIK (14-0, 14 KOS) vs. EDSON MADRID (4-3-1)

Date: Sept. 14, 2002 Site: Mandalay Bay Result: Pavlik unanimous decision, 6 rounds Loew: He was the first guy we went six rounds with and we actually fought him one-handed. Kelly had a hand injury that fight and he was actually switching left handed, right handed and he went the distance with the kid. [If he had been fine], he would have stopped the kid.

Fight No. 16

PAVLIK (15-0, 14 KOS) vs. EDUARDO GUTIERREZ (31-13-2)

Date: Feb. 8, 2003 Site: Mandalay Bay Result: Pavlik TKO, 2nd Loew: It was probably one of the loudest knockouts I’ve ever heard. We were one of the first fights and there was maybe 10 people in the stands. He hit this kid and there was an echo. It sounded like he took a bat and hit it against a tree. He just dropped. It was just a helluva knockout. Pavlik: It was on one of the De La Hoya undercards. I know [my manager] Cameron Dunkin was actually nervous on that one because Eduardo was a really tough fighter, game fighter. He upset a lot of good fighters and got beat by a lot but he was one of those fighters who was a dangerous opponent and we knocked him out pretty quick.

Fight No. 17

PAVLIK (16-0, 15 KOS) vs. CESAR AVILA (8-3-1)

Date: March 22, 2003 Site: Mandalay Bay Result: Pavlik TKO, 6th Pavlik: That was a tough fight. Good fighter. Game. Came to fight, took a good punch. Again we were fighting with a couple injuries and I ended up hitting him with a left hook and knocked his mouthpiece into the third row and he buckled into the corner and we just laid on him and the fight was over.

Fight No. 18

PAVLIK (17-0, 16 KOS) vs. RICO CASON (10-7)

Date: July 1, 2003 Site: Cafaro Field, Niles Result: Pavlik KO, 2nd Pavlik: That was a great fight at Cafaro Field. Second fight back home and to be able to come in and fight in front of my hometown was great. He was a game opponent but a wicked body shot we landed in the second round ended it.

Fight No. 19

PAVLIK (18-0, 17 KOS) vs. ANTHONY IVORY (29-66-4)

Date: Jan. 23, 2004 Site: Expo Center, Kansas City Result: Pavlik UD, 8 round Note: Ivory retired in 2006 with a 32-78 record. He was knocked out just five times, the most recent against Marco Antonio Rubio in 2005. Loew: Anthony Ivory was just one of those guys who they brought in to do what he did. Anthony Ivory is a survivor and that’s what he does. We couldn’t find anyone to give us rounds. If you pull up his fight stats, everybody he fought he went the distance with. Pavlik: Oh man. He went to a decision with everybody. You’d throw punches and at the last second he’d block it with his shoulder. We just beat him up. It was like hitting a double-end bag. [Note: A double-end bag is a punching bag anchored to the floor and ceiling with elastic cables. It is used to practice mobility and accuracy.] You just hit him and hope you get a clean enough shot, but if not, just get the points and get a decision.

Fight No. 20

PAVLIK (19-0, 17 KOS) vs. ROBERTO BARO (11-2)

Date: March 26, 2004 Site: Dodge Theatre, Phoenix Result: Pavlik KO, 2nd Pavlik: That was a decent fight. I don’t remember much on it. He was a fighter that we were supposed to go in there and beat.

Fight No. 21

PAVLIK (20-0, 18 KOS) vs. PEDRO ORTEGA (30-13-1)

Date: July 2, 2004 Site: Struthers Field House Result: Pavlik TKO, 6th Loew: Tough fight. Game fighter. I think we just wore him down. Pavlik: We went in there a little sore in the right hand again, but we beat him up with the left hand. Good fight, another one in front of the home crowd. It was just hard to get up for that fight.

Fight No. 22

PAVLIK (21-0, 19 KOS) vs. CARLTON HOLLAND (16-9-1)

Date: Sept. 18, 2004 Site: MGM Grand, Las Vegas Result: Pavlik KO, 2nd Note: Neither remembered anything about the fight. It was on the undercard of the Oscar De La Hoya-Bernard Hopkins fight.

Fight No. 23

PAVLIK (22-0, 20 KOS) vs. ROSS THOMPSON (26-9-2)

Date: Nov. 27, 2004 Site: MGM Grand Result: Pavlik UD, 8 round Loew: Another survivor. Very good fighter. Ross Thompson used to be a contender. They brought him in to go the distance with us. Pavlik: Ross the Boss. Experienced fighter. Fought everybody. Was a former champ. Was beating Fernando Vargas when he was in his prime but just got caught with a crazy punch. Very talented fighter on defense but we just ended up banging him up throughout the fight.

Fight No. 24

PAVLIK (23-0, 20 KOS) vs. DORIAN BEAUPIERRE (12-2-2)

Date: March 4, 2005 Site: Silver Star Hotel & Casino, Choctaw, Miss. Result: Pavlik TKO, 2nd Pavlik: Rematch from the amateurs. I stopped him in the U.S. Championships in 1999 before I qualified for the Olympic Trials. He was a real good amateur, won a couple nationals. Really tough fighter. That was my Showtime debut.

Fight No. 25

PAVLIK (24-0, 21 KOS) vs. DANIEL NEAL (9-8-1)

Date: June 10, 2005 Site: Aragon Ballroom, Chicago Result: Pavlik TKO, 1st Loew: Rough, tough journeyman type guy. We needed a fight at the time. We were the walkout bout of the evening and it was a pro-Mexican crowd and everybody started leaving. And Kelly just started wailing on this kid from the beginning and everybody turned around to watch. Pavlik: We had a couple friends that couldn’t find him after I knocked him out. He went through the bottom rope after I hit him with a right hand. One buddy in the back was like, “Where the heck did Daniel go? Where’s the fighter at?”

Fight No. 26

PAVLIK (25-0, 22 KOS) vs. VINCENT HARRIS (12-17-2)

Date: Aug. 26, 2005 Site: D&I Colonial Ballroom, Houston Result: Pavlik TKO, 2nd Loew: Oh, my God. It was 125 degrees in a barn, I think it was the hottest night of my life. And we were one of the last fights of the night. Pavlik: That was a greenhouse. Tough fighter. Just one of those fighters that tries to cover up, get through and get a payday.

Fight No. 27

PAVLIK (26-0, 23 KOs) vs. FULGENCIO ZUNIGA (17-1-1)

Date: Oct. 7, 2005 Site: The Aladdin, Las Vegas Result: Pavlik TKO, 9th Note: Pavlik won the vacant NABF middleweight title. It marked the beginning of Pavlik’s rise. Zuniga, now 22-3-1, will fight Lucian Bute for the IBF super middleweight title on March 13. Loew: Scared the hell out of me. First 30 seconds of the fight Kelly got dropped and then he came back to make it a helluva fight. Great fight. There was blood everywhere. Pavlik: One of the great fights of all time. One of my favorites. Kid never stopped punching. We just threw punch after punch. Ninth round they stopped it on cuts. He was cut real bad over both eyes. You could see his legs starting to go.

Fight No. 28

PAVLIK (27-0, 24 KOS) vs. BRONCO MCKART (48-6)

Date: July 27, 2006 Site: Mohegan Sun Casino, Uncasville, Conn. Result: Pavlik TKO, 6th Note: This was the first time McKart had been knocked out. He now has a 51-9-1 record and his only other knockout loss came against Enrique Ornelas when he retired in the fifth round in 2007. Loew: I think that’s where everybody realized that Kelly could box and punch and do everything. That was one of the turning points of our career. Pavlik: Great fight, great learning experience. Veteran. Crafty. We just banged his body up. It was a good fight for the first three rounds. It was back and forth. But after the third round, I just started finding that range to the body with straight right hands because he was a southpaw and we ended up stopping him.

Fight No. 29

PAVLIK (28-0, 25 KOS) vs. LENORD PIERRE (18-2)

Date: Nov. 2, 2006 Site: Chevrolet Centre, Youngstown Result: Pavlik TKO, 4th Loew: He was game, a tough kid. He was just swinging for the fence every time. Pavlik: Just banged him up. Dangerous puncher, he hit real well. I couldn’t pick up where he was coming from with a lot of his punches, but we found our range and just kept hitting him with punch after punch and we dropped him like four or five times.

Fight No. 30

PAVLIK (29-0, 26 KOS) vs. JOSE LUIS ZERTUCHE (19-3-2)

Date: Jan. 27, 2007 Site: Honda Center, Anaheim, Calif. Result: Pavlik KO, 8th Loew: Should have been knockout of the year. One of the hardest punches I’ve ever seen. Pavlik: Another great fight. Took more punches than I wanted to take in that fight. He was a game fighter but we were catching him with big shots and in the sixth round I hit him with a right hand and I still don’t know how he got up from that one. He got up and he recovered. Two rounds later, I hit him with a left hook and then a straight right down the middle and he fell asleep on his feet. And thank God the ref came in. I was getting ready to fire another hook.

Fight. No. 31

PAVLIK (30-0, 27 KOs) vs. EDISON MIRANDA (28-1)

Date: May 19, 2007 Site: FedEx Forum, Memphis, Tenn. Result: Pavlik TKO, 7th Note: This was a WBC eliminator bout, with the winner earning a shot at the title. Pavlik entered the match as a significant underdog. Loew: That’s how you beat a bully. You bully a bully and that’s what we did. He took a beating. I think that fight ruined Miranda, I really do. Pavlik: He could hit. Another good fight. That was a fight where we stuck to the game plan. We fought him the only way we could really fight him without taking a chance and we backed him up. We knew we were gonna have to take some shots but once we got him going backward, he couldn’t fight that well. Pretty much the whole fight was a case of me strapping on my war gear, going into the battlefield and seeing if my gun was stronger than his.

Fight No. 32

PAVLIK (31-0, 28 KOS) vs. JERMAIN TAYLOR (27-0-1)

Date: Sept. 29, 2007 Site: Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, N.J. Result: Pavlik TKO, 7th Note: WBC and WBO title bout. Pavlik was knocked down — and nearly out — in the second round, then recovered to stop Taylor in the seventh. It was named “Fight of the Year” by numerous media outlets. Loew: Maybe one of the best middleweight fights in a long, long time. Pavlik: Classic. Great fight. I’ll never forget it. Nerves. First world title fight on a huge stage. Just the way it all played out that night, I’ll definitely remember that.

Fight No. 33

PAVLIK (32-0, 29 KOS) vs. JERMAIN TAYLOR (27-1-1)

Date: Feb. 16, 2008 Site: MGM Grand, Las Vegas Result: Pavlik UD, 12 round Note: Fought at 166-pound “catch weight,” so titles were not on the line. Loew: It showed everyone we could switch gears. The first couple rounds weren’t going our way and we switched gears and became a boxer and we outboxed him in that fight. Pavlik: Great fight. Great hotel room. The strategy for that fight was to show we could outbox a boxer and that’s exactly what happened.

Fight No. 34

PAVLIK (33-0, 29 KOs) vs. GARY LOCKETT (30-1)

Date: June 7, 2008 Site: Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City Result: Pavlik TKO, 3rd Note: Pavlik’s first title defense. Lockett was the No. 1 mandatory challenger for the WBO title. Loew: Gary Lockett was a game kid. Just way out of his class. He was a No. 1 fighter and we had to fight him. Pavlik: Game kid. He had [Joe] Calzaghe’s dad as a trainer and that really gave me more [incentive] to smack him around that much more. He was a tough kid, though. In all reality, the kid could fight. But we were just a little too much for him that night.

Fight No. 35

PAVLIK (34-0, 30 KOS) vs. BERNARD HOPKINS (48-5-1)

Date: Oct. 18, 2008 Site: Boardwalk Hall Result: Hopkins UD, 12 rounds Loew: He’s a great fighter. Bernard Hopkins is a Hall of Fame fighter. If anything is going to go wrong and you do take a loss against somebody, you lose against Bernard Hopkins. We lost to a legend and maybe it took us off our pedestal a little bit.SFlbPavlik: A learning experience mentally-wise. Not really anything on boxing, but just one of those fights that you bounce back from and move forward.