Pavlik looking to win convincingly Feb. 21

The WBC and WBO champion will fight Marco Antonio Rubio at the Chevy Centre.

Vindicator staff/wire reports

NEW YORK — Kelly Pavlik still can’t fathom how his beloved Ohio State Buckeyes surrendered the winning touchdown to Texas in the final seconds of the Fiesta Bowl last week.

“Who called that defensive play?” the middleweight champion groused Tuesday. “Who rushes eight guys when you’re up by 4 points and on your own 30-yard line and you play two defensive backs on man coverage?”

He was quick to add he’s still behind the Buckeyes, just like his fans here continue to back Pavlik after his first loss, a 12-round decision in a non-title bout to Bernard Hopkins in October.

The WBC and WBO champ returns to the ring Feb. 21 at the Chevrolet Centre to defend his belts against Marco Antonio Rubio, the No. 1 WBC contender.

The bout is part of a two-city doubleheader that Top Rank is distributing on pay-per-view. In the earlier fight, Miguel Cotto will take on Michael Jennings for the vacant WBO welterweight title at Madison Square Garden. Spectators at each arena will be able to watch the other bout on the big screen.

Pavlik lost to Hopkins at 170 pounds, 10 pounds over his weight class. He conceded that the defeat meant so much and so little at the same time — his belts weren’t on the line, but his reputation was.

“I still feel like a champ, but there’s still a lot of proving to do,” Pavlik said. “What’s very important about this fight is not going in and [just] winning a decision, a boring fight, or coming away with a ‘W.’ I feel as if I’ve got to go in there and shine.

“I’ve got to win convincingly, if it’s by knockout or if it’s by just a dominating performance for 12 rounds.”

The 26-year-old Pavlik (34-1) insisted he didn’t want to make excuses for his loss, though he intimated he wasn’t feeling his best and, as a result, didn’t take much meaning from the fight.

“That wasn’t me that fight,” Pavlik said. “It just wasn’t. If that was me fighting that fight 100 percent and I lost, then I’d say, ‘You know what? I need to go back to the drawing board. I need to work on this; I need to work on that.’ But there’s nothing you can learn from that.”

Pavlik’s manager, Cameron Dunkin, said it didn’t take Pavlik long to recover from his first loss.

“He dealt with that loss a lot better than I did, than Jack [Loew, his trainer] did or his dad did,” said Dunkin. “Kelly bounces back just like he got off the deck [in the first fight against Jermain Taylor]. Nothing fazes him.

“He was like, ‘Everybody loses. Let’s get over it and prepare so it never happens again.’ ”

The 28-year-old Rubio (43-4-1), of Mexico, is unbeaten since moving up to the middleweight division. He knows this is his best — and probably his only — chance at a title.

“This is a great opportunity for me and I have to take advantage of it,” he said. “Like every fighter in the world, my dream is to become champion of the world.

“On Feb. 21, I will realize that dream when I beat Kelly Pavlik.”

Pavlik and Rubio have similar styles. Both fighters are aggressive with good punching power.

“This guy is gonna come to fight,” Dunkin said of Rubio. “He’ll stay in front of Kelly and he knows his one chance to win is by hitting Kelly on the chin.

“I believe he’ll come out winging. He’ll come and mix it up. That’s what he always does.”

Pavlik said moving up in weight class had nothing to do with his loss to Hopkins, and he expects to eventually do so permanently.

“When the timing is right and it’s ready for us to make that move,” he said, “we’re going to do it and there won’t be no hesitation.”