BACK INTO THE RING

By Joe Scalzo | November 11, 2009 at 12:10a.m.

Kelly Pavlik Fight Night

Photographs by The Vindicator photographers Geoffrey Hauschild, William D. Lewis, Robert K. Yosay and Lisa-Ann Ishihara.

Kelly Pavlik’s opponent isn’t well-known

Youngstown champ takes fight for a lot less money.

By Joe Scalzo

YOUNGSTOWN — Kelly Pavlik hasn’t been in the ring for 10 months, but he’s taking a beating on the Internet this week for accepting a fight against Miguel Espino just weeks after canceling a bout with Paul Williams.

“Believe me, I’ve read some of it,” said Pavlik’s trainer, Jack Loew. “I know what’s out there.”

When it became clear his fighter wasn’t going to be ready for a Dec. 5 bout, Loew said he approached Williams’ handlers to ask for two more weeks. HBO had Dec. 19 open and Loew was hopeful the extra time would give Pavlik a better chance to recover from his left hand injury.

Williams’ camp, which was already irritated about the original fight date being postponed two months because of the same injury, denied the request.

“I knew we wouldn’t get it,” said Loew, whose fighter still hasn’t put a glove on in months. “I told them it was going to take time to bend it [the hand].

“I honestly didn’t think we were going to fight until after the first of the year. Then Top Rank [Boxing] came up with this.”

The Dec. 19 bout at Beeghly Center gives Pavlik a chance to keep his WBO and WBC middleweight titles — the sanctioning bodies were threatening to strip him of the titles if he didn’t make a defense soon — while fighting a less-dangerous opponent. A 10-month layoff paired with a career-threatening staph infection wasn’t a good recipe for success against a fighter as talented as Williams.

Still, the Espino fight is nowhere near as lucrative. Pavlik is guaranteed $500,000 (although he will also get a cut of the pay-per-view), compared to almost $3 million for fighting Williams.

In July, Pavlik said he was insulted by a $1 million offer to fight WBA champion Felix Sturm, but, clearly, his situation has changed in just a few months.

“Yeah, he’s taking a cut,” said Loew. “He just wants — and I want — to get back in the ring as soon as we could.

“Coming off a long layoff, this is what we have.”

The plan is for the Espino bout to serve as a springboard for a spring bout against Williams. The Williams camp is miffed — understandably, Loew said — but they know Pavlik is the best option out there for the future.

That point was driven home when, after switching opponents from Pavlik to Sergio Martinez, Williams’ Dec. 5 bout in Atlantic City was changed from Boardwalk Hall’s 12,000-seat arena to the smaller Adrian Phillips Ballroom.

“We see who needs who,” said Loew, who expects to sell out the 7,000-seat Beeghly Center. “If he’s such a big draw, why did he go from fighting in front of 12,000 people to a ballroom?”

Espino (20-2-1, 9 KOs), the WBC’s No. 3-ranked contender, hails from North Hollywood, Calif. A former contestant on the reality boxing show “The Contender,” he last fought in March against Alejandro Garcia for the WBC Caribbean Boxing Federation middleweight title at the Playboy Mansion in California. Garcia retired in the sixth round, claiming a hand injury.

Loew attended that fight — he was training Clevelander Prenice Brewer for one of the event’s other bouts — but didn’t see the Espino bout.

(For those with vivid imaginations, the happily-married Loew said he was in a tent preparing for the bout, not in, say, the grotto.)

Espino is a better boxer with less power than Marco Antonio Rubio, who lost to Pavlik in February, Loew said.

“He fights with a lot of heart and he fights three minutes of every round,” said Loew. “He’s a competitive guy and guys like that are good for TV. They show a lot of guts.”

Pavlik said Monday he expects to resume full training by the end of next week. Loew repeated his vow that he won’t let Pavlik fight at less than 100 percent.

Loew realizes Pavlik might not quite be at his 2007 self by then — the long layoff also included a nasty reaction to antibiotics, which put him in the Cleveland Clinic for five days in September — but vowed he’ll be 100 percent healthy or he won’t fight.

“If he’s 5 percent not healthy, we’re not going,” he said. “We have to be 100 percent ready both physically and mentally.”

scalzo@vindy.com