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Pavlik wants to stay patient against Martinez
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
Photo
Kelly Pavlik
Whenever Kelly Pavlik is asked about being a one-dimensional fighter, his response can be a little amateurish — in a good way.
“You obviously don’t go through the amateurs with just power punches,” said Pavlik, a former national amateur champion who qualified for the Olympic trials before turning pro. “I obviously showed I had hand speed, especially in the division I boxed in.”
Pavlik’s April 17 middleweight title bout is being billed as the boxer versus the puncher, with southpaw Sergio Martinez trying to bedevil the bigger, stronger Pavlik with his awkward, throw-from-all-angles style.
Pavlik believes his straightforward style and high knockout rate — 32 of his 36 wins have come from stoppages — lead observers to underestimate his boxing ability. He said critics tend to focus on his loss to Bernard Hopkins in 2008 and ignore his unanimous decision victory over Jermain Taylor six months earlier.
“The Hopkins fight was just a bad fight,” said Pavlik, who spoke to reporters on a nationwide conference call Thursday. “It [the loss] wasn’t so much because Hopkins moved. I was so lethargic in the fight he didn’t have to move.
“Martinez moves, but he’s off-balance a lot. And when you move, you use a lot of energy. In a lot of his fights, he starts to wear down a little bit halfway through.”
Pavlik watched Martinez’s loss to Paul Williams on Dec. 5 and came away impressed, believing Martinez won the fight by two rounds even though he lost by majority decision.
But he wasn’t too impressed.
“He took a lot of punches,” Pavlik said of Martinez. “If Williams had more pop, it could have been a different fight.
“He does a lot of good and does a lot of bad. His good could be his bad.”
Pavlik believes the key to victory is staying patient, using Martinez’s awkward style to his advantage.
“He punches at a lot of different angles, which sometimes helps him and sometimes opens him up to getting caught with something coming in,” Pavlik said. “It’s nothing overly impressive but he’s definitely someone you have to respect and be careful of.
“You can’t go in face first trying to hit him.
Martinez leaves his hands low, which could open him up to Pavlik’s long, powerful left jab. But it can also entice fighters to lunge and open themselves up to counter-punches.
“As with any mover, whether it’s Martinez or Floyd Mayweather or Joe Blow, you don’t follow them,” Pavlik said. “You let them move and eventually they’ll move into a punch.”
Pavlik’s trainer, Jack Loew, said it may take a few rounds for his fighter to figure out Martinez’s style, but they’re not going to change their approach.
“We’re going to go with what got us here,” he said. “We’ll fight our fight and if we have to adjust, we’ll adjust.”
Pavlik started training camp at almost 185 pounds, much of it muscle packed on after his December victory over Miguel Espino. Loew said Pavlik weighed 1671‚Ñ2 pounds on Thursday.
“We’re within a pound or two of where we usually are,” he said. “We’re right on schedule.”
Pavlik sparred 12 rounds on Thursday. He said this might be the best he’s felt before a fight since his first title defense, a third-round knockout of Gary Lockett almost two years ago.
“We’re really looking forward to next Saturday,” said Loew, “People are going to see the best Kelly Pavlik they’ve seen in a long time.”