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Pavlik’s WEIGH world
Knockout would elevate Pavlik in boxing world
By JOE Scalzo
Atlantic City, N.J.
More than 31 months after winning the middleweight crown, Kelly Pavlik will return to the scene of the biggest moment of his career with more than just the WBO and WBC belts on the line.
“With a knockout [tonight], I think it puts him right up there with the top five guys in the world,” HBO boxing analyst Harold Lederman said Friday. “He goes from No. 50 to No. 4 in one fell swoop.
“Let’s face reality, this could do wonders for his career.”
Over the past 18 months, Pavlik has gone from boxing’s boy wonder to, “Boy, I wonder what’s wrong?”
It started with his first career loss — a unanimous decision defeat to Bernard Hopkins that still defines him in the eyes of some critics — combined with two knockout wins over lesser-known fighters, sandwiched around a staph infection that threatened his career.
“He wasn’t a focused guy; he was going through the motions over the past year,” said Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, Pavlik’s promoter. “When he fought Jermain Taylor or Edison Miranda, we had a focused, committed athlete and somehow that stopped.”
The high point came in September 2007 when he knocked out Taylor in Atlantic City for the title.
The low point came last December when he was forced to take a bout with Miguel Espino on short notice. He won by fourth-round TKO but looked rusty and took a lot of punishment against a lesser fighter.
“You work for what you’re fighting,” said Jack Loew, Pavlik’s trainer. “It’s like football — you play up to the level of what you’re facing.
“Coming off injuries, I don’t think his performance [against Espino] was 100 percent,” Loew said. “That’s why we fought who we fought instead of Paul Williams. You can’t fight Paul Williams at 80 percent.”
The boxing consensus seems to be that a knockout win tonight revives Pavlik’s career, but Youngstown native Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini isn’t so sure. Mancini doesn’t buy the argument that Martinez beat Williams in December.
“He did not beat Paul Williams, he just did better than everyone thought he would,” Mancini said.
Mancini thinks beating Martinez means little since Williams already did that.
“Unequivocally, he has to beat Paul Williams,” Mancini said. “That’s the fight that makes him relevant again. He hasn’t been relevant.
“And beating Espino doesn’t make him relevant.”
Loew, not surprisingly, doesn’t agree.
“If we blow him [Martinez] away, Williams’ stock goes down even more,” Loew said. “We’re back on the big stage and a big performance gets us back on track.”
Loew has repeatedly said Pavlik is in the best shape of his life, which wasn’t the case against Hopkins and Espino.
“We’re not injured, we’re not sick, we’re not on any medications,” Loew said. “We are 120 percent and this is what we’re waiting for.”
Got that? OK. There’s one possibility no one has mentioned yet. What if Pavlik loses?
“A loss, I hate to say this, but it probably puts him back on ESPN, where he’s got to fight his way back,” Lederman said. “No. 1, he loses his title. No. 2, he loses his stature.
“It would be really tough to absorb.”
Few people expect it to happen. Pavlik is a 2-1 favorite — or more — and his size and strength advantage should be enough, even against a crafty, athletic southpaw like Martinez.
More than 7,000 fans are expected at Boardwalk Hall and it’s a safe bet most of the HBO viewers will be on Pavlik’s side, Mancini included.
“I really want to see the kid do well,” Mancini said. “It’s good for the town and it’s good for boxing.”