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Pavlik declines Sigmon bout, eyes March 17
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
Kelly Pavlik will make his ring return sooner than expected, and it won’t be against Virginia’s Scott Sigmon.
Pavlik (37-2, 32 KOs) declined a proposed April 14 bout against Sigmon and is eyeing a March 17 return.
“I should find out this week for sure,” Pavlik wrote in a text to The Vindicator late Monday.
Writing on his Facebook page Monday night, Sigmon said, “I sadly regret to inform everyone that 37-2 Kelly Pavlik not to fight me. That’s right, he is afraid to fight [an] unskilled, protected ‘club’ fighter.”
Then, on his Twitter account, Sigmon wrote, “Maybe he has an AA meeting April 14?”
The comment was a jab at Pavlik (37-2, 32 KOs), who has done two stints in alcohol rehab in the past two years.
Pavlik was clearly flabbergasted by Sigmon’s response.
“There was never a fight scheduled for sure against him!” he wrote in his text. “He was the one that went to some boxing site!
“I wish I could fight the kid — he is horrible!”
The April 14 bout would have been a 10-round, 166-pound fight on the undercard of the Brandon Rios-Yuriorkis Gamboa WBA lightweight title bout at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
Sigmon (21-3, 12 KOs) has won 13 of his last 14 fights — the loss was a majority decision against Chris Fitzpatrick in July — but hasn’t fought anyone near Pavlik’s caliber.
Pavlik said it is more likely he fights on March 17 and told The Vindicator last week that the Sigmon rumors were untrue.
Pavlik said he does not yet have an opponent for the March 17 date.
“The Ghost” has been in Oxnard, Calif., since early January, working out with new trainer Robert Garcia.
Pavlik has not fought since winning a majority decision over Alfonso Lopez on May 7, 2011, in Las Vegas. Pavlik weighed 170 pounds for that bout.
Pavlik vowed he would no longer fight at the 160-pound middleweight limit after losing his WBC and WBO middleweight titles to Sergio Martinez on April 17, 2010.
But when Pavlik weighed just 173 pounds upon his arrival in Oxnard, Garcia wondered whether his fighter could return to middleweight, where Pavlik’s size (6-foot-21/2) and power give him a big advantage.