By BERNARD FERNANDEZ, Philadelphia Daily News
A staph infection can be a nasty thing, but especially so for a boxer when the affected area is a knuckle that won't heal. Boxing is a sport that's difficult enough for those with two good hands, but it's all but impossible for someone who has only one operative fist.
When WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik looks at his left hand now, he sees a repaired tool that will allow him to jab and hook his way back to his former level of prominence. Just a few short months ago, though, the knuckle area of that hand was a toxic mix of pus and pain that threatened to end his career, or at least put it on hold for a long time.
"It started in February 2009," Pavlik said, recalling his ninth-round stoppage of challenger Marco Antonio Rubio. "Throughout training camp I had a little cut on my knuckle. No big deal, right? We didn't think anything of it. It was just a tiny cut, certainly nothing to be worried about."
But Pavlik (36-1, 32 KOs ) - who fights for only the second time in 14 months when he takes on Argentine southpaw Sergio Martinez (44-2-1, 24 KOs) in the HBO-televised main event tomorrow night in Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall - soon had plenty to be worried about. The tiny cut became infected, and the infection was as persistent and difficult to defeat as any human opponent Pavlik has faced.
"A couple of weeks after the Rubio fight, I was playing basketball and I felt a pinch in the knuckle of my left index finger," Pavlik recalled. "I looked down and there was no blood, but pus was oozing out. I kind of knew then that something wasn't right.
"I had surgery to make sure it didn't get into the bone and tendon. About a week after the surgery, the cut opened back up again. I went back, had another culture done on it. At that point I was beginning to get frustrated because I'd had the surgery and was doing everything I was supposed to, but it was getting worse instead of better.
"I was taking antibiotics and was pretty much bedridden. I believed I would fight again, but you can't help but wonder when the thing was ever going to heal. It made for a pretty bad year in 2009."
Pavlik, whose express lane to superstardom was derailed when he was easily outpointed by savvy veteran Bernard Hopkins in a 170-pound catchweight bout on Oct. 18, 2008, figured he had recovered enough to sign for an Oct. 3 title defense against former WBO welterweight champ Paul Williams. But the staph infection wasn't dead, only dormant, and its re-emergence KOd what would have been an attractive matchup.
Fortunately, this flare-up responded to medication and Pavlik moved on to a Dec. 19 defense against Miguel Espino, whom he stopped in five rounds before the standing adoring throngs in Pavlik's hometown of Youngstown, Ohio.
Martinez, who lost a controversial, 12-round majority decision to Williams on Dec. 5, represents not only the toughest test Pavlik has faced since being schooled by Hopkins, but an opportunity to reassert himself as one of boxing's can't-miss attractions. It'll be his fourth appearance in Boardwalk Hall, where he had been developing the sort of following reminiscent of the late Arturo Gatti.
"I wanted to fight Williams," Pavlik stressed. "His people said I was lying about the staph infection. I wasn't lying. I don't avoid big fights. I went up two weight classes to fight Hopkins. I don't hide from anybody."
Of his image-deflating performance against the ageless B-Hop, Pavlik shrugs. Bad nights happen, and he doesn't deny he had one against someone with a history of making ring rivals appear foolish. He was stung, however, by the criticism that followed that defeat.
"People pegged me as a one-dimensional power puncher coming up," he said. "I think I showed I'm more than that. But one bad night . . . I don't know. All you can do is go back out there, keep fighting and keep winning. That's the only way to silence the critics."
In the top undercard bout, North Philadelphia welterweight contender Mike Jones (20-0, 16 KOs) squares off against Hecor Munoz (18-2-1, 11 KOs) in a scheduled 10-rounder.
fernanb@phillynews.com
Source: philly.com
No comments:
Post a Comment