By Steve Kim, SecondsOut.com
Middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik takes on Sergio Martinez this Saturday night in his return to HBO at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. After a disappointing 2009 that saw him take on the likes of Marco Antonio Rubio and Miguel Espino, he gets back to the big show against the speedy Argentinean southpaw.
And yeah, you don’t have to tell Pavlik and his folks that Martinez is a bad style to face. They’ve been told that a few times.
"I’ve heard that over and over and over," confirmed Pavlik to Maxboxing late last week. His trainer Jack Loew says he’s heard it incessantly, "Since we signed for the fight, I’ve heard it a hundred times. We shouldn’t have picked this fight, styles make fights."
But guess what? They don’t seem to care. In fact, they seem to relish the challenge of figuring out Martinez.
"Listen," continued Loew, "we are in the best shape of our life. This is the probably the hardest I’ve seen Kelly work. Left-hander, right-hander, I don’t care what he can do, [Martinez] doesn’t have enough for us."
Pavlik sounds like that kid from the old Life cereal commercial. "I like it; I really do like it and it gives me more confidence than anything." The public perception is, coming off his lopsided loss to Bernard Hopkins in October of 2008, that Pavlik simply can’t handle any kind of movement and that’s probably what Martinez and his crew are banking on. "Yeah, actually they are and that’s what I’m hoping from Sergio Martinez, that he was watching the Bernard Hopkins fight," said Pavlik. "Because that’s where I believe everyone’s getting that from, is the Bernard Hopkins fight. And as of right now, that was a bad fight. It was a fight that wasn’t my night. I was lethargic, wasn’t 100-percent. I fought Jermain Taylor twice, beat him twice, outboxed him, a guy who was an Olympic bronze medalist. And like I said, in a couple of other interviews, like it was in the amateurs, it didn’t have anything to do with power or being one-dimensional. It was being able to box."
Is too much being made out of one bad night at the office?
"Absolutely," stated Loew, "and I watched the Bernard Hopkins fight the other day and y’ know what? I’ll take absolutely nothing away from [Hopkins], he probably fought the best fight that he could have fought that night besides the Trinidad fight. But that was just one bad night on Kelly Pavlik’s part. And even though we lost probably every round of the fight, he wasn’t really out of it. We just didn’t do anything. It’s not that Bernard did anything spectacular, it’s just that Kelly did nothing; he was so lethargic. Just didn’t do anything. So yeah, I think people are making way, way too much of it. And I heard some interviews online with Sergio Martinez, how he’s going off the Hopkins fight. God bless him, I hope he does."
But here’s the bottom line: aren’t slick, well-schooled left-handers a bad match-up for almost anyone?
"Southpaws that move are tough; don’t get me wrong. But, at the same time, they’re not tough," reasoned Pavlik. "I mean, they’re off-balance, like Sergio Martinez. He’s a dangerous fighter, but he leaves himself wide open, too. We’ve seen it against Margarito; we’ve seen it against Paul Williams; he gets hit. He’s not as fast as what people think. He’s...how can you put it? He moves pretty good, when he punches. He’s from a different stance so it makes it look a lot faster than what it is. So I know you have to be careful with a guy like that but you can’t sit there and go, ’Oh my God, he’s so fast,’ when he’s not."
Pavlik, who trained in his familiar haunt of Youngstown, Ohio, for this fight, said he got quality sparring from the likes of Jesus Gonzalez and Austin Trout.
"Those guys are fast, especially in sparring," said Pavlik. "I mean, they’re unbelievably fast and plus you’re bringing them in, four rounds with one, the next four rounds with another guy. And also, they punch a little harder. They sit down and they pivot on their foot and they turn that left hand over, where I haven’t seen that from Martinez."
Many insiders are tabbing Martinez to outmanuever and outbox Pavlik and it seems as though his career has never fully regained its momentum from the Hopkins loss. It seems that many have forgotten that he is still the middleweight champion of the world.
"I think they do," admitted Pavlik, who points out that his loss to “The Executioner” came at 170-pounds. "Y’ know what a good point is? I fought Bernard Hopkins two weight classes higher. I didn’t have a fight at middleweight, so what did I do? I jumped up two weight classes to go fight him. Nobody else would do that and I did. Everybody is going off this loss against Hopkins. Well, what happens when Roy Jones loses? What happens with Pacquiao and his five losses? What happens with Miguel Cotto? You never hear anything about that and everybody is going off that- it was a bad night. I mean, I won’t even use the weight class as an excuse because me going up in weight, I didn’t have to kill myself to make weight. Yeah, I was two weight classes above mine but I was strong going in, nutrition-wise. I was strong, healthy. So that has nothing to do with it.
Pavlik continues, "Everybody goes, ’Oh, well, I think it was the higher weight class that he went to.’ No, that wasn’t it. It was just a bad, bad night. And everybody goes off that one bad night. My God, if I was going to retire tomorrow, I’d be 36-1. That’s a helluva record."
An emphatic win over Martinez would go a long way in erasing the memory of that night and re-establishing Pavlik’s credibility in the eyes of the boxing public. Despite what many pundits believe, Pavlik and Loew like this match-up, believing they have the advantage in natural size and that Martinez can be touched. It’s a tough fight, but not an impossible one, by any stretch.
His manager, Cameron Dunkin says, "It’s a hard fight and people have asked ‘What’s the point?’ But Kelly wanted the fight; Kelly wants to fight anybody and everybody and that’s why I laugh when they say Kelly was afraid to face Paul Williams. It’s just ridiculous. Kelly will fight anybody, anywhere, anytime, and he always has. If anyone’s ever chickened out, it’s me, it’s not him. So he said ‘yes’ immediately. ’If that’s what it’s going to take to get on HBO, then I’m going to go.’"
Ahh, yes, “The Punisher,” who had put his name on the dotted line more than once last year to face Pavlik, only to have those fights never come about because of the lingering staph infection incurred by Pavlik on the middle of his left hand. After a couple of attempts to salvage that bout late last year, Williams would instead go on to face Martinez, in what was one of the best clashes of 2009. The negotiations and subsequent postponement of Pavlik-Williams left bad feelings on both sides of the table.
But should Pavlik get past Martinez, they say that Williams is next on their to-do list.
"I think that would be immediate; I think that’s what they’re going to come with. I think that’s what HBO wants," said Dunkin. "I think that’s what the fans want. I know that’s what Kelly wants and he’s tired of hearing about it. Yeah, I think that fight will be the first fight on the burner. I think that will be the one they try and put together and hopefully they’ll put together enough money that we make the fight."
One of the reasons Martinez landed this assignment was his strong outing against Williams in December.
"Here’s the thing, I think the Paul Williams people have made a huge mistake,” said Dunkin. “After we blow out Sergio Martinez, that just makes Williams’ stock go down, more. He wanted equal money this time; he isn’t going to even come close to getting offered what he was the first time. But like I said, after we blow out Martinez, why would we even fight him? I just think we move onto bigger and better things and there’s a whole lot more out there than Paul Williams."
Pavlik says he’d relish the opportunity to face Williams, but he knows he has a stern challenge ahead of him. Perhaps, even tougher than Williams.
"Hey, I would love to [face Williams]. How many times, after the last fight with Espino, did I call him out? I think maybe three or four times? But as all fighters say- and I think it’s true- I think right now, I’ve got a more dangerous opponent in front of me than Paul Williams on the 17th. I think Sergio Martinez is more of a dangerous fighter than Paul Williams for two reasons: One, he’s not as well-known. I think the last fight with Williams, due to the fact I was supposed to fight Williams and it got postponed and canceled and everything else that went on. People paid attention to that and they watched [Williams’] next fight, which was against Martinez and Martinez surprised everybody. People that know boxing and follow boxing know who Martinez was. But I think the ones that didn’t and watched the fight, seen how Martinez is. So that makes it a dangerous fight for me because he’s not as well known as Paul Williams.
"Second of all, Williams is a volume puncher,” continues Pavlik. “That’s all he is. I am too, but I have a lot of power behind my punches. I set my punches up; I jab; my jab’s working; I set up my right-hand. If the jab ain’t working, I find other routes to beat people. I go to the body; I do something. Williams is not like that; Williams is a guy that comes in there and throws a hundred punches a round. On the other hand, you got Martinez, who’s a guy who punches from different angles, moves, steps, pivots, fires off the back foot as he’s moving.
"So it makes him a more dangerous fighter than Williams because you know where he’s coming from."
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
It was one of those Saturday nights where you just stayed home, put on your “Snuggie” and watched boxing all night on your couch (Which for me, certainly isn’t the worst thing in the world). Some thoughts on what I witnessed...
-David Estrada’s knockout over the previously-undefeated Orlando Lora is another classic example of how a sparkling record can be deceiving. Lora came in with a mark of 26-0-1 with 18 knockouts, but it was a built-up record for the most part. Ultimately, Lora was exposed by the much more seasoned and hardened Estrada, who has faced the likes of Andre Berto, Kermit Cintron and Shane Mosley.
Famous football coach Bill Parcells loves to say, "You are what your record says you are." That might be true in the NFL, but it’s not always the case in boxing.
- Speaking of Berto, I thought he posted a pretty solid win against Carlos Quintana on Saturday night, considering the layoff he was coming off, the tragedy in Haiti and then his bicep injury that he suffered early on in the fight. But I’d like to see him in there with a pure puncher, who can bang from long range. How ’bout Randall Bailey in an all-Florida match-up? I think that fight would have fireworks.
- I heard that they had a very disappointing crowd in Sunrise, Florida at the Bank Atlantic Center, where not too many folks decided to “Fight for Haiti.” A couple of thoughts: Don King had really created a climate where folks in that area expected freebies and I think that hurt this gate. Also, there’s much more to building a fighter than just having him on HBO a bunch of times. You have to also situate that boxer in the area he’s from and build an audience. I wonder, is it too late for Berto? And I think that the same question will soon be asked of Daniel Jacobs, who seems to fight everywhere but the New York area.
- Was it just me or was referee Tommy Kimmons really being hard on Quintana? Not that it really mattered; Berto simply overwhelmed him at the end. But Kimmons was “Two-on-One-Tommy” for much of the night.
- I think Celestino Caballero gives Yuriorkis Gamboa all he can handle in the summer. This guy is “The Elastic Man” and he has the flexibility and movement of a Slinky. If he can overcome the early power and speed of the Cuban, I think he takes that fight down the stretch with his volume and activity.
- Mark Melligan looked pretty good in defeating Norberto Gonzalez on “Top Rank Live.” He’s a much better fighter when he’s aggressive and coming forward. But I still don’t trust a guy who lost to Michel Rosales. But how about a hook-up with Alfonso Gomez? I think that’s a pretty good fight and the winner moves onto bigger and better things.
FINAL FLURRIES
I finally got around to see Steve Molitor’s win against Takalani Ndlovu for the vacant IBF 122-pound title. Molitor looked awfully gun-shy and was very placid in there. I wonder if Caballero took something out of him...I also viewed David Tua’s recent victory over Friday Ahunanya. I still think this guy can be a factor and I wouldn’t mind seeing him matched up versus Sam Peter or the winner of Chris Arreola/Tomasz Adamek. As for the Klitschkos? Well, he’d need a ladder to reach them, so forget it. But will Cedric “The Promoter” Kushner, ever pull the trigger?...It doesn’t surprise me at all that Derrick Coleman has squandered the millions he made in the NBA. You could see that coming a mile away...This Lakers team reminds me of the 1986 edition that were the defending world champions, who added Maurice Lucas, and never really got it together and got bounced in the second round of the playoffs (remember Michael Cooper fainting at The Forum after Ralph Sampson’s shot?) This Laker team isn’t waiting to turn it on; they just may not be all that good...Wait, so at one time, long ago, John Tesh and Oprah were shacking up? Ya’ don’t say!...This week’s edition of “The Main Event” featured Bernard Fernandez and Andre Dirrell...Any questions or comments can be sent to k9kim@yahoo.com and you can follow me at www.twitter.com/stevemaxboxing. You can also become a Facebook fan of Maxboxing at www.facebook.com/MaxBoxing
Source: secondsout.com
No comments:
Post a Comment