By Lem Satterfield, FanHouse
ATLANTIC CITY -- When Kelly Pavlik entered the Paladium Ballroom at Caesar's Palace for Friday afternoon's weigh-in for his WBO and WBC middleweight (160 pounds) title defense against southpaw, WBC junior middleweight (154 pounds) champion, Sergio Martinez, the room full about 450-to-500 or so of his partisan fans erupted with the chants, of "Kelly!, Kelly!"
Pavlik responded by removing his warmup top and pumping his left index finger into the air in unison with the screams of the crowd.
With that, it appeared as if the emotion was back in Pavlik for the first time since September of 2007, when his seventh-round knockout dethroned Jermain Taylor as undisputed champion in Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall.
The 27-year-old Pavlik (36-1, with 32 knockouts) will return to the Boardwalk Hall on Saturday night against the 35-year-old Martinez (44-2-2, 24 KOs), who, like Pavlik, weighed in at 159.5 pounds.
"It's been a long, tough road, but he's back. The old Kelly Pavlik is back. That's the last time I've seen him this pumped up was when he fought Taylor here," said Pavlik's trainer, Jack Loew, of the Youngstown, Ohio, native.
"He's at 100 percent -- no injuries, the weights good. We had a great training camp, and there will be no excuses on Saturday night," said Loew. "Those people you saw today are just a few of our fans from Youngstown. And on Saturday night, you're going to see a whole lot more of them, and they're going to see Kelly get in there and do his thing."
Pavlik will be after the fifth defense of his crown, with the past four being comprised of a decision over Taylor in their return bout, and stoppages of Gary Lockett, Marco Antonio Rubio, and, Miguel Espino, respectively, in the third, ninth, and, fifth rounds.
Pavlik clearly aims to make it a short night against Martinez, with whom he was animated during their post-weigh-in staredown.
Seeming to indicate that he had more heart than his opponent, Pavlik first emphatically pounded his right fist at his own chest three times, then poked his right index finger in that of Martinez's before repeating the process on himself, yet again.
But Martinez did not back down, and, in fact, was as animated as was Pavlik.
Spurred on by the booing crowd, Martinez -- his face inches from Pavlik's -- gave the "throat-cutting gesture" to the champion.
"When I looked into his eyes, I saw that he was tired. I think that he had to lose too much weight for this fight," said Martinez of Pavlik, who still was five pounds over the 160-pound limit on Thursday -- nearly 24 hours earlier. "I think that he had a tough time with it, and I think that, in the fight, that will come out."
Pavlik's out-of-training weight was as high as 190, said Loew, who admitted that making the limit "was tougher" this time than most -- "probably the toughest since we fought Bronco McKart" in July of 2006.
Loew expects Pavlik to weigh as much as 175 pounds by the time he enters the ring against Martinez, whose promoter, Lou DiBella, nevertheless, believes Martinez can overcome the disadvantage in size.
"I think that my guy looked ripped and that he's strong and very much in shape for this fight. I think that if Sergio doesn't get tagged, then he's got a great chance to win," said DiBella.
"But Kelly looked like he just got out of a sauna. He looked kind of dried out," said DiBella. "The things is, though, he's got 32 hours to put all of that weight back on, and that's a lot of time for him to get a lot bigger."
Pavlik expects to wear down his opponent on the way to earning the 33rd knockout of his career.
"I'm going to go to the body, but you've got to be careful with a southpaw -- just leaving yourself open and reaching for that body. But the time will present itself. We had some very decent sparring patners that were slick fighters and who had hand speed and they moved. We caught them with some body shots," said Pavlik.
"I think that Sergio gets tired because of what he naturally does in the ring. He moves, he moves, he moves, and wastes a lot of energy. He ducks down, swings around. And the thing is, after a while, he'll slow down, stop, and he'll get in the middle of the ring and punch with you," said Pavlik.
"But at that point, he'll be in there with a natural middleweight," said Pavlik. "And when you're trying to shake those punches where you're getting hit on the shoulder when you're moving, there's going to be a big difference, and I'll catch up to him and I'll stop him."
Source: boxing.fanhouse.com
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