By Tim Kudgis

During a recent edition of ATG Radio, I had the chance to speak to former middleweight King, Kelly Pavlik, as he gets ready to prepare for his biggest test in the super middleweight division against WBC/WBA champion Andre Ward.  Pavlik had a lot to say in his one hour detailed interview with the ATG crew.  He decided to go all out when discussing his loses to Bernard Hopins and Sergio Martinez, as well as his split with longtime trainer Jack Loew.  When these subjects were brought up Kelly had this to
say:

"This never came up before because I am one of those people who doesn't like to make excuses or give reasons why I lost fights.  I am willing to now because I am tired of biting my tounge."

"As far as the cutman for the Martinez fight, he did a good job and is a good cutman.  I would never knock anybody and their profession.  I would be bitter if he came in and ran me down.  The cutman did what he possibly could do.  Now the day of the fight being on the IV and everything, I do not think that it was the right thing to do.  I was still kind of new to it.  I never had to kill myself to make weight like that. I found out to really get hydrated you are supposed to do your IV right after the weigh-in not the day of the fight.  He (cutman) went through 7 cc's of adrenaline to stop the cut but there was no way of stopping it.  I rehydrated so much and had so much fluid in my body that the cut was just pumping."

"The Hopkins fight to be dead honest with you and Robert Garcia can vouch for this.  The Hopkins camp with Naazim Richardson always has the inside scoop on everything.  I had bronchitis the whole time leading up to the fight and only had sparred 3 times in triaining camp.  I had tendonitis and to this day my elbow is swelled up from that."

"I sparred 3 times in 7 weeks for training camp and it was just one of those nights where I was letharhgic, sick, and everything else.  We had to put medication in a guy's name, who Robert Garcia at the time was training him so you can ask him.  We had to put my prescription in his name so Hopkins and Naazim Richardson didn't find out about that and know that I was sick and not feeling good."

"That was the honest to God truth with the fight with Hopkins.  Unfortunately for me it was a bad night and Bernard was chiseled, taking protein shakes, and had one of his best nights.  You have to suck it up and deal with it.  It was a learning experience and i moved on from there.  With the Martinez I had to kill myself to make weight.  I can't really knock the cutman but it is what it is."

"As far as the question 'do I miss my old team?'  I miss some of the people that were involved with it.  Do I feel bad sabout the way it ended which wasn't on my terms and I tried reaching out to my old trainer?  It wasn't the way I wanted to end it.  They have to understand I was given an ultimatum on if I don't do this or don't do that than I am done.  Well listen I have a family and it's still my career.  I don't have other guys and other promoters saying if your not under contract with Top Rank we will fight you and give you good money."

"Jack has 5 or 6 guys training with him because of me.  They were guys I brought there. He is making decent money on ESPN, Fox Sports, this station 7 - when the only reason they came to the gym was because Kelly Pavlik won a world title for Jack Loew.  I don't have that but Jack does.  Jack doesn't need me he can go make a decent amount of money off of a 4-5 fighter.  I'm fighting.  I can't pick up a self contracted job or pick up a job from somebody else.  My job is getting in the ring and fighting."

"Do I miss some of the people on the team?  Yes. Do I miss how camps went and everything else? No I don't, and I'm not just saying that out of animosity or dislike.  I've learned so much just in 3 fights with Robert Garcia than I did in 15 or 16 years with Jack Loew."

"I think Jack is a great trainer for what he has and what he is able to work with.  He is a great trainer and I take nothing away from him but do I think Jack is at that next level? No.  Did you see what happened to Dannie Williams on ESPN?  Did you see what happened to Willie Nelson on ShoBox?  He was lucky he was in a fight with someone who wasn't that good and he still got dropped in that fight."

"It goes to show why I had to leave.  I was a very good fight in the amateurs and then I was molded into a fighter who was just told 'to push him back, push him back.' Sometimes you need a game plan A and plan B.  If you have a guy moving around or this and that - you have to cut the ring off like Robert shows me.  You have to learn how to throw different combinations.  One's and two's are not going to work for everyone."

To hear this exclusive interview in his entirety as well as interviews with Danny Davis, Derrick Chisora, & Fernando Guerrero just click the link below:

Tim Kudgis is a co-host / producer for ATG Radio which air every Monday & Wednesday night from 7-9pm PST.  He also proudly covers the AZ Boxing scene for BoxingScene.com.  He can bereached at tkudgis614@yahoo.com or @BigTimeTimmyATG
on Twitter.