by David P. Greisman
His popularity grew out of a wealth of power and a dearth of pretense. There was nothing artificial about Kelly Pavlik. He need not box and weave and move, not when he could just get hit and then hit back even harder. He was blue collar, punching in and punching out, true to his roots in the steel city of Youngstown, Ohio. He still lived there, even after the championship, the spotlight and the seven-figure paydays.
Celebrity can uproot even the most grounded. Sometimes the symptoms don’t present themselves until the fame has begun to fade.
“Kelly Pavlik is still one of the biggest names in boxing,” Pavlik said last week, resorting to the third-person in an online radio interview with Alec Kohut of MaxBoxing.com. “It is,” he added, in case he hadn’t yet convinced his audience.
Pavlik was in the news last week because he’d decided not to fight in two fights. He would not face Lucian Bute, one of the three best 168-pound fighters in the world, in November in Montreal. Nor would he face Daryl Cunningham in what was to be a tune-up bout to help Pavlik prepare for Bute.
The Cunningham fight was supposed to take place in Youngstown. It was supposed to take place on Aug. 6. Pavlik pulled out on Aug. 2.
“It’s not about fighting for Youngstown,” Pavlik said. “It’s about me.”
It’s about money, no matter how many times Pavlik said he can afford to go without paydays he’d have received for Bute and, to a lesser extent, Cunningham.
It’s about principle. Just because Pavlik said he doesn’t need money doesn’t mean he doesn’t want more of it if he’s going to get in the ring.
The tipping point, he said, came when he found out what he was getting for the Cunningham and Bute fights – a minimum of $50,000 and a minimum of $1.35 million (the latter amount supposedly negotiated up from a $1.1 million minimum).
The Cunningham payday would be much less than what he’d gotten for past lesser fights. The Bute payday would be much less than what he’d gotten for past big fights.
And, to make it worse, Pavlik insisted that another super middleweight, Mikkel Kessler, had been offered much more money to face Bute, $3 million, an offer Kessler reportedly turned down.
Pavlik turned his ire toward his promoter, Top Rank.
He would fight Bute in Atlantic City for $1.1 million, he said, but not in Montreal, where he’d have to “put the guy on a stretcher to win the fight.”
“It’s kind of like Top Rank is cashing in on me, like ‘We’re going to make our money off of him. We’re done with him. And that’s it,” he said.
“I’m not going to fight Bute in his hometown to get beat so Top Rank can cash out on me,” he said. “I’m not doing that. It’s kind of stupid. I’m selling myself short by doing that.”
He got paid $2.5 million to face a lesser opponent, Gary Lockett, in front of a smaller crowd in Atlantic City than would be there in Montreal, he said.
He got paid $3 million to face Bernard Hopkins, an opponent of Bute’s caliber but not Bute’s drawing power, in front of a smaller crowd in Atlantic City than would be there in Montreal, he said.
He even got paid $350,000 to face a lesser opponent in Miguel Espino, $275,000 to face a lesser opponent in Alfonso Lopez, and $1.5 million to face Marco Antonio Rubio, a good opponent but one without any true market value.
“How can you pay me 2.5 or 3 million to fight Hopkins or Gary Lockett, but you can’t pay me $2.5 to go fight Lucian Bute in Montreal with a sold out arena?” he said. “$3 million is there, but that’s what they’re cashing out on. ‘We’re going to pocket $2 million. He’s going to lose the fight, and we’re done with him.’ ”
It’s about money.
It’s about principle.
And it’s about incorrect information and misguided decisions.
Kessler was never offered $3 million to fight Bute, according to several reports following Pavlik’s withdrawal. Pavlik had that number on his mind in June, though, when his local newspaper, the Youngstown Vindicator, noted that Kessler had said no to that amount.
Ben Thompson of FightHype.com asked Pavlik where he heard about such an offer.
“It was posted on the Internet. It’s not a lie,” Pavlik answered. “If you put in Google ‘Mikkel Kessler $3 million offer from Bute’s camp,’ you’ll pull it up.”
Thompson’s interview with Pavlik links back to the Vindicator article. An in-depth search of the Internet cannot find any reliable sources to bolster Pavlik’s claim.
The Vindicator article received the information about Kessler’s $3 million offer from three sources in Pavlik’s camp, one of whom was Pavlik himself, according to the Vindicator reporter, Joe Scalzo, speaking to BoxingScene.com via email.
“Obviously, that was inaccurate,” Scalzo said.
Pavlik said last week that he’d yet to receive his contract for the Cunningham fight, a questionable claim coming just days before a bout that was to be broadcast on Showtime, a questionable claim coming from a world-class fighter who would know not to get so close to fight time without having the business end taking care of.
The Cunningham fight was a tune-up requested by Pavlik himself, Top Rank officials noted. We learned more last week from various reports: that the Youngstown show was doing poorly, selling around 1,000 tickets; that Pavlik’s $50,000 fee was more than what fighters appearing on Showtime’s “ShoBox” broadcasts typically get, and that the payday would’ve increased if the live event profited; and that the Bute-Pavlik fight would’ve seen the proceeds split 60-40 between InterBox (Bute’s promoter) and Top Rank, with Pavlik entitled to 82 percent of Top Rank’s revenue.
He very well could’ve gotten more money. And while most were predicting Pavlik would have little shot of beating Bute, Pavlik himself was self-defeating, complaining about the insurmountable disadvantages of fighting in Bute's adopted hometown.
Pavlik was paid very well during his time as middleweight champion. HBO dished out the cash for the Lockett fight. The bout with Hopkins was on pay-per-view. The fights with Rubio and Espino were on smaller pay-per-views. And the Lopez tune-up was on a pay-per-view undercard.
If he wanted a tune-up with Cunningham on short notice, he’d have to settle for a slight jump above Showtime’s usual “ShoBox” budget. And he’d have to settle for Showtime’s money for the Bute fight.
Instead, he’s fighting nobody and getting paid nothing.
“I’m not trying to be one of them cocky people,” Pavlik told Kohut. “Kelly Pavlik is Kelly Pavlik. My name still draws. … Until I get what I deserve, until I’m happy, then I’m not going to fight.”
There was nothing artificial about Kelly Pavlik. Though his nickname was “The Ghost,” he was hard to miss in the later part of his career, both in the ring and on the screen. He need not box and weave and move. He could just get hit and then hit back even harder. He was the champion, receiving the spotlight and the seven-figure paydays.
His championship was lost more than a year ago. His fame has faded. His paychecks are diminishing.
Celebrity is temporary, especially so for athletes, incredibly so for boxers who are only one punch, one injury away from obsolescence.
For his next act, Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik is making himself disappear.
The 10 Count
1. I love that Amir Khan appeared on “Lopez Tonight” on TBS on July 25, speaking with George Lopez for 10 minutes about his win over Zab Judah and what it’s like living in the same apartment building as Snoop Dogg.
It was Khan’s first American talk show appearance, and it’s the kind of outlet that more boxers should take advantage of. Publicity needs to be more than press conferences and newspaper articles and website features and billboards alongside highways.
Alas, the list of boxers who’ve gotten such a spotlight in recent years is short.
Off the top of my head, we’ve also seen Shane Mosley on “Lopez Tonight,” Manny Pacquiao multiple times on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Wladimir Klitschko on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and, going back several years, Antonio Tarver on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” just after he knocked out Roy Jones.
Such appearances, done before a bout, can bring in more casual viewers come fight night. And after a fight, seeing and hearing from a boxer outside of the ring can help build his fan base for his next time out.
There are countless outlets out there. Shill away…
2. Sticking with cross-promotion, I love some of what will be done in advance of Manny Pacquiao’s November fight with Juan Manuel Marquez – I am troubled, however, by some of the other marketing measures.
The Pacquiao-Marquez 3 pay-per-view will be distributed by HBO, and as part of that agreement, HBO’s parent company will use several of its other outlets to promote the fight, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com.
The fight will “be promoted across Time Warner’s numerous platforms, which include television networks (such as HBO, TNT, TBS and CNN), magazines (Sports Illustrated and People) and the websites for those outlets,” Rafael wrote.
The plans, according to Rafael, include CNN showing episodes of the “Pacquiao-Marquez 24/7” documentary/commercial series; CNN airing an interview with Manny Pacquiao and Bob Arum on “Piers Morgan Tonight” and doing interviews for its international stations; TBS touting the fight during its baseball playoff broadcasts; and TNT touting the fight during NBA broadcasts (if the basketball league ends its labor dispute).
Utilizing Time Warner’s networks is wise, a strategy that needs not be limited merely to when the company is negotiating and sweetening its bid to land such a major pay-per-view.
I don’t know about the use of CNN airtime, though, in particular the interviews with Pacquiao and Arum. It strikes me as a breaking down of the wall between news and advertising.
Would Piers Morgan interview Manny Pacquiao even if his network’s parent company had no financial interest in doing so? Honestly, he should be. But that’s apparently not how things work…
3. The title belt the World Boxing Council took from Timothy Bradley will no longer be awarded to the winner of a fight between Erik Morales and Jorge Barrios.
Barrios is out due to his past as a Boxer Behaving Badly (he’s facing trial on manslaughter charges for an alleged hit-and-run in Argentina that killed a pregnant woman and her unborn child). He couldn’t get a visa to enter the United States.
Instead, Morales will face Lucas Matthysse in a much more intriguing bout. Matthysse, within the past year, has lost disputable split decisions to Zab Judah and Devon Alexander and deserves another important fight (never mind the paper title). Morales is coming off a majority decision loss to Marcos Maidana, a fight that few expected Morales to win – and a fight in which even fewer expected Morales to give Maidana as much trouble as he did.
Their bout will take place on the pay-per-view undercard to Victor Ortiz vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr.
4. Meanwhile, WBC head Jose Sulaiman issued a statement last week about the Timothy Bradley situation. As expected, there were problems with his logic and factual consistency:
Jose Sulaiman: “Our rules for champions state that each champion should defend the title at least three times a year…”
WBC rule 1.21.a: “All WBC recognized champions must defend their titles at least two (2) times a year.”
Jose Sulaiman: “…and when you reach six months of inactivity, the title might be withdrawn.”
WBC rule 1.21.b: “All WBC champions are obligated to make at least one yearly mandatory defense.”
Beyond that, Sulaiman in one breath is speaking as if he’s justifying Bradley being stripped of his belt, while in another breath he’s emphasizing the spin that Bradley wasn’t stripped, but rather was made “Champion in Recess” as a favor to him while he’s on the shelf due to his promoters’ lawsuit against him.
5. This week in unintentionally hilarious moments in interviewing, brought to you by Kelly Pavlik’s online radio conversation with Alec Kohut of MaxBoxing:
Pavlik: “Can I say a cuss word?”
Kohut: “Go ahead.”
Pavlik: “He said, ‘It would be asinine for you to take the fight.’ ”
6. Pavlik also gets shy when it comes to talking about Filipino 140-pound fighter Jack Asis.
7. The WBC, perhaps looking to counter the criticism it has recently received, noted last week on its Twitter account that it has donated more than $1 million to UCLA for head injury research.
This is a wonderful move from those involved in a dangerous sport. But one question remains:
Have they given Jose Sulaiman an MRI yet?
8. Is it possible that setting a $100 bill on fire could ultimately end up costing Floyd Mayweather Jr. far, far more money than that?
It seemed a tempest in a teapot when Mayweather made headlines after being photographed and videotaped taking a lighter to a Benjamin Franklin while at a nightclub in Atlanta.
Except those photographs are now being used against Mayweather as part of Manny Pacquiao’s defamation lawsuit against him.
Pacquiao’s attorney filed a motion in court last week seeking a default judgment against Mayweather due to Mayweather not agreeing to show up for a deposition, even when a judge ordered him to do so.
The attorney argues that while Mayweather had said he’d be training and doing promotion for his fight with Victor Ortiz, “several photographs … appear to show Mayweather at parties in Atlanta and Las Vegas during the same time periods during which he refused to be deposed,” wrote the Associated Press.
Who’d have thunk it: Before Floyd Mayweather could be felled by the IRS, he might just have been brought down by TMZ.
9. Tim Coleman might just have lost some fans back in his hometown of Baltimore – and not because of his stoppage loss to Vernon Paris on ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights.”
No, it was the blasphemy of him wearing an Orioles shirt into the ring but donning a New York Yankees hat for a pre-fight interview.
It’s a good thing Coleman’s not from Boston…
10. Joe Tessitore, during “Friday Night Fights,” speaking about undercard fighter Cristobal Cruz: “This is a guy who made his pro debut at age 14.”
Yeah? So did Traci Lords…
David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. His weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com.
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