Kelly Pavlik Goes into Non-Conference Schedule
By Steve Kim
The Ohio State Buckeyes are once again expected to contend for the BCS championship in the fall. On September 13, in their third outing of the year, they face the mighty Trojans of USC in Los Angeles in one of the most highly anticipated games of the college football season. But before that they open the season against Youngstown State and then Ohio - programs they are expected to blow out with ease.
Kelly Pavlik, a huge Buckeye loyalist and middleweight champion of the world, could be looking at a showdown with super middleweight king Joe Calzaghe in November. But before that he faces Gary Lockett, who is considered to be about a 15-1 underdog by those who care about such things. This, coming off a stretch where he faced in succession: Jose Luis Zertuche, Edison Miranda and Jermain Taylor, twice.
This bout here, which takes place at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey this Saturday night, seems to be Pavlik's non-conference tune-up.
But like the manner in which Jim Tressel will undoubtedly go into coach-speak and talk up the Penguins and Bobcats, Pavlik and his team are doing the same thing in regards to their upcoming assignment.
"This is the first title defense, this kid's hungry. Once you get to that level of being a champ everybody is coming out," Pavlik would tell Maxboxing last week from his home in Youngstown, Ohio. "I know I'm getting the best Gary Lockett. We've never had a training camp this hard. We don't want to take no chances, this kid can fight. He's not overly fast, he has enough hand-speed. He's not that big of a puncher but he has enough pop. He doesn't make too many mistakes. So you gotta take the kid serious, this being the first title defense. I'm not going to give this belt up."
His attitude is very simple - every fight is a big fight. A loss to Lockett means the plans made for him by Bob Arum go right out the window. He doesn't want to give Lockett even a sliver of hope to pull an Appalachian St.
"This is huge fighting him right now, coming from Wales, his people are behind him with Joe Calzaghe's win, that's huge," he says. "They're pumping this up over there. I look at it as just another fight against Gary Lockett, but this fight means a lot. First title defense and there's a statement to be made and we gotta keep proving ourselves. We got a lot more goals now."
One of the reasons why Lockett was tabbed, in addition to being the WBO mandatory challenger, is that Lockett is trained by Calzaghe's father, Enzo, who seems to be doing his best to stir up interest in a future fight with his son by verbally sparring with Pavlik's trainer, Jack Loew.
"Y'know what? I'm not a fan of it," says Pavlik of the verbiage. "One thing I gotta say to defend my trainer is that Enzo and a couple of other people in the camp of Lockett, they did kinda open their mouths up and threw some shots out. It wasn't that bad of shots but it was enough to get things going and I think that kinda got to Jack a little bit."
Loew, long overshadowed and overlooked, is not afraid to hold his ground - but never his tongue.
"There were some things on the internet. So it really wasn't Jack that started it," Pavlik would explain. "He just kinda stuck to himself. But you take so many shots about I'm one-dimensional, I'm easy to hit, I've been tagged before and if he tags me he's going to knock me out, I'm mechanical. All these little shots that are coming from the camp, I mean if they're going to be that uptight and they're going to be that insecure about Jack Loew's comments and they want to fire back, then that goes to show that they’ve got some concerns on their part.
"Me and Jack didn't throw anything out about Gary Lockett, and Enzo was the first and so was Gary to throw some shots out there. He keeps saying how overconfident I am but they're the ones trying to instigate something because they got some concerns."
Most pundits expect Pavlik to stop Lockett within the first half of the fight. Lockett is more or less the mandatory challenger due to Frank Warren's influence with the WBO. Cameron Dunkin, who manages Pavlik, admits that this is a come-down fight after a tough stretch for his man.
"Absolutely, he fought Miranda and two back-to-back fights with Taylor and I thought - not that this guy’s a bum, he's not, he is the number one contender, he does have an outstanding record- but I think it is a step down from where we were and hopefully Kelly goes to battle like he has gone to battle."
Truth is, in bygone eras, when boxers were much busier, fighting every other month (or even more), many of the elite fighters fought Lockett-like opponents on a regular basis in between tougher fights. But in this marketplace, where fighters at the highest level fight no more than two or three times a year, opposition like Lockett will bring about scrutiny - even after Pavlik's recent run of fights.
"They were really, really harsh on this guy from the beginning," said Dunkin. "And I looked at it like it led towards the Calzaghe fight and that's what I talked to Bob about. I said, 'Look, Enzo Calzaghe trains him, he's the number one contender." I couldn't just see fighting a number three or number four guy that brought no more to the table than this guy and we didn't take care of a mandatory. So I just thought there was a lot more to sell here with this fight. But no matter who we could've fought, unless it would be Hopkins or Calzaghe, we were going to catch heat. We caught heat immediately. No one cared that he had fought back-to-back fights with Taylor and he'd beat Miranda, a real tough guy that nobody wanted to fight."
Arum, who rails against mismatches on HBO (except of course when he's promoting them, it seems), contends that there wasn't much out there at this particular time.
"There wasn't an opportunity to do a major fight because there was nobody against whom you could put him in a major fight, so we took the opportunity to fight our mandatory on a guy who was as good as anybody, other than say, Arthur Abraham, or a Calzaghe, who wasn't available," said the veteran promoter.
Later, adding to his point, he says. "In other words, you have to have a fairly competitive match. But Notre Dame can't play USC 11 games out of 11 games. I mean, there's always going to be competition where the opponent is not as good as the previous opponent. In other words, we're not blessed with a plethora of very talented fighters in any division. So you can not always get the fight you want. Pacquiao can't get the Marquez-type of fight in every fight."
But post-Lockett, the objective is clear.
"What I would like is - and Frank Warren is coming in - I'm going to be talking to him about a Joe Calzaghe fight. Now, if I can't do a Calzaghe fight, I'll do an Abraham fight," said Arum.
Which suits his boxer just fine.
"There is Joe Calzaghe, which I think could be a great fight," was his answer when asked who he would like to face next. "Abraham is still out there, depending on what happens with him and Miranda. There's Felix Sturm with the WBA belt and there's a lot of options out there right now for me. I'm just looking for a couple of big fights."
Calzaghe is just one option - and he may still face Roy Jones in the fall.
"There's a lot of stuff being thrown out there; I guess going home to Ohio and fighting somebody. I don't know, we just gotta sit down when it's over and talk about it when this fight’s over and hopefully everything’s OK and God willing he does good and then we can talk about the next one," said Dunkin of their future plans. But he prefers the Calzaghe fight. "I think that's the fight. Depending on what else is out there and what everyone else comes with, the Pavliks are fine with the fight and I think it's a terrific fight. It's good for boxing, I think it's good for Kelly. That's probably the best fight."