Kelly Pavlik’s New Beginning in The Sport He Loves
By Thomas Gerbasi (photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank)
Last year, while doing a press junket for the David Mamet film Redbelt, Ray Mancini was steered away from talk about the movie business into a discussion about the trade where he first made his name as a world lightweight champion and matinee idol back in the 80’s. In particular, ‘Boom Boom’ was asked about any advice he had given the latest sensation from his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, current middleweight king Kelly Pavlik.
Mancini recalled a banquet in 2007 celebrating the city’s new favorite son and the words he spoke to him and the assembled guests.
“I want to remind you of that contract you signed,” said Mancini to Pavlik, one champion to another. “The people you signed it with are all out here. When you turned pro, that contract simply read, ‘if you back me and support me, I’ll go out there and represent you the best possible way, and I’ll represent you the best way I can.’ Now that you’re the champion, you don’t get to break that contract; only they get to break that contract. So go out there and be an upstanding citizen, be the role model that you’ve been and that you’ll continue to be, and live a righteous life, not only for yourself, but for the people of Youngstown. You now represent this town and you’re the voice of this town.”
The place erupted in cheers that night.
Yet nearly two years later, that contract has showed signs of being breached.
Sure, Pavlik will be cheered on Saturday night when he steps into the ring at Beeghly Center in Youngstown to defend his WBC and WBO titles against Miguel Espino, and most of those cheers will be sincere. But there will be the stragglers, the ones who will cheer just to be part of the crowd, when inside they resent the story of the local kid who made good.
“My father told me a long time ago, the same people calling you ‘champ’ on the way in are calling you ‘bum’ on the way out,” Mancini told me last year. “He also said ‘it’s a small fall from the limo to the curb’, and all of these clichés I’ve heard all my life are true.”
Pavlik learned those facts the hard way, as he was the subject of more than a few negative rumors over the last 12 months, which, coupled with a serious staph infection, made what should have been a defining year in his career a forgettable one. He’s only fought once this year, a ninth round stoppage of Marco Antonio Rubio in February, and when a December bout with Paul Williams fell through due to the hand infection, only to be replaced by this pre-Christmas fight against Espino, even fans and pundits outside of Ohio began to question whether Pavlik – who hasn’t beaten a world-class foe since his back-to-back wins over Jermain Taylor in 2007-2008 – was avoiding ‘The Punisher’.
“That doesn’t bother me because some people know absolutely nothing about boxing,” said Pavlik during a recent media teleconference. “They don’t know how the sport works or what goes on in the sport. It doesn’t bother me that much. The thing is, we had to fight, and against Espino, the kid has a great heart, a good chin and he’s always in great shape so you can’t overlook anyone like that. This will be his first shot at a world title and his only shot, so you know he’s going to make the best of it, so our thing was we were told we had to defend the title. We had to make that fight and our job was we had to make that fight so I wouldn’t get stripped of my title. So the people that said he is now fighting two weeks later, they don’t understand the story and have no idea what was behind it. I’ve got my own things I’ve got to worry about on the 19th and that’s where my focus is right now, on that fight.”
So even though boxing politics made this fight happen, it becomes an intriguing matchup simply because of the timing of the bout and the questions surrounding Pavlik. Is he still hurt? Is his mind in the game? Will ring rust be a factor? Has Youngstown turned on him? It’s a fight that probably would have been dubbed a mismatch had it taken place a year ago, but with Pavlik in the center of boxing’s version of a media firestorm, all of a sudden Espino doesn’t look like the guaranteed loser here, and the only way for Pavlik to silence his doubters is to dominate from start to a preferably early finish.
“No matter the talk or not, I feel I have to go out there, especially after the layoff, I feel we have to look good and that’s the reason our training camp has been the way it’s been,” he said. “Espino is a great fighter. If there are critics now, there are going to be a lot more if I don’t dominate.”
Well, at least he’s not named Tiger Woods.
But if any fighter seemed to have been handed a Teflon suit once he made it to the top of the middleweight division, it was Pavlik. He had all the tools – he could fight, he was good with the media, he had the blessing of Mancini as well as the great story of being the kid fighting for Youngstown, and for a while after beating Taylor, it was all roses for ‘The Ghost.’
But after his 12 round drubbing by Bernard Hopkins in October of 2008 and the lost 2009 campaign, the Cinderella story started to take some hits. Just do a google search on “Kelly Pavlik drinking problem” and over three thousand hits come up, with most stories centering on a rumored stint in rehab for the 27-year old, who has vehemently denied all the rumors. Then again, all it takes is one photo with a drink in your hand in a small town and things can snowball fast.
It’s not the type of distraction Pavlik needed as he looked to re-establish himself in the boxing pecking order after the Hopkins loss and get back to the business of securing some big fights against big names. The Williams fight was a strong step in the right direction, but by September, the staph infection had brought him into the danger zone, forcing the bout to be called off. Well, you know what came next.
“If it were any other fighter that wasn’t from the Midwest, there wouldn’t be anything said,” said Pavlik. “I fought Rubio and Gary Lockett. So who else besides that haven’t I fought? Those two fights were mandatories --No. 1 contenders -- which any other fighter takes. Some of these guys fight once or twice a year and nothing is said. I fight three times a year and then all the sudden I fight twice…I don’t let that bother me. I know deep down, I fought (Edison) Miranda on the way up to get the titles, and I fought Jermain Taylor twice, back to back. I could have fought a tune-up in between. Then I fought Bernard Hopkins because the supposedly “Most Feared Fighter in Boxing” (Williams) didn’t want to fight, so I ended up jumping up two weight classes to fight Hopkins. So if it were (Floyd) Mayweather or anybody else, those stories wouldn’t be out there. I am a Midwest fighter and I made it so people are going to say what they want to say.”
And they will continue to do so. If Pavlik wins on Saturday, he was supposed to. If he loses, then he was a hype job that got lucky. There really are no winning scenarios for him this weekend when it comes to the public at large. But that doesn’t change anything in his mind. He’s got titles to defend and his own questions to answer. Those questions have nothing to do with Youngstown, the media, or those talking about his personal life – whether real or imagined. It’s all about fighting, about proving himself again, and standing tall as the best middleweight on the planet. And when it comes down to it, there’s nothing he’d rather do than punch somebody in the mouth.
“It’s a sport that I love,” said Pavlik. “I missed it from the layoff that I was in. It is still fun and you’ve always got goals. After you win the title your career is not over – there is more to do, more goals to accomplish. It is still fun to me.”