By Mark Vester
WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (34-1, 30KOs) is in the final stages of training for his mandatory title defense against Marco Antonio Rubio (43-4, 37KOs), scheduled for February 21 at the Chevrolet Centre in Youngstown, Ohio. Top Rank pay-per-view will televise.
Pavlik is coming off a one-sided decision loss to Bernard Hopkins from last October. He moved up by nearly two weight divisions to face Hopkins at 170-pounds. Now he's back at his natural weight class of 160, and says the pressure is there to perform at a high level by beating Rubio in a very dominating fashion. He doesn't expect too many problems with Rubio's style.
"I'm coming off my first loss. I think it's important that we bring our A' game and put on a good show. I don't think there will be anything to give me trouble. He's a fighter who comes straight ahead. He's going to be right in front of me. He gets hit a lot. He has decent hand speed and good pop. Besides his power, he's there to be hit. He's been knocked out before. He puts that chin out there, we keep touching it, we can put him away," Pavlik said to the Plain Dealer.
Despite all of Rubio's shortcomings, Pavlik is not overlooking the hunger of his opponent.
"The main thing is, the kid's going to be hungry. He's been training like he never has, it's his first real title shot -- and it could be his last. So he's coming with everything. That's the one thing we have to watch out for," Pavlik said.
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