By Keith Idec
Kelly Pavlik expects he’ll first face another southpaw who has gained pound-for-pound recognition, but he also hopes to eventually land a Sergio Martinez rematch at 168 pounds.
Martinez took Pavlik’s WBC and WBO titles middleweight titles 15 months ago in Atlantic City. Pavlik declined his contractual option for a middleweight championship rematch, but that decision, Pavlik says, had more to do with his inability to make 160 pounds than his inability to defeat Martinez.
Pavlik (37-2, 32 KOs) would welcome a super middleweight rematch with Martinez, though.
“I really am confident of how I was fighting [early] in that fight,” Pavlik said on a conference call Wednesday regarding his unanimous decision defeat to Martinez in April 2010. “I see he’s knocking people out. He knocked out Paul Williams, which was a brutal, brutal knockout.
“But even when I couldn’t see [due to blood], he hit me and there was nothing to it. So what I was doing in those [early] rounds would be something I would do the whole fight. I think that next time also, I would be able to better know his style and I think I would be able to [land] bigger shots than I did the first time.”
A respectful Pavlik repeatedly complimented Martinez (47-2-2, 26 KOs), yet believes making weight was more detrimental to his cause that night than his slick southpaw opponent’s style.
“He’s a great fighter, but there were a lot of other issues going into that fight, mainly the weight,” Pavlik said. “That was the problem there. I hit the wall in the eighth round. No excuses, but you can’t run a total of 16 miles two days before the fight to lose weight.”
According to a report published late last year by Yahoo! Sports, Pavlik also spent two weeks in a rehabilitation facility for alcohol abuse until about 10 days before he fought Martinez.
“It was a situation,” Pavlik said, “where we shouldn’t really have taken the fight.”
Martinez might not want to move up to 168 pounds, but if the talented Argentinean defeats unheralded Englishman Darren Barker (23-0, 14 KOs) on Oct. 1 in Atlantic City, there won’t be many high-profile opponents for the undisputed middleweight champ to face at 160. Pavlik, meanwhile, expects to challenge IBF super middleweight champ Lucian Bute (29-0, 24 KOs) on Nov. 5 in Montreal if, as expected, he defeats Detroit’s Darryl Cunningham (23-2, 10 KOs) in a tune-up fight Aug. 6 in Youngstown, Ohio.
While a Martinez rematch interests him, Pavlik isn’t intrigued by the thought of a third fight against Jermain Taylor. Pavlik knocked out Taylor (28-4-1, 17 KOs) in the seventh round to win the WBC and WBO middleweight titles nearly four years ago in Atlantic City and won their rematch, contested at 164 pounds, by unanimous decision 4½ months later in Las Vegas.
Taylor has suffered back-to-back knockout defeats in two of his three fights since the Pavlik rematch and hasn’t boxed since October 2009. But Pat Burns, Taylor’s trainer, told ESPN.com last month that Taylor has been given a clean bill of health and intends to come back later this year.
“There’s no purpose for a third one,” Pavlik said of facing Taylor again. “If we split, one and one, then of course, you know, there would be a third one. But as far as Taylor, I still have a lot of respect for the guy. I still think he’s a great, great fighter.”
Even if a third Taylor fight interested Pavlik, promoters and television executives, Taylor intends to return to 160 pounds, a weight Pavlik can no longer make.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, NJ., and BoxingScene.com.
