Comments Thread For: Fighting Words: Pavlik Bolts Before Boxing Breaks Him

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

by David P. Greisman - Nearly everyone has left a relationship that once was great but had since become no longer as good as it should have been — and never could get better. Some of us have still stuck around too long, fooling ourselves into reminiscing about the past rather than recognizing the present.

Too many boxers fail to extricate themselves from their dependent relationship with this Sweet Science, a relationship fueled by adrenaline and testosterone, by the gamble of taking more punches in order to receive more paychecks.

That is why it was surprising yet refreshing to hear Kelly Pavlik’s reasons for retiring. If those reasons are genuine, then his announcement made late last week was a good decision, an exception in a sport where bad decisions tend to be the rule.

"When you stay in the sport too long you have health problems. That's a big, big thing for me," Pavlik told Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. "I'm not talking about now. I'm talking about in the future. I'm talking about when I'm 55 or 60. What's gonna happen to me then? Why take any more chances, especially in that sport. It's a brutal sport, and you never know what can happen. I won the world title, I defended my title, I was champ for three years and I made good money. Why take the chance of medical problems? [Click Here To Read More]

[PittyPat]

Fair dues to Pavlik for his decision. I hope he lives a good life with all this money he's tucked away - he's earned it. Looking back though, I still think it's a shame that the Williams fight never happened. It was guaranteed to be a good scrap. Hell, even possible FOTY material on par with Martinez-Williams.

[Unknown Champ]

He'll be back. (Pavlik from retirement, 2013)

[ROSS CALIFORNIA]

If he can find himself a career that he enjoys and makes a decent living at, he will stay away. I wish him luck.

[Toby 1991]

The internet says his net worth is $6 million; so he should be okay for a while.

[totalstranga]

he should open a sports bar. I'd go have a drink or ten at Pavlik's Pub

[-PANDA-]

the thing with pavlik is he used to be a blue collar worker before he hit the big stage...he's not known for living large but I really don't believe he would've continued after cussing out arum and his management if he didn't feel he needed the cash...he chose to fight the will rosinskys of the division instead

he also sounded very excited about working with garcia until ward had the surgery

I'm pretty sure he'll be back...there aren't any business ventures he can get into and I don't think he'll be looking to get back to hard labour in his mid forties

[Tuavale]

If he's worth $6M, all he needs to do is invest the principal wisely. If he can obtain a 5% annual return, a reasonable goal, that's $300K a year in income produced from the funds while never reaching into the principal. Solid living.

[Lorily]

The networks have toned down the sounds of the crowds more because the commentators loooove the sound of their own voices more. But kudos to this weekends BAD crew, first time in a long time I didn't have to use the MUTE button. Bob Papa actually does blow by blows rather then when Jim Lampley is working, talking about what this guy or that guy (who isn't even fighting) was doing back in 1992 in a country far far away.

[SlimTim]

Pavlik didn't need to leave boxing before it broke him. Pavlik will break himself. I wonder how many days/weeks will go by before he is in the boxers behaving badly section