Pavlik on the outside looking in

Pavlik on the outside looking in

Mark E. Ortega

Leave-it-in-the-ring.com

April 1, 2011

It was the middle of July of 2009 and Kelly Pavlik, despite two fights previously where he was battered by Bernard Hopkins, was sitting pretty atop the middleweight division as the unified champion and his sights set on a possible fight with fellow pound-for-pound ranked fighter Paul Williams.

Around the same time, Showtime announced their groundbreaking Super Six World Boxing Classic for the super middleweight division, a shortened round robin style tournament featuring six of the best 168 pounders in the world.

When the list of fighters participating was released, one name was curiously omitted in Kelly Pavlik of Youngstown, Ohio. Pavlik had accomplished all what seemed feasible at 160 not counting a Williams fight, as it seemed unlikely that a proposed fight with WBA champion Felix Sturm would come to fruition due to the low purse being offered by HBO to televise the event. Fellow middleweight champion Arthur Abraham was locked into the Super Six and would thus be unavailable.

The tournament risked taking away many of Pavlik's potential high class opposition for the next few years, as the tournament was not laid out to finish up until potentially 2012, a span of three years where Pavlik would have to look elsewhere for challenges.

Pavlik, in an interview with Joe Scalzo of the Youngstown News, first sounded as if he had interest in participating before doing his research and saying that it was a dumb idea.

“Let them beat each other up, let them ruin their career for peanuts,” cried Pavlik. “Why would I be in that tournament when I am a middleweight? They never asked me and I never wanted to join.”

Pavlik did not stop there.

“They're going to burn their whole career and for what? Nobody watches Showtime. Trust me, when the winner of the tournament fights his next fight, it will be on HBO.”

Pavlik looks like he couldn't quite hypothesize the future, as Showtime has locked up the other major 168 pounder Lucian Bute for a multi fight deal that will likely conclude with a showdown with the tournament's winner.

As far as burning up their careers? Nobody that has suffered a loss in the tournament has really seen their career diminish, or at least diminish in a way that otherwise not have occurred, like Jermain Taylor's knockout loss against Arthur Abraham [whom was rumored to have been offered a severance package to bow out after the defeat] or Allan Green getting beaten twice [Green earned two paydays he otherwise wasn't entitled to due to his previous credentials]. Mikkel Kessler and Andre Dirrell bowed out due to conspicuous reasons but are looking to bounce back in 2011, both having been rumored as possible opponents for Bute in the interim timeframe where the Super Six is running.

Instead, it's Kelly Pavlik who is sitting on the outside looking in. Pavlik, only 28 years old, was once seen as the next big middleweight champion that was going to carry the baton for HBO over the course of the next few years. A humiliating loss to Bernard Hopkins close to the light heavyweight limit seemed to sap the young fighter's confidence and bring to light some heavier problems that would be much more difficult to overcome.

There was the alleged and later confirmed problem with alcohol. Prior to that, there were the terrible injuries that delayed and canceled fights a number of times with Paul Williams among others. Following the Hopkins loss, Pavlik fell out of favor quickly with HBO who declined to televise his fight with Marco Antonio Rubio which instead ended up on independent PPV. The only fights HBO expressed interest in were fights with Williams and Sergio Martinez, who himself was positioning himself to become an unlikely star out of South America following his close controversial loss to Williams in a Fight of the Year candidate in December of 2009.

Pavlik maintained that he was an HBO fighter. Instead, his problems with the bottle would derail him, according to some close to him, possibly for good.

“I don't know if he'll ever fight again,” said co-manager Cameron Dunkin in an interview last November. Surprisingly, it was stated to be the second time Pavlik was in rehab for alcoholism that year, the first reportedly being a two week stint just ten days prior to his middleweight title defense against Sergio Martinez, a fight in which he was beaten up pretty good in over twelve tough rounds.

Father Mike Pavlik made it known that it was an ongoing problem since he became middleweight champion with a shocking and exciting stoppage of Jermain Taylor in September of 2007 on HBO in one of the year's best fights.

“The kind of kid Kelly is, he doesn't want to say no to anyone. It was kind of like Mickey Mantle syndrome here. Everywhere he went, everyone wanted to buy the champ a beer. He didn't want to disappoint anyone or say no and it wound up causing him a pretty serious problem.”

Nobody in Kelly's team did him any favors by allowing the problem to grow and grow over his reign. It's quite apparent that Kelly wasn't equipped to handle the fame that he earned by fulfilling that role of blue collared white kid that America desperately craves.

One hopes that the once bright career of such a talented and marketable fighter doesn't go to waste. Pavlik returns to the ring on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao against Shane Mosley on May 7^th against lightly regarded Alfonso Lopez [21-0, 16 KOs] who is seeing big time action for the first time in his career.

For Pavlik, a win would be lucky enough to earn him a shot on Showtime, the network he criticized only a few years ago and who now controls a lot of the cards that would make Pavlik a viable opponent. He was linked to Lucian Bute for a possible fight and he would be lucky to get that one. He still carries a name but one more destructive loss could send his career spiraling into the gutter.

Some fighters forget how once you're at the top its much easier to fall on your face and when you do it hurts much harder. Pavlik is on the brink of becoming irrelevant when only a few years ago his career seemed to be one of the most promising in the sport. The talent is still there at just 28 years old. The time off from world class opponents could serve him well and help him get his confidence back, which is something he will need in spades if he is to ever compete with the best ever again.

For his and his family and for all of Youngstown's sake, let's hope he can find it again.