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Philippines, 23 Feb 2026 |
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PAVLIK WINS BY BRUTAL TKO OVER A GAME ESPINO By Ronnie Nathanielsz PhilBoxing.com Sun, 20 Dec 2009  WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik proved he is back with a brutal fifth round TKO in an action-packed war with game Mexican Miguel Espino before a hometown crowd at the Beeghly Center in Pavlik’s hometown of Youngstown, Ohio. The fact that Pavlik was fighting before his family and friends was made obvious by referee Steve Smoger whose partiality to the hometown boy and his unusually harsh treatment of Espino left a poor impression of him. Smoger who deducted a point from Espino for throwing a punch after the bell failed to note that Espino merely reacted to Pavlik’s punch after the bell while his warnings to Espino were couched in unnecessarily strong language while at one point in the fight he shoved the challenger before issuing a warning and made known which side he was on by referring to Kelly Pavlik as “Kell”. The No. 3 ranked Espino gave almost as good as he got before Pavlik dropped the challenger twice in round four with vicious uppercuts that often rocked the challenger. Pavlik sent Espino to the canvas one more time in round five after which Smoger warned Espino that if he was knocked down one more time he would stop the fight which he did when Pavlik nailed Espino with another terrific flurry and the challenger’s corner said they had had enough. The end came at 1:44 of the fifth round and although Espino hurt Pavlik on occasions, the champion appeared far too strong and too quick for the game challenger. The entire fight card which also included swing bouts and two cracking fights from Mexico was telecast by the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN over Studio 23 in the first major undertaking between Top Rank and the Philippines pre-eminent network which also carried the fights to Filipino communities globally on TFC, The Filipino Network. Trainer Freddie Roach’s prot?g? and former Olympian Vanes Mertirosyan scored an impressive 3rd round stoppage of Willie “Slick” Lee to win the NABF/NABO super welterweight title to improve his undefeated record to 26-0 with 17 knockouts. Martirosyan lived up to the pre-fight predictions of Roach and conditioning expert Alex Ariza and dropped Lee twice in the third with a cracking right straight and vicious combinations to end the battering at 2:13 of the third. An exuberant Roach said later Vanes is ready for a world title shot. Another Olympic standout, southpaw middleweight Matt Korobov also kept his unblemished record (9-0, 7 KO’s) intact when he stopped Ken Dunham at 1:20 of round three after dropping Dunham at the end of round one. Undefeated Miguel Angel Garcia started slowly but soon found the range against Yogli Herrera and ended the bout with a cracking right cross at 2:19 of the third round after sending him to the canvas for the first time with a counter-left hook. Top photo: World Middleweight Champion Kelly Pavlik, Youngstown,Ohio stops Miguel Espino, Los Angeles, Calif. in the 5th round on Top Rank's Pay Per View event ,Saturday night at Youngstown State University in Youngstown,Ohio. --- Photo Credit: Chris Farina - Top Rank. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.  |
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