here are some with as much, but no one with more courage than Kelly Pavlik, the lanky middleweight from Youngstown, Ohio, and few who punch as hard. Pavlik has a great chin, an enormous punch and a deeply embedded belief that he can take your shots a lot longer than you?ll be able to take his.
Those attributes led him to a middleweight title, pulsating victories over men like Jermain Taylor, Edison Miranda, Jose Luis Zertuche and Fulgencio Zuniga and a spot as one of boxing?s most popular fighters.
Who doesn?t love the gunslinger with the major chip on his shoulder who dares opponents to knock it off? Pavlik, though, has come to a crossroads in his career. The 28-year-old former champion faces unheralded Bryan Vera, a loser of four of his last five, in the primary undercard fight on the Manny Pacquiao-Antonio Margarito card on Nov. 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The bout will be held at a catchweight, with a limit of 164 pounds.
Pavlik lost the World Boxing Council and World Boxing Organization middleweight titles in his last fight to Sergio Martinez on April 17 in Atlantic City, N.J., a bout in which his corner?s failure to stop a cut played a major difference in the outcome. He?s just 2-2 in his last four, has struggled to make the middleweight division?s 160-pound limit and finds himself hearing questions from his father, his manager and others close to him.
Pavlik is as old-school as they get. He?s resisted calls for years to either outright replace his longtime trainer, Jack Loew, or to bring in a veteran trainer to assist Loew.
?I am not saying Jack hasn?t done a good job, because he has; he?s won a world title with the kid and then he [successfully] defended the world title,? co-manager Cameron Dunkin said. ?But I just want Kelly to learn more. Jack doesn?t have the experience of some of these other guys and it can?t hurt to have someone in there
