Kelly Pavlik

Kelly Pavlik
Data
Birth Name	Kelly Robert Pavlik
Fight name	The ghost
Weight class	medium weight
nationality	US-american
birthday	April 5th 1982
place of birth	Youngstown
style	Left delivery
size	1.89 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	42
Victories	40
Knockout victories	34
Defeats	2

Kelly Pavlik (born April 5, 1982 in Youngstown , Ohio ) is a former American professional boxer and former world champion of the WBC and WBO middleweight division.

amateur

Pavlik won several junior welterweight tournaments, including the US Junior Championship in 1999. He was defeated by Jermain Taylor and Anthony Hanshaw in the 2000 Olympic elimination . His amateur record is 89 wins and nine losses.

Professional career

At the age of 18 Pavlik turned pro at Bob Arum's top rank and won his first thirty middleweight bouts. His clout was impressive, Ring Magazine sees him as the most powerful boxer in the class , ahead of Edison Miranda . Its range is also considerable, it is 1.89 m tall. The opponents were several former light middleweights such as Bronco McKart and Fulgencio Zuniga. The build-up phase of six years is considered unusually long.

After the knockout victory over the Mexican José Luis Zertuche in January 2007, Pavlik was already a compulsory challenger of the WBC , but surprisingly had to box before the title fight against Edison Miranda , which resulted in a direct duel between the two boxers, who the Ring Magazine regarded as the most powerful middleweights. In a fight at an enormously high speed, in which both boxers could land clear impact hits, Pavlik managed to knock Miranda down several times. He finally won in the seventh round by a technical knockout. At this point he was clearly ahead on points. The better cover work by Pavlik was particularly decisive in the fight.

After this unusual second elimination match, Kelly Pavlik was now the final official challenger of the WBC. He started on September 29, 2007 against middleweight world champion Jermain Taylor . To everyone's surprise, Taylor acted very offensively and knocked Pavlik down with a combination in the second round. At this point, the challenger seemed close to knockout. However, Pavlik succeeded in the seventh round in a series of hits against Taylor with several direct hits, in which the defending champion fell to the ground. The referee jumped in at this moment and ended the fight with a TKO victory for Pavlik, who was clearly behind on all three point slips at the time the fight was stopped.

Jermain Taylor took advantage of a previously contractually agreed rematch clause after the defeat, so that Pavlik and Taylor faced each other again on February 16, 2008 at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas . They had agreed on a weight limit above the middleweight division, so that the WBC and WBO world titles were not at stake. Pavlik won the duel over twelve rounds unanimously on points. On June 7, 2008 Pavlik went to his first voluntary title defense against the Welshman Gary Lockett. Kelly Pavlik won this fight in the third round by technical knockout. Then Pavlik entered in a non-title fight against the 43-year-old former middleweight world champion Bernard Hopkins . Since Hopkins boxed light heavyweight since 2006 after losing the World Middleweight Championship, they agreed on a weight limit of 170 pounds (77.1 kg) for this fight. Pavlik lost the fight against the experienced, but 17 years older Hopkins on October 18, 2008 surprisingly clearly on points.

For Kelly Pavlik, 2009 was marked by comebacks and injury breaks. On February 21, 2009 Pavlik defended his two middleweight titles against mandatory challenger Marco Antonio Rubio by defeating them by giving up in the ninth round. It was a fight that Pavlik dominated and ruled from the beginning. After that a fight with Sergio Mora was planned and later against Paul Williams . Both fights did not take place or were postponed until the opponents boxed another man. Kelly Pavlik struggled with an infection in her hand for several months and was unable to exercise. Due to emerging pressure from the world associations Pavlik defended his title against number three in the world rankings Miguel Angel Espino on December 19, 2009 in his hometown Youngstown sovereign by TKO in the fifth round.

Pavlik lost the WBC and WBO belts in a voluntary title defense on April 17, 2010 to Sergio Gabriel Martínez , who was able to defeat him in the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City . The Argentine Martínez used his advantages in boxing technique and speed to clearly defeat Pavlik on points.

Web links

• Official website
• Kelly Pavlik in the BoxRec database

predecessor	Office	successor
Jermain Taylor	World Middleweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) September 29, 2007 - April 17, 2010	Sergio Gabriel Martínez
Jermain Taylor	World Middleweight Boxing Champion ( WBO ) September 29, 2007 - April 17, 2010	Sergio Gabriel Martínez