Doghouse Boxing knows that it's a "Dog Eat Dog" world out there. In this article we pit one Dog against another for the ultimate in DogFighting. This week from the Dog's Of War Files we pit Ken Hissner vs. Lou Catalano. First up, Ken Hissner who is defending Pavlik's actions of pulling out of this weekend's fight.
In Defense of Kelly Pavlik!
By Ken Hissner, Doghouse Boxing. -
There has been story after story on
Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik this past week. This 29 year-old
Youngstown, OH, former WBC/WBO middleweight champion has finally
spoke out! He feels he’s being used as a future “opponent” for
southpaw Lucian Bute, 29-0 (24), the IBF super middleweight champion,
in the latter’s now hometown of Montreal in the fall. He feels he
can only win by a knockout.
Pavlik says he will have to win by a
knockout in Montreal. He is ranked No. 11 by the IBF. Two of the
other super middleweight champions in Andre Ward, 24-0 (13), (WBA
Super World) and Carl Froch, 28-1 (20), (WBC) are meeting October
29th in Atlantic City. This is the final Showtime Super
8 tournament. Pavlik is the No. 1 contender for Froch’s WBC title
yet his promoter Top Rank is sending him to Montreal to fight Bute?
The WBC’s Silver champion is Noe
Gonzalez Alcoba, 27-1 (19), of Uruguay. After losing to Felix Sturm
in 2007 for the WBA Middleweight title Gonzalez followed-up with 6
wins of which 5 of the opponents had losing records. In January of
2011 he “stepped up” defeating 39 year-old Gustavo Magallanes,
29-1 (25), of Mexico for the vacant Silver title. His last fight was
defending that title for the first time over Mexico’s middleweight
champion, who hadn’t fought in 2 years, Ruben Padilla, 18-2-1 (17).
Gonzalez is the No. 2 WBC contender. Why not Pavlik meeting
Gonzalez Alcoba in the US?
Ward’s the Super champion of the WBA
and the WBA title is vacant. Pavlik is No. 6 in their ratings with
the No. 5 contender losing this past week. Their No. 1 contender is
Stanslav Kashtanov, 28-0 (15), of the Ukraine. His last 6 opponents
have a combined record of 46-73-1. He meets Karoly Balzsay, 23-2
(17), of Hungary, the No. 2 contender August 28th in the
Ukraine. Balzsay lost his WBO super middleweight title to the
Russian Robert Stieglitz in August of 2009. His 2 wins in 2010 that
“propelled” him to No. 2 were over 24-14-4 and 6-8 opponents.
The latter was in November of 2010 when he had his last fight.
Speaking of Stieglitz, 40-2 (23), now
living in Germany, his No. 3 contender is Pavlik. Since defeating
Balzsay in 2009 his next 4 challengers are no longer in the top 15
ratings of the WBO. His last defense was in April of 2011 winning by
disqualification. Sounds like a title fight in the US against Pavlik
would be inviting.
This writer was disappointed that
Pavlik pulled out of his “keep busy” fight this week-end against
southpaw Darryl Cunningham, 23-2 (10), in Youngstown. Cunningham
since turning pro in 2002 has only had 1 10 round fight. This 36
year-old boxer out of Detroit has defeated his 2 opponents this year
whose combined records are 34-39-3, by decision. Certainly doesn’t
sound like much of a threat.
Pavlik claims he wasn’t what the
Cunningham fight paid until recently. He feels he’s being low
balled in the Bute fight. He claims he has not been happy with his
manager Cameron Dunkin. His loyal trainer Jack Loew was also
disappointed about Pavlik pulling out of his fight but said he will
continue to stand by him. Dunkin once informed me this writer he and
Loew aren’t exactly on best of terms and it’s no secret he would
like for another trainer to work with Pavlik. Loew and Pavlik have
more than a boxer to trainer relationship. Dunkin also hasn’t
communicated with Top Rank’s IBHOF matchmaker Bruce Trampler for
over 5 years. As long as he doesn’t rock the boat with Top Rank’s
Bob Arum Dunkin is in good standing.
Pavlik has announced he is willing to
sit out a year until his contract with Top Rank is over. Loew and
this writer aren’t exactly thrilled with that kind of inactivity.
Pavlik had been asking for the other middleweight organization
champions since his first defense over Gary Lockett, 30-1, in
Atlantic City. After the win he made it quite clear to the writers
he wanted to unify the titles. Arum made it clear that Bernard
Hopkins would be next in a non-title bout. We all know how that
worked out. It didn’t seem to be a problem for Top Rank to bring
over one of the champions for Julio Cesar Chavez.
Top Rank gave Pavlik a couple of “cup
cakes” in 2009 against Marco Antonio Rubio, 43-4-1, and Miguel
Angel Espino, 20-2-1, whom he not only stopped in both cases, but
fought both in Youngstown. When Top Rank announced Pavlik would
fight the WBC Super welterweight champion Sergio Martinez, this
writer let it be known he had no chance other than by knockout to
outpoint the outstanding Martinez. It was like Pavlik and Hopkins
all over. Martinez was not a mandatory or even in the middleweight
ratings so what was the point? This had to be when Pavlik realized
his promoter and manager were not putting his best interest first.
To this writer, Pavlik has been a
breath of fresh air since Top Rank had him come on the scene
defeating Edison Miranda in 2007 in an exciting WBC eliminator and
two wins over Jermain Taylor for the WBC/WBO titles. After each
Taylor match Pavlik would talk more about his fellow Youngstown past
world champions than himself. The humbleness of Pavlik won himmany
fight fans. Whether at middleweight or super middleweight, Pavlik
could be a champion for years.
Where does Pavlik go from here? He’s
already said he has enough money and living in Youngstown isn’t
exactly a high cost of living. How the fans in Youngstown are going
to feel toward Pavlik with the pull out time will tell. His last
fight with Alfonso Lopez, 21-0, on paper looked good. The problem
was Lopez didn’t seem hungry enough to press for a win. It made
for a very frustrating fight.
Pavlik needs to be kept busy or we all
know what could happen. A fight with recent winner Brian Magee,
35-4-1 (24), who won the interim WBA World super middleweight title
in Costa Rica the end of July could be a possibility. Magee, from
Ireland, has fought out of the country on 4 occasions but never in
the US. At 36 it may be time to make that venture. Pavlik could
fight for a title in his next fight but it looks like he has finally
taken a stand, spoken out, and will have some say on whose next!
.
Bridge
Burned: Instead of Tuning Up For Bute, Pavlik Abruptly Decides to
Idle Quietly
By Lou Catalano, Doghouse Boxing
It
was, in the end, a “business decision.” A really lousy one. One
that left a major boxing network, a major promoter, and a few
thousand fans in the lurch. Just four days before he was to fight on
Showtime in front of his hometown fans, Pavlik bailed. In the
process, he threw up a middle finger to everyone who has been
supporting him in the last couple of difficult years.
We
can surmise that Kelly Pavlik felt he was worth more than the reported 1.35
million dollars he was offered to fight Lucian Bute. While he might
be right, he was dead wrong about two things. First, he was wrong in
the way he went about this whole thing, and secondly, if he truly
believes that Bute, or anyone else in the division needs him, he’s
mistaken. This isn’t a dead division looking for a savior. In fact,
the one weight class desperate for some competition is the one he
just vacated, where there is Sergio Martinez, and there’s… um…
yeah.
The
super middleweight division is stacked. The point of the tune up
fights was to establish that Pavlik was now a full-fledged 168 pound
fighter ready to drop in on the crowd of top fighters already
established there. Sticking Pavlik in the ring with any of them is
certainly intriguing, but if he prices himself out, they can simply
move on. Bute is the cash cow at the moment because he can easily
draw 15,000 people in Montreal. Ward, while not a major draw, is an
undefeated fighter who has yet to look vulnerable. Carl Froch is a
hard hitting scrapper with more boxing skills than any of us though
he had. Then there’s Mikkel Kessler, Glen Johnson, and Andre
Dirrell. Nobody here is starving for fights.
Was
this a ploy from Team Pavlik to see if they could get the offer
raised? If so, it seems to have failed miserably, and in the process
left Top Rank, Pavlik’s promoter, embarrassed and baffled at his
actions. Pavlik is banking on his name alone, because in the one
fight he’s had at 168, he wasn’t exactly scintillating. While the
top of the division has been facing each other, he’s been on the
shelf. He picked a hell of a time to start making financial demands.
His management team has raised a few
eyebrows over the years. First, the Hopkins fight should never have
been made. Yes, Hopkins didn’t look great in his previous fight.
But he also left his opponent, Joe Calzaghe, looking less than
spectacular. The fight was at 170, where Pavlik had never fought,
against a defensive wizard that no one looks good fighting, in an
absolutely no-win situation. If he won, he was simply beating up an
old man. He didn’t win, and wasn’t even remotely competitive. He
is then thrown into the ring against Martinez, a fast, agile
southpaw, directly after his first stint in rehab. Now, there’s
this week’s mess.
Perhaps
Pavlik will go directly to fighting Bute, and maybe he’ll make
significantly more money than he was due to make. If that’s the
case, good for him, and bravo to his management team. Or, after the
events of the last few days, while everyone else fights on, he’ll
be on the shelf, looking for the proper pay day.
I’m
not a financial analyst, but I’m pretty sure that sitting around
without a fight on the horizon pays pretty lousy too.
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