Pavlik Vs. Martinez: Pavlik To Shed "White Hope" Burden

Sometime around midnight of this coming Saturday, the trial of Kelly Pavlik should come to a conclusion.

One way or the other, win or lose, Pavlik, the middle weight champion of the world, should regain a measure of the respect that he has seemed to have lost over the past two, mostly tumultuous years.

After he beat Jermain Taylor for the second time in six months in February 2008, Pavlik looked like he was the next big thing in boxing. He is from a working class town which had seen better days, a high percentage of his victories end in brutal knockouts and…he’s white.

No one should kid themselves into thinking that race had absolutely nothing to do with his meteoric rise in popularity. It’s a fact that most true boxing fans understand and live with. Like it or not, a “White Hope” type of fighter is still in demand.

Race and boxing, unfortunately, seem to be destined to be connected for a long time to come.

Just as no one should be naïve enough to think that his race had nothing to do with his popularity, nor should they be naïve enough to think that his race had absolutely nothing to do with all of the negative attention that he’s garnered over the past two years.

Race, to be fair, is not the only factor, however. Within that time period he’s fought three journeymen, pulled out of a fight with Paul Williams twice and lost a lopsided affair to a future hall of famer, Bernard Hopkins.

That’s not exactly stellar, but it’s not the worst that it could’ve been either.

Before I go any further on this topic, I want to state unequivocally that I not only understand but acknowledge that minority boxers, African American, Latin American, etc. have for the most part always had a much more difficult time gaining and keeping notoriety, stability and relative financial success than their Caucasian contemporaries.

The point that I’m trying to make is that too much was made of the past two years of Pavlik’s career. Another, more positive, way to spin those last two years is that he made a couple of mandatory defenses and dispatched of them as he should have, went up two weight classes and lost to a future hall of famer and then pulled out of a couple of fights because he wasn’t totally healthy. 

Unfortunately for Pavlik, the acclaim that he received when he won the middle weight championship and the negative press that have followed over this recent rocky stretch are both derivatives of the same thing. 

Although no one else is saying it, he is now carrying the burden of all of the failed “White Hopes” that have preceded him. No names need to be mentioned, we all know who they are and there is no reason to rehash them, but because of the color of his skin he will be compared to all of the over-hyped, under-pigmented fighters that have not only failed, but failed miserably to display substance and skill to match the aforementioned hype.

It says here that Pavlik dispels any doubts about his substance and prowess when he defends his title against the junior middle weight champion of the world, Sergio Martinez. 

Emphatically.

Martinez, the slick, skilled southpaw who took the aforementioned Williams to the brink in a fight this past December, has emerged as the chic pick amongst boxing fans to upset the bigger Pavlik. 

This notion is not without merit.  Martinez has displayed speed, power, skill and toughness in his recent fights with Williams, Kermit Cintron (which was incorrectly judged a draw) and Alex Bunema. The speed and skill is what most people believe will be-devil Pavlik. 

The speed and skill are what will keep Martinez from getting knocked out before the sixth round. Pavlik is much stronger than fighters we’ve seen Martinez in with recently and for Martinez to win he is going to have to at some point stand in there with Pavlik and he has in the past displayed a willingness to do just that. 

Pavlik has a very good jab that should counteract the speed of Martinez and wear him down in later rounds and open him up for a big straight right or an uppercut that will ultimately end it.

A knock-out victory for Pavlik will go a long way in restoring his tarnished image and maybe, just maybe he will be considered a really good fighter, not just a really good white fighter.