Kelly "The Ghost" Pavlik to Defend (in) Youngstown

Defend Youngstown.  According to the official website, “Defend Youngstown” is, to paraphrase, a “Movement Dedicated To The Advancement Of The City of Youngstown.” 

Kelly Pavlik, the middleweight champion of the world and favorite son of the aforementioned town, will attempt to do just that when he defends his title against the tough Marco Antonio Rubio on Saturday night. 

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum had been promising for some time a return to the champion’s hometown to put on a show in front of Pavlik’s loyal legion of fans and when he couldn’t get either HBO or Showtime to carry the fight, he opted instead to put on a split-location pay-per-view featuring Pavlik and Miguel Cotto, another Top Rank fighter who tasted defeat for the first time in 2008. 

The show is to be broadcast first from Madison Square Garden in New York City, then switch to Youngstown for the main event.  It was virtually instant sell-out in Youngstown.

Pavlik is coming into this fight off his first loss as a professional, a clinic put on by Bernard Hopkins.  The hype leading up to the fight with Hopkins was not about if Pavlik would win, but it was about if he’d knock the old man out, and furthermore, in what round. 

That night in Atlantic City, normally a home away from home for Pavlik, he was schooled by Hopkins in what could only be characterized as no less than a virtuoso performance.  If there was any doubt prior to that night, there could be none after - Bernard Hopkins cemented himself as an all-time great.

While Hopkins may finally ride off into the sunset, Kelly Pavlik is still the middleweight champion of the world since his loss to Hopkins was at a catch weight of 170 lbs. 

The fight with Rubio this Saturday is the first step to getting back what he may have had taken from him.  Before that fight, Pavlik was starting to be thought of as a destroyer.  He packed dynamite in both hands, the right especially, and began to develop a bit of a fearsome reputation. 

Though he remained humble throughout, one can’t help but think that he started to believe his own hype.  The talk of knocking Hopkins out, in retrospect, seems ridiculous. 

Now there’s going to be another, probably more subtle battle going on in the ring, in Youngstown.  And it will be Kelly Pavlik against himself.  If he’s to regain his pre-Hopkins stature, he’s going to need to forget about the loss and concentrate on beating the opponent across from him, and not worry about knocking him out.

Just as important as Pavlik’s psyche is that of the challenger, Rubio.  He fought on the undercard of Pavlik vs. Hopkins and saw what the world saw.  He saw Pavlik beaten from pillar to post. 

Sometimes a fighter has to battle the reputation of an opponent before and during a fight.  Especially with a fighter like Pavlik, who’d racked up a heap of highlight real knockouts.  But, that aura, if there truly was an aura before, is gone now, at least in the mind of, but definitely not of the least importance, to Rubio.