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Jul 24, 2005
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Bute looking to fight Kessler later this year after Magee mismatch

By Scott Gilfoid: IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (27-0, 22 KO’s) has another one of his mismatches coming up against 35-year-old EBU super middleweight champ Brian Magee (34-3-1, 24 KO’s) on March 19th at the Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. After Bute slaughters Magee, he wants to go after a fight against former WBA/WBO super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (43-2, 32 KO’s), who hasn’t fought since beating up Carl Froch last April in the Super Six tournament.

Kessler has been out of action due to eye problems he suffered from his lopsided 11th round technical decision defeat at the hands of American Andre Ward. Kessler had to pull out of the Super Six tournament because of the eye problems shortly before he was scheduled to face Allan Green. However, Kessler is back in training and looking for a tune-up fight to get ready to take on one of the champions.

The Bute-Kessler fight, if it comes off, will happen around the same time as the end of the Super Six tournament later this year. It would be a great fight because the winner could then take on Ward, who will no doubt be the winner of the Super Six. Hopefully, Kessler or Bute aren’t afraid to face Ward because it’s pretty clear that neither would have much of a chance to beat him.

The winner of the Kessler-Bute fight would be like picking a victim for Ward to beat up. There’s going to be a great deal of pressure on the Bute-Kessler winner to take on Ward, so if they don’t want to step up to the plate, they’re likely going to be marginalized and seen as one of those European paper champs that spend their careers avoiding the top fighters until it’s far too late.
 
Jul 24, 2005
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Audley Harrison to fight in May, says he’s not a quitter

By Sean McDaniel: 39-year-old former 2000 Olympic heavyweight Gold Medalist Audley Harrison (27-5, 20 KO’s) refuses to hang up the gloves and retire from boxing after his humiliating 3rd round TKO at the hands of WBA heavyweight champion David Haye last November. Harrison, who only threw one punch in that fight, says he wants to get back in the ring in May of this year and would be interested in fighting either Dereck Chisora or Tyson Fury.

Since that’s not very likely to happen, Harrison is going to have to downsize his ambitions a little and settle for someone else unless he can lure one of the world class heavyweights into fighting him. That might not be advisable for Harrison right now coming off of a knockout loss like the one he suffered against Haye. In that fight, Harrison could muster up one jab in three rounds of fighting and collapsed under the first offensive onslaught from the much smaller 6’2″ 210 pound Haye.

Speaking with thesun.co.uk, Harrison said “I am 39 and couldn’t live with myself unless I gave it one more go to finish my career on a high…we are working on two dates in U.S and comeback in May…I am not a quitter.”

Harrison might be better off facing some domestic level opposition in the UK rather than risking his neck and getting knocked out by one of the top fighters in the division elsewhere. Everyone he’s going to face will be looking to test his weak chin and will no doubt come after him hard, looking to land head shots. Harrison’s chin is very fragile and he doesn’t seem to be able to take a hard shot every well without going down. He needs someone in the 3rd tier range if he wants to guarantee a victory in his next fight, preferably someone that has zero power and throws mainly arm punches.
 
Jul 24, 2005
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Burns beats Laryea, possible unification in the summer

By Dan Risk: Ricky Burns (31-2-0 KO’s 7) continued his impressive run of form by beating the tough African Joseph Laryea (14-2-0 KO’s 11) in retaining his WBO super-featherweight title after the challenger was forced to retire before the eight round with a reported right hand injury.

This was always going to be a difficult fight for Burns as Laryea had proved on his last visit to Scotland by defeating Paul Appleby. Burns however was able to dominate the early proceedings and although Laryea show glimpses of class with a strong jab and some quick movement he was unable to deal with Burns work rate, solid combinations and experience.

For me, Burns was way head on the cards (69-61) and inevitably he would have begun to take control of the fight and win with a solid unanimous decision victory.

The question is now what fight should Burns take next. Much talk has been about a possible unification fight with 37 year-old IBF champion Mzonke Fana (27-3-0 KO’s 10) who I think Burns would have no problem with. Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t Burns best performance. He took some good shots and left his defenses vulnerable at times but he should have less trouble with the old Fana who is heading on the down slope.

Trainer Billy Nelson talked after the fight about getting him in the ring by May which would probably be against another low ranked WBO contender just to build up the record and his reputation.

A domestic showdown with Gary Sykes would be an exciting encounter. Sykes is coming off the back of an impressive decision victory in his British title fight with Carl Johansson (who beat Burns in the past). Nine stone four is an exciting decision, especially in Britain so Burns should find a class
 
Jul 24, 2005
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Sergio Martinez does a tango on Sergiy Dzinziruk

By Francisco Hernandez: Sergio Martinez amazes fans once again as he out jabs and TKOs formerly undefeated and renowned technical boxer Sergiy Dzinziruk. The audience at Foxwoods Resort Casino, Mashantucket, Connecticut was silent and in awe as they witnessed the Gaucho do a tango on his Ukrainian opponent.

Dzinziruk was a dangerous opponent throughout the fight and even hurt Martinez with a punch. Before the TKO Dzinziruk looked like he was beginning to dominate the second half of the fight, but Sergio Martinez got his second wind and overwhelmed Dzinziruk with lighting quick combinations from which the Ukrainian would not recover and lose by TKO in the eighth round of the fight.

Sergio Martinez continues to entertain boxing fans with action packed competitive fights. What is his secret? Two things, first he is a great fighter, and secondly, he doesn’t cherry pick his opponents for one sided bouts. Martinez fights the best fighters, he likes to be challenged. Sergio Martinez is a real risk taker. Pound for Pound Sergio Martinez is number one.

I don’t hear a whole lot of fighters calling out the Gaucho. Twenty year old Canelo is too young and would prefer to fight faded fighters like Miguel Cotto and Shane Mosley. Freddie Roach’s statements about Chavez being able to beat Martinez are more hype than an honest belief on the part of Roach. Right now the only one who seems to be willing to get into the ring with Martinez is the vicious Texan James Kirkland. Kirkland has a reputation for being fearless and violent, and although he would probably be outsmarted and out-punched by the Argentinean, it would make for a memorable fight.
 
Jul 24, 2005
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Cotto stops 38-year-old Mayorga in the 12th Round

By Sam Thompson: Miguel Cotto retained his Light Middleweight Title tonight, in an entertaining, back and forth fight against Ricardo Mayorga. Mayorga gave a good account of himself, but hampered by a combination of an injured hand, old age and wear and tear, was unable to give a winning performance.

The fight was by no means one-sided, even though the showtime commentary team would seem to think so. Mike Tyson at one point in the fight gave his verdict that both fighters were “shot”. In the case of Mayorga, i think that was a fair assessment, but as for Cotto, he looked pretty much the same as always, an on-top fighter with decent skills, but lacking the ability to cope with pressure. Mayorga gave him trouble at times, but was simply too old and used up to keep the pressure on, he needed to catch his breath often, and during these times, Cotto was able to steal rounds.

Sergio Martinez also fought tonight, winning by 8th round TKO over Sergiy Dzinziruk, Martinez looked impressive, winning the battle of the jab, and dropping Dzinziruk 5 times. As there is little between Cotto and Martinez in terms of weight, perhaps they can meet in a super-fight, either that or Cotto can rematch Margarito or Pacquiao.

My advice to Cotto would be to accept the highest paying of those three fights, because all three would undoubtedly result in a career ending battering for Cotto.
 
Jul 24, 2005
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Martinez stakes claim as boxing's best pound-for-pound fighter Read more: http://spo

MASHANTUCKET, Conn. -- Sergio Martinez was already the hottest fighter in boxing.

But after yet another SportsCenter-friendly performance, the Argentine-born middleweight champion just might be the best.

Better than Manny Pacquiao. Better than Floyd Mayweather.

"This was like Secretariat against just another thoroughbred," said Lou DiBella, who promotes Martinez (47-2-2, 26 KOs). "Dzinziruk's a good fighter, but Sergio's a Hall of Fame fighter."

The 36-year-old Martinez was everybody's Fighter of the Year in 2010. He upset 2-to-1 favorite Kelly Pavlik for the middleweight title in April and nearly decapitated consensus pound-for-pounder Paul Williams in November.

And he showed no signs of slowing down Saturday at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods, sending Dzinziruk to the canvas no less than five times before referee Arthur Mercante Jr., put a stop to it at 1:43 of the eighth round.

DiBella made no secret about his aversion for this matchup, an opponent all but force-fed by HBO. Dzinziruk (37-1, 23 KOs) is virtually unknown in the United States, but many felt he was the best 154-pounder in the world. Not enough potential reward for the risk, DiBella reasoned, given Dzinziruk's pristine record and anemic Q score.

Indeed, at least theoretically, it was a showdown between the world's best middleweight and the best junior middleweight -- but Dzinziruk (still a title-holder at 154 pounds) spent most of the evening appearing clearly out of his depth.

Martinez took the fight to Dzinziruk from the opening bell, dropping his hands to invite action and neutralizing the Ukranian's jab with a constant blur of activity. "Nullify his jab, nullify his punches," explained Martinez, who connected on 147-of-384 jabs, compared to 80-of-242 for Dzinziruk . "Little by little we did that."

Dzinziruk appeared confounded by the same squirrely, awkward style that gave Pavlik and Williams fits. Martinez amassed a lopsided lead on the scorecards by throwing and landing more punches, sending Dzinziruk to the canvas in the third and fourth rounds -- near the end of the latter on a vicious right-left-right-left combination.

After suffering a cut under his left eye in the seventh, Martinez finished strong with three knockdowns in the eighth -- each courtesy of his TNT-packed left hand. "I got a new wind," he said. "I was able to hit the gas and accelerate."

Martinez is a champion for another era. He doesn't blog. He doesn't tweet. He'll never deliver a juicy soundbite because he doesn't speak English, communicating through advisor Sampson Lewkowicz -- but his fists are multilingual.

Boxing's annals are filled with extraordinary backstories, but Martinez's path is remarkable even by fistic standards. He grew up in one of Argentina's toughest barrios, "a good kid in a really bad area," as DiBella puts it. A natural athete, he played as a striker for local club team Claypole during his teenage years.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the Bombonera. Martinez turned down a contract offer from Club Atlético Los Andes, a decision that perplexed many in a nation where fútbol is sacrosanct. (Imagine a Biletnikoff Award finalist pulling out of the NFL draft to sign up for the Golden Gloves.)

After a dalliance with cycling, Martinez was past 20 when he took up boxing. Credit DiBella for spotting the potential still there in the then-33-year-old a couple of years ago and pushing hard to re-energize his career.

And forgive the bellicose promoter if he's enjoying the payoff.

"I have never had a fighter like this, this guy is so good it's frightening," crowed DiBella, drenched to the bone with sweat during the post-fight presser. "He is a f---- beast. He is a beast. He does everything. He has speed, he has power, he has flair, he has style, he looks like a movie star and he fights like a beast."

Martinez's approach to the pound-for-pound question is more cerebal but no less passionate.

"It's a dream of mine, it obsesses me," said Martinez of the mythical title. "I will be pound-for-pound best.

"I want the best fighters in front of me. Mayweather, Pacquiao, I want them."

How he'll get them into the ring is the bigger question.

Don't hold your breath on Pacquiao, who's too small anyway. ("You think that Bob Arum's ever putting one of his guys in with this animal?" DiBella asked. "Never.")

Instead, Martinez could fight the best of what's left at 160 pounds. Felix Sturm jumps to mind.

That name might not move the needle among casual fans.

But if these highlight-reel showings keep up, Martinez's 2011 could prove even more rewarding than his 2010.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...3/martinez-dzizdurik/index.html#ixzz1GVAw67jC
 
Jul 24, 2005
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Behind the back page with Nick Charles

The best part was talking boxing. It’s hard to explain how good it made me feel to be around Nick Charles for the Point After in this week’s Sports Illustrated, hard to explain because this is one of the saddest stories I’ve ever written. Nick Charles is dying. How is it possible to feel anything but deep sadness in moments like that?

But believe me when I tell you: I did not feel sad being around Nick Charles. Certainly, of course, there was sadness in the air. Wistfulness. Nick talked about everything. He cried some and apologized for that. I felt a lump or two in my throat now and again and tried to keep Nick from seeing. But the tone was joy, and the themes were life, and the connection was family. We talked about growing up, and about our favorite books, and about watching Barbie movies with our daughters. We both think The Three Musketeers might be the best one. Neither of us was crazy about Mermadia.

Charles was on hand for Tyson's loss to Douglas -- the beginning of the end for boxing. (SI)

When I told people that I had gone to see Nick, they inevitably said: “Oh, I never could have done that. It must have been so depressing.” And maybe I would have thought the same thing. And there was no way to explain to them that it wasn’t depressing — it was the opposite of depressing. I left regretfully, I wished I could have stayed longer, I left filled with powerful feelings about life and how precious it is and how powerful the human spirit can come through if you allow it to come through.

The best part was talking boxing. I do not follow boxing anymore, not out of any sense of morality — I can’t see how boxing is any more dangerous or brutal than pro football at this point — but because the sport has no rhythm, no narrative. It is a messy and unseemly mishmash of $50 pay-per-view cards featuring boxers I don’t know fighting for championships that sound unfamiliar. I can tell you, and probably for the first time in my life, I truly do not know who is the heavyweight champion of the world. I can go on Wikipedia and find out — I guess Vitali Klitschko is one, and David Haye is another — but I don’t know. Corruption has always worked the corners in boxing, but now the whole sport is a blur. And even if you could get by that, the boxing game itself is like a mildly interesting television series, but I missed the first 10 shows. I don’t have the patience or the time to try to catch up. There’s too much else going on.

But there was a time when I knew about as much about boxing as I did any other sport. That comes from my father, who was (and is) an enormous boxing fan. My father loves many sports, but if there was a 24-hour boxing channel that showed new fights every hour, he would never watch anything else. He did not try to make me a boxing fan, but boxing was always on our television, and I grew attached. I cried when my father told me one morning that Muhammad Ali lost to Leon Spinks. I wanted to stay in my room all day and sulk when Sugar Ray Leonard was taken apart by Roberto Duran in their first fight (and I danced like a fool when Leonard won the No Mas fight the second time). I thought about boxing all the time, I thought about boxers all the time, just their names would get me going — Little Red Lopez and Carlos Zarate and Lupe Pintor and the wily Wilfredo Gomez and the classy Alexis Arguello (of course) and the bleeder Vito Antuofermo and Dwight Braxton (who became Dwight Muhammad Qawi) and Boom Boom Mancini (of course) and …

In many ways, my love of boxing ended on the day that Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson in Japan. It did not end BECAUSE Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson. I did not know Douglas, and I did not like Tyson, and watching that fight was mesmerizing and thrilling. If someone had asked me after the fight, “Do you think you’ll stop being a boxing fan now?” I’m sure I would have thought that the question was insane. I was excited after that fight. But somehow boxing kind of stopped being interesting for me after it. I liked Evander Holyfield and sort of kept up with him. I wrote about Ray Mercer a few times, and got to know a young boxer from Augusta named Vernon Forrest who went on to great things. I was amazed by the talents of Roy Jones and Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao and some others. I still love writing about boxers. But, as a fan, I can never remember being truly excited about a fight or a fighter after Tyson-Douglas.

Nick Charles lights up when he’s talking about boxing. He still feels the same way about it as he always did. He does not apologize for loving the sport. He concedes the brutality and corruption. “But,” he says, “I know a lot of people whose lives were saved by boxing, too.” In any case, we were not talking about the rights and wrongs of boxing but about the fights and fighters. We were talking about the fury of the Hagler-Hearns fight, and the sadness of Muhammad Ali in the end, and the impossible energy of Arguello-Aaron Pryor.

And then Nick Charles told me something about the Mike Tyson-Buster Douglas fight that I did not know, something that summed it up for me in a way that nothing else ever had. The thing that is hard to explain, even 20 years later — and will be even harder in another 20 or 40 years, assuming people remember boxing at all — was just how unlikely it was for Buster Douglas to even stay on his feet against Tyson, much less beat him. The odds were astronomical, of course, but odds can be bloodless numbers. Anyway, even odds don’t give a sense of just how invincible Tyson seemed at that moment in time, how utterly inconceivable it was for ANYONE to go into a boxing ring and withstand his fury, much less some relative journeyman like Buster Douglas. I don’t think you can go back in time to FEEL the jolt of an instant, to FEEL just how unlikely it was for the U.S. hockey team to beat the Soviets in 1980, or the New York Jets to beat the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III or, perhaps more than any of them, for Buster Douglas to defeat Mike Tyson.

But Nick Charles put it in perspective this way: He was there, in Japan, and before the fight the reporters had a pool. Reporters always have a pool of some kind going. Of course it would have been foolish to have a pool about who would win the fight, so the pool simply asked: “What round will Mike Tyson knock out Buster Douglas?”

That’s amazing enough. But wait until you hear this: So many writers picked Tyson to knock out Douglas in the first round that they had to start splitting up the round. At first they split it in half, then by minutes, then by half minutes. In the end, so many writers picked Tyson in the first round, that they had to split up the round by 10-second increments. When Douglas survived the first round, almost everybody in the pool was out. Needless to say, nobody picked Buster Douglas by knockout.

“I can tell you,” Nick Charles said, “I have never felt anything that compares to the shock of that Tyson fight.”

He smiled. We both knew that he had felt bigger shocks, much bigger shocks, but not in the playground world of sports. And that’s the world where we lived for an afternoon. It wasn’t only boxing. We talked about Joe Montana and Willie Mays and the people who show up at Churchill Downs at 6 a.m. We talked about how Mike Tyson calls him sometimes. We talked about CNN’s head-to-head battles with ESPN, how people would always want to set him up against Chris Berman or Dan Patrick or Keith Olbermann but he genuinely LIKED those guys. He always liked people. No, it wasn’t sad. Nick wouldn’t let it be said. “Today is a good day,” he said once, twice, three times, before I finally had to go. Those were the five words I used to start my SI column.
 
Jul 24, 2005
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Ex-champ Pavlik reflects on bouts with alcohol

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Are you an alcoholic?

The question lingers with Kelly Pavlik. And then lingers some more. Am I? Pavlik knew he liked beer. Beer with football. Beer with darts. Beer with his buddies who were just looking to blow off some steam. But an alcoholic?

"Well ..." Pavlik said, his voice trailing off.

Liking beer wasn't a disease, was it? The 28-year-old knew hundreds of people who liked beer as much as he did. Hell, if he was an alcoholic, so were most of the people in Youngstown. They drank just as much as he did.

Or did they? Maybe Pavlik didn't realize just how much beer he was drinking, didn't notice how three or four beers was suddenly becoming 10 or 12. Maybe he didn't realize the full effect his drinking was having on his family. Didn't realize how hard it was on his wife, Samantha, to not know if or when her husband was coming home at night. Or that his father, Mike, would unplug the phone before he went to bed so he could sleep without fear of getting that middle-of-the-night phone call telling him something happened to his son.

Maybe he didn't realize any of that then. But he does now. After two emotional, gut wrenching interventions and two stints in rehab, Pavlik has accepted certain truths.

"If you go by the program's definition, then yes," Pavlik said. "I am an alcoholic."

* * * * *

It's hard for Pavlik to pinpoint exactly when the drinking first became a problem. It could have been 2007, when he won the middleweight title with a stunning knockout of Jermain Taylor. That victory catapulted him to hero status in Youngstown. Everyone knew him. And everywhere he went, everyone wanted to buy him a drink.

"I would go out and no one would care what I was drinking," Pavlik said in a two-and-a-half hour interview with SI.com. "They were buying the drinks. After that, it became a habit."

"When he won the title, he was not prepared for what was coming," Mike Pavlik said. "He would walk into any establishment and the first thing you would hear is a guy across the room saying, 'Hey, get him a drink.' The only way I can sum it up is, it was crazy."

Crazy, yes. But out of control? Pavlik's family didn't start to see that until later, in 2009. That was a rough time for Pavlik. He fought twice that year, defending his WBC and WBO middleweight titles against Marco Antonio Rubio and Miguel Espino. But in between Pavlik battled a severe staph infection that hospitalized him that summer and cost him a lucrative fight with Paul Williams.

As the problems mounted, so did Pavlik's frustrations. He wasn't a big talker. Instead, he found solace in the bottle.

"I don't talk much," Pavlik said. "I don't get much off my chest when things are bothering me. [Drinking] was my way of venting. It would happen in spurts. There would be times everything was calm and good and, boom, there would be that spurt. It could have come from the littlest things. An argument or stress. Simple things, like pressure. Everybody hates losing. I was frustrated with myself. The last fight with [Sergio] Martinez. That's one of the things that haunted me. Why the hell would I take that fight at that weight? That bothered me. It bothered me when people said, 'Pavlik can't face guys like that.' And when I did drink, it was a go."

By the end of 2009, Pavlik's family had reached its breaking point.

"I was really concerned about his well-being, his health," Mike said. "For a parent, it was an ill feeling. You never want to see someone hurting themselves. I saw it coming. We couldn't head it off. Like he says, he keeps to himself and his way of venting was through the alcohol."

In January 2010, the Pavlik family organized an intervention. At their home in nearby Canfield, Ohio, Mike and Samantha, along with Pavlik's mother, Debbie, and a professional interventionist, confronted Pavlik. They pleaded with him to go to rehab. Pavlik agreed, and that night he flew to California and checked into the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage.

His stint at Betty Ford, however, didn't last long. Pavlik was supposed to stay for 30 days. He lasted 20.

"I didn't get anything out of it and I didn't put anything into it," Pavlik said. "If I had to do something they assigned me to do, I just went through the process and got it done."

Back in Ohio, Pavlik quickly slipped back into his old habits. He wasn't a seven-day-a-week drunk. He didn't sit at home and pound beers while his wife and children slept. But he also rarely passed on an opportunity to go out.
pavlik-taylor-st.jpg
Kelly Pavlik (right) was catapulted to hero status back home in Youngstown after beating Jermain Taylor for the title in 2007.
AP

"I was partying," Pavlik said. "It was something that was close to getting out of control."

In September, the Pavliks organized a second intervention. They brought back the same interventionist and, for the second time in nine months, begged Pavlik to get help. This time, Pavlik fought back. He stormed up and down the stairs. He glared at the interventionist as the stranger in his living room explained what Pavlik's drinking was doing to his family.

"I'm sitting there thinking, 'You can go f--- yourself,'" Pavlik said. "'In about 10 more minutes, I'm going to kick you out of my house.' "

He didn't, though. He listened to the interventionist. He listened to his parents, his wife. And he made a decision. He would go to rehab again. He would go for 60 days this time instead of 30. And this time, he would make it count.

"My decision came down to telling everyone to go screw themselves and do what I want to, or do I man up and get it done," Pavlik said. "It was a better choice to man up."

Said Mike: "There was always the chance of him telling all of us to go piss up the river. But he didn't. He stood up. After he left, I remember going home and saying, 'I don't know if I could have done that.' It's like leaving for the military. You have no idea where you are going or what you are in for or what they are going to do to you."

There was a new twist to this rehab. He wasn't going to Betty Ford this time. He was going to The Ranch. And if Betty Ford was a country club, The Ranch Recovery Center in Desert Hot Springs, Calif., was a hard labor camp. Days began at 6 a.m. with meditation, feelings groups and classes. Afternoons were spent doing "ranch projects," which included digging trenches for a riverbed, cleaning boulders off the mountain or straining dirt to build mounds for the riverbed. If you were lucky, you were assigned kitchen duty, where you were required to cook and clean in the cafeteria. In the evenings there were a few hours of down time before a required AA meeting.

Sleeping arrangements were cozy. Patients slept in bunk beds. At night, Pavlik would occasionally be awakened by the sounds of the hallucinations of a detoxing neighbor.

"One kid woke up in the middle of the night, got down on his hands and knees and was beating his bed," Pavlik said. "He was having dreams he was using again. It shook the whole my side of the room. His bunkee was panicking in the hallway."
 
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pt2


Pavlik didn't like being there, away from his wife and two children. He sneaked in the occasional phone call, but for most of the first 30 days, he was cut off from everyone.

"When I first got there I was so f---ing mad, if you brought an elephant over there, I would have strangled the hell out of him," Pavlik said. "I was pissed about it. As time went on, I just said, 'F--- it. F--- it, I'm here. Nothing else to do. I can't mope and be pissed all day.' I worked out like an animal. I got through the classes. Some of them, I got something out of. The simple ones, where older guys came in and talked, telling you things that happened to them. And I had a lot of time to myself to think."

Pavlik's presence didn't go unnoticed. Early in his stay, Pavlik was watching TV in the common area. A patient approached him and held up a copy of a Sports Illustrated with a picture of Pavlik's bloody face after his fight with Martinez.

"He was amazed," Pavlik said. "I was kind of pissed. Of all the magazines that were there, you can't find a picture of me winning?"

It was hard, but it was supposed to be. In some ways, Pavlik wanted it to be. He didn't consider himself as sick as the drunks and junkies who populated the center. But he knew there were certain things about his life that he had to address.

"I got out of it what I could," Pavlik said. "As far as alcohol, I didn't really miss it. Once I was there, I was so pissed off being there that the last thing I wanted to look at was alcohol. That was the last thing on my mind. I'm not just saying that. I don't understand, everyone talks about how hard it is to want to use again, about how they have dreams about using. I don't have that. It's the least of my concerns. One point, when I was watching the Ohio State game there, it hit me for a split second that it would be nice to have a couple of beers and watch this game. That was the only time. But I did learn about spirituality, about outlooks on life. I learned about how to deal with things and cope with things without turning to the bottle."

* * * * *

Pavlik says his drinking never affected his boxing. His trainer, Jack Loew, disagrees.

"I started noticing the effect [of drinking] in our training a couple of fights ago," Loew said. "Really from the [Gary] Lockett fight [in June 2008] on, he was lethargic. It was nothing major. Being late to the gym. Postponing running until later in the afternoon. Kelly has always done what I asked no matter what he was doing the night before. But you could see it in the way he fought. Those fights looked real lethargic."

Loew says the drinking was not a cover story to explain Pavlik's pulling out of scheduled fights with Williams or last fall's fight with Brian Vera. Those injuries were legitimate. But he wonders, particularly with the rib injury Pavlik suffered before the Vera fight, if the drinking sapped his resolve to battle through the pain.

"When he hurt his rib, I think that was his itch to get out," Loew said. "I think he said, 'This is it, this is how I can get out of it.' He was on a roller coaster and he wasn't getting off."

Would the Pavlik of 2007 have pulled out of that fight?

"No," Loew said.

Loew has tried to push Pavlik away from outside influences. It's why Loew moved the last training camp to Pennsylvania, close enough for Pavlik to drive home but far enough that he has some distance between himself and his drinking buddies.

"We were trying to protect him," Loew said. "He was on a roller-coaster ride and he wasn't getting off."

It has been suggested that one way Pavlik can get his life back on track would be to move out of Youngstown altogether. Here, Pavlik is the biggest fish in very small pond. In the last year, as word of his drinking problem started to spread, so did the rumors. He was kicked out of bars. He was in a street fight outside a bar. He got in a car accident while driving drunk leaving a bar. Most of it was just that, rumors. But that didn't mean the local press wouldn't call to try to confirm the stories.

Indeed, the relationship between Pavlik and the local media has become adversarial. Pavlik believes he shouldn't have to respond to every rumor going around town. The local media believes he doesn't respond enough. Mike Pavlik said during one call with a local reporter that he was told the hounding "was the price of fame." During a recent interview, Pavlik's publicist, John D'Altorio, played a voice mail from an editor at a local paper. The message was sent just before Pavlik's fight with Martinez. In the message, the editor called Pavlik's refusal to give the paper's reporter access "bulls---" and said the paper "would draw our line, you can draw yours and it will be ugly."

"It's good that they write about me," Pavlik said. "But there is nothing else to write about in this area. It's sad but true. There is nothing else. The only way that paper will get out of a 20-mile area is if someone is driving down the freeway and it blows out the window. You would think they would shine a positive on things. We had guys from here starting in the NFL. Write about them. It's mind-boggling. Write something positive. There is no reason to threaten me."

So why not leave? Pavlik has a million reasons. Youngstown is affordable. His family is here. His friends are here. Nothing or no one is going to run him out of town.

"I'm a homebody," Pavlik said. "I've always liked being home, training at home. I like being around family and friends. This is where I'm comfortable. I'm not a person that likes to go to flashy restaurants. I like to go to places I'm used to. A lot of people get run out of here. Athletes that have been in the spotlight that up and left. I'm not going to get run out of somewhere I love to be. People are going to hate me whether I'm here or somewhere else. If I stay, I'm keeping myself happy."

Not everyone in Pavlik's life agrees.

"Do I think he should go? Yeah. Make a new start," Mike Pavlik said. "I don't want him to go. I'd go with him. I'm ready to go, too."

* * * * *

It's just before 2 p.m. and Pavlik is in Jack Loew's Southside Boxing Club. He works the mitts with Loew, which he does about three days a week. His punches are crisp but his timing is a little off.

"Just shaking off the rust," Pavlik said.

He's sober now, going on four months. He isn't going to AA meetings because he says he doesn't need to. He says he hasn't thought about drinking and has no plans to drink anytime soon. But he stops short of saying he will never drink again. See, there is a part of Pavlik that still doesn't believe he has a problem. There is a part of him that is still angry that his family forced him to go to rehab.

"To this day, I still feel there were other ways of going about it," Pavlik said. "It wasn't completely out of hand yet. There were other ways, simpler ways. Talking or communication. At the same time, it still wasn't a bad idea. What was it going to hurt for me to go to rehab? Sometimes you can learn more from other people than those close to you. It can be hard to communicate with those close to you."

His family can't predict what will happen next. Mike says his relationship with Kelly has changed, that the two talk more now. Loew says he sees an energy from Pavlik that he hasn't seen in years.

"He is setting goals again," Loew said. "He's got the hunger back."

But for how long? Right now, Pavlik is focused on his next fight, which he hopes to have on May 7 on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao's fight with Shane Mosley. But what happens after that fight? What happens in the months after, when boxing isn't right in front of him? Can he fight his inner demons? Can he resist the temptations? No one in Pavlik's life knows for sure.

"This is going to be about Kelly Pavlik stepping to the plate," Loew said. "He needs to grow up and realize he has a family and that he can't go to the bar every single night. We're seeing it now. We're seeing a lot of the old Kelly back."


Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...6/kelly.pavlik.rehab/index.html#ixzz1GVBb3Syg
 
Jul 24, 2005
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Sergio Martinez wants Pacquiao or Mayweather next

By Chris Williams: WBC Emeritus middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (47-2-2, 26 KO’s) looked absolutely sensational in stopping previously unbeaten WBO junior middleweight champion Sergiy Dzinziruk (37-1, 23 KO’s) in an 8th round stoppage on Saturday night at the Foxwoods Resort Casino, in Mashantucket, Connecticut. Martinez, 36, knocked Dzinziruk down five times in the fight, including three times in the 8th and final round.

After the fight, Martinez said his goal is to become the number #1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world and wants to fight Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather Jr. next. The chances of that happening are slim, especially after the way that Martinez dominated Dzinziruk. Pacquiao has already recently fought someone even bigger than Martinez with Pacquiao’s 12 round decision over 5’11” junior middleweight Antonio Margarito last November. However, Martinez has speed, power and can fight, and that probably eliminates him from any chance of fighting Pacquiao.

Margarito was painfully slow and hadn’t looked at all good in his two recent fights before the Pacquiao fight. As such, Martinez will likely never get a shot against Pacquiao, because he’s just too good. It’s a good thing for Pacquiao because Martinez is fighting on a really high level and would be huge problems for Pacquiao with his in and out attacks, and powerful jabs.

Last Saturday night, Martinez showed that he’s more than just a power puncher by out-jabbing a fighter known for having one of the best jabs in the junior middleweight division. Throughout the fight, Martinez showed that he could not only punch but he could also throw powerful jabs. From the 1st round on, Martinez kept a hard jab in Dzinziruk’s face at all times. Dzinziruk found himself getting out-jabbed and he seems confused at what to do. He tried to establish his own jab, but Martinez getting his shots off first and Dzinziruk seemed unsure what to do.

In the 4th, Martinez dropped Dzinziruk with a nice left hand. Dzinzriuk came back in the 6th and 7th rounds as Martinez seemed to fade. During those rounds, Dzinziruk threw more power shots and landed a lot of nice jabs. However, with a cut on the side of Martinez’s left eye giving him problems, he came out for the 8th with a sense of urgency, throwing hard left hands shot and knocking Dzinziruk down. Dzinziruk got back up but was put down two more times before the fight was ultimately stopped.
 
Jul 24, 2005
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Does brutality really build boxing champions?

By Vitali Shaposhnikov: In recent EA Sports Fight Night interviews for their Fight Night Champion video game, four world champions were interviewed. Bernard Hopkins, Mike Tyson, Tommy Morrison, and Joe Frazier, all sat down to talk about their experiences in the correctional facilities, and how they possibly gave them an edge or extra insight in boxing.

Of course not everyone who had success in boxing came out of the impoverished, neglected, or disadvantaged lifestyle. I don’t exactly know the breakdown, but many fighters were simply born into boxing, or discovered it early in their childhood.

Still, I wonder if there really is any advantage gained from a prison or jail experience. Maybe it toughens a person up mentally, giving them the extra self confidence to push further. Such could certainly provide a man with regularity and order. I have heard that sometimes people come out more organized and humble, taking more care in things they end up doing.

I thought the videos were at the least interesting to watch, giving us a chance to learn a littler more about boxing’s greats.

“There are two graveyards: one in the dirt, and one in the penitentiary. Prison has a face of its own. Everybody is watching everybody. Everybody is watching the strong become prey.” – Bernard Hopkins (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6A4rdVRyzM&has_verified=1)

“I came home, I took a bad and stuffed it with moss, corn cobs, little briquettes, some of momma’s old clothes or my old clothes. Making it a heavy bag. That’s how I got my boxing ability.” – Joe Frazier (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzPWruZ_MKo)

“I sat there and listened to him for twenty minutes, and couldn’t hold myself in the chair any longer. Told him I can punch a hole in his f**king head about that big around. So I punched him out. Hit him a couple of times and that was it.” – Tommy Morrison (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDDy4QlTTkQ)

“I think the reality of prison is that you don’t get anything unless you want it in there. Whatever happens to you in prison, this is what you asked for. Nothing happens to you if you don’t give that vibe. If you don’t want to get killed or stabbed, don’t go in there thinking I’m running this show.” Mike Tyson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZZlO4E3158)
 
Jul 24, 2005
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King Envisages A Three-Day Music Festival To Accompany The Super-Fight

By James Slater: Though his many legal issues have still to be resolved before Floyd “Money” Mayweather can even think of boxing again (his court appearance pushed back to April now), the entire boxing world refuses to give up on the idea of one day seeing a mega-fight between he and Manny Pacquiao. Right now, in conjunction with one another, legendary promoters and one-time bitter rivals Don King and Bob Arum are thinking of how they can make the biggest fight in all of boxing today. And if the combined know-how of King AND Arum cannot get the clash made, then forget it!

King has Floyd’s ear; Arum promotes Pac-Man. Working together is now very much a doable thing for the two veterans, too (together, the two put on tonight’s Miguel Cotto-Ricardo Mayorga fight in Las Vegas) and maybe, just maybe, they will be able to pull out all the stops and get this thing on. King, who rose to global fame with the work he did in putting together the heavyweight mega-fight that was 1974’s Muhammad Ali-George Foreman “Rumble in The Jungle,” likes the idea of a three-day musical festival accompanying Pacquiao-Mayweather. As fans know, a musical event accompanied Ali-Foreman, with legends such as James Brown performing free for the fans. King wants today’s musical stars, such as 50-Cent (Floyd’s best buddy!) and Jay-Z to do their thing for this huge boxing occasion.

“Well, there is every possibility, every possibility, if we can get the stars to be a part of it and be a part of the people,” King said to The Manila Times. “We represent the masses not the classes; but we unify the masses and the classes.”

And Arum is also very much hoping the super-fight can be signed, sealed and delivered.

“I firmly wish it would happen,” he said. “If Don and I were promoting that fight, it would be something that would remembered 100 years from now. We would make this entire planet stop. All the wars and all the conflicts in the world - there would at least be a truce.”

Arum isn’t exaggerating. If the two best P-4-P stars on the planet locked horns on a glitzy stage accompanied by the kind of musical festival King envisages, who wouldn’t watch it? More importantly to the two worldly promoters: who wouldn’t PAY to watch it? Mayweather-Pacquiao, Pacquiao-Mayweather; whichever way around you want it - would be staggeringly big. Just like Ali-Foreman, Leonard-Hearns and all the other classics Arum and King have worked on were.

King and Arum together, smiling and doing great business together without any nastiness aimed at the other is a quite amazing thing to see. If these two can be paired together with such lack of ill feeling, surely Manny and Floyd can be persuaded to come together also and sign on for the fight the entire planet wants to see!
 
Jul 24, 2005
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What Next For Sergio Martinez?

By James Slater: Middleweight king Sergio Gabriel Martinez, already ranked at number-three in most P-4-P lists, says he is “obsessed” with becoming the #1 guy on all lists. Last night, against the unbeaten and avoided Sergiy Dzinziruk, Martinez certainly helped his case. Halting the tall, fellow southpaw in the 8th-round, when he scored three knockdowns, “Maravilla” showed again how good he is against any style.

Now 47-2-2(26), the at-his-peak 36-year-old followed up his sensational, one-punch KO of another tall southpaw in Paul Williams. The question now is: who and what next for the Argentine?

After last night’s impressive win, Martinez spoke of his desire to become the very best in the entire sport.

“Becoming the best Pound for Pound fighter is a dream of mine,” he said. “It obsesses me. I will be Pound for Pound best. I want the best fighters in front of me. Mayweather, Pacquiao, I want them.”

But would Pac-Man or “Money” ever want to fight Martinez? Pacquiao is generally considered to be just too small to fight at middleweight, especially against as special a fighter as Martinez. While Mayweather has to iron out his legal issues before he can fight again. And do you really think Floyd will risk his ‘O’ against the middleweight ruler?

So who could Martinez - a fighter his promoter Lou DiBella has called “a beast” - face next?

“Maravilla” could look to clean up the alphabelts at 160-pounds, with fights against belt-holders Felix Sturm, Dimitriy Pirog and the like. But would such fights appeal to either the champ or the fans? And what makes you think these guys, Sebastian Zbik amongst the current titlists, would opt to risk their titles and their unbeaten records against Martinez?

It may well be that Martinez is too good for his own good. There is seemingly no-one at all to touch him at either 154 or 160, and Martinez’ fellow P-4-P stars appear to be out of reach. It’s possible we could see a third fight between Martinez and Paul Williams, seeing as the two are one-and-one right now. But with the way Martinez handled “The Punisher” last time out, would such a rubber-match sell?

Martinez has often thrown out the name of Miguel Cotto. The Puerto Rican retained his WBA 154-pound belt last night; maybe this is a fight we could get excited about. But will Martinez ever get the fights he really craves? And will he ever secure that P-4-P number-one spot he obsesses about?
 
May 13, 2002
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^^^Pirog called martinez out and martinez turned him down. So let's not act like it's impossible to get a fight.

I think martinez is a full blown middleweight, he weighed in over 170 yesterday and he walks around at 190. So I don't think it's very fair he's calling out mayweather and pacquiao, who are both a bit small even for 147 let alone 154. He should focus on 160 and if not, take on the 168 pound guys if he wants to be known as the #1 pound 4 pound fighter, like Bute or Kessler
 
Jul 24, 2005
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Bute vs. Magee this Saturday on Showtime

By Dan Ambrose: If you like mismatches, then you’ll love this fight. IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (27-0, 22 KO’s) faces what boxing fans hope will be someone that can put up a decent fight and give some entertainment when he faces Ireland’s Brian Magee (34-3-1, 24 KO’s) on Saturday night on Showtime at the Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Magee hasn’t been in the public eye on the world scene for the most part during his career, instead fighting mostly European opposition. He hasn’t lost since 2006 when Magee was stopped in the 11th round by Carl Froch. Magee’s opposition since then has been a lower grade compared to Froch, and Magee has been able to win without any problems.

Bute recently signed a contract with Showtime and will hopefully be fighting the Super Six tournament winner at some point unless Magee is able to pull off a miracle upset and beat Bute. Don’t count on it. Magee, ranked #5 IBF, is pretty basic, not fast and not a huge puncher either. He’s just someone that reminds one of a slow, stiff guy like Sergiy Dzinziruk, but without the great Dzinziruk jab and right hook.

Magee is over-matched in the Bute fight and its likely going to be an even worse mismatch than Bute’s recent fights against Francisco Zuniga, Edison Miranda and Jesse Brinkley. The good news is that Bute will soon be finally facing some quality opposition when he fights the winner of the Super Six tournament and Mikkel Kessler. I don’t expect Bute to beat the Super Six winner because there are a couple of fighters in there that will wear him down and knock him out. Kessler might do the job as well.
 
Jul 24, 2005
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Kessler to fight in June, then October or November against Bute

By Eric Thomas: Mikkel Kessler (43-2, 32 KO’s) is ready to resume his career with a tune-up fight in June against a still to be determined opponent. Kessler hasn’t fought since beating Carl Froch last year in the Super Six tournament in April.

Suffering from eye problems related to the tournament, Kessler pulled out of the tourney after the Froch bout and vacated his WBC belt so that Froch could fight for it against Arthur Abraham. Kessler has had enough time to recover from his eye injury and will be looking to get a fight in June.

If Kessler’s eye problems doesn’t resurface in the tune-up bout, Kessler will then be fighting IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (27-0, 22 KO’s) in October or November, according to Sporten.dk. Bute has a fight coming up this Saturday night against Irish challenger Brian Magee. Bute should win that fight.

Once that fight is out of the way for Bute, he will be looking to negotiate with Kessler for a fight. The way things will work out, the winner of the Bute-Kessler fight will take on the Super Six tournament winner in early 2012, while the loser of the Bute-Kessler fight will be fighting the loser of the Super Six final. It could very well come out with Andre Ward and Carl Froch being the two fighters that end up facing Kessler and Bute.

Kessler has been given the title “Emeritus” by the WBC, which allows Kessler to go straight into a title shot without having to work his way to the fight like most contenders. Kessler will be watching Bute’s fight with Magee this Saturday night to get a good look at Bute to study him.

Sauerland, the promoters for Kessler, have some guys in mind for his tune-up bout in June, although they’re not saying who is in the running.
 
Jul 24, 2005
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Maidana says Khan won’t give him a rematch

By William Mackay: The hard hitting light welterweight contender Marcos Maidana (29-2, 27 KO’s) would like to have a rematch against WBA Super World light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s) after losing by a close 12 round unanimous decision to him last December. Khan was badly hurt in the 10th by a right hand from Maidana, and then spent much of the remainder of he fight holding on to Maidana and running.

However, Maidana doesn’t think Khan wants to give him a rematch, and he’s probably right. Khan has taken his narrow win and moved on.

Speaking on his twitter account, Maidana said “Of course I’m interested in a rematch with Khan, yet he won’t give it to me.”

Maidana probably won’t ever get another shot against Khan unless Khan gets beaten by one or two of his opponents and is badly in need of career resurgence. Khan has a fight against Paul McCloskey (22-0, 12 KO’s) on April 16th. Khan should win that fight because McCloskey is slow and not a big puncher at all. Khan will then fight WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley in July.

If Khan wins that fight, he’ll be leaving the light welterweight division and moving up to welterweight to look for bigger fights up there. Things could go Maidana’s way if Khan starts getting beaten up and knocked out as a welterweight. The most popular fighters at that weight are guys that are naturally stronger and more rugged than Khan. He’ll lose to WBC welterweight champ Andre Berto, and will get totally dominated by Floyd Mayweather Jr.

If Khan wants to retire after the Mayweather fight, then Maidana really won’t be seeing him again. And Khan would have major problems against Mike Jones and Saul Alvarez. He’ll probably avoid those two like the plague. The only fighters I can see Khan fighting at welterweight is Shane Mosley, who looks shot, and Mayweather. Once those fights are exhausted, Khan will be pressured to fight Berto or Jones. It won’t happen. Khan will likely go after the IBF welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko, because he’s an easy mark for a nice paper title. Khan could beat Senchenko, but then again could probably a good portion of the top 15, including Matthew Hatton.

Maidana probably won’t need Khan to become the most popular fighter in the light welterweight division because he’s already well on his way to achieving that because of his crowd pleasing style of fighting. In contrast, Khan’s running, holding and slapping style isn’t nearly as interesting to watch. Boxing fans may quickly grow annoyed with watching that style in the U.S. and we could see Khan having problems getting his fights aired by HBO.
 
Jul 24, 2005
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Will Dzinziruk be ruined by the loss to Martinez?

By Eric Thomas: WBO junior middleweight champion Sergiy Dzinziruk (37-1, 23 KO’s) was totally punished last Saturday night in his 8th round stoppage loss to WBC Emeritus middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (47-2-2, 26 KO’s) at the Foxwoods Resort Casino, in Mashantucket, Connecticut.

Dzinziruk was knocked down five times in the fight and took a lot of hard left hands to the head from Martinez, as well as a lot of jabs. The way that Dzinziruk was beat you have to wonder whether he’ll suffer permanent damage whether to his self-confidence or physically. He was totally dominated by Martinez in the fight and never really stood a chance for a second.

Dzinziruk might have been able to help himself had he started off quicker in the fight, because while he was getting hit with repeated jabs one after another in the first three rounds, Dzinziruk would only jab back reluctantly. It was like he was holding back for some reason. Dzinziruk eventually started letting his jabs go with a lot more regularity starting in the 6th, but even then he still wasn’t matching Martinez’s workrate.

Dzinziruk will now be moving back down to the junior middleweight division where he’ll resume defending his WBO title. That sounds good, because he’s clearly not a middleweight as we saw in the Martinez fight. However, Dzinziruk may have problems in the near future because the #1 contender is Vanes Martirosyan, a fighter with excellent power, a great jab and a fighting style that could give Dzinziruk a lot of headaches.

Besides Martirosyan, there’s also Alfredo Angulo, someone with a lot of power and quite capable of knocking Dzinziruk out. I think Dzinziruk would have a lot of problems against either of those two fighters.

Dzinziruk took some really hard head shots from Martinez and you have to worry that he might not be the same fighter after this bout.