Pavlik on the outside looking in

A couple years ago, Kelly Pavlik made some pretty disparaging comments regarding the Showtime Super Six. This article takes a look back at what he said and where his career sits now following a devastating loss to Sergio Martinez as well as personal demons with the bottle. Pavlik's best shot at another payday at this point is Lucian Bute...who is in a multi fight deal with Showtime. Interesting.

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Pavlik On the Outside Looking In
Mark Ortega

It was the middle of July of 2009 and Kelly Pavlik, despite two fights previously where he was battered by Bernard Hopkins, was sitting pretty atop the middleweight division as the unified champion and his sights set on a possible fight with fellow pound-for-pound ranked fighter Paul Williams.

Around the same time, Showtime announced their groundbreaking Super Six World Boxing Classic for the super middleweight division, a shortened round robin style tournament featuring six of the best 168 pounders in the world.

When the list of fighters participating was released, one name was curiously omitted in Kelly Pavlik of Youngstown, Ohio. Pavlik had accomplished all what seemed feasible at 160 not counting a Williams fight, as it seemed unlikely that a proposed fight with WBA champion Felix Sturm would come to fruition due to the low purse being offered by HBO to televise the event. Fellow middleweight champion Arthur Abraham was locked into the Super Six and would thus be unavailable.

The tournament risked taking away many of Pavlik's potential high class opposition for the next few years, as the tournament was not laid out to finish up until potentially 2012, a span of three years where Pavlik would have to look elsewhere for challenges.

Pavlik, in an interview with Joe Scalzo of the Youngstown News, first sounded as if he had interest in participating before doing his research and saying that it was a dumb idea.

“Let them beat each other up, let them ruin their career for peanuts,” cried Pavlik. “Why would I be in that tournament when I am a middleweight? They never asked me and I never wanted to join.” Pavlik did not stop there.

“They're going to burn their whole career and for what? Nobody watches Showtime. Trust me, when the winner of the tournament fights his next fight, it will be on HBO.”

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All of the challenges at 160 were unavailable. Abraham was moving up. Sturm wasn't going to fight him for the purse HBO had offered. By dumping on the Super Six, he handcuffed himself to HBO which was not smart because he could easily lose one fight [as he did to Hopkins] and be off their network. They only put him back on if he would fight Williams or Martinez.

What did it do for Taylor? He got a big money fight and then Showtime paid him to walk away from the tournament. He was at the end of the line anyways and got some nice paydays, one without having to fight.

Kessler? He went 1-1, walks out of the tourney as some champion emeritus and will probably get another big money fight, possibly with Bute.

Dirrell? Went 1-1, his career is not tarnished once it resumes.

Abraham's may have seen the most damage but he will get another good payday against Ward after losing two straight fights. Does that happen to many fighters outside the tournament?

All this is saying is Pavlik shouldn't have burned his bridges with his stupid comments regarding Showtime. He went from HBOPPV headliner to HBOPPV opener in a span of a few years. Not good. Everyone in the Super Six who he said would "ruin their careers for peanuts" are still marching forward, minus Taylor and Green. And they got paydays they didn't otherwise deserve.

 

You can't honestly expect me to take you seriously considering your avatar, can you? The words someone uses can be interpreted as someone whining, whatever their tone. Is this piece a news piece? It surely isn't, its editorial. Pavlik is immature [obvious, given his "inability to say no to fans offering to buy him a beer"] and has portrayed himself that way since he knocked out Taylor. A little humility could've gone a long way with him. He's got the physical skills, would be a shame they go to waste.