Pavliks ready to fight article

Everything seemed to be lining up perfectly for the blue-collar kid from Youngstown. He had battered Jermain Taylor, beaten him again in an immediate rematch, and had turned his attention to cleaning out the middleweight division.
The only thing Kelly Pavlik’s cleaned out this year has been his left hand. Twice.
His year has been about as bumpy as the worn-out roads around Jack Loew’s South Side Boxing Club, where the scrawny 160-pound titleholder has been preparing for his return to the ring on Saturday night against unheralded contender Miguel Espino.
Pavlik began 2009 with an uninspiring defense against a mandatory challenger, then had two fights canceled, before rumors began circulating about why he hadn’t been fighting.
The answer, it turned out, was a staph infection on the knuckle of his hand.
“It’s been crazy, the hand, we have worked through that and it’s in the past. The problem with the hand was just time-consuming,” Pavlik said earlier this week. “At the end of the day, we had two major surgeries within two months of each other.”
That’s the short version of what happened.
Along with the surgeries to clean out the stubborn infection, there were failed antibiotics and a severe allergic reaction that put Pavlik in the hospital for four days and left his family wondering whether he might live, let alone fight again.
He finally got out of the hospital and began running, even announcing a fight with feared puncher Paul Williams for Dec. 5. Then Pavlik realized he couldn’t make a fist.
He wanted the fight to be pushed back, but Williams had grown weary of the delays — the fight was originally scheduled for October — and chose to take on someone else. Pavlik figured he’d wait until January and make sure everything healed before stepping back into the ring, then was told the sanctioning bodies might strip him of his titles if he didn’t defend them .
Into the picture came Espino, who was plucked out of training camp in Mexico and will fight for the WBO and WBC belts at the Beeghly Center on the campus of Youngstown State University.
“We’re giving this kid an opportunity of a lifetime,” Pavlik’s trainer Jack Loew said, “a fight that could change his life like it did for us against Jermain.”
Espino (20-2-1, 9 KOs) acknowledges that he’s never faced anybody like Pavlik, whose thudding punches have reduced several contenders to rubble. Espino said he’s “grateful and humbled” for the chance to fight for a belt, even on short notice in the champ’s hometown.
“I am fighting for the world title, so there is nothing to be other than excited,” Espino said. “He is the champ, but do I have a shot? Absolutely. Am I going there to win? Absolutely.”
Pavlik (35-1, 31 KOs) prefers to train in Youngstown, where he can stay true to his humble roots.
“There is talk that goes on, my career has been in a little bit of limbo,” said Pavlik. “I definitely feel hungrier. I miss it. Boxing is what I’ve been doing since I was 8 years old. When I take this time that I had off, I definitely got the hunger back.”

Hometown article----

The challenger again thanked the champ for the opportunity to fight for the title.
YOUNGSTOWN — Kelly Pavlik tried to liven up the press conference at Youngstown State University with a little hometown trash-talking.
“Did you know there is no known cure for the bite of a Penguin?” he said Wednesday, turning to his promoter, Bob Arum, chairman of Top Rank Boxing.
When Arum managed a small smile, Pavlik shrugged and said, “That wasn’t a good one.”
OK. How about a joke?
After praising the members of Team Pavlik, Pavlik threw out this line: “We have a really good staff,” emphasizing the last word.
Silence.
“You guys didn’t get that one either,” he said, shaking his head.
Maybe not. Or maybe people aren’t yet ready for jokes about staph infections, which has plagued the champ in recent months. Either way, the effort was appreciated, if not the execution.
With three days left before Saturday’s middleweight title fight at Beeghly Center, there wasn’t much left to say, which made for one of those pre-fight press conferences that are long on thank-yous and short on, you know, interesting quotes.
Even the turnout was lackluster, with about a dozen fans joining media members for the open-to-the-public presser.
The challenger, Miguel Espino, repeated his now-familiar lines about being grateful for the opportunity.
Pavlik’s trainer, Jack Loew, repeated his now-familiar lines about not overlooking Espino.
And Espino’s trainer, John Bray, managed about three sentences — which was about two more than he said at two previous press conferences.
When a reporter complained to Loew about the lack of trash-talking in a sport notorious for it, he smiled and said, “Well, I wanted to use the line about Espino being dropped more than Tiger’s trousers.”
Unfortunately for the talkative Loew, Team Espino hasn’t really given him much of a chance to jab outside the ring. His fighter will get that chance Saturday and, hopefully, it’ll be more interesting than Wednesday.
Pavlik assured everybody it would.
“You guys know my style,” he said. “You know I’m coming to fight.”
Pavlik (35-1-0) will make his third title defense against Espino (20-2-1). Doors open at 7 p.m. for the pay-per-view event, which features a live feed of bouts in Mexico also on the telecast as well as preliminary bouts in the ring at Beeghly.