Kelly Pavlik

Kelly Pavlik ( born April 5, 1982 in Youngstown, Ohio) is an American professional boxer and former world champion of the WBC and WBO middleweight.

Amateur

Pavlik won several junior tournaments in the welterweight division, including the U.S. Junior Championship in 1999. He defeated Jermain Taylor and Anthony Hanshaw in the Olympic excretion 2000. His amateur balance is 89 wins and nine defeats.

Professional career

At the age of 18 years, Pavlik was with Bob Arum Top Rank professional and won his first thirty fights at middleweight. His clout was there impressive, the Ring Magazine looks at him before Edison Miranda as the most powerful boxer in the class. His range is impressive, he is 1,89 m tall. The structure opponents were repeatedly former Halbmittelgewichtler as Bronco McKart and Fulgencio Zuniga. The construction phase of six years is considered to be unusually long.

After the knockout win over the Mexican Jose Luis Zertuche in January 2007, Pavlik was already mandatory challenger to the WBC, but had surprisingly boxes against Edison Miranda before the title fight, which led to the direct match between the two boxers, who looked at the Ring Magazine as impact strongest middleweights. In a fight with enormous pace at which both boxers could land clear effect hits, succeeded Pavlik, Miranda hit several times on the ground. He finally won in the seventh round technical knockout. At this time he was also evident on points forward. Crucial in the fight was particularly the better cover work of Pavlik.

After this unusual second eliminator Kelly Pavlik was now finally official challenger of WBC. He ran against middleweight world champion Jermain Taylor on September 29, 2007. Taylor acted very offensive to everyone's surprise and beat Pavlik in the second round with a combination to the ground. At this time, the challenger appeared just before the Ko to stand. However, in the seventh round succeeded Pavlik a blow against Taylor series to install with several direct hits, in which the defending champion fell to the ground. The referee jumped at this moment in between and finished the fight with a TKO win for Pavlik, who on all three labels clearly lagged at the time of the battle Abbruches.

Jermain Taylor took after the defeat of an earlier contracted rematch clause, so that Pavlik and Taylor faced again on February 16, 2008 at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. They had agreed on a weight limit on the middleweight division, so that the world title the WBC and WBO were not at stake. Pavlik won the duel over twelve rounds by unanimous decision.

On June 7, 2008 Pavlik went to his first voluntary title defense against Welshman Gary Lockett. Kelly Pavlik won this fight in the third round technical knockout Then Pavlik entered into a non-title fight against the 43- year-old former middleweight world champion Bernard Hopkins. Since Hopkins boxed after losing the middleweight world championship since 2006 at light heavyweight, it was agreed for this fight to a weight limit of 170 pounds ( 77.1 kg ). Pavlik lost the battle against the experienced, but 17 years older Hopkins October 18, 2008 after a surprisingly strong points.

The year 2009 was marked by comebacks for Kelly Pavlik and injury breaks. 21 February 2009 Pavlik defended both his middleweight title against mandatory challenger Marco Antonio Rubio, by defeating them by task in the ninth round. It was a struggle from the beginning the Pavlik dominated and controlled. After a fight was planned with Sergio Mora and later against Paul Williams. Both fights not came about or were shifted to the opponent as long as another man punched. Kelly Pavlik was afflicted for several months due to an infection in his hand and could not train. Due to pressure from the emerging world associations Pavlik defended his title against standing at number three in the world rankings Miguel Angel Espino on December 19, 2009 in his hometown of Youngstown sovereign by TKO in the fifth round.

Pavlik lost his WBC and WBO belt in a voluntary title defense on April 17, 2010, Sergio Gabriel Martínez, who was able to defeat him at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. The Argentine Martínez used here has its advantages in speed and boxing techniques to clearly defeat Pavlik on points.