February 22, 2012

Pavlik knocks out Espino in 5th round to retain WBC & WBO Middleweight Belts

December 20, 2009 By 4 Comments

Pavlik-Espino-WFNY

We had a WFNY ambassador in attendance ringside last night at the Beeghly Center on the campus of Youngstown State who was kind enough to take the above picture.  Kelly Pavlik returned after almost a year off to knockout Miguel Espino in the 5th round to defend his middleweight belts.  The Ghost had a rough year in which a lot of his most ardent fans questioned his desire to continue boxing and defend his belts.  He had not fought since February when he beat Marco Antonio Rubio in an uninspired performance.  He spent the rest of the year recovering from a staph infection (was not contracted in Berea) which resulted in his scheduled fight with Paul Williams falling apart.

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Avoiding the Indians? – UFC 100 is on Saturday

July 9, 2009 By 13 Comments

If the Tribe’s awful season has you feeling unfulfilled and in need of an aggressive outlet, the UFC has their biggest event ever on Saturday night.  While these pages are reserved for Cleveland sports, it is kind of a slow season when there isn’t a (decent) team playing.  I will be checking out all the action on Saturday night and if you have been waiting for a reason to finally give the UFC a shot, UFC 100 would be a good time to do that.  Here is a short primer on what kind of action to expect other than Joe Rogan’s really interesting and insightful commentary.

Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir – This matchup features the former WWE wrestler / failed Minnesota Vikings defensive lineman as he defends the championship belt against Frank Mir who holds an interim championship belt. [Read more...]

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Update on Jason Dent From The Ultimate Fighter

May 28, 2009 By 2 Comments

A few weeks ago, I posted that a Clevelander was on the UFC’s reality show on Spike TV, The Ultimate Fighter. Dent is also blogging about his experiences on the show over at Yahoo! Sports’ Cagewriter Blog.  It is especially nice to have his perspective on his most recent fight on the show where he defeated Jeff Lawson.  After the fight, UFC CEO Dana White and Jason Dent’s coach for the show, MMA veteran Dan Henderson talked on camera about how unimpressed they had been with Dent’s victory.  

To be honest, it seemed pretty lackluster to me at home too.  Dent was fighting a submission specialist in Lawson and he was visibly gassed and tired very quickly.  Dent seemed to take his time finishing a hobbled opponent and obviously the UFC brass thought this showed a lack of killer instinct.  After reading the blog, I think Jason does a good job of defending his tactics. [Read more...]

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Staph Infection to Postpone Pavlik Fight?

May 9, 2009 By 2 Comments

kelly-pavlik-rubio-winSet to go off on June 27th, the pride of Youngstown, Ohio Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik was to defend his middleweight WBC/WBO title against Sergio Mora. However, those that are planning on venturing to Atlantic City to see the defense may have to reschedule their plans if an ESPN report is indeed true.

Per columnist Dan Rafael, Pavlik has a “nagging” staph infection in one of his hands that will force the boxer to postpone the match. [Read more...]

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Cleveland Represented on “The Ultimate Fighter”

April 23, 2009 By 3 Comments

jason-dent1Season 9 of “The Ultimate Fighter” on Spike TV is in its 4th episode.  It wasn’t until watching the third episode that I realized Northeast Ohio is represented.  Jason”“Dynamite” Dent is fighting out of Mentor Ohio and he was born and raised in Madison.  And now he has his second shot to gain some traction in the UFC.

Dent had his first run through the UFC starting at UFC 63 “Hughes vs. Penn” and UFC 68 “Uprising.”  He wasn’t successful.  He got cut after losing to Roger Huerta and Gleison Tibau.  After getting cut by the UFC, Dent came back to Ohio and started his journey over again.  He won five out of his next six fights in various promotions in Cleveland and Niles Ohio.  Apparently that was good enough for Dent to get a shot in the UFC’s televised version of the minor leagues. [Read more...]

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Kelly Pavlik Retains Titles, Draws “No Mas” From Marco Antonio Rubio

February 23, 2009 By 6 Comments

If there was any debate on what sort of boxer Kelly Pavlik is since he fought up a weight class a few months back, I believe it is safe to say that the critics are considerably more quiet this week after Pavlik moved his record to 35-1 with a ninth round TKO of Marco Antonio Rubio (43-5-1).

Sure, the fight lasted a little longer than most pundits anticipated.  However, most fans remembered Pavlik as the slower version who could not stop hugging Bernard Hopkins while being completely over matched.  A totally different Pavlik performed this past weekend in front of more than 7,000 fans in his home town of Youngstown, Ohio.  [Read more...]

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Pavlik on Wrong End of “Upset of the Year”

December 19, 2008 By 5 Comments

Pavlik HopkinsSports Illustrated released their 2008 boxing awards this week.  Not surprising was Manny Pacquiao taking home the award for Boxer of the Year.  Topping Oscar De La Hoya this past month was only icing on the cake for Pacquiao’s year in the WBC. 

While scouring the list for Ohio’s own Kelly Pavlik, we did find that he was a part of a 2008 award; just not one that he will be too proud of: Upset of the Year.

Fighting a 43-year old Bernard Hopkins did not go as planned for the knockout specialist.  After 12 rounds of boxing, it was a unanimous decision for the trash-talking Hopkins.  It was also $50 less dollars in my bank account, but I won’t hold that against him. 

If you missed the bout you can catch the replay on HBO as they roll out the best fights of 2008 on December 25th.  For free.  No, I’m not bitter.  Not at all.

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In Case You’re Interested…

October 18, 2008 By 4 Comments

Fanhouse is running a liveblog of the Pavlik-Hopkins event tonight. I’ll be over there for the main event. Should start around 11:00. Knock his block off Kelly!

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What They’re Saying About Pavlik vs Hopkins…

October 16, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Ohio native, and current middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik takes on 43 year old Bernard Hopkins this Saturday. I don’t pretend to be a boxing expert, so let’s see what others are saying about the match-up.

Pavlik on how he plans to defeat Hopkins-

“Our game plan is to make him have to throw at least [Read more...]

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Pavlik Ready For Hopkins

October 8, 2008 By 4 Comments

While we pine away for championships here in the city of Cleveland, the area already has a champion walking around.  Kelly Pavlik, the undisputed middle-weight champion of the world has a non-title bout up at the light-heavyweight weightclass on October 18th with Bernard Hopkins.  Despite news of an elbow injury, Pavlik is apparently still ready to go according to his trainers.

I am not much of a boxing fan.  I am more of an MMA guy.  At the same time, I am pretty interested to follow Kelly Pavlik as a complete and utter homer.  Pavlik hails from Youngstown where he still does all his training.  In preparation to root like crazy for the only thing in boxing that I actually care about, I watched a video of Pavlik fights with an inspirational midi soundtrack underneath.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLmPAImEpPI[/youtube]

Now I am ready for the fight.

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Kelly Pavlik: Fearing For Safety?

July 2, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Kelly PavlikTough, hard-hitting boxer or not – some things just aren’t worth messing with.  And this is one of them. 

A crazy story out of Youngstown, OH regarding one Kelly Pavlik (you know, the WBO middleweight champ?) and some information recently filed with the authorities.  Reportedly, a former associate of Pavlik is disputing with the champion over financial issues, and began issuing threats serious enough to force Pavlik to seek help.

Per the Youngstown Vindicator:

“I basically did it because of my daughter,” Pavlik, 26, told The Vindicator of why he filed the report. “I could have filed a restraining order, but I haven’t done anything like that.”

It’s being reported that the man in question goes by the name of Anthony Scandy, and appears to have had some sort of managerial contract with Pavlik.  Apparently, there were threats over Pavlik’s hands; and let’s face it, boxers need those things. 

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Pavlik Could Be Coming Home To Fight Next

June 9, 2008 By 8 Comments

Kelly PavlikWBC, WBO, and The Ring Middleweight Champion Kelly Pavlik Wants To Fight In Ohio Next

There’s no doubt that NE Ohio sports is dominated by LeBron James. After LeBron, you have the likes of Grady Sizemore, Braylon Edwards, and Joe Thomas. But perhaps Ohio’s most underrated athlete, then, is none other than Kelly Pavlik. After taking the Middleweight title from Jermain Taylor last year, Kelly successfully defended his title for the first time over the weekend and he held on to the title in convincing fashion. The overmatched Gary Lockett fell to Pavlik by third round TKO. It was never a fair fight.

Now, with a wide open future, one of Pavlik’s options could be to defend his title close to home in Cleveland. Promoter Bob Arum has already said he wants Pavlik’s next fight to be at Light Heavyweight against unified champ Joe Calzaghe, son of Lockett trainer Enzo Calzaghe. If that fight happens, it will be in October in Las Vegas. This would be the biggest fight both domestically and globally, but if it happens, it means Pavlik’s Middleweight defense at home will have to wait. However, if the Calzaghe fight falls through, then expect a Pavlik fight in Cleveland in September. In a story on MaxBoxing.com, Arum says,   [Read more...]

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02/17 Morning Minute: The Winner, and STILL Undefeated…

February 17, 2008 By 1 Comment

Kelly Pavlik
Ohio’s most underrated athlete?
 
While I admit that I am not the biggest boxing fan in the world, or probably even on my street, I did find myself at a local establishment last night to watch Youngstown, Ohio’s own Kelly Pavlik attempt to repeat what was considered a major upset a few months back: Beat Jermain Taylor. A bit of a bandwagoner, I would not even have known the entire story about Pavlik had it not been for the trusty Internet as well as my friend Dave; both of which made last night’s fight very entertaining.Of course, it also helps when thousands of people at an event in Las Vegas are chanting the name of the guy you want to win.

Many said that Pavlik (known for his knockout punch) would have to repeat his “luck” again this time around, but that was not the case. While this was the first non-knockout in 10 fights, Kelly won by unanimous decision to take his record to a lofty 33-0 – with an amazing 29 knockouts.

[Read more...]

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