Trainer for Miguel Espino happy about Kelly Pavlik fight
by Scott Christ on Nov 17, 2009 9:57 AM EST
in Boxing News Analysis
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Robert Morales reports that John Bray, who trains Miguel Espino, is "elated" about Espino's upcoming shot at middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. The two will meet in a fight that raised a lot of eyebrows on December 19 in Youngstown, Ohio:
Espino's longtime trainer knows Team Pavlik chose Espino, who is not a heavy hiter, because it does not consider Espino a serious threat to dethrone Pavlik, who twice pulled out of fights with a much more dangerous Paul Williams because he said an injury to his left hand had yet to heal.
"We are very, very happy, very elated," Bray said. "we're going to make the most out of our opportunity. I'm figuring they are looking at him as a light touch. I mean, come on, they turned down the Paul Williams fight."
You may remember Espino from "The Contender" (he lost to Peter Manfredo Jr. in round one of season one), and I have learned from a July interview with Convicted Artist Magazine that he has a role in that Mark Wahlberg movie about Micky Ward.
Bray says that they'll be ready to "take advantage" of Pavlik taking Espino lightly, but the truth is this fight is such a gimme for someone at Pavlik's level that it would take an injury or something like that to make any real difference. I'm not trying to totally dismiss Espino, but he's 29 and the only win on his record that even looks particularly decent came earlier this year over Alejandro Garcia, and Garcia is 1-4-1 in his last six now, dating back to 2006. And Garcia was also knocked out in the first round of an August 2008 bout with Yori Boy Campas. And Yori Boy Campas is about as shot as they come.
So, I guess overall, I probably am trying to totally dismiss Espino. This is a weird fight, one that feels shady, and while I like Pavlik, there's nothing about this fight I particularly like other than it'll get Kelly back in the ring. But Espino is being overlooked because he should be. He's not on Pavlik's level, he's 5'11" with a weak KO rate against suspect competition, and if nothing else Pavlik can punch and is a big middleweight. Espino is probably in for about the same fate that awaited Gary Lockett, Marco Antonio Rubio, Jose Luis Zertuche and Lenord Pierre. We already know Pavlik can waste this level of competition.
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Let's just call like it is
This fight is an embarrassment and Pavlik is growing increasingly irrelevant with inactivity and unwillingness/inability to take on the best guys out there. I really, really want to like Kelly, but the last year or so has been an unmitigated disaster for his career.
by The Boxer Rebellion on Nov 17, 2009 10:44 AM EST reply actions
Espino has about as much of a chance against Pavlik as Ornelas does against Hopkins
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
I agree with that. But on the rankings that you have listed as legitimate belt holders I believe that Pavliks’ name should be removed or at least put an Astrix next to it because he ducked the “PUNISHER”…. I’m just saying
by Haans Bishop on Nov 17, 2009 1:40 PM EST up reply actions
Well, I’m not going to. It’s a list of legit Ring champions. Not all of them are going to look as good as the others.
Bad Left Hook
"Well Howie, I think I'm going to stay outside and outjab him." -- Tex Cobb telling Howard Cosell how he would approach Larry Holmes
by Scott Christ on Nov 17, 2009 4:37 PM EST up reply actions
That's funny, even the trainer of the challenger basically said Pavlik looked for the easy way out.
As a Paul Williams fan, it irks me that Pavlik basically worked his way out of the real fight that should be taking place.
But at the same time, it may still be premature to really go off on Pavlik just yet. Just about all will probably be forgiven as long as he give Williams the next fight should things go alright against Espino and Martinez. If they try to push for another fight, then Pavlik will never hear the end of it, nor should he.
Yes! Yes! In the face!
Don't be surprised if it's Mora
Mora still maintains that they have a signed contract.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
The best should fight the best, which means no more effing around for Team Pavlik. They’ve already spent whatever goodwill a lineal champ gets and then some. If he can’t get Williams done for his next fight, then try like hell to do a Sturm unification fight, and he should do it in Germany. That’s his penance for all this shitting around. Say three Hail Marys and four Our Fathers and go to Germany. Otherwise he risks falling into the same pattern that marred Calazage’s WBO reign: letting a bunch of yahoos run around your division calling themselves “champions.”
"This fight'll be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious."
-- Randall 'Tex' Cobb
It’s been a while since Pavlik fought a mandatory. Isn’t he going to have to do that too at some point?
Don't give them any bright ideas
Last time a mandy was picked, it was Gary “the Rocket” Locket, which was totally a legit ranking, and not at all influenced by Lockett’s stablemate and coach both being named “Calzaghe.”
"This fight'll be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious."
-- Randall 'Tex' Cobb
Rubio was a mandatory, too.
Bad Left Hook
"Well Howie, I think I'm going to stay outside and outjab him." -- Tex Cobb telling Howard Cosell how he would approach Larry Holmes
by Scott Christ on Nov 17, 2009 4:38 PM EST up reply actions
Yeah, I forgot.
Actually Rubio was a decent mandatory. I didn’t have any problems with that fight. But Lockett was just total bullcrap. I guess that didn’t bug me me much either, since Pavlik had just done Taylor twice, but it was a laughable ranking.
"This fight'll be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious."
-- Randall 'Tex' Cobb
So I looked it up and apparently Gennady Golovkin was made the #1 contender for the WBO belt.
The WBC has some guy named Sebastian Zbik as an interim beltholder.
It will probably be a while before he has another mandatory due
With the WBC, not only is there an interim beltholder where his handlers will NEVER press to enforce the mandatory, but he’s also the super champion, so they take forever between defenses. Zbik IMO is one of those guys who’s ranked highly because he’s been protected, and I wouldn’t expect him to hang onto his belt for too long. Maybe they have him face Pavlik just to cash out, but he’s no threat to Pavlik. SADLY, Espino is actually the WBC’s #3 contender (and the WBO’s #12 contender), which is a joke.
Gennady Golovkin is actually really good, but he (like Zbik) is a Universum fighter, and there’s a snowball’s chance in hell that they’ll have him face Pavlik. Felix Sturm is also a Universum fighter (and one who’s been threatening to leave the promoter at that), so more likely is that they’ll eventually feed Sturm to Golovkin (who I’d favor to beat Sturm pretty handily).
So I’m guessing that even when a mandatory gets named, they’ll probably duck out of the fight, giving Pavlik more time. The only guys ranked near the top by both are Golovkin and Pirog, and with both guys, their promoters probably think they can make more money fighting for the other belts and staying in Europe.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
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