Pavlik says he was cleared to fight Mora

by Scott Christ on May 14, 2009 7:54 AM EDT in Boxing News Analysis

Middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik says he was cleared to fight Sergio Mora on June 27, despite the cancellation of the fight. (via mvred.com)

Despite his June 27th fight with Sergio Mora being canceled/postponed, middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik told the Youngstown Vindicator he was recently cleared to go ahead with the fight:

Pavlik said the staph infection occurred around the time of his fight with Marco Antonio Rubio in February. He suffered a small cut on one of his knuckles and he developed a minor staph infection. But that has since healed and recently he got clearance from his doctor to fight.

Last Friday, Top Rank Boxing president Todd duBoef revealed Pavlik's infection to ESPN.com and said the company had decided to postpone the Mora bout to give Pavlik time to heal.

But Pavlik told The Vindicator, "I'm healthy enough to fight."

Pavlik declined further comment.

A lot of speculation has pointed to Pavlik not being happy with Mora as an opponent, which is understandable given the fact that the fight -- which was to be independently produced on pay-per-view by Top Rank -- wasn't going to make Pavlik any bigger a star. He's floundered since his second fight with Jermain Taylor, fighting Gary Lockett (HBO World Championship Boxing, bad ratings), Bernard Hopkins (an HBO pay-per-view bomb) and Marco Antonio Rubio (Top Rank pay-per-view).

This may point to a bigger problem brewing between Pavlik and Top Rank. The company postponed the bout, not Pavlik. Frankly, none of this sounds particularly healthy between the two sides (Pavlik and Top Rank). It's rare to say the least that a bout is postponed and the injured fighter says, "I could have fought."

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Regardless of the actual motives behind the cancellation, this dude has got to learn to take better care of his hands, instead of fixing broken windows and shoving them into blenders or whatever the hell he is doing. I have known boxers who were basically afraid to shake people’s hands in the same way a plumber was afraid to loan out his tools. Pavlik minus his bigtime punching power would basically be a C fighter, so it’s critical that he learn to protect them.

"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

by jrok on May 14, 2009 9:30 AM EDT reply actions

Ha. Yeah the guys that when they go to shake your hands grab your fingers so there’s no chance of you crushing the hand part of their hands.

by lcollins1 on May 14, 2009 4:07 PM EDT up reply actions

I just hope we can see Pavlik vs Abraham.

"Boxing is dirty," said Casamayor. " The day I’m not ready to be a dirty fighter is the day I don’t fight anymore because it will mean that I have no heart for it anymore."

by Zocalo on May 14, 2009 1:13 PM EDT reply actions