Earlier, we let you know about reports out of Youngstown that Kelly Pavlik had been involved in a fight with his older brother Michael at their parents' home, and that Michael Pavlik had told police that the two had been drinking. Kelly had left the scene by the time police arrived, so there's no way to really confirm whether or not Pavlik, who had two stints in rehab in 2010, really had been drinking.

But the former middleweight champ says that he was sober:

Kelly Pavlik, who via telephone spoke to a Youngstown television station on Tuesday, admits that he did arrive at his parents' home and ended up in a fight with his brother but said he was not drinking and has no idea why his brother told police that he consumed alcohol at the time of their incident. Michael Pavlik declined to press charges.

I'm not going to pretend I know whether or not Kelly Pavlik had been drinking, but to be quite perfectly honest, what are the odds that he got into a fight with his brother and put his hand through glass sober? I mean, given the situation, that we're talking about someone who has had a drinking problem, who then fled the scene before police arrived -- can you really say you believe he wasn't drinking at all?

It's no secret that Pavlik has had issues with this in the past, even more than the rehab stints. There were years of denial from everyone involved, even as reports out of Youngstown were that Pavlik was fairly consistently having problems with alcohol.

Even when Pavlik got out of rehab in January, before his May return fight on the Pacquiao vs Mosley card, Pavlik still seemed somewhat in denial, saying that he didn't really have a problem, he just got into "party mode" and couldn't control his drinking then. Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports had a terrific, honest article about it on April 25. It ended with this:

Even in the best of circumstances, with the strongest support system around one, fighting alcoholism is tedious, difficult and, most importantly, a lifelong process.

And until Kelly Pavlik admits that to himself and accepts it as fact, the rumors will keep floating. And the wise folks will know that they’re probably more than just rumors.

I think that's what we're looking at today.

Pavlik is slated to fight again on August 6 in Youngstown against Darryl Cunningham.