CompuBox Analysis: Jabs were a rumor in this one, as it was fought in the trenches. Pavlik, eager to mix it up, landed 40 or more power punches in each of the first four rounds and 56% overall. The one-dimensional Espino put up some big numbers too, landing 48% of his power shots.

Full statistics after the jump.

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There were a number of title fights tonight, including those on the Top Rank pay per view card.  Check back to this thread for results of tonight's fights.

• Kelly Pavlik scored a fifth round technical knockout of Miguel Espino.  Espino came in with about as good of a game plan as he could hope for, closing the gap and forcing a fight on the inside, but he was just completely outgunned.  Still, he was able to make in an entertaining fight.  Pavlik eventually took out with a big uppercut, and referee Steve Smoger stopped it shortly after the knockdown.  Round by round coverage of the fight is in the comments.  After the fight, Bob Arum said that the same offer for a Paul Williams fight is still on the table. 
  
• Humberto Soto scored a wide unanimous decision over Jesus Chavez.  That makes Chaves 0-3 for the year.  Soto wins his first fight at lightweight, but didn't look spectacular at times.  Round by round coverage of the fight is in the comments as well.
  
• Edwin Valero scored a sixth round knockout over Hector Velasquez.  After taking a beating for six rounds, Velasquez chose not to come out for the seventh.
• In the biggest upset of the night, Johnriel Casimero knocked Cesar Canchila down five times on route to an 11th round TKO win, winning an interim light flyweight title.  Canchila was best known for beating Giovanni Segura not that long ago.  Casimero is only 19 years old and only had 13 fights under his belt, making him the second Pinoy under the age of 20 to win a title this year.  Canchila falls to 28-3, while Casimero moves to 14-0.
• Juan Carlos Reveco knocked out Ronald Barrera in the third round to win an interim light flyweight title.
• Nehomar Cermeno scored a TKO over Alejandro Valdez in a dreadfully boring and predictable bout.  Partial round by round coverage is in the comments, but frankly, the full fight wasn't worth it. 
  
• Juergen Braehmer defeated Dmitry Sukhosky in an entertaining and hard-fought bout.  Round by round coverage is in the comments.
  
• Sebastian Zbik retained his title via split decision against Emanuele Della Rosa.
• Cristobal Cruz and Ricardo Castillo fought to a third round technical draw after a headbutt opened a nasty gash on Cruz.  Had the fight been under the unified rules, it would have been a no contest.
• Vanes Martirosyan scored a third round technical knockout of hopelessly outclassed Willie Lee.
• Samuel Peter scored a fourth round TKO over the fightin' fattie Gabe Brown.  This was reportedly an entertaining fight as well.  At one point, Brown stuck his chin out there, Ricardo Mayorga style, and Peter tagged him with four hard shots, after which Brown just taunted him further.  Brown also managed to land a bolo punch on Peter.  Still, in the end, Peter was able to get him out of there.  From the descriptions, it almost sounded like Little Mac versus King Hippo.
  
• Billy Dib, Alexander Alexeev, Lukas Konecny and Zaurbek Baysangurov all won their fights.

With my having a previous obligation (Christmas party) on Saturday, this is the first Saturday in a while where we won't have any round-by-round coverage, at least unless Brick or somebody orders this show and gets a post up.

But still, this card has generated a little bit of talk. Part of it has been T.K. Stewart reporting the trouble they're having selling tickets in Youngstown for a December 19 show, which makes all kinds of sense. This is the best way to put it, and it's in T.K.'s article:

A local resident and self-professed Kelly Pavlik supporter e-mailed the following to to me Tuesday morning:

"The last fight with Rubio that was at the Chevy Centre, the cheap seats sold out in about 20 minutes. Right now, if you wanted to, you could get an entire row of seats anywhere you want in the entire arena. I think working people (the ones that still have a job) here in the Mahoning Valley have had a choice to make with this fight. Do they spend their hard-earned money on fight tickets or on their families? Nothing against Kelly Pavlik - AT ALL - but I think that’s the choice that a lot of people had to make."

And then there's the outrage that this show is on pay-per-view and not HBO, Showtime, ESPN2 or Versus. I really hate when boxing fans so loudly make this an issue, because it boils down to some really simple stuff that you cannot simply ignore:

• Neither HBO nor Showtime were taking this show. Period. They weren't paying for Pavlik-Espino. They wouldn't pay for Pavlik-Rubio, which was a much better fight. Rubio was at least top ten in the division at the time. Promoters don't just call up the network and say, "Hey, we're gonna need 9 to 11 on the 19th. OK, bye."
  
• ESPN2 and Versus can't afford this show. Bob Arum stands to make more money on the PPV at $40 a pop than he does with the meager cash those networks have on hand for boxing. And besides, Versus just blew their wad on that Hopkins snoozer, and ESPN isn't in boxing season until January.
• So you're left with an option: Pay-per-view. It's $40 to watch this show if you're that bored, that loaded (you can take this to mean "rich" or "drunk"), or that interested. Otherwise, whatever, you don't see this one. This is as good as it was getting. If the show is that bad (and you can reasonably argue that it is), just don't buy it. What are you missing?

But beyond all that, there are four fights on the PPV Saturday, and here's a quick look at each of them.

Middleweight Championship: Kelly Pavlik v. Miguel Espino

To be quite brutally honest, if Kelly Pavlik loses this fight, he's finished at the top level. That's how easy a matchup this should be. Espino is no better than the gatekeepers Pavlik smashed on the way up, the likes of Jose Luis Zertuche or Bronco McKart, and we saw what happened to them.

Espino is a pathetic challenger for the world's legit middleweight champ. I'm not trying to disrespect Espino, but it's a fact. His record is empty, he's never come close to this level, and he's not a fitting challenge. Pavlik's people could have found any number of better challengers who also had no risk. Espino goes BEYOND being without risk; this is a fight so lopsided on paper that it will make Pavlik look bad, honestly, if he doesn't get him out of there within six rounds.

Espino is small at a listed 5'11", doesn't have power (20-2-1, 9 KO), isn't a particularly skilled boxer, and wasn't even on the extended radar at 160 pounds when it came to contenders. If Pavlik is healthy, this won't last long. Watch the 1-2 go! Pavlik TKO-5

Lightweights: Humberto Soto v. Jesus Chavez

I'll get on THIS train: Top Rank should be ashamed for promoting this as a competitive, must-see scrap. Soto (49-7-2, 32 KO) is actually on a really unfortunate career path. There was that point in 2007 where it looked like he was going to land a fight with Manny Pacquiao, but then Marco Antonio Barrera got his spot in a pointless and forgettable rematch nobody much wanted to see. He took a fight in November 2007 with Joan Guzman and lost in a fight Guzman turned into a stinker, and since then he's been mostly running over inferiors.

That won't change Saturday. All respect in the world to Chavez, who was once a terrific fighter. But he's far past his prime and if Soto can handle the jump up to 135 (and he should be fine), he's going to get mauled. Chavez is 0-2 this year with an uncompetitive loss to Michael Katsidis in April and a spirited decision loss to a rusty David Diaz in September. As nice a guy as Diaz is, he's no Humberto Soto. This is an OK name notch on the belt for Humberto, but really nothing more. Soto TKO-9

Interim WBA Bantamweight Title: Nehomar Cermeno v. Alejandro Valdez

Cermeno (18-0, 10 KO) burst into the public eye with an upset win over Cristian Mijares, a disputed decision in March of this year. So they rematched in September. No one complained when Cermeno won that one. Valdez (21-2-3, 15 KO) was beating Fernando Montiel on that same September night on a different card in Mexico, but the fight was stopped and declared a technical draw after three due to a bad cut.

This is easily the most intriguing fight on the card, and it's not THAT intriguing. Personally, I have Cermeno ranked seventh at 118 pounds, with Valdez a bit outside of the top ten. Valdez is tall (5'8 1/2") and long (70") for the weight, and is a southpaw to boot. Cermeno is 30 years old and the Venezuelan (now living in Panama) came so out of nowhere that I tend to think he's due to be exposed a bit. I was never quite as crazy about Mijares as many were, anyway. Valdez UD-12

Junior Middleweights: Willie Lee v. Vanes Martirosyan

I'm starting to get the impression that someone at Top Rank doesn't have a lot of confidence in Martirosyan, who should really be fighting someone better than Lee at this point. Lee holds a tiny trinkey (NABF) and Martirosyan will get to leave the ring with a belt, but isn't it kind of stinky for his prospects that after 25 pro fights, they're actually having him arguably take a step BACK in opponents?

Lee (17-5, 11 KO) has been knocked out four times. The guys that have done it aren't so bad, granted. Chad Dawson (back when Bad Chad was considering a campaign at middleweight), Ishmail Arvin, Darnell Boone and Sechew Powell are the names on that list. But still. Lee's biggest win was his last one, over Alex Bunema, and Bunema looks spent.

Like the top two names of the show, Vanes should have zero trouble. Martirosyan TKO-6

(It wouldn't shock me if Top Rank is at least lightly considering pushing Vanes up to 160 to take on Pavlik, either.)

European middleweight champion Matthew Macklin handily outpointed Rafa Sosa Pintos over 10 rounds (99-88) today in Dublin.

Next, he says, he wants Kelly Pavlik:

"My dream would be to face Pavlik at Madison Square Garden on St Patrick’s Day," Macklin said.

...

He intends to be ringside when Pavlik defends his titles against Miguel Angel Espino on December 19 in Ohio. "Pavlik probably doesn’t know who I am, but I want to go there and make a bit of a noise," Macklin said.

Pavlik-Macklin would be good for as long as it lasted, but if Pavlik hasn't lost too much spark with his nearly-wasted 2009, I'd have to favor him mightily, as Macklin is exactly the sort of guy Pavlik is able to manhandle. Pavlik's height, reach and power would be awful for Macklin, who at 5'10" isn't a big middleweight.

Still, there are certainly worse fights out there for Pavlik, notably Miguel Espino. Macklin is right around the back end of the top 10 at 160 pounds and is peaking at age 27. He's really stepped his game up a notch this year, and he's as ready as he'll ever be for something like a Pavlik fight.

It's not often that Las Vegas would be a place for a 27-year-old man of money and fame to head to get away from distractions, but that's just what Kelly Pavlik is doing. The middleweight champion will train in Sin City for his December 19 fight against Miguel Espino.

Pavlik, who is billed as the "favorite son" of Youngstown, Ohio, has been hammered by rumors, accusations and what he says are flat-out lies in his hometown, where he still lives. Pavlik told Kevin Iole that it's gotten rougher and rougher as he's grown in stature:

"If I lived in a bubble and you rolled me in my bubble to church, there would still be somebody who would say, ‘Oh my God, Pavlik was drunk and got in a fight in the church parking lot,’ " he said. "It’s not true, but someone says it, it gets around and it gets crazy. There are like three, four guys in the NFL right now who are from Youngstown. There’s at least one who is in the Major Leagues who’s from Youngstown, but they don’t live here any more. I still do.

"I don’t hide anything. I like to play darts and when I’m not training, I’ll go with three or four of my buddies and play darts and have a couple of beers. It’s what I like to do to relax. There are boxers who like to smoke crack. There are some who take [cocaine] and others who drink. Me, I like to have a few beers while having fun with my friends. But someone sees me and tells someone else, ‘I saw Pavlik at the bar,’ and all this [stuff] starts."

...

"You hear I’m in rehab or an alcoholic or all this other totally crazy [stuff]," Pavlik said. "I love Youngstown. I’m living there because I choose to live there. I’ve been successful enough that I could go where I want to live, but I stay there. But that spotlight, and that small percentage of people, it gets tough."

It's a terrific interview, and well worth reading.

Kevin Iole also says that Pavlik will be getting $500,000 for the Espino fight, with some of the PPV money, too, though that isn't expected to amount to a whole lot.

Pavlik also tries to make it clear that he's not ducking Paul Williams:

"If you know the facts, you know that I wanted to fight Williams (in 2008) and he turned it down and that’s why I wound up fighting (Bernard) Hopkins," Williams said. "I had to go up two weight classes to fight Hopkins. Williams was there, fighting as a middleweight, and he was rated so high by everyone and people said no one wanted to fight him, so I wanted that fight. I wanted to get in there with him. No way – no way – would I have ever ducked him. But he didn’t take the fight (in 2008) and that’s why I wound up fighting Hopkins."

That doesn't really address the current situation, but it does indicate that Pavlik isn't "afraid" of fighting Williams, or at least that's what he's saying.

The thing about the Pavlik-Williams fight, it seems to me, is that it could have happened on December 19. The Pavlik camp says they offered to push it back to that date, but that Williams turned it down. You can't really fault Williams or his promoter Dan Goossen for that, either; they'd already had two dates scrapped for the fight, and it seems to me now that they were looking to make sure that Williams would get a nice payday to close out 2009. If both of them win in December, I don't really see a scenario where they don't fight in 2010. It would be the biggest money fight for either and we know HBO wants it.

And still the biggest loser in that entire mess? Joshua Clottey, who could have fought Shane Mosley in December, but HBO wanted to push that back in favor of Pavlik-Williams, a card that then was to feature Clottey-Carlos Quintana, which was abandoned alongside the Pavlik fight. Now, Pavlik is fighting Espino, Williams is fighting Sergio Martinez, Mosley has taken a fight with Andre Berto for January 30, and Clottey has nothing lined up.

Top Rank announced its full PPV card from Mexico and Ohio today. The card takes place on December 19, and there's nothing surprising.

In Youngstown, Kelly Pavlik defends against Miguel Espino, and Vanes Martirosyan looks to pick up a regional trinket against Willie Lee (17-5, 10 KO). Lee is a New Orleans-based fighter. This fights are pretty comparably competitive on paper. In Mexico, Humberto Soto faces a badly faded Jesus Chavez, and Nehomar Cermeno meets Alejandro Valdez. Cermeno-Valdez is probably the best fight on the show.

The Diaz-Malignaggi rematch card in Chicago is loading up the names, according to Dan Rafael. We already knew that Victor Ortiz will face Antonio Diaz on the TV undercard. But also featured will be Erislandy Lara taking on Luciano Perez in his first 10-rounder and Golden Boy prospects Hylon Williams and Jermell Charlo. Lou DiBella is getting his name fighters a Christmas bonus, featuring Yusaf Mack, Randall Bailey (moving up to welterweight), Dominick Guinn and Deandre Latimore. Mack, as of now, will face Ross Thompson.

I'll tell you, if you're in or near Chicago, hit that show. That's some strong stuff.

Top Rank is putting together a full PPV lineup for December 19 that might not make you want to shell out 40 bucks, but isn't for a lack of trying to get some interesting names out there.

We all know that the night's main event from Youngstown, Ohio, will pit middleweight world champion Kelly Pavlik against Miguel Espino, a fight that has not been well-received by fans or media at all, really. The show's main co-feature will main event the Mexico part of the card, as Humberto Soto moves up to lightweight to take on former titlist Jesus Chavez.

Soto calls Chavez "very dangerous," but I don't see that claim going over so hot, either. Jesus Chavez was a hell of a fighter in his prime, but he's not in his prime anymore. The 37-year-old Chavez has already lost fights to Michael Katsidis (Chavez quit on his stool) and David Diaz this year. Diaz had been out of action for over a year. Honestly, and I always hate even bringing it up, Chavez has not been the same since the Leavander Johnson incident, and that was over four years ago. He's also had a bad knee injury that has taken a lot out of him. Soto is the one going up in weight, but Chavez is just a name. He's not a legit contender anymore.

The best fight on the card might be interim WBA bantamweight titleholder Nehomar Cermeno defending against Alejandro Valdez. Valdez was involved in a very controversial fight with Fernando Montiel earlier this year, which it initially appeared he had won. That would've been a strong contender for Upset of the Year, but the fight was changed to a technical draw.

Also appearing on the card will be Jose Luis Castillo, who just helped Manny Pacquiao in training camp, and unbeaten flyweight prospect Hernan "Tyson" Marquez.

Middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, who pulled out of two dates with Paul Williams, will fight on December 19 in Youngstown, Ohio against fringe (at best) contender Miguel Espino.

Dan Rafael has the story:

"We're fighting," said Cameron Dunkin, Pavlik's co-manager. "I have the contract here. The hand is good. He did therapy today and he ran today. The therapy, after three sessions, the hand has gotten much better. [The first] is still not closed all the way, but it's so much better. It's really good news. He just can't wait to fight. He really misses this.

"You can't help but have concern about the hand, but we've still got six weeks and that gives us enough time to be ready. He's been running and lifting weights because he was trying to push through for the fight with Williams on Dec. 5. He asked if Williams could wait until the 19th and it couldn't be done. We understood. Now he has another chance to go the 19th and he's going to go."

This might really surprise you if you've been following this story, what with Pavlik being on death's door and staring down the Grim Reaper and delivering a haymaker to his rotten, bony old jaw and saying, "Not today, demon! Not today!" but then I just decide, "Hey, whatever, at least he's getting back in the ring."

It's good that the staph appears to be clearing up. I'm happy to hear that. And you can't really say they didn't try to move the Williams fight to December 19, because they did. But Williams decided that it wasn't worth risking a third Pavlik pull-out, so he's fighting Sergio Martinez on December 5. All in all, can't blame Williams for that, and can't blame Pavlik for getting back out there.

Or is there someone to blame? Speaking with BoxingScene.com's Rick Reeno, Dan Goossen has a different take, as do other members of Team Williams:

“We wanted to fight on October 3, and he refused. We wanted to fight on December 5, and he refused. We would have been waiting here until December of 2011 for this fight to happen,” Goossen said.

Williams' trainer George Peterson was similarly not buying the Pavlik story that Espino became their focus thanks to Williams fighting on December 5 without him:

"All of a sudden since Paul signed a contract to fight Martinez, everything gets well. We know the deal. They didn’t do this [Espino deal] in no split second. We set up three training camps for his ass. These training camps are expensive and time consuming. I would hate to see Paul get in the ring with him now after going through all that. We're over him now. We are concentrating on Sergio Martinez."

Team Pavlik says they'd like to fight Williams in 2010, for what it's worth.

Espino (20-2-1, 9 KO) is a 29-year-old whose best win came in March over Alejandro Garcia. Espino floored Garcia twice, and Garcia quit with a hand injury. Other than that, he lost a fight to Daniel Edouard back in 2003 and one to Peter Manfredo Jr. in 2004, and his record is filled largely with no-names otherwise.

He's got basically no shot, as this is a total comeback, shake-the-rust fight for Pavlik, who was last seen in February when he slaughtered Marco Antonio Rubio. You might say that Rubio was tune-up enough, even with the hand injury, but it's easy to forget Rubio was a top ten middleweight at the time. That was a perfectly legit fight.

Hopefully, Pavlik looks good and feels good, and maybe if Williams beats Martinez on the 5th, we finally move forward and get Pavlik-Williams in the spring or something like that.

Top Rank already had a Latin Fury show scheduled for that night, and now will do another split site PPV. Humberto Soto will be facing Jesus Chavez (ugh) in the featured fight from Mexico, and Pavlik-Espino will close the broadcast.

According to veteran warrior Jorge Arce, a December 19 rematch in Mexico is being planned between himself and his last opponent, Simphiwe Nongqayi. Nongqayi easily outpointed Arce on September 15 in Cancun.

Top Rank does have a Latin Fury show scheduled for December 19, and they might be looking to get another name on there. Right now, Humberto Soto is the main eventer, with rumored opponents like Miguel Acosta and Jesus Chavez (ugh).

What I said immediately after that fight holds true today, so I'll just reprint that:

For the 30-year old Arce, the question rises again. Was this it for the warrior? Arce (52-6-1, 40 KO) looked slow, small, and just plain shot against the clever Nongqayi, who barely let Arce into the fight at all, showing an excellent ability to control range on the lunging, shorter Mexican. To put it simply, Nongqayi owned the ring en route to vanquishing his second Arce brother in a row. Nongqayi beat Jorge's younger brother, Fernando, in February, which earned him a shot at the title Vic Darchinyan held. Darchinyan vacated the title after his loss to Joseph Agbeko at 118 pounds, at which time the IBF had told him he must fight Nongqayi next. Darchinyan also destroyed Arce earlier this year.

I'm not saying I think he will quit now, but I do believe Jorge Arce probably should so long as he's got his finances in order. Prior to this fight, he'd badly lost his last two bouts against top-level foes (Darchinyan and Cristian Mijares). He reeled off five straight wins between those two losses, but one was highly questionable (Devid Lookmahanak) and the other four were against guys that just weren't on his level.

Neither of Arce's two major fights in 2009 -- blowout losses to Nongqayi and Vic Darchinyan -- were even exciting, which was always his calling card. He was simply demoralized in both outings, beaten up hard enough by Darchinyan for his corner to stop the fight. His in-between fight with Fernando Lumacad showed us nothing, really. He's been beating iffy opponents like that and getting smoked by good fighters for years now.

Arce is reportedly already in training camp with Nacho Beristain preparing himself, so this looks like it's probably the real deal. I think it's highly unnecessary. Arce has been through so many hard fights that he's just plain finished on the major level at this stage. He's an exceptionally old 30.

Another loss here could do him in, but you might have thought that before, and he's managed to secure major fights time and again. Part of it is that he's always been such a reliable action star, but that is burning out rapidly, too. But is it better to burn out than to fade away?

If you can do both at the same time, Arce is managing it. He's an admirable guy and boxing fans owe him a debt of gratitude for putting his body on the line so many times, but I wish he'd get out of the ring. I can't see this one going any better than the first fight did.