This Saturday July, 7th former middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik looks to continue his winning ways when he faces Will Rosinski as the co-main event on the Nonito Donaire fight card from Carson, California.
While Rosinski may be a virtually unknown, Pavlik is not. The once highly touted fighter from Youngstown, Ohio who took the boxing world by storm when he knocked out Jermaine Taylor is now a 30 year old on the comeback trail.
While Pavlik’s career is in damage control looking to be on the upswing, his fans may not be as much. While it is still very premature to say; Pavlik has shed most of his Youngstown, Ohio goodwill. He was originally scheduled to fight last August in Youngstown but cancelled days before the fight. Citing money as the issue. Leaving a town and his fans without a hometown fight.
Along with the cancellation of the fight, Pavlik also dropped Jack Loew his longtime trainer for the more recognized trainer Robert Garcia and moved his fight camp out west. From a kid in the midwest who would pack the Boardwalk hall in Atlantic City with hundreds of fans who would make the trip from the Eastern Ohio town the shore to support their hometown kid, leaving the way Pavlik did has to be hard on the local supporters.
While Pavlik may not be as beloved as he once was in Youngstown. His career is gaining traction. After a year lay off that saw Pavlik enter rehab for alcohol abuse to fights with family members, Pavlik has been fairly quite in the past year. That’s a good thing. Pavlik is fighting for the fourth time in the last 14 months as well as fighting last month on the eve of the Pacquiao fight.
While many fight fans are still talking about the Pacquiao-Bradley decision, Pavlik was back in the gym working his way back to a title fight.
Pavlik is still a big name is the Super Middleweight division and with the one sided loss Lucian Bute suffered at the hands of Carl Froch this past May. Pavlik is perhaps a year away from being in the thick of things.
Saturday night is the next step for Pavlik to become world champion once again. While his fans may not be back quite yet, all Pavlik can do is keep fighting, keep winning and in time his fans will be back. He may not be the same kid from Youngstown Ohio he once was but that doesn’t mean he can never go back. As the saying goes, you can take the kid out of Youngstown, but you can’t take the Youngstown out the kid. Saturday night is just another fight, and one more day closer to being where fight fans expect Pavlik to be. Champion.
And then…
Happy Birthday to my little sister. I am proud of the young lady you are becoming.