Kelly Pavlik took his time reaching the top – seven years, to be precise – but when the big occasion came, he wasn’t found wanting. • As the underdog against middleweight champion Jermain Taylor in 2007, Pavlik climbed off the canvas in a near-disastrous second round and bounced back to score a come-from-behind seventh-round knockout. • He outpointed Taylor (UD 12) in a non-title rematch and proceeded to make three successful defenses of his Ring, WBC and WBO belts.
Fair, down in Columbus, and you get a lot of kids from all over the country who fight in that. “This kid had 30 or 40 amateur fights. He fought in the Junior Olympics and did very well. I think he made it to the final or won it. He had a lot of experience, and it was my very first amateur fight. “Everybody was going, ‘This is a learning experience for Kelly,’ not thinking I would win. “I literally just turned 12. I went in there and I put it on this kid. I gave him such a whooping. “I had real big feet when I was a kid, tall for my weight. I
was beating him up so bad, I started doing the Ali shuffle and tripped and almost went down because of my big feet. “I won my very first fight. It was on points. That was a regular club show. I know a lot of people were coming up to me that wasn’t from my area. They were like, ‘Wow, man, good fight.’ I don’t think they knew I didn’t have no fights and that was my first one. “My trainer and the guys on my team – ’cause we took
THE FIRST TIME I LACED UP GLOVES “I grew up in the inner city of Youngstown [Ohio] and had a buddy that lived across the street, and his dad was much older. He had the old-World War II gloves; we put on those old-school ’30s and ’40s gloves. “We put a little kitchen timer outside – that was our bell – and beat the shit out of each other in the backyard. We created our own [characters] and stuff like that. That was the first time putting on gloves. “I would go home – I was 8, 9 years old – my face
My First Time by Kelly Pavlik As told to Anson Wainwright
about seven of us down – they were all like, ‘Dude, good job. No way that was your first fight!’ I was like, ‘I’ve been training here. You were here when I got here.’ “It was cool. It was definitely a memorable fight, not because it was my first fight but just the way it played out.” MY FIRST PROFESSIONAL FIGHT JUNE 16, 2000 OPPONENT: ERIC BENITO ’ T ZAND VENUE: FANTASY SPRINGS CASINO, INDIO, CALIFORNIA “I was definitely nervous for that one. I signed the contract with Top Rank, and then Cameron Dunkin, who was my agent, and probably two weeks before the fight, [Dunkin] said, ‘I think you guys are going to be on TV.’ I’m like, ‘What?’ He said, ‘You’re going to be on ESPN.’ And a lot changed in the course leading up to that. You’re nervous. You’re anxious. You’re preparing for your pro debut, first fight without headgear, fighting outside in 110 degree weather and also wondering if you’re going to get on TV, because at 18 years old, that’s everything. You’re going to go out and perform if it’s TV cameras or not. I didn’t know [if I would be on the broadcast] all the way up to the fight.
would be red or I’d have a little bit of blood and would have to think of a good excuse, because if I told my parents I was getting beat up by my older brothers or friend, they’d be pretty mad. “That was an experience with boxing that got me really into it. “The first time I went to the gym and sparred, I got my butt whooped. My parents were happy because they thought I was going to quit, because they didn’t want me boxing. I came home from school and had my gym bag ready, and my dad was like, ‘Where are you going?’ And I was like, ‘We’re going back to the gym so I can kick that kid’s ass.’ And that was kind of where I knew boxing was a sport. “Those were the first couple of times I put gloves on, and I loved it.”
MY FIRST AMATEUR FIGHT “I remember that probably more than any fight.
“We have a tournament here in Ohio – it’s actually pretty big. It’s a non-ranking tournament. It’s called the Ohio State
RINGMAGAZINE.COM 15
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs