MY FIRST TIME: KELLY PAVLIK
“You want to be impressive. You just got a signing bonus from your promotional company. You’ve got all these people hyping you up, your hometown; your local newspaper is blasting you – some of the outlets which is a little different than how it is today. You want to be impressive. In your
MY PERFECT PUNCH JANUARY 27, 2007 OPPONENT: JOSE LUIS ZERTUCHE
head, you’re like, ‘I’ve got to be impressive.’ Secondly, you don’t know much on who you’re fighting. Even then (the year 2000), there was no YouTube. “You know you’re going to win. I would say 70, 80 percent [of you] knows you’re going to win, hands down. Ten percent is like, ‘I’ve got to be impressive. I’ve got to show people. I’ve got to do this. I’ve got to do that.’ And then you’ve got that small percentage that sticks to the back of your head that’s like, ‘I’ve got to
“A lot of people talk about my right hand: ‘Oh, that lethal right hand.’ But I actually had a sneaky, brutal left hook, because I’m ambidextrous. Most of my brutal knockouts were with my straight right that I was setting up – I would set off the left. [The
Jose Luis] Zertuche [knockout] is one they’re constantly showing highlights of. The straight right was one that put people to sleep. “I just felt like I got a lot of torque on the right hand, and it was comfortable for me. The right hand, I had the range down perfect, the perfect setup for the right hand, and I think that helped a lot. “I used to throw my jab with the glove open and my hand pointing down. It was kind of like that split-second pause; a lot happens in a split second in boxing. So I would kind of throw my jab out and leave my glove down a little bit and bring the right hand over it. Or like Zertuche, I would get them to keep their hands in a certain spot. If you watch, it was a one-three-two: a jab, left hook, [right hand,] but on the left hook, I didn’t throw it like a left hook. I was almost like trying to pat him on the side of the head to keep his hands there so I could fire a right hand straight down the middle, and caught him right on the chin. I did that a lot. “He had a translator, and he mentioned something in Spanish. He looked at me and smiled, was talking to the translator, and he patted the translator on the shoulder and the translator pointed to his right hand and said, ‘Geez, never been hit like that.’ It’s up there as one of the more brutal knockouts within that decade.”
win, or I could lose this fight – and not only lose but get hurt.’ That usually played on my mind too. It’s pro boxing. ‘I could get knocked out. The worst could happen.’ There’s a lot that goes on in your head before a fight. I was still confident: You’re coming in off a great amateur run; you’re coming out of the Olympic Trials; you’re signed with the promotional company; you’re one of the top dogs. But you do and should have that doubt. It’s part of the adrenaline that keeps you going. “Once you get in there, you’re nervous, but you have a game plan. You have some experience from the amateurs, but it’s a rude awakening. It’s a whole different atmosphere. Everything was moving quick. I adapted quick. Once that bell rings, it’s fight time. Pro debut is more of an instinct at that point, and you’re fighting off what you know how to do for the past handful of years. “I fought a kid by the name of [Eric] Benito ’ t Zand, trained by one of [Mike] Tyson’s old trainers, and he was short and stocky – built just like Tyson, very muscular – and I was like, ‘Damn, your first fight without headgear.’ The fight went quick, but it was a good fight. I found my rhythm. After the first minute of the round, I started opening up and the natural ability made it different, and I knocked him out in the third round. “We just hung out in the room, [with] my trainers, had some beers. I was excited and happy. You’ve come to find out you were on TV. You’re on top of the world. Top Rank flew us out the next morning, so there was no partying. It was only the pro debut. You’ve got to move on from there and see what else is out there, get ready for the next one. I believe I actually fought the next month.”
Pavlik secured his shot at the middleweight throne with an impressive stoppage of Edison Miranda in 2007.
RINGMAGAZINE.COM 17
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs