Live Report: Pavlik Destroys Rubio In Youngstown
Published by Carlos Acevedo on February 22nd, 2009

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Pavlik’s Power Rocks Rubio Into Submission: By Kenneth Lundgren

Before the fight, which was a near sell-out at 7,228, I was able to catch up with Vinny Paz and Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini.

Vinny Paz: “I like Kelly Pavlik, so my buddies here in town wanted me to come up for the fight. I always like comin’ to see a good fight and Kelly for sure always puts on a good show. He can fight. Youngstown is a great fight town. This place sold out immediately.”

Mancini: “I don’t think Rubio’s gonna come bang with him. Hopkins showed that Kelly has problems with movement. If you want to bang with a banger, then who’s got the bigger pop? Kelly’s got the bigger pop. You gotta give him movements, gotta throw him off… You gotta do something to disrupt his timing. And that’s what I think Rubio is going to do. Rubio is going to come out, give him head movements, try to disrupt his movement, different angles. And he’ll try to catch him like Hopkins did. I don’t think it will work. I think Rubio’s got too much heart, too much machismo. He’s going to stand there and bang eventually. Rubio’s the real deal. He can fight. But he ain’t got enough pop for Kelly. If you’re coming to a gunfight, you gotta have the bigger gun.”

When the fight arrives, Rubio makes his entrance to a torrid layer of boos… A minute later, Korn blares and Team Pavlik makes a very slow entrance into the ring, almost soaking up the moment. The building is shaking with deafening cheers, not one person sitting down…

“Kelly Kelly Kelly Kelly Kelly!”

Jimmy Lennon gets more roars when he announces, “And live from Youngstown, the MAIN event of the evening…”

In the ring, Rubio seems almost indifferent to what was going on around him. He looks very serious, very focused, not looking across the ring, just pacing back and forth in his corner… Across the ring, Kelly has his Game Face scowl on. After the instructions, just before the bell rings, Kelly turns back to Jack and yells, “Let’s go!”

The bell rings, the fighters touch gloves real quick, and immediately Pavlik is lunging forward with a left hook, throwing jabs out there. Left hands, left hands. Rubio is immediately backing up, and he actually lands the first meaningful p unch of the fight, a solid right hand. However, the story of this fight is Kelly’s jab and his left hand. Rubio’s been knocked out twice before, both by “wicked left hooks” Kelly had said, so obviously Team Pavlik’s strategy was to throw more lefts… which would also open up the right…

Pavlik is very active in this first round, barreling into Rubio along the ropes, and it’s immediately apparent that Rubio is having problems letting his hands go, almost in fear of getting decked. His gloves are up at all times, very high, even when backpedaling – hands up, hands up. Near the end of the round, Pavlik lands a jolting right, a LOUD right, and the crowd is screaming. He lands a hard left hook against the ropes. Rubio is clearly hurt by the of the round, Pavlik’s power overwhelming. I noted, “Although the much more active fighter, Kelly looks exponentially fresher than Rubio.” This is because, as Larry Merchant once told me, “Getting hit is exhausting!”

In the 2nd, Pavlik keeps charging, throw ing all sorts of lefts, and Rubio looks scared, almost frozen, his arms tight. The crowd continues to chant “Kelly Kelly Kelly” as the champion digs a right into Rubio’s gut. Rubio clams up and appears very tired. This is the second round! Pavlik is relentless, more left hooks, upstairs downstairs. Rubio is so tight, always reacting, his face bracing for the shot before it comes. He’s fighting scared… When Rubio does throw, Kelly is able to knock them away with his hands, displaying superior confidence, just batting away these punches. Rubio is pinned against ropes for much of round, Kelly banging with left uppercuts and right hands. The bell rings and Rubio turns to his corner, shaking his arms. He just can’t throw any punches…

Round 3: Kelly meets Rubio in the middle of the ring and bangs a hard left to the body. Pavlik is leaning in with his punches, letting go. Another left. Another. Rubio is looking VERY tired. Kelly is clearly the bigger, stronger fighter. The crowd chants, “Kelly Kelly Kelly” midway into the round. Near the end of the round, Rubio starts fighting back, spins Kelly into the ropes. NICE! Rubio cracks a left to the body, but Pavlik marches him back, jabbing him hard as the round ends. Still a shutout on the scor ecards…

In Round 4, Rubio is getting desperate, comes out throwing wild rights. Kelly is able to block most of these shots with his hands, just pawing at them. Kelly backs Rubio up with his jab, pinning Rubio in the corner. More left hooks to the body. Kelly jabs, then a HARD right to the body. Rubio is stuck, and his arms are out – he’s trying to catch these incoming blows. Kelly steps in close and rips Rubio with a crisp right, a brutal blow. The crowd is on their feet, tasting blood. Rubio skips down the ropes, bouncing. Without the ropes, this man is falling outside of the ring! Kelly gets right in front of him again, throwing hard jabs. Rubio clams up. More 1-2s, 1-2 1-2 like a machine gun. Rubio recovers, slips a right hand and spins out of the corner. In the final seconds, Kelly marches in and lands a huge overhand right.

The 5th sees Rubio getting into the fight. I hear writers behind me saying, “Rubio’s hanging in there.” Kelly keeps his guard tight, his gloves close to this head. He charges, digs two lefts to the body. Then a huge right hand upstairs. Rubio is absorbing all these heavy shots, and it’s taking a toll on him. He wobbles to the side and appears to be moving much slower. Rubio just cannot step forward. A Pavlik jab, then a right and Rubio stammers back. The crowd senses the end, Rubio’s head down and Pavlik fires away… Rubio twists on the ropes, his mouth open – he’s exhausted. But Rubio punches his way out of the corner, and Pavlik gives him space. Very nice recovery. Rubio throws a quick right counter, then a HUGE left hook, his best punch of the arsenal. That got Pavlik’s attention – and the crowd’s. We may be in for a fight this evening!

The 6th was Pavlik’s slowest round. It was a very close round. All three judges gave the round to Pavlik, but it could’ve gone either way. I gave it to Pavlik, too, because of activity. Pavlik rushes out, the crowd still chanting his name. Rubio is immediately pinned to the ropes, looking very weary. I note that Rubio is now keeping his arms up and away from his body more than before, almost like a muay thai fighter. Kelly is starting to move his upper body more, and Rubio goes on the attack. Kelly throws out some jabs to get his space, ducks low, throws a left hook. They both trade in the middle of the ring, and Pavlik looks tired – he’s beginning to fatigue. Rubio takes his first steps forward, throws four hard jabs, then a right, then a left hook. Another left hook! Kelly gets ROCKED, his left eye now getting puffy. Those jabs marked him up… Kelly smiles as the round closes. He would later say, “I took a little time off here. I took a little break. My arms were getting a little weary, so I stepped back a little bit, let him try and throw a few openings. But after that round, I came back and felt great.”

I noted that perhaps Rubio was trying to rope-a-dope Pavlik a bit, but he was sure taking a ton of punishment for it. Kelly does look tired, but can Rubio turn it around and truly capitalize? Hmmm, no! Pavlik starts the 7th quickly, lunging in with a left. He blocks Rubio’s punches almost with ease, just batting them away. Then he’s rocked with a Rubio left hook, but it’s a tight shot. Rubio’s locking up again. Pavlik jabs him back to the ropes, then busts him with a straight right. Pavlik has great leverage on these punches – his punching appears SO much more powerful than Rubio’s. Rubio is exhausted. Pavlik launches a wild haymaker, a fight-ender, but it misses. Rubio fights out of the corner and gets back to the center of the ring. He snaps Kelly’s head back with a jab. Is Rubio getting a second wind? Hmmm, no. Pavlik throws a lead left hook that lands. Rubio bounces into the ropes, but he paws a jab back. The guy is fighting – he is very gritty and determined, VERY tough. Pavlik paws these soft punches away. Did Rubio use too much energy last round? No huge punches landed here, but yet another round for the champion.

In the 8th, Kelly plows forward, launching left jabs, left hooks. He’s throwing many more lefts than I’ve ever seen him. Bernard Hopkins utilized this against Pavlik last October, throwing right uppercuts, then right hooks, throwing consecutive punches with the same arm. Kelly’s doing more of that here, I’m sure to scare Rubio with a left hook to set up the right bomber… Rubio lunges in with a right, Kelly steps back, then CRACK Rubio with the hardest shot of the night, a charged right cross. Rubio plows into the ropes, hands up, and Kelly digs in, hard shots to the body, off the arms. Rubio is absorbing everything. He’s hurt. Fight can be over… Rubio is wobbly, but he throws back. Then BOOM, Rubio’s caught with anoth er hard right, and the life is going out of him, his body sagging. The crowd is deafeningly loud. Kelly holds back, almost hesitant, before landing another right hand as round closes. Rubio turns to his corner, wincing in heavy pain. HUGE round for Pavlik.

The 9th, the final round of the fight. Thus far, it’s all Pavlik’s power and workrate. The other story here is Rubio’s toughness. He takes punishment, recovers, and fights back. He’s earned this title shot, for sure… Early on, a 1-2 combo hurts Rubio. His legs buckle. The weight of Pavlik’s punches knock Rubio back, as if he’s lost twenty pounds as the fight progressed. Along ropes, Kelly spins and dances around Rubio like Sugar Ray Leonard, a swift elegant move. Rubio isn’t willing to throw here, doesn’t want to get knocked out. It’s too late for that now! Pavlik throws a lead left hook, lands along ropes. Starts pawing to the body. They separate and Pavlik throws a wild right, just misses. Ugly punch – perhaps the champ is sensing the end. Pavlik slows the work rate down, looks tired but still getting the job done. Rubio just cannot move forward. Pavlik moves in and bangs to the body, almost not headhunting anymore because he doesn’t want to hurt the=2 0Mexican. The bell rings with Rubio clammed up, and he’s slow to go back to his corner…

And then the fights over, his corner stopping it… The ring immediately fills with people and Jack Loew moves around the ring, waving the white towel at press row and smiling… Another fighter who ran his mouth knocked out, as Jack predicted…

On the scorecards, Pavlik won every round from all three judges. Pavlik also threw 150 more jabs than Rubio, and landed a whopping 52 more power punches. But the most staggering stat was power punches thrown, 356 to 154. Pavlik’s power, whether landing or not, just wore down the tough Mexican. In the end, all those punches added up and forced a TKO.

Post Fight Quotes:

Marco Antonio Rubio: “I’m sorry. I came to give a much better fight this night. I was just much too tight. Kelly is obviously a great champion. I felt very strong, but I also felt very tight. I didn’t think he was as active as I anticipated. He gave me a lot of opportunities. I just couldn’t take advantage. I felt like I couldn’t let my punches go. It was not my best boxing. I think I could’ve finished the fight, taken him to decision. My corner made a decision, and I had to go with it.”

Kelly Pavlik: “We expected him to come out, bang a little bit in earlier rounds, then box the later rounds like he did last fight. He seemed like he was trying to land the big shots, going for a knowcout without getting knocked out. In the fifth round, he sat down, he didn’t move. He came forward and tried to punch, but we hit him with a few good shots and he had second thoughts about standing there and trading. He fought a good defensive fight. I’d hit him with the jab, and he’d cover up. He did a good job defense-wise. I was just waiting to time that right hand. So then I started leading with the right, and it was takin it out of him. When I hurt him in the 7th round, I held back a little. When I hit him and I seen him coming up from being wobbled, I kinda seen the one eye go away from the other eye. I knew then he wasn’t playing possum. As soon as I seen that, I knew he was hurt, but it was towards the end of the round and I didn’t want to do anything dumb and get caught with a desperate punch. But he was a game kid. We put the heat on him. I seen Rubio talkin’ in the corner. I knew he was taking a beating. He was really wearing down. You could feel it and you could hear it in the ring. Each round that goes by, you can feel the difference in punches, you can feel the difference in snap. By the 8th round, he didn’t have anything. I was at the point where I wanted to put my gloves up and just keep walking at him. I just knew it was a mater of time where I caught him or he was gonna take a knee or his corner was gonna stop the fight.”

Jack Loew: “We were trying to bring the right hand right after the hook. But as you can see, he was moving away from it. We worked on the jab, we worked on boxing, we boxed, we boxed. We worked on some things, and Kelly listens really well. Coming off a loss, the kid boxed beautifully, didn’t lose a round. He took some shots when he took that break in the sixth round, but you take away those shots and he barely got hit.”

Kelly and Bob Arum both stated that the Sturm and Abraham fights are hard to make, but they do want to make them happen. “He’s King Arthur,” Kelly said of Abraham. “I do want that fight.” But up next appears to be John Duddy, who also won tonight, winning almost every round in his 10-rounder against Matt Vanda.

Arum hinted that Duddy is next for Pavlik at Madison Square Garden and that Sturm is “very realistic for the end of the year.”