FightFranchise | Pavlik v Espino: The Preview

Saturday night marks the return of WBC and WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (35-1, 31 KO’s). Pavlik last fought ten months ago in his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, where he forced Marco Antonio Rubio to quit on his stool after the ninth round. Since then, Pavlik has been battling a staph infection in his left hand and an allergic reaction to antibiotics that left him nearly dead.

Originally scheduled to fight Paul Williams, Pavlik was forced to cancel the fight twice, most recently on December 5th. Williams’ team opted to fight Sergio Martinez instead, leaving Pavlik without an opponent for his planned December 19th return at the Beeghly Center in Youngstown. Enter Miguel Espino (20-2-1, 9 KO’s), a former “Contender” participant. Espino was sparring with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in Mexico when he got an offer to fight Pavlik. He immediately accepted the offer and began training for the fight.

Espino’s resume indicates that he is clearly not at the level of some of Pavlik’s last few opponents. For one thing, he lacks power – only 9 KO’s in 20 wins. He has lost twice and drawn once to average competition: Daniel Edouard, Peter Manfredo Jr. and a draw with Carl Cockerham. His last fight was in March and he is a complete unkown.

Espino does not want to be counted out however. He was a quality amateur with over 90 wins. He believes he can put it all together and win the belts. On a side note, he also has a great story…he has been taking care of his blind mother for many years after his parents were divorced. He hopes to use his purse and future purses to support her.

Looking at Pavlik’s current situation, Espino might not be as big of a long shot as most would think. Besides his health problems, Pavlik did not look to have completely recovered from his loss to Bernard Hopkins back in October of last year. In that fight which was contested at 170 pounds, Pavlik was mauled by Hopkins who used good movement and angles to befuddle Pavlik and consistently beat him to the punch. The result was a wide unanimous decision for Hopkins.

Pavlik took a return fight against Mexican puncher Marco Antonio Rubio, then 43-4-1 with 38 knockouts. In the fight, Pavlik was able to easily beat Rubio, but did not look good in the process. He ate plenty of punches while coming in and did not seem to have adapted his style at all to better avoid getting hit.

Pavlik must win impressively if he hopes to return to the big time. He had plenty of momentum going after he defeated Jermaine Taylor twice to win the middleweight titles in late 2007. But the Hopkins fight slowed him down and the hand injury has all but stopped him. Espino has nothing to lose…he is collecting a nice paycheck and if he wins, he is guaranteed big money fights in the future. A loss will leave him exactly where he started.

Also on the card, Vanes Martirosyan (25-0, 16 KO’s) takes on Willie Lee (17-5, 11 KO’s) for the NABF light middleweight title. Martirosyan is coming off a six round destruction of Andrey Tsurkan. Lee is your typical journeyman fighter and has been stopped four times in his five losses. He is coming off a win over tough Alex Bunema, but it is not likely he will pose much of a threat to Martirosyan. One has to wonder when Top Rank will have him step up and fight a legit contender. As a professional boxer since 2005, he looks ready to step up and fight for a world title. A fight with Lee is nothing more than a stay busy fight to pad his record.

The card will be televised by Top Rank PPV and will be a dual site pay-per-view. Running alongside the Pavlik card will be a card taking place in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico. Featured will be an interim WBA bantamweight title fight between Alejando Valdez (22-3-2, 16 KO’s) and Nehomar Cermeno (18-0, 10 KO’s). Also, Humberto Soto (49-7-2, 32 KO’s) moves up to lightweight to fight Jesus Chavez (44-6, 30 KO’s).