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Pavlik Ready for “New” Taylor!
September 27, 2007
photo by Emily Harney
“Once I land a punch, Taylor will go back to retreating!”
Taylor has successfully defended his middleweight crown against legendary Bernard Hopkins, Winky Wright, Kassim Ouma, and Cory Spinks since first taking the title from Hopkins in July 2005. Pavlik scored the biggest win of his career in his last fight on May 19, a decisive seventh-round TKO against Edison Miranda in a WBC world title eliminator to determine the mandatory challenger to Taylor.
FightNews feature writer Antonio Castro recently interviewed Pavlik on the “KNR2 BOXING SHOW.”
Kelly, you’re in line for not only the biggest payday of your career but also the biggest fight of your career. You’re fighting for the middleweight championship of the world against the world recognized middleweight champion, Jermain Taylor. How do you feel coming into this fight?
Very confident. The training that we’ve put in is very crazy. We’ve got sparring partners in that have the same style and really good hand speed, actually faster than Jermain. We’re doing well with them and everything is going as planned.
Kelly, you have a history with Jermain Taylor in the ring as the two of you fought at the U.S. Olympic trials before the 2000 games. Can you take anything away from the time you two fought or is it too long ago?
There’s really no comparison. It was definitely too long ago. I was 17 years old and that makes a huge difference. I still gave him a good fight and right now I’m stronger and more mature. I’m also 25 now and have experience, so there’s not too much you can take out of that fight. If he wants to, that benefits me. If he wants to live off of that fight that will be better for me.
Kelly, going into your last fight, all the talk was about Miranda and all you did was simply destroy him. Did that fight help your confidence, and what did you learn in that fight?
Going into the fight I thought I would have beaten him by decision or a later round stoppage. It surprised me that it ended as soon as it did. We stuck to the game plan of knowing how strong Edison Miranda was and how hard he hits. I watched film on him and yeah, I knew he hit real hard but if I could force him backwards there was nothing he was going to be able to do. That’s what made the difference in the fight.
Kelly, before I ask you about Jermain Taylor, I’d like the audience to know a little more about you. As a youngster you actually started taking karate lessons and it just wasn’t physical enough for you. What made you go the boxing route?
Martial arts just wasn’t enough for me. There was nothing there that kept my interest in it. It took too long to learn and there was no contact. I went to the boxing gym and started hitting the bag. After a couple of times I started getting into sparring. It was one of those things where there was constant action going on, you start learning discipline, and it was just something that I fell in love with.
Kelly, your parents didn’t like the fact that you were boxing when you started, but they figured it was something that you would just grow out of. What were your thoughts on the fact that this was something your parents didn’t want you doing?
They supported me, but they did want me to give up on it after so long. Once I kept going and going and they could see that I loved it, it made me happy, and I was putting a lot of time into it instead of going out and getting in trouble, I think that kind of made them happy. They weren’t real happy with it, and still aren’t, but they support me and help me out as much as they possibly can.
Your dad not only is your cook, but also co-manages you as well. How important is it for you to have your family by your side helping you to achieve your goals in the ring?
It’s huge. The comfortable factor as well as the business factor is huge. Having people around that are close and that help watch over the things that you do and give you good advice is nice. When your training hard they are making the food to make sure you stick to the right diet so you have no choice but to eat it (laughing). There’s just so many things that it benefits having your family around.
Kelly, in talking with your trainer Jack Loew about your punching power, he explains it as overnight something changed and your power increased significantly. Even as an amateur you were scoring knockouts. Can you explain what the difference was?
I think it was just a maturity factor. You get some kids that at 10 or 11 years old they are just a little more advanced and then the next thing you know, you see that kid that when they are 11 or 12 and they haven’t advanced any more. Then you see the kid that wasn’t advanced and he hits 18 or 19 and he matures, he grows into his body and he’s the star athlete. That’s kind of like me. I just grew into my body. The maturity came and I just grew into my body naturally. I think that’s what it was.
Now on to Jermain Taylor. He is one of the few to defeat you in the ring. Is there a revenge factor going into this fight?
No, I put that fight out of my mind because it was like 7 or 8 years ago. I had just come out of the junior Olympic division, that was like my 4th tournament in the open division and the experience level and the maturity level just wasn’t there. To me, it would be like playing pee wee football when your in the NFL. It’s a totally different game now. We’re in the pros, I’ve got the experience behind me, so I’ll just fight the new Taylor.
Kelly, you’ve trained in different places, but you like training at home in Youngstown the best. How important is it for you to represent the city of Youngstown?
It’s very important. Youngstown, you know, we don’t have much going on right now, so I think just to go out there and put us on the map would be huge.
Do you feel any pressure knowing that the city is so much behind you?
Yeah it is, especially here. Youngstown is the type of place where if your not up there and doing it and getting it done, then your looked at like you didn’t do anything. At the same time, I’m not going to let too much pressure get to me. I’ve got to worry about the fight and training camp and everything else.
Jermain Taylor has come out recently and said he is going to make it a fight. Do you believe that?
I think he is going to come out like he did against Kassim Ouma. He’s going to try to brawl a little bit, but once I land a punch on him anywhere on his body, he’s going to retreat back to the running and trying to survive.
Kelly, A lot of Taylor’s opponents have been smaller guys. Do you feel like once he feels your power, that will be the turning point in the fight?
Oh yeah, that’s when he will start running. He hasn’t been in there with a natural middleweight, let alone a big middleweight and he’s gotten hurt. Ever since he was hurt by Bernard Hopkins, who is not really a big puncher, he started fighting the smaller guys. We’ll see how he adapts to somebody that is going to throw 70 punches, 80 punches a round if not more, with power on each one of those shots.
Kelly, you have some uncharacteristic training methods. When I visited you during your Miranda training camp one of the things you did was hit a giant tire over 60 yards with an oversized sledgehammer. Any new training methods for Jermain Taylor?
Hah! We’ve got a really, really, good one that not too many professional boxers do. It’s kind of hard to explain. It doesn’t include weights, but we use a sledgehammer, fire hoses, chains, and tractor tires.
How do you know about these training methods?
Well, this workout a lot of the NFL players, defensive backs, ultimate fighting do. It’s more of an explosive workout for speed, strength, muscle endurance, and cardio. It’s like everything put into one. At the same time, you’re not putting weight on and getting tight. A guy by the name of Paul Dunleavy and Mitch opened up a gym called the Ironman Warehouse and it’s unbelievable what we do there. FightNews feature writer Antonio Castro is the host of the “KNR2 BOXING SHOW” which airs each Saturday from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. EST on Cleveland's AM 1540 KNR2 in the Cleveland and Northern Ohio area ESPNCLEVELAND.com. You can e-mail Antonio at antoniocastro@roadrunner.com. |
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