Kelly Pavlik: “I feel bad for Golovkin because he’s a good fighter, but there’s nobody really in the weight class”

(Interview by Robert Brown) I recently had an opportunity to speak to former world middleweight champion, Kelly ‘The Ghost’ Pavlik. Pavlik had a career record of 40-2 (34 KO’s) and retired from the sport in January of 2013. During my interview with Pavlik, I discuss his career accomplishments, and talked about the key fights from his boxing career that included bouts with Jermain Taylor, Bernard Hopkins & Sergio Martinez. I also get Kelly’s thoughts on the current middleweight champions Gennady Golovkin and Miguel Cotto. Additionally Pavlik shares his thoughts on the mega event that was Mayweather vs. Pacquiao. Here is what Kelly Pavlik had to say.

Robert Brown: Kelly how did you first get involved with boxing?

Kelly Pavlik: I got into it at a young age, I started when I was nine years old. I was in all types of sports, I was playing football, baseball, I enjoyed sports. Before I got into boxing, they had karate and I went to go take martial arts and to me it just wasn’t my cup of tea, I didn’t like that much. I got into boxing and I started doing good and I fell in love with the one-on-one aspect and the contact and everything else to it.

Robert Brown: The fight that put you in the spotlight was your bout with Edison Miranda, what did you think of that match up?

Kelly Pavlik: I wasn’t a fan of that fight because I fought Jose Luis Zertuche and he was a dangerous opponent and it doesn’t seem like it on paper but a lot of guys didn’t fight Zertuche and they would avoid him. I took that fight and that was supposed to be my number one mandatory for the world title and then all of the sudden they came up with Edison Miranda and I took the Miranda fight.

Miranda was a hell of a fighter. I don’t take credit for it but he was not quite the same after I fought him, but he was in there beating everybody. We had a great gameplan for that one, if you let Miranda back you up or if you try to move around, Miranda would catch you with a wide swinging punch and with his power, you don’t want to take the chance. In that fight we just backed him up and I never let him plant on that back foot and we took the fight to him.

Robert Brown: You won your world title against Jermain Taylor, a fight you were an underdog in, can tell me about that fight and winning the title?

Kelly Pavlik: Everything for that fight happened for a reason, it was just a great fight. I trained hard for it, I was in great shape for that fight. The first round I thought I was up pretty heavily and I was winning most of the second round until I got dropped. I came back in the third round and I dominated.

The referee said, “As long as you can show me that you’re able to hold on and you’re still with it, I’m not gonna stop the fight.” If you go back and watch, even though I was running around the ring like a chicken with his leg cut off, I was still able to hold on. I was still grabbing and punching.

Fortunately Steve Smoger let the fight go and I did a good enough job to hold on. It showed guts, I think I showed the world and the boxing fans that I was legit, that I was there to be a big part in boxing and I deserved my world titles.

Robert Brown: After beating Taylor in a rematch, and defending your belt, you took on Bernard Hopkins. Why did you take such a dangerous fight going up two weight classes?

Kelly Pavlik: To tell you the truth, I did pretty much jump up two weight classes for that fight. I was not a healthy Kelly at that point. I sparred three times — I’m not making any excuses, I don’t care because I’m retired now. I sparred three times, I had tendonitis and bursitis in my arm.

I ended up with bronchitis and if you ever talk to Robert Garcia, he wasn’t my trainer at the time but he had a kid by the name of Steven Luevano who was on the undercard. We actually put the prescription for the bronchitis in Steven Luevano’s name. The fight shouldn’t have happened, I should have pulled out, but we took it.

There was no big fight out there, the Paul Williams fight just kept falling through, there were no big fights. It was a big payday and it was a chance for me to go up to fight an all time legend and for me at that time, I was invincible, that’s the reason why I took the fight.

Being as sick as I was, I could have easily cancelled but I said, “No, I’m gonna go up to light heavyweight and fight the all time great.” I knew what he was gonna do before he did but I just could not pull the trigger. I was real lethargic. He’s a great fighter too, so that’s bad luck on that one. It was very bad timing, Hopkins was a craftsman, he’s one of the greatest and you can’t take that away from him.

Robert Brown: What were the circumstances that played into your loss to Sergio Martinez?

Kelly Pavlik: I take nothing away from Martinez, he was a great boxer. It was just bad timing, we should have never signed on to that fight. We should have just moved up to 168lbs, but the problem we fell into with moving up to super middleweight was, all the guys were pretty much tied up in that super six tournament.

There were no big fights at that time either, there were no big openings for fights. I know everybody says about Arthur Abraham but Abraham was locked up, he had fights coming up. There was nothing really out there, but I took the Martinez fight. I was doing good in that fight but that last couple rounds I hit a wall, there was nothing I could do on that.

Robert Brown: Kelly how do you think you would do against today’s middleweight champions like Gennady Golovkin and Miguel Cotto?

Kelly Pavlik: It’s hard to say. I feel bad for Golovkin because I think he’s a good fighter, I think he has all the tools but there’s nobody really in the weight class. It’s kind of not right to put these guys in the same category. The guys that I was fighting at the time, it was a very strong weight class.

Cotto fought Michael Jennings in New York and I fought Marco Antonio Rubio in Youngstown, and Cotto comes up to my neck. Cotto started at junior welterweight, so right now for Cotto to even be at middleweight, he’s a great fighter but I think he belongs at welterweight. He’s not a middleweight. If he was a tall junior welterweight, I could say, “Maybe he can put the weight on.”

I know Cotto walks around a little heavy but you got these guys coming down from 180lbs to make 160lbs. If I was him, I’d go to welterweight. I think right now a good fight for Golovkin right now would be Canelo, to see where he’s at. He has not fought anybody to say, “This kid is the real deal.” I think he’s a great fighter, I think he’s talented as hell but I think that everybody’s waiting to see what would happen if he fought Canelo Alvarez.

Robert Brown: What were your thoughts on the Mayweather-Pacquiao event and Pacquiao’s supposed injury?

Kelly Pavlik: It turned out different than what I thought. I thought Pacquiao was gonna do a lot more against Mayweather, but who knows with that injury. He wasn’t making that injury up because he was taking an anti inflammatory, the commission let him take the anti inflammatory shot on the shoulder and then they cut him off like two days before the fight.

We know that he did have a shoulder injury through training camp but personally I feel that I got ripped off of my money because of the undercard. There were great fighters on the undercard but if people are gonna spend that kind of money on a pay-per-view fight, have at least five fights and get some competition in there. Get a Kelly Pavlik-Edison Miranda, get a Corrales-Castillo fight, something like that.

Mayweather showed his skills, Pacquiao showed good skills at times, in spurts he fought pretty good. I don’t think it was that bad of a fight, I just think Pacquaio could have been hurting and we don’t know how bad he was hurting, and Mayweather fought a very smart fight. As much as I don’t like Mayweather, you can’t take nothing away from him.