Kelly Pavlik successfully defended his WBC and WBO middleweight titles against mandatory challenger Miguel Espino in front of his faithful hometown fans in Youngstown, Ohio.
Surprise! Miguel Espino came to fight.
Pavlik hadn’t fought since February because of some health problems. Although he looked good during the fight, he admitted to feeling some ring rust. But the surprisingly ferocious attacking style employed by his opponent Espino probably had something to do with it.
Espino gave the champ no chance to use his typical long-range attack. Instead, he crowded Pavlik and made it a fight in a phone booth.
Both fighters threw tons of body shots, and Espino hit Pavlik with many low blows — almost all to the point of the hip.
Kelly Pavlik fights effectively on the inside
I underestimated Pavlik’s infighting abilities. In this fight, he showed decent skill with the short-range uppercuts and hooks that he eventually KOed his opponent with in the 5th round.
While it was obvious to me from watching his past fights that Kelly had a great left upperhook to the body, this was the first time I got a good look at his orthodox left hook to the head. This short-range left hook is surprisingly compact and powerful, and he used it to good effect during the match.
The real story of the fight, however, was Pavlik’s great right uppercut. He used it to knock Miguel down three times. After the third knockdown, Miguel’s second threw in the towel.
A very satisfying, action-packed fight
For a fighter with such a powerful 1-2 combination as Pavlik’s, it’s surprising and refreshing to see that he isn’t a one-trick pony. His inside game is sound and effective.
The challenger, too, deserves credit for bringing it. He must have figured that he couldn’t win a long-range, tactical battle against the champ, so he stepped into the ring with the mindset that he was going to rough him up and either go knock him out, or get knocked out trying.