Boxing News Boxing News
Any questions that may have surrounded the career of Kelly Pavlik following his serious dismantlement at the hands of Bernard Hopkins last year were answered last night as the Youngstown, OH man impressed a hometown audience at the Chevrolet Center by defeating challenger Marco Antonio Rubio.
With the Hopkins bout taking place at 170 pounds, the WBO and WBC middleweight titles of Pavlik were never at risk during that contest and the two world crowns were a motivating force for Rubio, hailing from Torreon, Mexico.
But motivated or not, one thing Rubio found out he could not do against Pavlik was outbox the champion.
It had been nine bouts since Rubio had made a similar discovery, with former IBF champ Kassim Ouma and future European titlist Zaurbek Baysangurov beating the Mexican in bouts that went the distance at light middleweight.
Pavlik had bigger bombs in his arsenal, however, than anyone else Rubio had faced to date and that was apparent from the moment the pair touched gloves in the first round.
The taller Pavlik immediately put Rubio on the defensive, forcing the challenger to defend against an array of incoming artillery and punishing the Mexican whenever Rubio tried to throw return fire.
The largely one way traffic continued all through the early rounds with Pavlik looking just too big, skilled and powerful for the former light middleweight to handle.
Until the sixth round, when Pavlik began to slow down a bit and lose his snap. Rubio rose to fill the void and suddenly he was showing Pavlik the other side of the coin, letting the Ohio man feel his considerable power.
Rubio continued to back up Pavlik in the seventh but he couldn’t hurt the champion and that would prove to be his undoing. Pavlik rode out the remainder of the seventh, gathering energy for an explosive resurgence.
The eighth saw Rubio pay a heavy toll for opening up during the previous two frames as Pavlik reasserted his authority in a big way, battering the challenger for most of the round with heavy right hand shots.
It got worse for Rubio, who was busted up in the ninth as Pavlik could sense the end and spared nothing in his attempt to inflict as much punishment as possible, ultimately convincing the challenger not to come out for the tenth.
Kelly Pavlik defended his WBC and WBO Middleweight belts, 35-1 (31), for the second time with a ninth round TKO of Marco Antonio Rubio, 43-5-1 (37), but more importantly, showed no lasting effects following the first loss of his career.
Rubio proved to be a good opponent for the Ohio man to come back against and the victory could put Pavlik closer to a potential unification bout with either WBA Champ Felix Sturm or IBF Champ Arthur Abraham, who both are scheduled to make title defenses they should win this spring.
On the undercard, light heavy Dallas Vargas, 22-4 (16), knocked out Kevin Engel, 15-2 (12), in the third and welterweight Brian Camechis, 18-2 (8), outpointed Angel Hernandez, 11-3 (9), after six rounds.
