By scalzo

February 17, 2008

After winning a brutal 12-round decision against Jermain Taylor, then sitting through a post-fight press conference for 15 minutes, Kelly Pavlik looked like a man who wanted nothing more than to collapse into his hotel bed.

His face was bruised. His hands hurt. And a giant crowd of reporters was awaiting some one-on-one time. For the next 20 minutes -- at least -- Pavlik answered every question from dozens of reporters. He credited Taylor for fighting a good fight, he explained his fight strategy and he treated everyone with respect.

A reporter from the Little Rock, Ark., paper told me, “I was really impressed by that.”

For all the work this beat entails, I feel very blessed to be covering someone like Pavlik. He’s friendly, he’s accomodating, he’s grateful and he’s a pleasure to be around. You hear over and over how humble he is, but it’s true. He hasn’t changed since becoming famous. Sure, he’s a little more protective of his time, but he’s still more generous -- particularly with the media -- than almost any big fighter.

I’ll admit I was a little surprised he won so convincingly. I actually had Pavlik trailing entering the final round -- as did several other writers on press row -- but Pavlik outpunched Taylor and he earned the victory with a terrific performance in the later rounds. Taylor was in big, big trouble toward the end of the 11th and managed to survive. Another 30 seconds and Pavlik might have got the knockout.

After the fight, they told us Pavlik thought he broke his right hand, but he later told me it was just a stinger. As a big puncher, he hurts his hands in almost every bout. It almost derailed his career a few years ago. But he seemed fine and with four months before his next bout, there shouldn’t be a problem.

People weren’t sure what to make of the fight. It was a classic boxing match, but it wasn’t like a typical Pavlik fight, which almost always ends in a knockout. I felt it was two really, really good boxers fighting one of the best bouts of their careers. Both guys earned a lot of respect.

Regardless of whether Pavlik fights Felix Trinidad or John Duddy next, I don’t think it will be as difficult as this fight. There’s just not anyone at the middleweight level who’s big and strong enough to beat him. Super middleweight is much, much tougher right now.

One other note: Tonight’s attendance was 9,706, which was almost 1,000 less than in Atlantic City. I think the ticket prices -- $100 to $600 -- discourages a lot of people from attending fights. Between pay-per-view and high ticket prices, there’s a lot of money to be made. But you lose a lot of potential fans.

Is it going to change? Of course not. But that doesn’t make it right.