Pavlik-Espino: This fight is a stepping stone to bigger things for Kelly

By Dave Lahr: If you’re like a lot of people, you’re probably finding it hard to get all that excited about WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik’s bout against challenger Miguel Espino this Saturday in Youngstown, Ohio. Pavlik is a great figther, with excellent power and an exciting crowd pleasing style of fighting, but his opponents, more often than not, are something awful. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Espino is a bad fighter, but I’m not about to crown him the king of the middleweight division or the answer to the prayers of fans who are looking for a good middleweight champion.

Espino is more along the lines of some of Pavlik’s recent opponents, Gary Lockett and Marco Antonio Rubio. Espino is good, but I honestly don’t know if he’s good enough to be a top tier middleweight contender. He’s ranked number #3, but I can’t see one credible victory over a top tier fighter on his resume. That’s not good. Pavlik has no choice but to fight the dude, otherwise he’ll lose his WBC title. So the fight is really just a formality for Pavlik, something that is leading to bigger things like hopefully a bout against Paul Williams or light middleweight champion Sergio Martinez in the future.

The middleweight is so bad right now, words can’t describe how poor and lacking the division is in talent. Pavlik looks like he can stay on top of the division or years to come given the atrocious talent that forms the division. That wouldn’t be so bad if Pavlik was truly a great fighter, but he’s clearly not as shown by his one-sided 12 round decision loss to Bernard Hopkins last year.

Hopkins exposed Pavlik as being a one-paced, some say, one-dimensional fighter who plods his way to victories. But as limited as Pavlik is as a fighter, the division is even more limited than him. So even if Pavlik makes quick work of Espino on Saturday night, which he probably will, there’s really nothing much to look forward to in terms of bouts for Pavlik inside the division other than a fight against Paul Williams, if Pavlik will even take that fight. I expect Pavlik to lose badly when/if he fights Williams, but that won’t prevent Pavlik from picking up one of the other two titles in the middleweight division. The other champions are Felix Sturm, the WBA title holder and the IBF is currently vacant.

As far as Saturday night’s fight goes, this should be an easy fight for Pavlik. Espino has been beaten by Peter Manfredo Jr. and Danuel Edouard in the past. Pavlik would seem to be better than either of those fighters by a long shot. Those are Espino’s best opponents on his resume and unfortunately, he was beaten by them. Pavlik should have little problems walking Espino down and taking him out with power shots. Espino is made to order for Pavlik.

Pavlik was supposed to be fighting Williams, but a bad hand infection screwed that fight up. Maybe it’s a good thing for Pavlik. Williams would have been problems for him. It’s too bad that a better opponent was picked for Pavlik than Espino, when the Williams fight disappeared. Gennady Golovkin would have been a good option or Winky Wright.

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