By Dave Lahr: Making his first appearance since being defeated by Bernard Hopkins in October, WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (35-5-1, 31 KOs) stopped Mexican challenger Marco Antonio Rubio (43-5-1, 37 KOs) in the 9th round on Saturday night at the Chevrolet Centre, in Youngstown, Ohio. Rubio, 28, quit between rounds after the 9th, saying that he didn’t want anymore.
Pavlik, 26, staggered Rubio badly with big right hands in the 8th and punished him thoroughly in the 9th. The fight, as most people had predicted beforehand, was totally one-sided with Pavlik dominating the fight at all times. What people didn’t expect was that the power-punching Rubio would fight so defensively in the fight.
Indeed, Rubio looked for the most part like he was just trying to survive and not actually win the fight. If his strategy was to wait out Pavlik and then hope to score a knockout late in the fight, it was a plan that was doomed to fail, because Pavlik, with not having to worry much about any retaliatory shots coming back at him, was able to follow Rubio around and tee off as he pleased.
Although no matter what Rubio could have tried, he would have more surely lost anyway, because he didn’t have the hand speed or power needed to compete with Pavlik. Rubio stayed on the move much of the time in the first six rounds, but starting in the 7th, he began to stand in front of Pavlik more, trying to trade shots. Rubio’s corner had been imploring him to get into the fight and start throwing punches, because he had given away the first six rounds by moving all the time and not throwing much back at Pavlik.
Rubio did land some nice shots in the 7th, but in heating up his offense, Rubio began to take a lot of big right hands from Pavlik who liked nothing better than to turn the fight into a brawl. Rubio was fighting much better in the 8th, actually landing some nice right hand and showing off some good speed for a change, but late in the round he was staggered by a hammering right hand from Pavlik.
Rubio made the mistake of fighting with his back to the ropes and was a sitting duck for Pavlik. In the remaining seconds of the fight, Pavlik would continue landing big right hands as Rubio stayed against the ropes, failing to clinch.
Languishing against the ropes was the wrong move for Rubio to take against a power puncher like Pavlik, yet Rubio stayed there for the remaining moments of the round and much of the 9th, as well. After the 8th, Rubio looked frustrated between rounds, angry with himself for not fighting better and looking for the most part defeated in every sense of the word.
He came out in the 9th as if he was coming out for an execution. He tried mixing it up with Pavlik but was immediately nailed by some hard right hands and put back on the defensive. Pavlik continued blasting him with tremendous shots one after another and following him around.
Pavlik used a double jab followed by a hard right hand to pound Rubio. It was all the punches that Pavlik needed, and unlike his fight against Hopkins, these punches were landing as Rubio had no ability to avoid them the way that Hopkins did. In the final minute of the 9th, Pavlik landed a hard right hand that knocked Rubio back against the ropes.
It was the kind of shot that would have knocked Rubio down if he was standing in the center of the ring but in this case, the ropes kept Rubio up right. He might have been better off going down and saving himself some punishment, because Pavlik continued pounding him for the remainder of the round without having to worry about any counter shots from the defeated looking Rubio.
In between rounds, Rubio told his corner that he had had enough and didn’t want to fight on. The fight was then stopped by referee Frank Garza.
Pavlik said after the fight, “I expected a little more offensively from Rubio. This one was more defensive.“
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