by James Slater – It has been revealed in The Cleveland Plain Dealer that middleweight world champion Kelly Pavlik injured his left elbow in sparring last week. Apparently, while working with former two-time WBA super-middleweight champion Byron Mitchell, Kelly banged elbows with his spar mate. The resulting bruise saw to it that the unbeaten 26-year-old was unable to spar for a few days and there is still a chance an injection will be needed..
Currently wearing a synthetic sleeve on his left elbow, tough guy Pavlik has refused to pull out of his big October 18th match with Bernard Hopkins. Showing one of the qualities he is admired for, “The Ghost,” instead of taking the easy option a number of other fighters may well have done and postpone the fight, declared that the October date is not in jeopardy.
Jack Loew, Pavlik’s trainer, when asked if the Hopkins bout was in any danger of being rescheduled because of the injury, had the following to say.
“No, not at all. It’s a bruise and there’s nothing you can do.”
Kelly, calling the injury “bothersome,” has tried to ignore it as best he can. According to the article in The Plain Dealer, the injury that occurred ten days ago was not affecting Pavlik’s overall ability to throw punches in a workout last week. Kelly’s ability to throw the left jab wan not affected and the middleweight king will be as confident as ever he will defeat the man known as “The Executioner” in eleven days time.
Of course, no injury, no matter how small or large, is ever a good thing for a fighter, and against as clever and as tricky a boxer as the 43-year-old Hopkins Pavlik will have wanted a 100-percent perfect training camp. Jack Loew has reportedly closed the Southside Boxing Club this week, so his fighter can wind up his preparations without the distraction of spectators.
The fight against Hopkins, set for The Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, promises to be one of the hardest of the 34-0 (30) Pavlik’s career. A non title catch weight bout taking place at 170-pounds, October 18th’s extremely intriguing match-up has, with news of the elbow injury, just got a little bit more intriguing.
A lot of credit must be given to Kelly Pavlik for not postponing such a fascinating and more than likely highly technical fight.