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Kelly Pavlik plus Miguel Espino equals pay-per-view?
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According to Joe Scalzo of the Youngstown Vindicator, Kelly Pavlik finally has an opponent for a mandatory title defense set for December 19th. The man is none other than Miguel Espino. Yes, he is the same guy who lost to Peter Manfredo, Jr. in the first season of The Contender. Yes, he is the same guy who hits almost as hard as Paulie Malignaggi. Yes, he is a safe opponent that Pavlik should be able to retire with his one good hand.
Pavlik, who once bashed the Showtime network as essentially being the boxing version of that banjo playing albino swamp kid in Deliverance, will not be appearing on HBO next month even though the date was apparently open. Nope, as reported by Fightnews.com, Bob Arum has him hooked up on the independent pay-per-view "Latin Fury" broadcast. This means that he will be introduced as El Fantasma.
While Espino is far removed from Paul Williams, Pavlik needs the fight in order to keep his WBC belt. Espino is the only American ranked in the top 10 by the WBC, so it makes sense to pick him instead of air mailing the number 1 contender, Gennady Golovkin, in from Kazakhstan. The bigger question is what's next?
The first thing Pavlik has to decide is whether or not he is a middleweight. If he is, then he has to own it. This means go over and get Felix Sturm's belt. Once the IBF has a champion, go get that one too. Fight Winky Wright and tell Emanuel Stewart to bring on Andy Lee. Fight everyone, fight often, and own the division like Marvin Hagler and Bernard Hopkins once did.
If you want money, then it is simple. Fight Espino, fight Paul Williams, and then move to super middleweight and call out the winner of Lucian Bute-Librado Andrade while you wait for the World Boxing Classic to conclude. Better yet, HBO loves Chad Dawson and you love HBO, so get Bob Arum to hook that up at 168 and throw down the ultimate Showtime trump card.
It's a tough gig being a boxing champion; however, Camp El Fantasma has to win the fans back. The only way to do it is to book a full and challenging dance card for 2010. Start collecting the belts at 160 or slap around the endless options at super middleweight and we'll all group hug and forgive. Until then, we'll read Joe Scalzo's ringside report on December 19th because Top Rank PPV is the only thing worse than the guy you're fighting.
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