Kelly Pavlik injury updates
Following Kelly Pavlik’s withdrawal from the November 13 Manny Pacquiao-Antonio Margarito undercard, longtime trainer Jack Loew has confirmed that the injury occurred two weeks ago and that they tried to press forward but were ultimately unable to do so.
Monday it was revealed that Pavlik would not be participating on the card, after Loew contacted manager Cameron Dunkin with news of a rib injury. The injury comes as the latest setback for Pavlik, considering that the November 13 fight offered massive promotion
(being on HBO pay-per-view) and a chance to reassert his relevance in the boxing community following a loss to Sergio Martinez in April.
Loew indicated that the injury was sustained in training as Pavlik was hitting the mitts. While precise details remain unknown, Loew concluded that he may have pulled a muscle on his right side due to failing to stretch enough beforehand.
"Kelly went to throw a punch and kind of felt like a tweak in his ribs and Kelly said that he kind of felt like he pulled it. Maybe he didn't stretch out good enough. But we didn't really pay much attention to it at first, but we sparred the following day
and he had quite a bit of pain in it," Loew revealed.
"But then, it kind of started easing up a little bit. We took some body exercises and then it really kind of bothered him. We've been sparring for like the last week and a half just to the head, and going good. We were full go and working our butts off.
Kelly kept doing bad things, you know? Dropping that hand down to protect those ribs, and I wasn't going to let this happen. I waited and waited, and then, finally, I called [Pavlik's manager] Cameron Dunkin on Sunday night and I said, 'that's it.'"
Though the rib was not fractured, Loew contended that the risks were simply too high if the injury were to affect Pavlik in the ring and he suffered a third defeat.
“This one, I wasn’t going to make the wrong decision,” Loew said.
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