Bryan Vera is not among those sympathizing with Kelly Pavlik over a rib injury that’s ended his hopes of a comeback bout next Saturday (November 13).
Yesterday, Kelly Pavlik (36-2, 32 KOs) formally withdrew from his scheduled November 13 catchweight (164 pounds) fight with Vera (17-5, 11 KOs). The bout was scheduled to be featured prominently on the pay-per-view undercard of Pacquiao-Margarito. To date, the Dallas Stadium event has sold close to 30,000 tickets. According to Pavlik trainer Jack Loew, the injury is torn cartilage in his rib cage that rob Pavlik of the ability to throw or take punches in the area. The injury is said have occurred two weeks ago, and Pavlik’s team attempted to work through it until recently.
Vera questions whether the rib injury is truly the cause for the fight withdrawal.
“I thought he was a world-class fighter? Right now it doesn’t seem like he’s acting like one, to be pulling out this late to the fight,” Vera fumed to WKBN.com. “If he was hurt, they would’ve said something right away. I think maybe he’s having problems with weight or something. If he was a man of his word he’d get ready and fight no matter what.”
The withdrawal can mean Vera’s team, who have trained two months for the fight, can end up with no financial compensation outside of a small stipend Top Rank provided to cover training expenses. To avoid this, Vera’s camp is attempting to renegotiate the fight for a date within the next 90 days.
Bryan believes even with a rescheduled date, Kelly Pavlik’s reputation has taken another hit. Last year, Paul Williams accused Pavlik of ducking him after canceling their fight due to a bad staph infection on his left hand. Those two were never able to come to terms on a new date.
“It doesn’t look good,” Vera told WKBN.com. “His reputation is already kind of down a little bit by him doing this in the past… I think a lot of people are looking down on him right now.”
At press time, Kelly Pavlik has not released a statement on his condition.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 