Pavlik looks to rekindle career in A.C.

The last time we saw middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik in these parts, he was in Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall being schooled for 12 rounds by the ageless tactician Bernard Hopkins, who handed Pavlik the only loss of his pro career.

That was in October 2008. On Saturday, Pavlik will return to the Boardwalk Hall ring, hoping to remind the local boxing crowd how much they loved him after he got up off the canvas there to knock out Jermain Taylor in 2007.

Pavlik will defend his World Boxing Council and World Boxing Organization middleweight (160-pound) titles against Sergio Martinez, the best boxer he has faced besides Hopkins.

Pavlik remains middleweight king - he fought Hopkins at a higher weight, 170, so he didn't lose his belts - but he has something to prove.

He is Ring magazine's champion and the "lineal" titleholder, meaning he beat the guy who beat the guy, all the way back to boxing's early days: Pavlik bested Taylor (twice actually), and Taylor twice had outpointed Hopkins, who was unified champ until 2005.

But the months since October 2008 have been lost ones for Pavlik, even though he won two low-profile fights in 2009, in his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio. A planned 2009 superfight against Paul Williams was canceled twice, in large part because Pavlik spent much of last year with a bizarre staph infection, the kind that can put a life at risk.

"It was a frustrating 2009," Pavlik said. During training camp in February 2009, Pavlik explained, "I had a little cut on my knuckle and didn't think anything of it. Two weeks later, I was playing basketball and I felt a little pinch on my knuckle. I looked down and saw no blood, just pus."

Pavlik, a big puncher (36-1 with 32 knockouts) from the same hometown as Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini - and known for bringing a similar blue-collar grit into the ring - became bedridden.

Matches were scheduled and canceled versus Williams, a dangerous southpaw from Georgia who is a contender in three divisions, from welterweight to middleweight.

"It was a little upsetting to hear what people were saying" about the cancellations, Pavlik said. "I wanted to fight Williams, and they said I was lying. The doctors had to prove that I wasn't lying, and we couldn't make the fight happen."

So Plan B is Martinez (44-2-2, 24 KOs), a cagey southpaw who fought even with Williams but lost an arguable decision in December.

"People know that he's a dangerous fighter, and when I go in there and dominate and win, I'll be right back on track," Pavlik said.

Also on the Atlantic City card are fights featuring Mike Jones (20-0, 16 KOs), an exciting welterweight prospect from Philadelphia, and junior middleweight Ronald Hearns (24-1), son of Thomas Hearns.

Back on track for Pavlik probably will mean moving out of the weak middleweight division and up to 168 pounds, where there's such an excess of talent - including Andre Ward, Arthur Abraham, and Andre Dirrell - that Showtime has been running a six-man round-robin to determine world supremacy.

Saturday's Pavlik fight will be on HBO, in a two-venue telecast that also will include a super-middleweight title fight from Montreal between champion Lucian Bute and wild-swinging Colombian Edison Miranda, whom Pavlik knocked out in early 2007 to earn his first title shot.

So there's a lot of business for Pavlik a few pounds higher. You can't even count out a rematch with Hopkins, who insists he's not done fighting yet.