Kelly Pavlik made it known with a third tune-up fight that he is ready to take a step up in competition at the 168-pound level.  Pavlik’s experience proved to be too much for a game Will Rosinsky, and the former middleweight champ continued his progression as a boxer instead of a fighter successfully.

Pavlik caught Rosinsky with a short right hook in the second round.  Rosinsky bounced back up seemingly unhurt but Pavlik managed to score a 10-8 round sandwiched in between a close first and third round.

Pavlik got cut over his left eye in the fourth round on an unintentional head butt.  The cut seemed to awaken Pavlik into being more aggressive and throwing more punches, especially lefts to the body in round 5.

Rosinsky seemed to be running after throwing a good punch every ten seconds or so. Pavlik was dictating the pace of the fight through the seventh round.  Pavlik landed more punches with greater frequency from the fifth round until the end of the fight.

Despite a lack of national exposure, Rosinsky had a very positive amateur career, but had never been in the ring with anyone even close to the level of a Kelly Pavlik. Nevertheless, he [Rosinsky] showed guts and potential, he was no soft bye week for Pavlik.

In the tenth round, Pavlik head some blood streaming down his left cheek parlayed with a right cauliflower ear and if you had just turned the television on, you would have thought Rosinsky’s unharmed mug would suggest he was winning the fight.  It was just the opposite though, Pavlik won the fight, all but maybe two rounds of it.

The thing that Pavlik fans need to be concerned with is that The Ghost did not hurt Rosinsky.  He did knock Rosinsky down once, but there has to be concern that Pavlik can really have issues against better competition.

At the end of the day, it is a win, a nationally televised win on boxing’s biggest stage for Pavlik.  The judges saw it 97-92, 98-91, and 98-91 to give Pavlik the unanimous decision.

“I didn’t counter like I wanted to, but it is a ‘W’ and I’ll take the rounds”, said Pavlik.  “I am still a young guy, but I need to get better.  It is time to make a move, I don’t think I need too many more of these fights.”

Up next for Pavlik, a return to the big spotlight, potentially to face Andre Ward or possibly Carl Froch.  Details will probably be more readily available within a month.

All photos courtesy of Miguel Salazar, and a special thank you to Team Pavlik and Mike Romeo for getting them to me.

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