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NABF middleweight titleholder Kelly Pavlik TKO's Lenord Pierre In Four

By Spencer Cobb Adams

His nickname is "The Ghost" but a more aptly described moniker would be "Blade."

At six-foot-three-inches and with a rail thin body, hometown hero and NABF middleweight titleholder Kelly Pavlik made short work of his undersized opponent Lenord Pierre in four brief one-sided rounds.

The undefeated number-two ranked WBC middleweight contender Pavlik floored the outgunned Pierre twice before referee Randy Jarvis mercifully waved off the contest at the 46-second mark, in a bout that was a borderline mismatch.

"Being in there with Lenord, the kid just kept coming. I didn't think he was ever going to stop," Pavlik said after the victory. "95 per cent of the people that I hit with those type of power shots would have gone down but he kept coming."

--Mountain Climbing--

At 5'8" Pierre (18-3, 13 KO's) looked like he spent the early going punching uphill, as Pavlik (29-0, 26 KO's) zeroed in on his vertically challenged opponent. Pierre (161) attempted to cut the distance and get inside while throwing looping punches but Pavlik (162 �) countered with sharp right hands. At the 1:30 mark of the 1st, Pavlik clipped Pierre, Catskills, New York via Haiti with a crisp right hand to the face.

Pierre continued to wing wide sweeping punches while leaving his chin opened to assault and Pavlik returned to targeting the Haitian's profile. With 48-second remaining in the opening stanza of a contest scheduled for twelve rounds, Pavlik jolted Pierre with a short left hook to the head followed by a quick right hand to the chin. With 12-seconds to go in the 1st, the 24-year-old Pavlik staggered Pierre with a hammering left hook to the side of the skull that sent his opponent staggering across the ring.

With the fans standing and screaming, Pavlik continued to let his hands go and he landed a volley of shots before dropping Pierre, 27, with a searing right hand to the chin, as he fell halfway through the ropes. Pierre stumbled to his feet at the count of three and walked forward on the back of his heels, as the round ended.

Pavlik continued to unload rapier like right hands against the wide open Pierre, who returned to throwing punches from distance that left him wide open to the taller man's accurate artillery. With 1:17 to go in the 2nd, Pavlik rocked Pierre back into the ropes again with two more clean right hands to the chin. With one-minute remaining in the round, Pavlik almost dropped Pierre again, as his knees buckled and he dipped at the waist before careening back across the ring and into the corner.

With 33-seconds to go in the 2nd, Pavlik nailed Pierre with a long right uppercut to the chin that snapped the Haitian's head straight back. Seconds later, Pavlik tagged his undersized opponent with two more chopping right hands to the head that again staggered Pierre. Just before the bell to end the round, Pavlik hammered Pierre with a clean left hook to the face that again rocked the Haitian back on his heels and referee Randy Jarvis walked the dazed boxer back to his corner while checking on his condition.

Pierre wobbled back to 60-seconds of sanctuary before semi-collapsing down on his stool. With his mouth open and a blank expression on his face, the fight probably should have and could have been halted but the carnage continued.

--Target Practice--

Pavlik returned to tattooing Pierre with wicked blasts including a scalding right hand under the heart in the third round. With 1:27 to go in the round, Pavlik connected with a chopping right hand flush on the chin and Pierre did a quick two-step, as he dropped his gloves and staggered awkwardly to the right. With little more than a minute to go in the 3rd, Pavlik landed a thudding left hook that rebounded off of Pierre's chest. To his credit Pierre was still throwing punches late in the round but Pavlik continued to bounce powerful punches off the Haitian's head.

Pavlik again staggered Pierre just before the bell to end the round and the Haitian rocked up on his toes and then back on his heels before finding his balance and lurching sideways to his corner.

Pavlik returned to battering Pierre in the 4th, and with 2:18 to go in the round, he drilled the Haitian with a brutal left hook to the skull. Pierre crashed to the floor landing on his back and halfway under the ropes and on the ring apron, as the referee Jarvis immediately waved off the one-sided exercise. The fight went into the books as a TKO at 46 seconds of the fourth round but candidly could have been stopped two rounds earlier.

Undercard: In a hard fought and very close junior middleweight encounter Ahmed Kaddour (20-2-1, 9 KO's) scored a narrow split decision over Jesus Felipe Valverde (21-13-1, 16 KO's). Judge Tom Miller gave the edge to Valverde 77-75; however, he was overruled by both Dana DePaolo and Phil Rodgers, who tallied 77-75 both for Kaddour. In other action, 20-year-old cruiserweight Aaron Williams (10-0-1, 7 KO's) scored a second round TKO over Mike Word (3-4-3, 3 KO's). Williams (194) caught Word (192) with a flurry of shots in the 1st, including a nasty low blow below the belt that the referee missed before unloading a volley of hooks and right crosses. Williams, Las Vegas, Nevada, hurt his opponent again late in the 2nd with a scalding left hook to the head followed by several wicked digging body shots and a right hand to the face that sent the staggering Word, Milwaukee, Wisconsin back into the ropes. With Word defenseless on the ropes and Williams firing away with both hands, referee Jim Phillips stopped the bout at 2:35 of the second round with the victory going to the Eddie Mustapha Muhammad trained boxer. Undefeated super middleweight Donovan "Da Bomb" George (10-0-1, 8 KO's) registered a TKO stoppage over Haitian boxer Julio Jean (7-10-1, 3 KO's), at the 2:27 mark of the fifth round.