Pavlik finally has a chance to silence the “derelicts”

Shadow boxing took on new meaning, a malicious twist, for Kelly Pavlik during the last year. In the shadows, there were rumors, as poisonous to his reputation as an infection was to his left hand.

Pavlik can begin to knock them out Saturday night against Miguel Espino in Youngstown, his home town. I hope he does. He can’t clean out the shadows for everyone. The internet will always provide enough cover for anybody hiding behind a laptop and empowered by only a cell phone.

“Derelicts,’’ Pavlik calls them in a tone unmistakable for its contempt and in a way that says he wishes they were in the opposite corner instead of Espino, a nice guy fighting for an ailing mom.

Pavlik promoter Bob Arum had his own description, one that might become a sharp marketing hook if a fight with Paul Williams ever happens.

“Morons,” said Arum, who had a few other things to say in a conference call.

Pavlik’s withdrawal from two scheduled dates with Williams because of a dangerous staph infection in a knuckle on his left hand filled the shadows with talk about a bad crowd, bad habits, financial problems and fear of Williams, whose trainer, George Peterson, suggested that Pavlik’s heart, not hand, was the real problem. Somehow, Pavlik wasn’t blamed for the recession. Or maybe I just missed that one.

“It really makes me want to cry,’’ Arum said. “We knew what Kelly went through physically and how close he was to not making it at all, not just to fight, but not making it at all. Then, to have those statements made, like the genius who trains Williams, claiming that Kelly was faking.

“When I hear that, I feel so embarrassed for the sport. I’m 78 and I’ve put my whole life into this sport. To hear morons like that talk when they have no basis for what they are saying really makes me sad.’’

It’s the whispers from here there and who-knows-where that have turned up the urgency for Pavlik’s first bout since February, Only with an impressive return can Pavlik silence them, chase them into some other corner.

“If there are critics now, there are going to be a lot more if I don’t dominate,’’ Pavlik said. “…The main thing through all this is I’ve got to go out there and keep winning. That solves it.’’

It’s a philosophy that has been working before and after Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis summed up by saying :

”Just win, baby.’’

Just win, Kelly.

The biggest question, perhaps, is not Espino so much as that left hand. In the gym, Pavlik, who will defend his WBC and WBO middleweight titles in a pay-per-view bout produced by Top Rank, says it feels strong. But concern about another episode will be there simply because of the prior trouble, which made for such a difficult year. A victory over Espino appears to be more predictable than the condition of the hand after the glove comes off.

“The only thing with the hand right now is I can’t bend it the whole way, but I would say it is at 100%,’ Pavlik said on Dec. 10.

Pavlik said the hand didn’t bother him through 10 and eight rounds of sparring against different partners.

“The hand is fine,’’ he said “At first, we were wearing 18-ounce gloves just to make sure it would be safe and the last couple of times went down to the regular size. The hand is feeling good, there is no pain.’’

Good enough, hopefully, to send the derelicts scattering for cover in some other shadow.

NOTES, QUOTES, ANECDOTES

· Tiger Woods might be headed to Phoenix for the same reason Mike Tyson first arrived in the Arizona city. According to reports Thursday, a widening sex scandal will force Woods to undergo rehab in a Phoenix suburb for sex-addiction. Tyson moved to Phoenix in 1998, also for counseling from a specialist in sex addiction.

· Manny Pacquiao got a lucky 13 on his 31st birthday this week. He was No. 13 on Time’s list of people who mattered the most in 2009. In the variety of lists, he was the second athlete mentioned by the magazine, which made Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke its Person of the Year. World-record sprinter Usian Bolt was listed the fourth runner-up to Bernanke. New York Yankees third-baseman Alex Rodriguez was No. 16 and Woods No. 23 among those who matter, which apparently is a list that doesn’t matter to Sports Illustrated. Instead of Pacquiao or Bolt, SI picked Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter of the Yankees as its Sportsman of the Year.

· And despite a tough year of reading garbage on the internet, Pavlik can still laugh. He was known for some old school training, which included a sledge hammer and tires. He trained for Espino in Las Vegas, where he apparently learned something new in the surrounding hills. “I actually climb mountains backwards now,’’ he said.

Photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank