YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — Former middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik has withdrawn from Saturday’s bout against Darryl Cunningham.
Promoter Top Rank said Tuesday that the fight in Pavlik’s hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, had been canceled.
Pavlik returned to the ring after a nearly 13-month layoff to beat Alfonso Lopez by majority decision in May. Before then, he hadn’t fought since April 17, 2010, when Argentina’s Sergio Martinez took away his two middleweight title belts in a bloody unanimous decision that ended Pavlik’s 212-year reign atop the division. Pavlik checked out of the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., in January after two months of treatment for alcoholism.
