By Michael Campbell
Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas - On Saturday night, former middleweight king Kelly Pavlik (38-2, 33 KOs) returned to the ring to stop Aaron Jaco (15-3, 5 KOs) in two rounds. Pavlik dropped Jaco to a knee with a hard left in the first round, and then finished him off in the second with another hard left. The fight took place at a catch-weight of 170-pounds. Following the contest, Pavlik spoke to BoxingScene.com about the win over Jaco, the first camp with new trainer Robert Garcia, and more.
Thoughts on the fight - "I wanted to work on everything that I was working on. In the first round, I wanted to feel him out in the first few seconds, but I saw that he was trying to survive and trying to fire something off that. So my main thing was to stay behind the jab and something was going to come."
Fighting at 170 when a return to 160 was discussed - "There was no guarantee that I was going back to 160. We're going to take it fight by fight. "
How he felt in the ring - "It was a really good fight coming back. I would have liked to go a little longer, but you have to take a knockout when you can. Anything can happen when somebody has got two hands. As far as that, the snap on my punches, the speed and bounce in my step - everything felt great. I think we're back on track. The last fight against Alfonso Lopez was a start back and this fight here was a new start, because there was such a big break in-between. I felt good with the two fights."
Training with Robert Garcia - "It's really working out. It's just a different atmosphere. The training regimen and style really hasn't changed much, but we're working on things a lot more than I worked on before - for instance the left hand, the balance, the movement.......being calm and in there and fighting and not just loading up on the big right hand and looking for a knockout."
"Even after I hurt him in the first round with the left hook, I knew it was a matter of time and I didn't want to go and hop right on him, but I wasn't going to let him get away. In the second round I just threw the left out there. I wasn't even trying to knock him out. I think I just caught him at the right time.. With Garcia, this was the first camp so you can imagine the next camp and the camp after."
