The road to redemption

Kelly Pavlik hopes to avoid this situation in his first match back on Saturday since losing to Bernard Hopkins.

In 2008, two of boxing's biggest stars had a first-time experience.

A loss.

Miguel Cotto and Kelly Pavlik were in almost every top-10 pound-for-pound rankings heading into their respective fights last year. Cotto took on the dangerous Antonio Margarito in July and Pavlik took on the legendary Bernard Hopkins in October.

Cotto looked like the best boxer in the world early on in his fight against the Tijuana Tornado, but eventually the power and pressure of Margarito was too much and Cotto's corner was forced to throw in the towel in the 11th round.

Three months later Kelly Pavlik took the squared circle against Hopkins. The undisputed middleweight champion was outclassed from the very beginning and could never get on track. His habit of trying to move straight back to avoid punches caught up to him as Hopkins kept finding a home for his counter right hooks.

Both fighters could claim legitimate excuses for their losses, but they didn't. After it was discovered Margarito loaded his gloves against Shane Mosley, many believed he very well could have loaded his gloves against Cotto. But Cotto would only say Margarito was the better man that night.

Pavlik had to move up in weight to fight Hopkins. He was visibly slower and more fatigued from moving up in weight, but Pavlik did not use that as an excuse.

Now the undisputed middleweight champion is back at his comfortable weight ready to get back on the winning track against a dangerous contender in Marco Antonio Rubio. Pavlik will be defending his titles in his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, which should give him an extra confidence boost after a crushing loss.

"The Ghost" felt some pressure from his promoter to switch up coaches and seek the services of Freddie Roach, but Pavlik stayed with the team that got him to the top. Saturday's fight against Rubio should be a telling sign of whether or not Pavlik's intangibles are good enough to make up for his slight lack of technique.

The two biggest criticisms of Pavlik in his last fight were that he would move straight back to avoid punches and get too close when throwing his jab. Pavlik's power and work rate should be enough to keep him on top of the middleweight division come Saturday.

Cotto, on the other hand, has a slightly easier road to the top. The former champion will take on Michael Jennings at Madison Square Garden. Jennings is a great story, but his boxing skill and the level of competition he has faced is far inferior to Cotto.

The Puerto Rican native should have no trouble reminding everyone that he is going to be the king of the welterweights once again, especially with Margarito suspended for one year.

Jennings does not have much power as evidenced by his 16 knockouts in 34 wins and Cotto tends to be much too fast for anyone to handle. The only way Cotto loses this fight is if he gets too distracted from all the talk about if he thinks Margarito cheated in his fight. This is almost a 100 percent win for Cotto.

It's not often two fights of this magnitude happen within the same month let alone the same night though. So even though Cotto should win, the Pavlik fight should still be competitive and boxing fans get to see two legitimate stars on the same night.

There has been a lot of unfair criticism to the fighters ever since they lost, especially Pavlik who has been written off as "good" instead of "great." I disagree with those experts and think Pavlik and Cotto will show why they are two of the best in the world when they start their road to redemption.