Exclusive With KOTC Middleweight Champion Brandon Hunt

We caught up with Detroit Police officer and professional Mixed Martial Artist Brandon Hunt as he gets set to defend his King of The Cage Middleweight title this Saturday. Hunt talked to us about his time working with James Lee's Mash Fight Team, his aspirations as a KOTC Champion, as well as the significance of being a police officer fighting on September 11th. Hunt has been training for over a decade and has heavy hands, so if you want to see one of Michigan's own hold it down in the cage come see Brandon defend his belt this Saturday at the Royal Oak Music Theater.

The fight poster for KOTC "Civil War II" is after the jump.

FINALLY SERGIO MARTINEZ GET HIS DUE

Sergio Martinez W 12 Kelly Pavlik SCORES: 115-112, 115-111, 116-111

The fight was fought closely the whole way through with 3 distinct momentum changes. I scored the fight for Sergio Martinez 115-112. Sergio Martinez started the fight on his bike and won the first 4 rounds with fast counter-punches. Sergio cut the champ over the left eye with a sharp punch. Even though Sergio was winning you had a feeling that Kelly's size would cause him problems. You could tell if Kelly didn't change his game plan he was in for a long night. Then in the 5th Kelly stared to close the distance and score with his more effective jab. He adjusted to the speed and tightened up his defense to give the challenger problems. Kelly was making serious head room putting rounds in the bank. The lead right hand that Sergio was landing in the first 4 rounds wasn't finding home. He was landing the harder punches and in the 7TH round he knocked down the slick challenger. Even though Sergio was off balance it was a knockdown and would give Pavlik a 2 point round.After the 7TH round it looked like Pavlik was taking over the fight and would retain his belts. I had him winning rounds 5 through the 8. The big problem with the 8TH round for Pavlik was the fact that he was cut over his right eye now. This cut was more severe then the first, and he was bleeding like a stuck pig. This cut gave Martinez his second wind and motivated him to attack his much bigger opponent. Pavlik's corner could not stop the flow of blood from the right eye and he started the 9TH round already bleeding. His cut-man was working on the less severe cut on his left side instead of his right. The blood effected him, and Martinez targeted the cut to take back control of the fight. Sergio went on the win the final 4 rounds to win the fight on my scorecard. Kelly can't deal with speed and should move up to super middleweight. Sergio should look for the biggest fight and that would probably be a rematch with Paul Williams. This could be for the WBC, WBO, and the Ring middleweight titles he just took off of Pavlik. There is a rematch clause and you can bet Pavlik will try to get the next fight with him. Sergio is now the undisputed middleweight champion, and the best fighter at 154, with the WBC belt. It seemed like even though Pavlik fought well he still could't shake the demons of his past. A young fighter's career can be destroyed by beating like B-Hop gave him. I just hope he can recover enough to get some confidence back, and give us some good fights at super middleweight. Sergio on the other hand has the world in the palm of his hand. He has many options right now that he holds belts in 2 different weight classes. He can either defend his middleweight title against Paul Williams, or anyone who steps up. He can also defend his jr. middleweight title to big name fighter who want to step up from welterweight. Anyway you slice it he will have a big payday ahead of him.

FELIX STURM SIGNS A BIG DEAL

The WBA middleweight champ who is most known for his bad, rip-off decision loss to Oscar De La Hoya signed a huge 10 fight deal. Everyone who saw the fight thought that Felix easily outpointed Oscar but you know politics. Hopefully his problems with Universum wont interfere with his current 2 million Euro per fight for up to 10 fights with UFA Sports. I hope he can get a big fight with either Kelly Pavlik or some other big middleweight name. Don't sleep on him remember he has just beaten The Ring's number 4 and number 2 ranked middleweights, Khoren Gevor, and Sebastian Sylvester. He has the ability to outbox most of the guys in the top ten at middleweight, so lets hope he gets a chance.


Nick Thomas deathwish72@gmail.com

KELLY PAVLIK FIGHTING WITH THE MAN IN THE MIRROR

Kelly Pavlik is not only fighting Miguel Espino on Saturday night he is also fighting his own demons. Since the only loss of his career over more then a year ago to non other than Bernard Hopkins, he has only fought once. Everyone in the fight world was excited to hear that he was stepping up to fight the man that nobody else would fight, Paul Williams. He pulled out of the fight multiple times due to an alleged infection. I think he signed that fight knowing that he would not ever even step into the ring against Paul. After a fighter, especially an undefeated fighter, that thinks he is invincible loses like the way he did against Bernard Hopkins that fighter may never be the same. They start to doubt them selves because they know that they can lose, and that is just what Pavlik is doing. To me the whole sickness seems a little bit fishy and some questions need to be answered. 1. Why would you sign a fight when you know you have such a serious illness? 2. Why would you be calling for a fight with the same guy that you already wont fight after the fight was canceled. 3. And most importantly why would you be fighting only 14 days after the fight date of December 5Th? 1. He only signed to fight a great fighter like Paul Williams because he thought it would make him look good and people wouldn't question your illness. It back fired because everyone knew it smelled of b.s. 2. Kelly is realizing that people are questioning his pulling out of the fight so he thinks he needs to do some pr work to right the ship. If his illness was so severe he wouldn't be fighting only 14 days after the last date he was supposed to fight Paul. Saturday night can either be 1 of 2 things for Kelly Pavlik. It can be his road back to respect and prominence or it can be just another fight. He is fighting lesser competition Saturday maybe to rebuild his confidence in him self or maybe just because he is scared. I hope he can win and then step up against greater competition and return to prominence but I think B-Hop stole his heart.

Nick Thomas deathwish72@gmail.com

IS PAVLIK LOSING HIS EDGE?

Middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik seems to be living up to his nickname the Ghost of Youngstown since his one sided loss to Bernard "The Executioner' Hopkins. He backed out of a fight between him and and Sergio Mora. It also seemed he ducked undefeated middleweight contender Arthur Araham who now has to jump up in weight to get a good fight. His now signing a fight with Paul "The Punisher" Williams and then claiming injury. He sounds more like David Haye who backed out of two Klitschko fights then the Kelly Pavlik we all grew to love. There were rumors of bar fights and now on his myspace account he posted a flier for some party. This fight with Paul Williams win lose or draw would and still can be so big that it could propel him back to the top. If he lets this one slip away he is not only hurting himself he is hurting the sport that made him who he is today. Dan Goosen is rightly upset with the whole situation and wants "The Punisher" to fight someone else on that date now. Why in the hell would you sign a contract with a known injury? Maybe because he knows he is doubting himself and he knows he will lose. Maybe he is using his injury as an excuse? I know that one of his sticking points in the contract was a rematch clause and the only reason you would want that is because you think you can lose or don't think you would show enough in a loss to get a rematch. I f the fight is good enough and it generates enough excitement and money and the fighters want to fight then you don't need a rematch clause. I think he better not let this fight slip away or he is gambling with his reputation and more importantly his career.


Nick Thomas deathwish72@gmail.com