Kelly Pavlik's trainer: 'I ain't going to be the scapegoat'

The trainer of Kelly Pavlik, reacting to comments by manager Cameron Dunkin, told RingTV.com that he refuses to be "the scapegoat" in the wake of Pavlik's decision to pull out of last Saturday's fight with Darryl Cunningham.

Dunkin cited Pavlik as the source in implying that Loew misinformed the fighter about the amount of his purse and other details about the card, which was to take place in Pavlik's homwtown of Youngstown, Ohio, on Showtime.

Pavlik said he was upset with the the $50,000 he was to be paid for facing Cunningham, as well as the $1.35 million minimum he was to receive from Top Rank for a November meeting with IBF super middleweight beltholder Lucian Bute.

Pavlik said he believed that Mikkel Kessler had turned down a larger offer to face Bute.

Loew said at the time of an interview with RingTV.com Tuesday morning that he had not yet spoken to Pavlik, who had just returned from a vacation with friends in Kentucky. Meanwhile, Loew has been busy training light heavyweight Dannie Williams for a fight on Friday.

"What they said happened was totally untrue," said Loew. "The truth is that I did not feed Kelly Pavlik the wrong information as Cameron Dunkin says that I did or Kelly says that I did."

Below are segments of Dunkin's interview, followed by Loew's direct responses.

Dunkin on the contradicting perspectives between himself and Pavlik:

"He goes, 'I'm only getting $40,000?' And I go, 'No, Kelly, you're getting $50,000. Who told you $40,000?' And he said, 'Jack [Loew.]' So I said, 'That's not true.' And then Kelly goes, 'It's $50,000?' I said, 'Yeah, it's $50,000.'

"But then he goes, 'Well, still, I'm paying all of the expenses and then I'm only getting half of the profits.' Then I said, 'No, Kelly, you're getting all of the profits. Who told you that you're splitting the profits?' And he goes, 'Jack.'

"I said, 'That's not true. You're getting all of the profits after all expenses are paid.' I told him, 'You're getting 50 grand, Top Rank will pay all of the expenses and everything, and then you keep whatever is left over as
profit.'

"He goes, 'Oh, I didn't know that.' So I said, 'OK.' So I said, 'What else?' And he said, 'Well, you know, I'm not getting paid fairly. This is unfair.' So I just told him to explain what his thoughts were."

Loew's response:

"The $40,000 a month ago, when this came up, that's exactly right. That's exactly what Kelly and I thought that we were making. And then, probably a week after that -- so at least three weeks ago -- I talked to [Top Rank officiasl] Carl Moretti. And Carl Moretti told me, 'No, Jack, it's $50,000, and he's taking all of the television money, and we're giving it to Kelly.'

"Never did I say that we were getting half of the promotional money after they broke even. Carl specifically told me, and I specifically told Kelly, I said, 'Hey, Kell, the way that we make extra money or that the way that you make money is that after Top Rank breaks even, you get everything that's left after that.'

"Kelly's response was, 'That's great, we'll put it back into our promotional company.' So he knew that we were getting the whole pie after they broke even. So Kelly knew two weeks before the show that we were getting the whole pie after they broke even.

"But I saw what they had said, and I just wanted to make it clear. If this is what Kelly said, then he's lying, and he lied to Cameron Dunkin. Either Kelly lied to Cameron Dunkin, or Cameron Dunkin's lying about what Kelly told him. One of those scenarios happened. Now what I said is exactly how every scenario played out. I just saw that and I said, 'Somebody's lying here, and it's either Kelly or Cameron.'"

Dunkin on his view that Loew negatively impacted Pavlik's thinking:

"Kelly brought up Carney Bowman, a 16-0 featherweight who I co-manage and who is out of York, Pa. I didn't know that Jack Loew had a problem with Carney Bowman until Kelly told me. But the kid's fighting a six-round fight and I owed him a fight.

"Top Rank was like, 'He's not far away, he can drive in 400 miles one way to be on the show, so it's not costing anything. He also brings fans.' Kelly said that he was told by Jack that he was getting $6,000 for a six-round fight.

"So Kelly said, 'I'm only getting $40,000 for the main event, so I'm only making $34,000 more than him. This is my my whole show. I said, 'Kelly, first of all, who told you Bowman is getting $6,000?' And he said, 'Jack did.' So I said, 'That's not true.'

"I said, 'Kelly, he's getting $2,500, and he's driving in. So they're paying for their own gas to get on the show and he'll bring some people with him from York.

"So I told him that they're coming for free, and he's fighting a solid guy in a real fight. I said, 'Kelly, that doesn't hurt you.' So he said, 'No, you're right, and I'm sorry.'"

Loew's response:

"As far as Carney Bowman? Never, ever did I say that Carney Bowman was making $7,000 [Dunkin said $6,000] and we don't want him on the show. First of all, I like Carney Bowman. I'm the one who was very high on Carney Bowman back when Cameron signed Kelly Pavlik and everybody else.

"I used to rave about Carney Bowman. But you know what my problem was? My problem was they told us that we were going to handle the entire under card. My feeling was and my thinking was, along with Kelly's, was that we were going to put a lot of local kids on the card to put asses in the seats.

"Carney Bowman is 400 miles away or four hours away or whatever it is, and I can't see him bringing in a whole lot of people. I had the contracts at home for that bout because my son was matching the show. Carney Bowman's contract said, $3,000, and his opponent's said $4,000.

"I told Kelly that I thought that it was crazy to have a kid from York, Pa., fighting in a $7,000 bout that we really don't need on the under card if we're trying to make money. It had nothing to do with Carney Bowman, personally, and I never once said that Carney Bowman was making $6,000."

Dunkin on Pavlik's subsequent remarks targeting him and Top Rank:

"The next day, all of a sudden, there were two negative remarks from Kelly in the newspapers about how our relationship was strained and that he didn't know what he was making. That bothered me.

"Where he said that our relationship had been bad for a while really bothered me. So I called up Kelly, and he was very nice. I said, 'Do you have a problem with me, Kelly?' And he said, 'No, not at all, why?'

"I said, 'Well Kelly, I've been getting calls and text messages that there was an article in the newspaper where Jack Loew was saying that you and I have a bad and strained relationship and that we have for some time.'

"He said, 'Absolutely not. Cameron, that's not true. I've never said anything bad about you at all. Whatever you want me to do, Cameron, I'll fix it. I've never said anything bad about you.'

"So the next day in the newspaper, Kelly was quoted as saying that he never said that there was a problem and that he never said any of those things. He said there was a miscommunication."


Loew's response:

"First of all, those comments were made by Kelly in our local paper and on some Web sites, and I was responding to a question that was asked by one of the reporters. Kelly was quoted as saying that 'I'm not happy and having been happy with his manager Cameron Dunkin and Top Rank.'

"Those were Kelly's words. I was simply responding when the reporter asked me, 'What about the quotes that Kelly said about Top Rank and Cameron Dunkin?' You can ask anybody in the camp. Kelly has not been happy with Top Rank and Cameron Dunkin the past few weeks.

"There was no communication and Kelly had ill feelings toward Cameron. I didn't bring that up, those were Kelly's words to a reporter who ask me to respond to them. I never said that Kelly has a problem with Top Rank and Cameron Dunkin.

"I was just responding to what Kelly had said. All that I said was, 'From listening to Kelly in camp, he's upset with Cameron Dunkiin right now.'"

Loew on the purse discrepancy:

"As far as the money for the Bute fight, I found out about it that Wednesday evening a week before the fight after talking to Carl Moretti. Carl Moretti told me that Kelly was making $1.35 million or that that was going to be the offer, and $25,000 for training expenses.

"That next day on Thursday, the week before the fight, is when I told Kelly about that. I told Kelly what he was making or what Carl Moretti said was the final offer that we were going to be making for the Bute fight. Up until that point, Cameron Dunkin had told Kelly that it was $1.1 million.

"But Cameron also said, 'Kell, I'm going to try to get you more money, but I'm going to see how the negotiations go. But in all reality, the purse was $1.35 the whole fricking time.

"So all that Cameron was trying to do was to make himself look like he was going to try to get Kelly some extra money. But it was $1.35 million the whole f-----g time and it wasn't the $1.1 million."

Loew on why he chose to respond:

"You know, I've kept my mouth shut for a long time, and I'm not taking the blame for anything. So you ask questions, and you will get the truth from me from here on out. I ain't going to be the scapegoat for any of this f------g s--t going on in Team Pavlik no more.

"I have no reason to say anything other than the truth about this and how it happened. Either Kelly didn't tell Cameron the truth, or Cameron just did not say what Kelly said. Because none of what they said is true. None of it. Somebody's lying."