Why did Mexican boxer Marco Antonio Rubio opt for retirement?”
Kelly Pavlik answered his doubters and retained his WBC and WBO middleweight titles by forcing a retirement by Mexican Marco Antonio Rubio on Saturday. The American, fighting in front of his hometown crowd, dominated Rubio from the start, responding to those who questioned whether he should be regarded as the world’s top middleweight after being dominated by Bernard Hopkins in a non-title bout last October, suffering his first professional loss. “There’s no place like home,” the 26-year-old Pavlik said. “There was a lot of pressure on me for this fight but it’s great to bounce back in my hometown.” Rubio rallied in the sixth round, landing two left hooks and standing toe-to-toe with Pavlik as it came to an end. But Pavlik shook him again with a big right hand near the end of the eighth round and boxed him into a corner early in the ninth. Rubio’s team decided it had seen enough, telling referee Frank Garza to stop the carnage with their fighter sitting on his stool. “I feel great. I pu
