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Neven Pajkic, The Canadian Heavyweight Championship and a History of Violence

By Mike Schmidt- Freelance

It would be an understatement to say that Canadian Heavyweight Champion Neven Pajkic is one of the more interesting characters in the world of heavyweight boxing. The Serbian, who stands six feet four inches and weighs in at a natural two hundred forty pounds is an imposing figure. Don’t let the dry sense of humor fool you. The eyes say a lot and in Pajkics case they remind you of Roberto Duran. There is some mischievous look in those eyes mixed with a threat of fearless violence, whether getting or giving. Not the kind of chap you would want to bump into on a dark night in an alley as my dear old dad used to like to say. Aside from boxing Pajkic has built up a nice filmography resume in a short period of time including rolls as “Mercenary # 6” in “Death Warrior” and “Richies Thug” in “A History of Violence.” Next week at Casino Rama, in Ontario, Canada, he will apply his own legal brand of a history of violence and rest assured it will not remotely look like the film version of “Richies Thug” getting dropped for the permanent count, so to speak, by famous actor Viggo Mortensen

 Pajkic will have a rematch with former Champion Greg Kielsa next week. It is almost guaranteed that Pajkic will apply his own brand of mayhem by hitting Kielsa on the arms, shoulders, ribs, south of the Rio Grande, by accident of course, and any other bodily part legally available. It is what he did the first time in a timely and repetitive fashion to earn a lopsided decision and no doubt it is how he will apply his trade again this time. Crude from appearances, but very affective. The real question is how Kielsa will respond because last time the response was not pretty by any measure. A small nugget of self-doubt in a fighter is a tough thing to extract once it starts. In Kielsa’s case he looked very tentative the first fight. Rumor has it that a rematch was a condition of the first fight although I have not seen the first fight contract. If it was then Kielsa’s odyssey of self- doubt may have started before the first bell rang. It is hardly a glowing endorsement , in a fighters mind, that a rematch clause is endorsed.
The acclaimed Pulitzer Prize winning author, Norman Mailer, in “King of the Hill,” (April 1971, Signet Classics, p. 23) once wrote of a certain type of fighter and Pajkic fits that mold:”There are fighters who are men’s men”. Rocky Marciano was one of them. Oscar Bonavena and Jerry Quarry and George Chuvalo and Gene Fullmer and Carmen Basilio, to name a few, have faces which would give a Marine sergeant pause in a bar fight…They work on clumsy skills to hone them finer, knowing if they can obtain parity, blow for blow with any opponent, they will win. They have more guts.” Pajkic is off to a faster start than former Canadian Heavy Champs George Chuvalo, Razor Ruddock, and Kenny Lakusta, in terms of being undefeated. My little spies at world famous Cabbagetown Gym tell me the young man is working extremely hard and his skill set is improving. Besides, as my wife stated, “He is drop dead gorgeous, and he can fight too!”

This past week I met with a few boxing people at Zorro’s Steakhouse, a mainstay just North of Toronto Airport. On any given day at Zorro’s, the parking lot is lined with BMW’s, Porsche’s, Mercedes and the opposite price scale of transportation. Pajkic’s name came up during our conversations. Perhaps it is fitting that it did. Aside from serving some of the best steak in town, Zorro’s is a place where you will find, on some days more than others a who’s who of dreamers and schemers that would fit the best of any Bruce Springsteen song. It is not uncommon for lunch to carry over across the street where a conveniently placed Strip Club is located.                                                 
Here is the nub of it as Neven Pajkic goes and as my cohorts implored me to explain: Neven Pajkic is a well spoken man, with a degree of charisma, undefeated, and no doubt like countless others is dreaming and scheming his own version of Heavyweight happiness in his mind. Two weeks ago I stood in a bar/restaurant called Graziano’s near Syracuse for the International Boxing Hall of Fame Inductee Weekend. Graziano’s is a wall to wall photo shoot of boxing over the past seventy years and is a story for another day. Tommy Morrison was there, Riddick Bowe was there. Shannon Briggs was not there but should have been. They are all talking comebacks. Aside from monetary matters, which is none of my damned business, they all are singing the same story and the lyrics are “the field is wide open after the Klitschko’s.” Well, indeed, the field is wide open ladies and gents and as the old carny says at those small Carnivals that do pit stops in small Ontario towns this time of year, ”Step right up, step right up, roll the dice.”                             

The reaction of course to my comments was the usual chuckles and hand smacking until one of the more astute boxing chaps from the United States, perhaps feeling sorry for old Schmidty (and no doubt realizing that I was footing the bill for this lovely lunch and needed to be kept a little happy) and pulling out information that only he could have, started connecting a few dots for boxing dreamers and schemers. One look no further than our own Canadian Heavyweight kingdom to connect those dots . Last year Greg Kielsa knocked out Arthur Cook, a talented fighter back in the day who unfortunately has let himself balloon up in weight.  In turn, this would be the same Arthur Cook that some nine years ago put an end to the winning streak of one Albert Sosnoski. This, in turn would be the same Albert Sosnoski that fought Vitali Klitschko for the WBC World Heavyweight Championship last month. 

For the moment of course, standing in Pajkic’s way is a similar built six foot four, two hundred forty pound “Steel Pole”, Greg Kielsa. The first fight was a war, albeit a one sided affair. The second no doubt will be more of the same and we will see if the ex-champ responds differently. If Pajkic wins, it will take time, creativity, luck, and of course money to ply his way through the world of boxing. In turn it will also take Pajkic to respond to proper advice and advisors.  Boxing is a business like no other. The rules are that there are no rules. Count your dog, and your wife if you happen to be happily married, and not necessarily in that order by any means, as your best and only trusted boxing business advisors. The dog because he will agree to every ridiculous idea you tell him, and your wife because, as a non boxing fan and keen valuator of matrimonial assets, will review in a hawk like fashion every business move you make. Some forty- four years ago George Chuvalo received a call asking if he would like to fight Ali in Toronto Maple Leaf Gardens on a few weeks notice. Chuvalo, after humorously responding that he had to check with his wife because he thought they might be going out dancing that night…” well, the rest is history isn’t it. The winner of next weeks fight, coupled hopefully with a small string of follow up victories, strange as it may seem, may somewhere sooner than later be checking to see if they are going out dancing on a given night. So, “step right up and roll the dice.”

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