
Arum on Pavlik's Camp Issues, Personal Problems, More
Kelly Pavlik’s promoter suspects the embattled former middleweight champion’s abrupt withdrawal from a tune-up fight against Darryl Cunningham had more to do with desire than money.
Kelly Pavlik: record, next fight and profile →

Kelly Pavlik’s promoter suspects the embattled former middleweight champion’s abrupt withdrawal from a tune-up fight against Darryl Cunningham had more to do with desire than money.

If there's anything worse than underpaying a fighter, it is directly questioning a fighter's desire to get in the ring.

Super middleweight contender Kelly Pavlik spoke to NBC affiliate WFMJ and told the outlet that his withdrawal from this Saturday's fight with Darryl Cunningham was a "business decision." Pavlik is not happy with money involved in his two fight deal, which involved the bout with Cunningham and a fall showdown with IBF champion Lucian Bute of Canada.

Super middleweight Daryl Cunningham was packing his clothing and ring attire for the trip from Detroit to Youngstown when he heard the news that Kelly Pavlik had pulled out of their ShoBox main event on Saturday night.

YOUNGSTOWN – Former World Middleweight Champion and current World Boxing Council (WBC) No. 1-rated super middleweight contender KELLY “The Ghost” PAVLIK’s professional boxing comeback took a wrong turn inasmuch as Pavlik withdrew from his upcoming 10-round bout against Darryl Cunningham today. The Pavlik-Cunningham bout was scheduled to take place on Saturday at the Covelli Centre in Youngstown, OH, and was to be televised live on SHOWTIME® as the main event of a special edition of ShoBox: The New Generation. Both the broadcast and the live event have been canceled. Ticketholders can get a refund by returning their tickets to the place of purchase.

Former middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (37-2, 32KOs) returns on Saturday against Darryl Cunningham (23-2, 10KOs) at the Covelli Center in Youngstown, Ohio. If Pavlik wins, he would travel up to Canada to face IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute. A win over Bute (29-0, 24KOs), considered one of the best pound for pound fighters in boxing, would be a major boost to Pavlik's career.

Kelly Pavlik isn’t intimidated by the probability of battling Lucian Bute later this year.

Kelly Pavlik expects he’ll first face another southpaw who has gained pound-for-pound recognition, but he also hopes to eventually land a Sergio Martinez rematch at 168 pounds.

Kelly Pavlik acknowledged on a conference call on Wednesday that he was involved in an altercation with his older brother earlier this month, but the former middleweight champion emphasized that the incident hasn’t hurt his focus for an Aug. 6 fight in his hometown.

Kelly Pavlik ran 4.8 miles on Thursday, 3.3 miles this morning in scorching hot Youngstown.