By Mark Vester
If all goes as planned against Bernard Hopkins on October 18, WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik will target Joe Calzaghe, who recently made it known that he will continue his career [beyond the September 20th bout with Roy Jones Jr.] to pursue a possible fight with Pavlik.
“If I beat Jones, I might move back down to super middleweight to face Kelly Pavlik. I still feel young," Calzaghe told Ron Lewis. "It all depends on how I perform against Jones. There's a good possibility I may fight on. I need fights that motivate me. Kessler motivated me, Hopkins motivated me, Jones motivates me. And Kelly Pavlik has been hanging around.”
Promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank told Dan Rafael that Pavlik was not too happy with the reality of facing Hopkins, a fighter who can make you look bad - even if you win. Pavlik-Hopkins would take place on HBO pay-per-view from the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. Arum says the catch-weight of 170 will prepare him for Calzaghe.
"Kelly isn't thrilled with the fight, but one of the incentives he has is that if he's going to fight Calzaghe after Calzaghe fights Roy Jones, it will be 168-pounds anyway. So it gets him ready for that fight," Arum said.
The odd man out in this whole situation is unbeaten IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham, who crushed Edison Miranda a few weeks ago at the catch-weight of 166-pounds. Abraham was slated to meet Pavlik in early 2009, but with a possibility of a Calzaghe fight in play, it's not likely that Pavlik will jeopardize a multi-million dolllar payday by taking on an opponent as dangerous as Abraham.
If Calzaghe were to lose on September 20, Pavlik would probably target Jones [if Pavlik beats Hopkins]. The best thing that can happen for Abraham is for Hopkins to beat Pavlik. With Pavlik taking a loss, it's logical that he would move back down to middleweight to continue defending his titles, and Abraham would be waiting in the wings.
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