By Mark Vester
WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik plans to put the heat on Bernard Hopkins on October 18 at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. Pavlik says Hopkins is not active enough and unlike Hopkins' bout with Calzaghe, Pavlik plans to batter the old veteran. Pavlik-Hopkins will take place at the catch-weight on 170-pounds and televised by HBO pay-per-view.
“Hopkins is a good fighter, but he’s got lots of flaws,” said Pavlik to The Vindicator. “He’s not active enough for me. Plus, I hit harder than Calzaghe, so he might get banged up a bit.”
When the news of Pavlik-Hopkins was first broken by Steve Kim on MaxBoxing.com and BoxingScene.com, a lot of fans were disappointed with the choice of opponent. Pavlik's promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, told the The Vindicator his reasons for the selection of opponent.
“When we looked and saw who was out there, we realized this was the best fight for Kelly both from a money standpoint and a notoriety standpoint,” said Arum. “Hopkins is a huge name in the middleweight division and a victory over Hopkins will put Kelly in good stead.”
Arum also confirmed what I reported late last night, if Pavlik gets by Hopkins and Joe Calzaghe beats Roy Jones Jr on September 20, Calzaghe-Pavlik will be the next target bout for early 2009. That means, and Arum touched on it, that IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham would have to wait in line before a unification bout with Pavlik is made.
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