By Mark Vester
According to promoter Frank Warren, Gary Lockett (30-1, 21KOs) is very close to landing a shot at WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (33-0, 29KOs) on June 7, slated for the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. Lockett is the mandatory challenger to Pavlik's WBO title and Warren tells the BBC that he hopes to finalize a deal with Top Rank by next week. HBO will televise the fight.
"We're in negotiations and hopefully we can do a deal with Pavlik's camp pretty soon," Warren said.
Lockett, trained by Enzo Calzaghe (father/trainer of Joe Calzaghe), has not faced anyone close to Pavlik's level. He's scheduled to fight in a tuneup on the March 22 undercard to Gavin Rees' WBA junior welterweight title defense again Andreas Kotelnik at the Cardiff International Arena.
Send News Tips and Comments To Mark Vester @ boxingscene@hotmail.com