By Robert Morales
Dan Goossen on Tuesday was not a happy camper. A day earlier it was announced that middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik had a reoccurrence of an injury in his left hand that caused him to postpone his Oct. 3 middleweight title fight with Paul Williams, who is promoted by Goossen.
One of the dates mentioned for a possible re-scheduling of the fight is Nov. 21. Another is Dec. 5. Either way, it doesn't appear this fight will take place on either date. When asked if Williams would wait around for a fight past October, Goossen was emphatic in his reply.
"No," he said to BoxingScene.com. "I want Paul Williams to fight first and foremost in October. His last fight was April 11 and I think it's imperative that we put him back into the ring. We have never had any problem fighting Kelly Pavlik. We don't have a problem in the future fighting Kelly Pavlik.
"But we certainly want to make sure the erratic behavior he (Pavlik) has had the past 6 to 12 months isn't an overall (indicator) of what's happening. In other words, it doesn't make sense moving forward with a fight that is never going to happen."
Goossen also said he wasn't thrilled that Top Rank Inc., which promotes Pavlik, began discussing alternative dates with the media without first discussing them with him.
So, Goossen was asked, what now?
"I don't know," Goossen said. "Those are the things that I'm working on currently with Paul and his managers. We're going to have something relevant as to a direction we're going in shortly. In the interim, Kelly Pavlik seems to have some problems that certainly need more than a press release to resolve."
