By Mark Vester

If people were salivating to see a unification bout between WBO/WBC champion Kelly Pavlik and IBF champ Arthur Abraham - they may have to salivate for a while longer. Pavlik's next ring appearance is probably not going to be against Abraham or WBA champion Felix Sturm. The most unlikely of opponents, undefeated John Duddy, may get the Pavlik title shot.

Pavlik is scheduled to fight Marco Antonio Rubio on February 21 in Ohio. Pavlik-Rubio is viewed as a mismatch, but I would probably pick Rubio to beat Duddy. That should tell you something about Duddy's chances with Pavlik. Rubio has fought and beaten better competition than Duddy. Both are easy to hit. Both are easy to cut. But Rubio has the edge in the power department and he is certainly the more durable of the two. Duddy himself was planning for a run at junior middleweight because of his struggles at middleweight.

Pavlik's promoter, Top Rank's Bob Arum, admits that matching Pavlik against Abraham or Sturm would be the best fights out there in terms of skill, but not the best fights in terms of money. Arum says the money involved in making Pavlik-Abraham or Pavlik-Sturm would cost too much to be held on regular cable, and both German-based fighters are way too unknown, to American fans, for the fights to be held on pay-per-view.

He views Duddy as the more lucrative option due to his ability to sell tickets in New York. Duddy is scheduled to fight Matt Vanda on Feb. 21 on the Cotto-Jennings undercard at Madison Square Garden. Both Duddy-Vanda and Pavlik-Rubio will be televised as part of Top Rank's split-feed pay-per-view.

“There is a difference between the best fight and the biggest fight. The biggest fight is financial and the best fight is ... what boxing people would regard as the best fight. That clearly seems to me to be Abraham. But financially, nobody knows who Abraham is in this country. And it’s very, very hard turning it into the biggest fight,” Arum said to The Vindicator. “I’ve talked to both German promoters. I am confident at some time we’ll be able to do those fights.”

“You have to feed two thoroughbreds and sometimes you can only feed them with one pail. It is a problem, but it’s not an insurmountable problem. Duddy is certainly a big name. That could be a monster fight either in Cleveland or Madison Square Garden. It might not appeal to you as the best fight out there — Abraham probably would — but it’s probably bigger than the Abraham fight.”

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