By Mark Vester
Thousands of boxing fans participated with the latest poll on BoxingScene.com. The poll took a survey, asking the boxing public who they would like to see Kelly Pavlik fight next. Among the choices were Bernard Hopkins, Roy Jones Jr., Arthur Abraham, Paul Williams and Winky Wright.
Hopkins is scheduled to face Pavlik on October 18 at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, but he was far away from the popular vote among the people. It was no surprise to see Abraham run away with the vote, coming in first place with a solid 41.6% of the overall tally. Wright managed to come in second place with 17.6% of the vote, which was still less than half of what Abraham received.
The third place spot went to Roy Jones Jr., scheduled to face Joe Calzaghe on November 8 in Las Vegas. Jones managed to grab 16.2% of the count. WBO welterweight champion Paul Williams, who came close to being the opponent for Pavlik, came in fourth with 13.2%.
The last position on the poll went to Pavlik's current opponent, Hopkins, who only managed to get 11.1% of the overall count. The last place positioning of Hopkins would send a clear message that boxing fans are not thrilled with Pavlik's next fight.
Joe Calzaghe, another viable opponent, was omitted from the poll after he turned down a fight with Pavlik in order to fight Roy Jones. Calzaghe's absence is irrelevant. If he was included, there would have been five names positioned ahead of Hopkins instead of four.
Pavlik is not the person to blame for the selection of Hopkins. Calzaghe turned him down. Jones accepted Calzaghe. HBO would not put out enough money to make a Williams fight happen. Abraham defends against Raul Marquez on October 4 and Golden Boy pushed Hopkins ahead of Winky Wright during their negotiations with Pavlik's promoter, Top Rank. In the end, Hopkins was the only road for Pavlik to take.
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