Comments Thread For: Dmitry Pirog To Target Kelly Pavlik After Mitchell

[giacomino]

Pirog's last fight put him into the eliminator with Macklin, but Macklin's injury put Pirog into the mandatory. Pavlik hasn't had to face a WBO mandatory since Lockett in 2008. There should be one every year.

But I bet there will be no Pirog-Pavlik fight. HBO's Ross Greenburg doesn't like having good Eastern European fighters on, although because there are so many of them he has to from time to time. He refused to show Williams-Dzinziruk, Adamek-Johnson, Adamek-Cunningham, Wlad-Chambers, Wlad-Chagaev, Vitali-Peter, Vitali-Gomez, etc.

You're right Tunney, they should force Pavlik to make a mandatory, although the WBO has a history of ignoring mandatories. The WBO allowed Erdei to keep his title for several years without making a mandatory or even defending against a legit contender.
Shame HBO won't show more Eastern European fighters. If they are best, HBO is foolish to not show them. Maybe somebody like Golovkin will grow into a dominant champion and they'll have no choice