Fight Franchise

Unable to secure a meaningful opponent to wage a middleweight championship defense against in the fall, Kelly Pavlik will move up in weight and face former light heavyweight champion and middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told ESPN.com Thursday.

Arum said he and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer struck a deal Thursday for the nontitle fight, which will take place Oct. 18 on HBO PPV at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.

Pavlik, 26, will move up 10 pounds and face Hopkins at 170 pounds, five under the light heavyweight limit, Arum said.

"There's a deal, but there are a few details to be tied up," Arum said. "But the fight is happening."

Since Pavlik (34-0, 30 KOs), who was in Hawaii preparing for his wedding on Friday to the mother of his daughter, blew out Gary Lockett in three lopsided rounds in his first title defense at Boardwalk Hall on June 7, Arum has run through numerous potential opponents.

There were talks for a fight with Joe Calzaghe (which would have taken place at super middleweight), Marco Antonio Rubio, Randy Griffin, Sergio Mora, Paul Williams and Winky Wright. For various reasons, none panned out, leaving Arum to turn to the 43-year-old Hopkins (48-5-1, 32 KOs), who lost the light heavyweight title to Calzaghe on a split decision on April 19.

Arum and Schaefer had briefly discussed the fight a few weeks ago, but they couldn't come to terms. When the fight was revisited, they agreed to split the revenue 50-50, Arum said.

"This fight was not our first choice, but it was the only alternative we had to make a buck," Arum said. "We didn't have any place to go except a pay-per-view card. At least it will do halfway decent numbers. We turned it down once. It came back around and we accepted it."

Schaefer was traveling and unavailable for comment.

"Kelly isn't thrilled with the fight, but one of the incentives he has is that if he's going to fight Calzaghe after Calzaghe fights Roy Jones, it will be 168 pounds anyway. So it gets him ready for that fight."

Jack Loew, who has trained Pavlik since he began boxing as a kid, said he likes the matchup.

"Bernard is really a middleweight, he's not a light heavyweight," Loew said. "I think 170 pounds is fine for us. Bernard will be strong, but I know what we have to work on. I'm fine with Bernard Hopkins. I think it will be good fight. We're fighting a legend. He's experienced and he's an old veteran. He knows all the tricks and Bernard is a survivor. I think he's a great fighter and it will be an honor for us to fight him."


http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing ... id=3494448

What are people's thoughts on this and how it will go.

I personally would have like to see Pavlik against Joe, but with Calzaghe adamant about fighting RJJ thats out of the question, although Joe has now said he will defend his 168lb title so in the future this could happen.

Failing that I would have liked to see Pavlik/Abraham and after a short fight against Miranda, I see no reason Abraham couldn't have been ready on time.

If the Hopkins fight does come off I see Kelly winning as long as he sticks to his game plan and doesn't get tied up by all Hopkins hugging,grabbing and trying to kiss his opponents. I can even see a late KO, which will hopefully retire Hopkins

It sounds like an interesting matchup...I favor Pavlik. Hopkins is too old and worn to deal with Kelly's power. Seeing that Hopkins lost to Jermaine Taylor twice and Kelly beat Taylor up twice, that is probably good for Pavlik mentally. That being said, there is no way I'm going to pay to see the fight. Putting this fight on PPV is a joke.

I've always liked Bernard Hopkins but I've gotten to the point where I don't really care to see him fight anymore....his fight with Tarver was a good performance but then the Winky fight was awful and his performance against Calzaghe was almost as bad. I just wish he would retire. So if the fight happens, I think Pavlik will get a decision.

Nah man, I never want to see B-Hop fight again.. He just avoids 'fighting' for 12 rounds each time. Watching it is like having teeth pulled.

Coincidentally, I just heard that if Calzaghe beats Jones he wants Pavlik next. I knew he'd come up good I thought for a minute there Joe was scared of Ghosts He deserves to fight who he wants this time anyway after two back-to-back high profile bouts.

Nah I'm the same not interested in this , Pavlik has defended the middleweight titles against Lockett so they will probably not make him defend those for the rest of the year it's plain wrong chasing fights two weights up hello there are unification bouts in the middleweight division to sort out first.Hopkins and Klitschko are the most boring fighters in boxing

ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT ABOUT UNABLE TO FIND AN OPPONENT

i think this is a great move for pavlik he said he wants calzaghe we all saw what old man bernard done to him so a convincing beat would lead to a fight with calzaghe. Bernard can be a spoiler but i am sure if pavlik lands clean he will feel it unlike calzaghe he doesn't slap he has genuine power

really bad decision...b hop wont win any way he tries..he shouldve knocked joe out and retired

I'd like to see pavlik fight abrqham of course, or a fight with de la hoya would be interesting(hopefully pavlik would knock him out in his last fight)

Hopkins is a bore. I counted over 100 clinches in the Clazaghe fight and not a single point taken away.

pavlik should win an easy UD over hopkins and then hopefully move on to one of these middleweights in a unification or a against a contender.
Raul Marquez
A.Abraham
G.lorenzo
Marco A.Rubio
F.Sturm
all these would make for good fights with pavlik