Fight Hype may have jumped the gun. The fight is one of four possibilities. http://www.vindy.com/news/2010/jan/16/pavlik-martinez-fight-april-not-so-fast/
Given the way Arum has worked in the past expect it to be "one other that hasn't been named yet" and "Paul Williams, who was scheduled to fight Pavlik on Dec. 5, does not appear to be among the finalists" might actually make me lean that way.
That 4th, un-named, option is; Paul Williams, Lucian Bute, Robert Stieglitz, Or, David Lopez. That's how I see it.
Good to see Martinez has been given a chance to avenge his last two robberies. He may need to win 10 rounds to 2 to get a decisio in the States though. Guy should have had Cintron and at least a PW draw on his resume by now.
Yeah. The old "You need a KO to get a draw" joke is no longer a joke. :-( He won't avenge his robberies though. He will be taking a nap most likely.
I am really not a big fan of Pavlik vs Martinez for the reason that the 160 champ is continuing to fight 154 guys. Sergio is tough and I respect him for wanting this fight after Williams. I know Kelly is trying to corner Williams into a fight but I have a better way of going about it. Pavlik needs to fight Sturm, Sylvester, Zbik and any other of the MW title holders. If he becomes the Undisputed MW champion he will recieve the bigger money fights and would have the "Pull" to get the bigger split against whomever. Then Paul Williams will have no ground to stand on trying to get the 50/50 split. It may take a year or two to unify the division but in that time Paul Williams will probably be exclusively a 160 pounder. Kelly had a really bad year personally and took a hit with the fans, his shot to regain championship status is to clean out his own division and regain that credibility. That's just my opinion.