This fight is still not offical yet!:fire Heres a good interview with Kelly about it... Pavlik 99% Sure Its On! [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]July 16, 2007 [/FONT] by This content is protected photo by This content is protected This content is protected Kelly Pavlik is eagerly awaiting his shot at Jermain Taylors Middleweight title. It has been rumored that the fight is a go for September 29 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. FightNews caught up with Pavlik and asked him about the fight. Have you signed the contract to fight Jermain Taylor on September 29? No, not yet, and I dont think Taylor has either. I guess right now they (DiBella Entertainment, Taylors promoter) sent paperwork over to my promoter, Bob Arum, and I guess everything is about ready to be signed and done. Who is going to be the promoter for the event? I think its going to be shared between DiBella and Arum Why is the fight being held on the East Coast? I guess Caesars Palace at the Boardwalk put up a lot of money and it was the best offer that DiBella and Arum got. They also have to pay Jermain Taylor. He wants a **** load of money. That works out to my best interest though, fighting there. Are you worried about the fight being in New Jersey instead of in Vegas where the majority of your fights have taken place? No, Im actually glad its there. Its close to my hometown and about 2,500 people came to see me in my last fight in Tennessee and New Jersey is closer, so there should be a handful more people to support me, especially for a world title fight. I think well have a good amount of people from Youngstown there. Did they try to lowball you, so you wouldnt take the fight? The money part came out not in my best interest, but for me, this has been a shot that Ive been waiting for seven years and Im not going to sit there and cry about the money. Its still a good enough amount of money and my promoter and Cameron (Dunkin) are trying to work out more money, which is fair because believe it or not, Im a humble guy and dont really say too much. Right now its not Jermain Taylor thats the draw. People want to see me fight Jermain Taylor. If Taylor was fighting another junior middleweight, he wouldnt get any money either. People want to see me and him fight. I guarantee you that if me and Edison Miranda werent on the same card as Cory Spinks and Jermain Taylor, that venue wouldnt have been half as packed. I told Cameron that if the money is right for Taylor then Im not going to sit there and complain about the money. Im just glad to get my shot. Im glad he stepped up to the plate and is taking the fight. What is the split going to be? I dont know yet, I wanna say around 70/30. Any more than that would be kind of ridiculous, because its me whos bringing the people there, not him. But Im not going to ***** about that. Are you surprised that Jermain Taylor appears to be stepping up and taking the fight? To tell you the truth, Im not, for one reason. He backed himself into a corner. He took fights with welterweights and junior middleweights after Hopkins that he knew he could get away with. He was looking at Sergio Mora, guys like that. It was good news for me, because Im going to get a fight out of it. If he doesnt take the fight with me, he will be bombarded by the critics. If he goes up to super middleweight and loses, his career is pretty much done. Realistically, what are the chances the fight will be made on September 29? I am 99% sure the fight will happen, but now Im hearing a couple different things that they want the fight at this place, at this weight. Lou DiBella and Bob Arum want this fight to happen. Lou DiBella is a great promoter, dont get me wrong hes not my promoter, but hes carried Jermain Taylor and a lot of the other up-and-coming guys and he knows whats right for the sport. The unfortunate thing is hes not in total control of Jermain Taylors decisions, so we are just hoping that he can persuade Jermain into taking the fight and signing the contract. Jermain has already said hes moving up in weight after the fight. Its tough for you to make 160 pounds as well. What are your plans afterward? I want to win the title and stick around. I want to fight Felix Sturm for the WBA and Arthur Abraham for the IBF and then I want to go up to 168 where Joe Calzaghe will hopefully still be around. I want to take all the belts. Thats one thing you want to conquer in this sport. You want to fight the best, even though anything can happen. You can get hit with a phantom punch, you can get robbed, you can get *********, and if that happens you can always say that you fought the best. Thats what I want to do. Im looking to get those two middleweight fights in the next year and a half, no longer than that before I move up. How confident are you that you will be able to beat Jermain? Im very confident. Very, very, very, confident. I think that it might be one of the easier fights of my career. Hes already started to run his mouth. Same thing that Edison Miranda said, Jermain Taylors starting to say. Things like, no more Mr. Nice Guy. You know thats all a bunch of crap. Now hes starting to turn into the same bigmouth type of fighter that a lot of the other guys are in this sport. Its a shame that boxing comes to that. People are dying to see two humble guys go in and fight and are classy. But, he wants to run his mouth now and I love it! Miranda did that and look what happened to him, and now Jermain Taylor is saying the exact same things.
He is freakin' AWESOME! Have you seen his site??? http://www.teampavlik.com/ Check out his highlight vid's in the video section.
say what you want, but I really REALLY like this kid's demeanor! Classy, humble, and super confident! and a good jaw + great power in both hands to boot. Taylor is in for a nice beatdown! Pavlik TKO9
Romanians arent Slavs. Pavlik is a Slavik last name but as far as im concerened he is 100% American.He doesnt rep anything but Youngstown Ohio.
He also represents the kinda of fighter many others in the profession should strive to be... ((((((((((((shock: GO GHOST:shock: )))))))))))))
You guys act like Taylor is a bum... He is a great fighter He will outclass kelly you guys watch and see
Yeah, I think so. Taylor is too good technicaly and too smart for Pavlik. Ghost attacks all night long and forgets about his defence and is easy to hit (I know Taylor also hasn't good defence but better than Pavlik). Taylor is not Miranda and I doubt he wants to go for war with Pavlik. He will try to make it boxing match, not brawl and I think he might do it. His trainer will help him to do it. I pick Taylor by points. My opinion. Anyway I hope to see great fight :bbb
Pavlik will bring the best out of Taylor. That's what he needs, somebody to bring the fight to him. I like Pavlik, but he will lose by UD :bbb This could be fight of the year :thumbsup
Really, if Taylor actually listened to Steward, he'd be a better fight. If he doesn't listen when he fights Pavlik, he is going to be screwed. However, I too pick Taylor by a decision. I think he is more of a natural counterpuncher and not really an aggresor type fighter.