PAVLIK vs. ABRAHAM pushed back yet again, most likely off

Good news is that the Marquez fight is getting rescheduled possibly for November 8 (yep, that early), that means AA will stay at 160.

Trainer Ulli Wegner said: "There is no way he can make a mandatory title defense in his current state. It is a pity but there is nothing we can do. I am very sorry for the fans. We'll try to get Arthur healthy again as soon as possible and will prepare him for the fight on November 8." :happy

 

Abraham is backing Pavlik to win!

Undefeated IBF middleweight champion King Arthur Abraham is backing Kelly Pavlik to take care of business against Bernard Hopkins on Saturday night. "I have a lot of respect for both fighters," King Arthur said. "Normally I´d say the better man should win but in this case I am supporting Pavlik for a simple reason. I want to be the first man to defeat him. I want to fight him as soon as possible to unify the titles. I will even come to his home city to prove that I am the world´s best middleweight boxer!"

However, King Arthur said he will take one step at a time. "I have a tough fight coming up against Raul Marquez. My full focus is on November 8. Marquez is a very experienced and strong fighter and I need to be at the top of my game to defeat him. Once I have beaten him, my management can focus on the showdown with Pavlik."

After promising negotiations a couple of months ago, Sauerland Event have not heard back from Top Rank, Pavlik´s promoters, in a long time. "Ever since King Arthur´s spectacular KO victory over Edison Miranda we have not heard from them," Wilfried Sauerland said. "We had already reached common ground on key questions like the date, January 24, as well as the purses but all of a sudden Pavlik seems to be shifting his attention to other fighters in a different weight limit. I wonder why that is? Maybe Pavlik is trying to avoid Arthur? Before moving up, Pavlik should really try to unify the titles in his division. If he was a true champion, he would fight Arthur."

Sauerland also revealed that Winky Wright showed no interest in taking on Abraham in Germany. "We have been negotiating with his camp and offered him to fight King Arthur in Germany," Sauerland said. "But his management turned it down."

 

Hopkins was simply stunning. There's so little to add, only excuse Pavlik can have that the fight was fought at 170. But! Hopkins always came in big at MW, the result would've been the same at 160.

As Lampley said, Pavlik's MW success came from being much bigger and stronger than other MWs. Kelly is bigger in size than Arthur but after yesterday, and the Abe-Miranda fight, I can say: Abraham is the physically stronger guy. No doubt! Arthur is not Hopkins with his tricks, excellent movement, angles, taking away jab etc., but a hell good counter-puncher, and for the many time, it looked like stunning blows simply confuses Pavlik.

I'm still not ready to vote for this one and won't let my recent emotions get in the way. It looks like this fight is pushed back to late 2009... Kelly can get a good win into the bag in the upcoming months... but Pavlik simply won't outwork and outpower King Arthur... he's not there to get abused and he possesses MUCH MUCH more power than Bernard Hopkins.

I hope Kelly gets back into the ring, wins vs. Rubio BIG and somethime in Summer 2009 he'll fight Abraham.

 

Quote from Arum on Pavlik's future:
"Let's go back to the drawing board, let's fight this Rubio, if he beats Rubio, he can fight Arthur Abraham, let's keep him at middleweight and let's see, you know, where it goes, and when he gets another year or so under his belt, then he can go back to 168."

HBO commentary crew, especially Lampley named Arthur several times during the fight, stating that Abraham might cause the same problems to Pavlik as Hopkins. Nothing happens without a reason on PPV television, King Arthur was named and praised beacuse HBO has it's plans with the Germany-based Armenian.

So it seems the fight is getting closer despite the Pavlik loss. The plan is to fight Rubio in February. I don't know, but HBO might make an offer to Sauerland for a double-header, Rubio was on the Pavlik-Hopkins card simply because the decision was already made: the mandatory coming up after Hopkins.

All Abraham has to do is to keep himself in shape and at a low weight in between fights. If everything is right and Pavlik will look good detroying Rubio (why wouldn't he?), then the fight can happen early Summer in 2009. Then Abraham can move up to 168.



What do you think? I say: it's still THE fight at MW that has to be made, and recent loss or not, it's still up there with the dream fights in boxing. Pavlik is still the MW champion, and now general public will DEMAND to prove it vs. the other best man, who's Arthur Abraham. I see HBO putting the pressure on Arum for this one. There's no one else out there.