Good news Kelly Pavlik fans!  Arthur Abraham and his group are coming to the states to meet with Top Rank and Kelly Pavlik’s management group to negotiate a potential fall bout between the two.  Details are still a bit sketchy, but both will have a must win tune-up fight before their potential meeting in The Big Apple. 

Kelly Pavlik wants to unify the middleweight championship belts and Abraham holds one of the two remaining pieces.  Abraham is recognized by the IBF as it’s middleweight champion.  The last remaining title belongs to Felix Sturm, who is the WBA champion.  Pavlik has said many times that it is his goal before moving up in weight to unify all of the belts and to be recognized as the best middleweight by all of the major boxing organizations.

Bob Arum, the voice of Top Rank Promotions, is quick to point out that nothing is set in stone yet but if both sides can agree that the fight will probably take place in New York City in either October or November.  Arum also said that the fight would be broadcast by HBO or Showtime.

Pavlik is expected to fight Sergio Mora, a former WBA champion, this summer in Atlantic City.  Abraham is also going to line up a summer fight with an opponent, possibly with Vernon Forrest.  Abraham defeated Lajuan Simon in a 12 round decision on March 14.

The two fighters share a common opponent, Edison Miranda.  Abraham fought Miranda last summer in Florida and won in the fourth round.  Pavlik stopped Miranda in 2007 on his way to Jermaine Taylor.  The Miranda fight was the only time Abraham has fought in The United States.  Conversely, going overseas has pretty much been ruled out by Team Pavlik.   Jack Loew, Pavlik’s trainer was quoted as saying, “the only way to win a fight over there is to have your opponent carried out on a stretcher“.  Loew has seen and heard too many times of controversial decisions favoring the foreign champions.  Location was the sticking point all along, but hopefully, New York will end up being the site for the potential matchup.

Abraham is 29-0 with 23 KO’s.  He is a respectable boxer and Pavlik acknowledges the dangers of facing him.  I don’t think there are too many marquee names on Abraham’s resume.  If I had a crystal ball and the ability to draw up a scenario, I would want Abraham to fight Felix Sturm first to eliminate the extra hurdle for Pavlik.  However, by fighting Abraham, a demand will be created to fight Sturm, if Pavlik is indeed victorious, to set up complete title unification.

I will be interviewing Jack Loew, Kelly Pavlik’s trainer in the next couple of weeks and there will be video footage of that interview right here on Paneech.com.