According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, world Middleweight champion, Kelly Pavlik will defend his crwon against Jr. Middleweight champion Sergio Martinez on April 17th in Atlantic City and will be televised by HBO.
“We’re waiting for Lou [DiBella, Martinez’s promoter] to send back the contract, which he said there are no problems with,” said Top Rank’s Bob Arum, Pavlik’s promoter. “Kelly is on board and we’re planning a press conference in New York, but HBO wanted us to hold off until after the Olympics. But the fight is agreed to. We’re good on our side and Lou tells me it’s good to go on his side. We’re putting off the press conference strictly because of the Olympics.”
“It’s a great Atlantic City fight, especially with Williams-Martinez having just taken place there and Pavlik being the most proven attraction there in the post-[Arturo] Gatti era,” DiBella said.
“It’s a terrific fight and I think Kelly is going to win, but we know this is a very tough fight,” Said Bob Arumn who promotes Pavlik.”But I think that Kelly has the firepower to come through and win the fight.” Pavlik, who is 6-foot-2, is the naturally bigger and stronger fighter compared to the 5-11 Martinez, 34, who is a southpaw and faster.
“Sergio Martinez is the best 154-pound fighter in the world, but he simply could not turn down an opportunity to take on the true middleweight champion of the world,” DiBella said. “While size is not his advantage, speed is, and sometimes David slays Goliath. We had to bite the bullet a little bit, but it’s a great opportunity even though it is above the weight where Sergio prefers to fight. But he didn’t do so badly at middleweight against Williams did he? We all know that a lot of people thought Sergio won that fight. At some point, he’d like to move down and fight in his own weight class, but this is a big opportunity for him.”
“There are no substantive issues on the paperwork between me and Arum,” DiBella said. “The only issue that exists is that Kelly has had some health issues and I want to know that if Sergio trains for the fight and Kelly is forced to pull out for some reason that Sergio would able to fight another opponent we agree on in Montreal on the Bute undercard.
“If something happens and Kelly’s staph infection comes back or he has another problem with his hand, we want to be able to fight somebody else on that date. My guy can’t have another long layoff. But there is no issue about anything between me and Bob. I just need to get this worked out with HBO, but I don’t think it is going to be an issue.”
Pavlik, 36-1 with thirty-two knockouts and Martinez will compete in a bout for which HBO will be televising another fight from Montreal featuring IBF Super Middleweight champion Lucian Bute defending against Edison Miranda.
These two bout could be the groundwork for a possible Bute-Pavlik fight later in 2010 should both champions retain their titles.
Photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank