According to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, Kelly Pavlik is scheduled to move up ten pounds in weight to face Bernard Hopkins after several other fights didn’t pan out. Bob Arum and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer came to an agreement, but Arum didn’t seem too happy with the fight and made it sound like it was the best of bad scenarios.
“This fight was not our first choice, but it was the only alternative we had to make a buck,” Arum said. “We didn’t have any place to go except a pay-per-view card. At least it will do halfway decent numbers. We turned it down once. It came back around and we accepted it.”
According to the article, Pavlik’s trainer Jack Loew thinks that Pavlik will have to fight at 168 pounds if he gets to face the winner of Joe Calzaghe and Roy Jones Jr. anyway, and it’d be a good chance to see him get ready for that one.
I’m not sure if I’d overlook B-Hop like that.
ESPN.com also picked up the Quinton “Rampage” Jackson story that we mentioned on Tuesday. On Wednesday, according to the AP article, Rampage was picked up by authorities and taken to a mental hospital after friends requested that they come check him out.
Hopefully it’s something that they can pinpoint as to explain his behavior and get him back on the right track. The fight game is a tough business and let’s just hope that Rampage is back on his feet, for his sake, as well as his friends and family.
