Pavlik, after all the posturing, will fight Hopkins

By Joe Scalzo

On June 8, about 30 minutes after Kelly Pavlik’s dismantling of Gary Lockett in Atlantic City, Top Rank chairman Bob Arum told reporters he had no interest in seeing Pavlik match up with one of the sport’s aging legends.

“Guys like Roy Jones, Bernard Hopkins ... enough,” he said. “Let them retire. Let the young guys fight.”

When reminded of that quote Thursday night, he chuckled.

“I agree, but Jones took away the guy [Joe Calzaghe] we should be fighting,” said Arum, who is finalizing plans for a Hopkins-Pavlik bout Oct. 18 at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall. “Calzaghe said after he fights Jones, he’s not gonna retire and he’s looking for Kelly. So we felt, hey, if he’s going to fight Jones, we’ll fight Hopkins.

“If both guys [Calzaghe and Pavlik] win, we’ll fight next year and it’ll be a much bigger fight.”

In another sport, this would probably sound hypocritical. In boxing, it sounds about right.

Read more in Saturday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com.