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Pavlik will return to 160 after Hopkins
By Mark Vester
Despite the fact that two of his last three fights were held above the middleweight limit of 160, Cameron Dunkin, co-manager of WBC/WBO middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik, says his fighter will move back down to defend his titles. Pavlik is going to face Bernard Hopkins on October 18 at the catch-weight of 170-pounds. Dunkin says that Pavlik has been forced to find fights at higher weights due to the fighter being unable to secure an opponent at 160. Dunkin was not exactly thrilled with the idea of Pavlik having to go to 170 to fight an opponent as crafty as Hopkins.
“Kelly has been in some unusual circumstances,” said Dunkin to The Vindicator . “I think they [the organizations] understand that. But we don’t want to [tick] them off. Hopkins is a big name guy and our big concern was the weight. It’s a lot heavier, but we have a lot of faith in Kelly that he can get it done.”
If Pavlik beats Hopkins, and Joe Calzaghe defeats Roy Jones Jr. in September, the two of them will be in line to fight. The fight won't happen as quick as people may think. Dunkin tells the paper that Pavlik will probably then make a mandatory defense of his middleweight crown, either against WBC mandatory Marco Antonio Rubio or the WBO's number-one, Sebastian Zbik, who is also ranked seventh by the WBC. After Pavlik makes another defense, he will go up to 168 to challenge Calzaghe.
“If he fights one of those guys, it’ll make everybody real happy,” Dunkin said.
Source: Boxingscene
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Pavlik will return to 160 after Hopkins
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