According to ESPN.com's Dan Rafael:
Middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik will defend against tough, up-and-coming contender Paul Williams on October 3 in Atlantic City.
HBO forced the hand of Top Rank president Bob Arum and Williams' promoter Dan Goossen it seems, when they were given a deadline to make the deal, and also when it was stated that the network would make no other commitments regarding either boxer facing any other opponents this coming fall.
Top Rank, in my opinion were looking for an easier path for Pavlik as names such as former undisputed junior middleweight champ Winky Wright, and former "Contender", star, and super middleweight world title challenger, Peter Manfredo, Jr. started popping up.
Those two excellent fighters would have been much easier for Pavlik to deal with, and most likely would have become The Ghost's next victims.
In any event, Arum and Goossen came to an agreement, which stated in effect that the Williams side would receive a little under $2 million.
Pavlik will also have a rematch clause should he lose—which is a very wise move—as Williams will be unquestionably the toughest test for The Ghost since losing a non-title match against the never-say-die legend, Bernard Hopkins, last fall.
"Goossen and I have agreed to all terms and we are going to contract for the fight," duBoef told ESPN.com. "We look forward to a formal announcement."
Said Goossen, "I'm just happy that we've finally come to terms and gotten this resolved. Now we can move forward."
A news conference is being planned for next Tuesday in New York.
Boxing fans have waited patiently with fingers crossed for this match-up, after it was rumored to be in the works last month. Pavlik has been in the news of late, but the stories were more on the personal level.
Pavlik is The Ring Magazine legitimate 160-lb. champion, yet has only fought once so far this year, and it was starting to look somewhat fishy that his promoters. Top Rank Promotions, had turned down opportunities to fight two top contenders.
Pavlik was scheduled to defend his title against Sergio Mora last month, but had to pull out of the fight supposedly due to a mysterious staph infection in his right hand.
What also concerns me a bit—and many of his fans also—is why his name was noticeably absent during a recent 168-lb. six-man fight tournament scheduled this fall.
Surely, one reason could have been that Pavlik is the 160-lb. champ: however he had no problem moving up in weight to 170 in facing Hopkins last fall. And, in his statement to the press regarding the issue, he certainly didn't try to make it sound like he "wasn't" snubbed by the organizers.
Pavlik said something to the effect of "let them ruin their career's fighting in this tournament, let them fight for peanuts, I'm staying with HBO, then whoever wins, they can bring him to me and I will beat him."
He can forget about that for now and concentrate on the task at hand.
Williams is a virtual whirlwind type boxer with supreme cardio. He constantly throws punches while also somehow remaining on the defensive.
The only knock on him is that he seems to have sacrificed his punching power in favor of a high-volume punch output, which was clearly evident in his last fight, an overwhelming performance against legendary southpaw journeyman Ronald "Winky" Wright.
Pavlik is a tricky fighter, with no power shortage. He is also a long, lanky fighter, much the same as Williams, so this will be a great match-up in terms of size. Neither one will have a definite reach advantage.
Pavlik can take a good beating early, as evidenced in the Jermaine Taylor fight, and if Williams can't dispatch of The Ghost in the opening rounds, then Pavlik may come back to haunt him later on, down the stretch.
It wouldn't surprise me if the punching power of the Champion were the deciding factor in this fight, and it also wouldn't surprise me if Pavlik won by a knock out, or a unanimous decision as a result of that factor.
"A rose's rarest essence lives inside the thorn."—Rumi
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