BoxingChronicles.com has learned that middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik has agreed to face former WBO welterweight champion Paul Williams on October 3.The fight will take place at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City and will be televised live on HBO. Considering the lack of the marquee names and legitimate challenges at middleweight (Arthur Abraham recently ascended to super middleweight ranks), Pavlik vs. Williams would appear to be the most ideal match up at the 160lb limit.
Atlantic City is familiar territory for Pavlik, who won the unified middleweight championship in October of 2007 via 7th round TKO of defending champion Jermain Taylor at Boardwalk Hall. Pavlik would successfully make his first title defense with a 3rd round TKO of the sadly over matched Gary Lockett, also at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City in June of 2008.
Rebounding from the first loss of his professional career, a one-sided unanimous decision to former two division champion Bernard Hopkins last October, Pavlik was last seen making the second defense of his middleweight championship in February, scoring a 9th round stoppage of Marco Antonio Rubio in his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio.
Williams recently won a lopsided unanimous decision over former super welterweight champion Winky Wright, illustrating that the middleweight limit would seem to be an effective fighting weight for the Aiken, South Carolina native. The middleweight title bout is sure to be a treat for HBO subscribers, as the world champion makes his first significant title defense against the man deemed as the most avoided fighter in sport.
photo courtesy: The Sun
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