By Chris Williams: According to a recent interview on Vindy.com, we could be seeing John Duddy vs. WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (34-1, 30 KOs) in the Summer rather than a fight between Pavlik and International Boxing Federation middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (28-0, 23 KOs), apparently because a combinations of factors such as American audiences not being aware of who Abraham is and not likely to care if Pavlik fights him.
Plus, there’s the different time zones of each fighter’s home country which will play into it as well. Abraham is from Germany, so if he fights in the U.S. against Pavlik, this would mean that the fight would be coming on late at night in Germany, so late that much that it would decrease money that could be made through advertising or PPV. On the flip side, if the fight takes place in Germany, this would mean that it would be shown during the daylight hours in the U.S., which would mean that low numbers of viewers would be around at the time to see the fight.
According to promoter Bob Arum, this is a problem you get with two big stars like Abraham and Pavlik, yet he doesn’t see it as something that can’t be worked out. At the same time, Arum points out that if the fight between Pavlik and Abraham doesn’t take place this Summer, then we could be seeing Pavlik vs. Duddy or Australian Anthony Mundine.
It’s hard to see what the appeal would be in Pavlik fighting Mundine, however, because he’s just as unknown a fighter as Abraham, but worse than that is that he’s older at 33, and has faced mostly soft opposition for the past four years since losing in a lopsided fight to Mikkel Kessler in 2005.
Additionally, in fighting Mundine, there would be the same problem for both of the fighters’ home countries, because Mundine if from Australia and they’re on a different time zone with the U.S, just like Germany.
Duddy (25-0, 17 KOs) has faced few credible fighters in his career with his best victories being over Howard Eastman, Yory Boy Campas, Anthony Bonsante and Walid Smichet, yet he hasn’t looked great in most of the fights.
However, he’s popular on the East Coast where he trains, and with his unbeaten record, he’d make for a good fight with Pavlik, even though Duddy stands little chance of winning even under the best case scenario. However, he doesn’t present the same difficulties to fight that Mundine and Arthur Abraham does due to their different home audiences, and he’s not old and previously beaten like Mundine.
However, the fight would be more of big payday for Pavlik than an actual competitive fight, which a bout with Abraham and Pavlik would likely be. That’s the bad part. If Pavlik has to settle for fighting Mundine or Duddy rather than Abraham, boxing fans will likely see two dull, one-sided fights with Pavlik blowing them both out early.
Oh, sure, Mundine might stay competitive for a little while, but based on how he’s looked in the past couple of years, I can’t see him staying in there long with Pavlik before getting knocked out. Fans not familiar with Mundine in the U.S probably will care less about Pavlik beating this guy all over the ring. Unless Arum can get Abraham in the ring, it looks as if Duddy is Pavlik’s likely opponent for the Summer.
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