By Jim Dower: WBO/WBC middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik has received medical clearance to fight on December 5th by the Cleveland Clinic, promoter Bob Arum said to Mike Marley of Examiner.com. If this turns out to be the case, then this is really good news because Pavlik could then move forward with his mega fight against Paul Williams.

The fight was previously scheduled to take place in October, but the fight had to be cancelled after it was learned that Pavlik still had a nagging staph infection on the middle knuckle of his left hand. When Pavlik cancelled the fight, Williams and his promoter began to look alternatives for other bouts because they were unsure whether Pavlik’s hand would be healed in the near future.

Also, William’s promoter wanted to keep him busy because Williams hadn’t fought since April, and having him out of the ring for an extended amount of time is something that his promoter wants to avoid happening.

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Marley also reports that there are only a few hundred tickets available for the November 14th fight between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto. With the fight still three longs months away, it’s shocking to have a boxing fight sold out so far ahead of time.

In contrast, the fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Manuel Marquez, which takes place next month on September 19th, still hasn’t had all the tickets sell out as of yet. That kind of tells you right there which fight boxing fans are interested in seeing.

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Jirov to fight Alexander on October 17th

Former International Boxing Federation cruiserweight champion Vassily Jirov (37-3-1, 31 KO’s) will be facing Dominique Alexander (18-7-1, 9 KO’s) on October 17th at the Celebrity Theater, in Phoenix, Arizona. Jirov, 26, hasn’t fought since 2007, beating Kenny Craven in a 2nd round stoppage. Jirov, 35, wasted two of his prime years attempting to make a go at it in the heavyweight division.

It was a moved doomed for failure from the very beginning because Jirov, 6’2”, didn’t have the height, power or size to compete effectively against the more powerful heavyweights in the division. As a heavyweight, Jirov was beaten in two of his five bouts with one of them ending up a draw.

Jirov was stopped by Michael Moorer in the 9th round in December 2004, a bout that Jirov was well ahead of at the time of the stoppage. Jirov moved back down to the cruiserweight division in 2006, but didn’t looked good in winning a narrow decision over Luke Munsen in April of that year. Now three years later, it’s unknown what will have chanced since then other than Jirov getting three years older.

Alexander, 26, probably won’t present much of a challenge for Jirov on October 17th, because Alexander has been beaten in four out of his last six bouts, with all of them by knockout. Most recently, Alexander was stopped in the 1st round by Odlanier Solis in June 2009.