Still in search of a dance partner for his June 7th date, middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik welcomes the idea of a clash with Winky Wright. In a recent interview, Pavlik expressed interest in facing Wright. "I'd take the fight in a heartbeat," he stated, although he's concerned that Wright may overestimate his value and price himself out of the fight as has been the case in the past.
In a separate interview, Pavlik informed boxinqtalk, "Winky is somebody I've been calling out and he didn't want to fight me. Now that I have the belts, they want to make the fight because it's a money fight and he's not a draw. Now I've got the belts and now he's starting to run his mouth just for the payday that comes with the fight, but I would love to fight him." The undisputed middleweight champion continued, "If he can barely handle Jermain Taylor and his shots, what makes him think he could do something different if I fight him? I'd take the fight in a heartbeat. I've just come off fighting guys who are big, strong and can hit. I would love to fight a guy like Winky because he's not a devastating puncher. He's obviously a great boxer and a great fighter; he's accomplished a lot, but I would definitely love to fight him."
No stranger to success himself, Pavlik has also accomplished a lot, defeating some of the biggest punchers in the division via knockout and capturing the undisputed middleweight championship at the age of 25. Never one to back down from a challenge, he welcomes the idea of testing his skills against a fighter that some once considered to be at the top of the mythical pound-for-pound list. "I would love to see how he beats me with his peek-a-boo style. I go a hard twelve rounds," he added. "Winky Wright, let's see if you want to do this. The only thing I see being a problem is the money and how much he wants. I knocked Jermain Taylor out in the seventh round and I fought him again and beat him again. I didn't barely squeak by or escape with a draw."
According to Wright, as long as they're being "fair", then Pavlik won't have to worry about money being a problem and he just might have found his dance partner for June. The question is, what exactly does "fair" mean to a guy who hasn't fought in seven months, who's coming off of a loss and who doesn't have very many other options since he refuses to fight friends like Roy Jones Jr. and Vernon Forrest? A 60-40 split sounds fair to me, but personally, if I were the champ, I'd start off by offering him 30.
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