Without Calzaghe, Mora in picture

The opponent process got stickier when Joe Calzaghe severed ties with a promoter who was eyeing Pavlik.

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Who will be Kelly Pavlik’s next opponent?

How many names of fighters will pop up over the summer as a possible opponent for the undefeated WBC/WBO middleweight champion from Youngstown, who retained his title with a knockout of Gary Lockett June 7 in Atlantic City?

The game of musical chairs continued this week when Joe Calzaghe of Wales, who had been Pavlik’s top preference as his next opponent in September, ended his relationship with long-time promoter Frank Warren.

Warren, considered the top promoter in the United Kingdom, had been pushing for a Calzaghe-Pavlik fight.

Calzaghe, the light heavyweight and super middleweight champion, announced to his hometown newspaper, the South Wales Argus, that from now on he will serve as his own manager.

And that means, “I am not in negotiations with Kelly Pavlik, despite reports to the contrary. My intention is to fight Roy Jones Jr., a four-weight world champion fighter.”

Pavlik had hoped to jump up to the super middleweight to challenge Calzaghe.

But with Calzaghe out of the picture, it didn’t take long for another possible Pavlik opponent to surface. He’s Sergio Mora, the first-season winner of “The Contender,” who won the junior middleweight title by upending Vernon Forrest on June 7.

In fact, Bob Arum, Pavlik’s promoter from Top Rank, already is touting a Pavlik-Mora bout for either Sept. 27 at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, where Pavlik has fought two of his last three bouts; or Oct. 18 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

And Arum said that if Pavlik would beat Mora, that then he would fight Arthur Abraham next. That fight likely will be a unification bout in 2009.

Pavlik’s co-manager, Cameron Dunkin, when asked whether a Calzaghe-Pavlik bout is unlikely, said Tuesday evening that it “looks like it.”

But he said a Pavlik-Mora match isn’t certain, either.

“Nothing’s done yet [about Mora],” Dunkin said.

“[Mora’s] one of the names, but he’s under contract [for a mandatory rematch after beating Forrest for the WBC junior middleweight title].”

Mora beat Forrest the same night Pavlik stopped Lockett in his first title defense.

“Nothing for sure,” Dunkin said of a possible Pavlik-Mora fight next.

“He’s just one of four people we’re talking to, so I don’t know what’s going to happen yet. Nothing is concrete yet.”

Dunkin would only say that Antonio Rubio of Mexico is one of the other three possible Pavlik opponents in the running.