Next up: Pavlik vs. Mora in N. J.?

Kelly Pavlik Fight Night

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Photographs by The Vindicator photographers Geoffrey Hauschild, William D. Lewis, Robert K. Yosay and Lisa-Ann Ishihara.

By Joe Scalzo

The middleweight boxing champion from Youngstown learned of the possible fight from a reporter.

YOUNGSTOWN — On Thursday morning, Kelly Pavlik got a phone call from a reporter asking for his thoughts about the upcoming fight against Sergio Mora this summer in Atlantic City.

One problem. He didn’t know anything about it.

So he called his manager, Cameron Dunkin, to get the details and came away with two thoughts.

First, he’s open to taking the fight. Second, he’d rather not hear about future fights from reporters.

“It does bother me a little bit,” said Pavlik, who successfully defended his WBC and WBO middleweight titles against Marco Antonio Rubio last month in Youngstown.

Bob Arum, Pavlik’s promoter, is vacationing in England and has not talked with the Youngstown boxer’s camp. He said by telephone Thursday that an ESPN.com report that an agreement was reached with Mora was “completely inaccurate.”

“Nothing has been decided until we meet with Kelly and Mike [Pavlik] Sr. and Cameron next week,” said Arum.

“Sergio Mora is just a possible opponent, even a probable opponent. We just need to make sure it’s a fight they [Team Pavlik] can live with.”

Pavlik said, “It’s still kind of up in the air. We don’t know what’s going on. No contract has been signed. There’s been no talk of money.”

Mora (21-1-1, 5 KOs), a 28-year-old former light middleweight champ, is best known in the boxing world for winning the first season of the TV show “The Contender.” A Pavlik-Mora bout would reportedly take place either June 20, July 18 or July 25 at Boardwalk Hall, the site of three previous Pavlik fights over the past two years.

The fight reportedly would be a two-site broadcast on independent pay-per-view, similar to what Arum did in Youngstown and New York City last month. Junior middleweight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. would fight Luciano Cuello in Tijuana, Mexico. Antonio Margarito, whose license was recently revoked in California, could also fight on the Mexican card.

Dunkin is cautiously optimistic the fight will happen, but he knows it’s not a matchup that will thrill all fight fans. HBO and Showtime have already passed on the fight, according to the ESPN.com report.

“It’s a decent fight,” said Dunkin. “There’s just nobody out there.

“There’s not a Marvin Hagler out there.”

Pavlik’s handlers say they’ve had discussions with IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham and WBA champion Felix Sturm, but both Germans want too much money to fight Pavlik in America, and Pavlik is reluctant to fight overseas, fearing he won’t get a fair shake from the judges.

Arum said Mora was contacted “because he’s available. The two Germans [Abraham and Sturm] are already fighting somebody, and we couldn’t wait.”

Abraham fights Lajuan Simon on Saturday night, and Sturm is scheduled to fight Koji Sato on April 25.

Until the Germans’ demands go down, neither fight will happen, Dunkin said.

“If you want to date the girl, she’s gotta make an effort, too,” said Dunkin.

Although news of the Mora matchup broke late Wednesday, Pavlik’s father and co-manager, Mike Sr., didn’t hear about it until late Thursday morning from his friend Mike Cefalde.

“First and foremost, we’ve got to sit down and talk about money,” said Mike Sr., who had been hoping to fight in Cleveland. “I hate to put it like that. But are we fighting for $10.95 or $400 or what?”

Pavlik’s father was lukewarm about fighting again on pay-per-view. Pavlik’s previous PPV bouts against Bernard Hopkins in October and Jermain Taylor in February 2008 both did disappointing business nationally.

Pavlik has been one of boxing’s busiest fighters over the past two years and said he had been hoping for a bit of a break, particularly since his wife recently gave birth to their first son, Kelly Jr. Pavlik and his wife already have a daughter, Sydney, who is almost 3.

Still, on the surface, there’s nothing about the Mora proposal that Pavlik finds objectionable, he said.

“He’s a pretty slick fighter,” Pavlik said. “Nothing overwhelming. He’s probably the same as Rubio, although Rubio has a lot more power, a lot more bang in his punch. Mora had a great amateur career, too.”

Mora won the WBC junior middleweight title with a decision over Vernon Forrest in June 2008, then lost the mandatory rematch in September by unanimous decision — a loss he attributed to struggling to make the weight limit. Pavlik’s camp had talked about fighting Mora last summer before making a bout with Hopkins.

Mora’s camp has already signed off on the Pavlik fight, ESPN.com reported. Arum told that outlet that Atlantic City made a strong offer to hold the fight and said Cleveland’s tax rates are too high to make the fight tenable.

Pavlik said he’s willing to fight again in Atlantic City.

“Oh yeah,” said Pavlik, who won his titles and made his first title defense in that city. “I’ve had so much success there. That’s where everything started.”