Image details: Kelly Pavlik v Jermain Taylor served by picapp.com

ESPN.com is reporting that middleweight champ Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik will face boxing’s Methuselah Bernard Hopkins on October 18 in Atlantic City, New Jersey’s Boardwalk Hall. The bout will be fought at a 170-pound catch weight and will be broadcasted on HBO Pay-Per-View.

Pavlik’s promotor Bob Arum admitted to ESPN that “This fight was not our first choice, but it was the only alternative we had to make a buck.” How’s that for salesmanship? You know Bob, it wouldn’t have been this fight fan’s first choice either — that would have been serial big fight ducker Joe Calzaghe — but it’s not bad. Hopkins doesn’t always make exciting fights but he will be a true test of Pavlik’s supposed greatness.

The Atlantic City venue should pull in a good crowd for each fight AND Arum also tells ESPN that the he has been assured by Calzaghe’s people that Kelly will get the Welshmen if both are victorious in their respective fights. We’ll believe it when we see it.

Post from: EveryJoe

The Ghost Will Face The Executioner

Last week the deeply in debt and still 6′4″ 245lb. Jose Canseco issued a $5K boxing challenge to the general public. Headline the July 12 Atlantic City card presumably stocked with duking-it-out D-listers and the moolah is yours. Thankfully, a former athlete stepped up the the plate and we won’t have to see Jose pummeled by Vinnie from south Philly.

That athlete is none other than former Eagle punt return and special teams wizard Vai Sikahema. Sikahema is currently employed at sports director at Philadelphia’s NBC affiliate WCAU. Vai is no stranger to the celebrity boxing circuit. In January of this year he knocked out a local radio host. To catch some of Vai’s pugilistic skills click here. It’s hard to hate on Sikahema for taking the fight as he will be donating his $5K from the Canseco fight to the widow of slain Philadelphia police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski.

Nevertheless, fight fans might be asking, “Why would you even post stuff like that on your blog? It’s not real boxing. It’s more like pro wrestling.” Alas, this is a pro wrestling blog too, but that’s beside the point. Last week in our really long Why Do We Think Boxing Is Dirtier Than Tennis Despite the Facts? post we pondered (A) boxing’s incorrect reputation for dirty fixed fights and (B) its subsequent marginalization by the public. Is this fight an example of both?

(A) We’re not alleging the Canseco-Sikahema fight is fixed – it doesn’t matter enough for that – but the only fights we remember being dirty in the last 20 odd years involved celebrity fighters padding win stats in a P.T. Barnum-esque look-at-the-freaks atmosphere: Butterbean, Mark Gastineau, and even the 50+ year-old George Foreman and Larry Holmes.

The problem with (B), boxing’s marginalization, comes because the public at large has more exposure to these farces then it does good fights.

For example, one of the world’s best fighters, middleweight Kelly Pavlik, is fighting in Atlantic City in two Saturdays from now on June 7 but Canseco’s AC fight is the one garnering attention from the Philly Daily News boxing writer.

We can’t blame him, www.jabandgrapple.com is also guilty as charged. We didn’t have to post about The Badboy of Baseball but we did. It gives us an excuse to post a picture of Vida Guerra with said Badboy.

Photo Source: Newscom.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Jose Canseco to Fight Former NFL All-Pro; Cooler Heads Avert Eyes