Kelly Pavlik bothered again by infection, postpones fight with Paul Williams

Pavlik has infected hand, delaying fight

Middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik’s title defense against Paul Williams has been postponed because of a persistent infection in his left hand.

Pavlik was scheduled to fight Williams at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall on Oct. 3. Top Rank spokesman Lee Samuels said the company now expects the fight to be held Nov. 21 or Dec. 5 in the same arena on HBO, but Williams promoter Dan Goossen says he hasn’t agreed to anything yet.

Pavlik (35-1, 31 KOs), who holds the WBC and WBO 160-pound belts, has an infection in a knuckle on the middle finger of his hand.

“He can’t spar with it,” Samuels said. “It’s been bothering him for some time, and he just went to see a doctor again.”

He informed the fight’s promoters about the problem Monday, while many were traveling to New York for a news conference scheduled for Tuesday to promote the bout. Pavlik’s manager, Cameron Dunkin, expected the injury to be healed by now after several months of trouble with the knuckle, which required several stitches at one point.

Williams (37-1, 27 KOs), likely the most avoided fighter in the sport, is coming off a dominant victory over former junior middleweight champion Winky Wright in April. He reached a deal to fight Pavlik last week after several weeks of difficult negotiations, and Goossen had no intention of signing off on a new fight date just yet.

“I would be very interested in finding out who he’s fighting (on Nov. 21),” Goossen said. “We’ve just learned of Pavlik’s decision to cancel the press conference and thus the fight, and we’ll evaluate where we go from here.”

Goossen also promotes Andre Ward, who’s expected to fight Mikkel Kessler of Denmark on Nov. 21 in Oakland, Calif., as part of the six-man super middleweight tournament backed by Showtime.

A hand infection first bothered Pavlik in the spring, and Top Rank blamed it for the postponement and cancellation of a fight against Sergio Mora for June 27. Pavlik publicly claimed he was healthy enough to fight, but didn’t give an alternate reason for the bout’s cancellation, spurring speculation Pavlik was unhappy with Top Rank.

A call to Jack Loew, Pavlik’s trainer, wasn’t immediately returned Monday night.

Pavlik, who lost to Bernard Hopkins last year, hasn’t fought since defending his titles in a lopsided victory over Marco Antonio Rubio in February.