Lucian Bute's left hand continues to dominate opponents.
Kelly Pavlik's next fight likely will not be against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Chavez's team rebuffed efforts for Bob Arum to make the fight, saying that he just isn't ready yet. Without Chavez headlining, Pavlik's next bout, which is tentatively scheduled for December, likely would not end up being at Dallas Stadium.
I encourage everyone to read it this week, as it's filled will all kinds of great material (some of which I may write on independently, once I get the time). Most interesting tidbits: Michael Katsidis may face Robert Guerrero on BAD on March 27; on April 17, a Pavlik-Martinez / Bute-Miranda doubleheader looks likely; and promoters are working on a Darchinyan-Donaire rematch. In his blog, Rafael also mentions the possibility of a Andre Berto-Paulie Malignaggi Haiti benefit fight, Timothy Bradley-Marcos Maidana, and Zab Judah-Carlos Quintana or Victor Cayo.
Read the article, knowing what else you know, and see what you believe. The 'near-death' experience was a while back, but he says he wasn't able to punch anything because of his hand, and he'd already "learned his lesson" by coming in against Hopkins at less than 100%. I'm sure this story has a lot of truth to it, as well as a lot of exaggeration.
First, Abraham will face Giovanni Lorenzo in June, but according to this German news service, the contract is done and sitting in front of both fighters. Article also mentions that Arthur has been having weight problems and got a new nutritionist and cook so he can stay at 160 through then. Translated version of the page is available here.
Yahoo! Sports will carry video of the weigh-ins for Saturday night's Top Rank PPV at 3:25 PM ET.
Dan Rafael's blog mentions the following fights being discussed this weekend in Las Vegas: * Ricky Hatton v. the Oscar/Manny winner, obviously * Juan Manuel Lopez and Ivan Calderon possible for the Pavlik/Cotto PPV card in February * Fernando Montiel v. Nonito Donaire in March on Showtime * Winky Wright v. Mikkel Kessler in March/April on HBO * Winky v. Joe Calzaghe (highly unlikely) * Sergio Martinez v. Joe Greene as a co-feature for Berto-Collazo * Jesus Chavez v. Joel Casamayor, Jorge Barrios or Michael Katsidis on Versus in '09