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The rumor mill is churning with the word out of Youngstown that Kelly Pavlik isn't postponing his scheduled fight with Paul Williams due to staph infection in his knuckle, but rather because he isn't in shape and won't be able to properly burn down to 160 pounds in six weeks' time.
These inflamed sources say the reason the Pavlik-Paul Williams HBO bout in Atlantic City has been pushed from Oct. 3 to Nov. 21 or Dec. 5 is because Pavlik has not had his mind on his burgeoning waist.
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"Kelly has been having a ball this summer, eating what he wants and drinking some beer," one source said. "Is alcohol a problem for him? Not really but the beer is a problem because it keeps inflating his weight. They didn't want Pavlik to wreck himself on the scales in such a short time."
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"Forget all this about a staph infection or a knuckle problem," a second source told me. "It is an inner tube problem because Pavlik's inactivity this year has caused him to balloon in weight."
The current makeup dates being discussed are November 21 and December 5, with one source telling Michael Marley that everyone is worried about the baseball playoffs (which will dominate sports TV between the canceled 10/3 date and those times). I say don't worry about other sports that have nothing to do with boxing and promote your fight properly, but hey, whatever.