Michael Marley of the Examiner reports that Daniel Edouard is out as Kelly Pavlik's November 13 opponent, and Bryan Vera is likely in. Marley confirmed this with Pavlik's promoter, Bob Arum, earlier today:
"We had to do our due diligence on Edouard because we found out he was hospitalized after hius most recent bout in Panama. We spoke to the commission in Panama and they said he was treated for blood pressure problems. We spoke to John Wirt [of Square Ring Promotions] and told him we would pass on Edouard, at least for now. John was very nice, very understanding."
Edouard was a terrible fight for Pavlik, as he's never been competitive with top-line fighters before and was grossly undersized.
If the spot goes to Bryan Vera as suggested, that's not much better of a fight, with all due respect to Vera. Vera (17-5, 11 KO) has lost four of five since upsetting Andy Lee in 2008. His last fight was on September 4 in Ukraine, where he lost a wide decision to Maksym Bursak. Prior to that, he did stop protected Sebastian Demers in three rounds, but Demers is not Pavlik. His three losses between Lee and Demers were to James Kirkland (a nasty, one-sided TKO-8), Craig McEwan (UD-10) and Isaac Rodrigues (MD-10).
Simply put, Vera is a club fighter who takes his shots and doesn't present much real danger to a serious fighter, and at 5'11" and better suited for 154 pounds, is not a physical threat to Pavlik in any way. Vera is known to take a good, entertaining beating -- which is exactly what a promoter would want for Pavlik right now, especially if that promoter might be a bit shy about giving him a serious test.