Quote Originally Posted by shza View Post
There are like 4 articles up on the ring mag site on this now. Apparently Pavlik heard that Kessler had been offered (and turned down) $3.5M to fight Bute (which, if true, WTF was Kessler thinking??) and once he heard that, he thought he was getting short-changed with a $1.35M guarantee.

Ridiculous all-around. Kessler is a bigger name than Pavlik -- who really doesn't deserve the opportunity to fight Bute in the first place, after losing his last 2 fights against elite fighters and looking terrible in his last outing against a journeyman.
Not by much though. Pavlik has only been beaten by Hopkins and Martinez, Kessler by Ward and Calzaghe. Neither has a belt at this time. I would have thought Pavlik would have been better known outside of Europe.