What will we learn from Kelly Pavlik v Bernard Hopkins?

Conference calls can be funny things. Without the nose-to-nose excitement of a live press conference, but with the advantage of hearing from boxers without the need to leave your desk/sofa, although there is no more certainty of getting your question answered. Kelly Pavlik (pictured) and Bernard Hopkins spoke to the world's press on Wednesday evening, although not actually to each other. There will be enough time for that next week when they have press conferences in New York then Atlantic City ahead of their October 18 bout at the Boardwalk Hall. The bout is an intriguing one and neither are short of things to say.

When this contest was first announced, I had a real sense of "so what?" about it. Pavlik needed a bigger test after his one-sided win over Gary Lockett, but does the world really need another catchweight match? Especially after Arthur Abraham, the IBF middleweight champion, just had a catchweight match against Edison Miranda.

But the bout has grown on me. Maybe Hopkins is just the man to test Pavlik. I have been very impressed so far by Pavlik, but if you read some internet boards he is the greatest thing ever. But let's be realistic, Pavlik has held the middleweight title for just over a year and his best wins are against Miranda (who got nowhere near beating Abraham twice, even when Abraham had a broken jaw) and Jermain Taylor, a boxer who completely failed to live up to the high hopes he came with when he won the title with a controversial decision over Hopkins (one even his promoter Lou Di Bella didn't think he had won).

Hopkins impressed me against Joe Calzaghe. I thought that would be quite a one-sided fight but - it was far from it - although I had Calzaghe winning by three rounds. Pavlik could probably walk through most boxers that come right at him, but Hopkins certainly won't do that.

"Kelly Pavlik is the perfect opponent for me," Hopkins said. "He's going to come forward and he wants to knock Bernard Hopkins out, but that is going to be difficult. He has got that big right hand, but if Kelly Pavlik thinks he's going to beat Bernard Hopkins because he has a right hand, he's a damn fool.

"He's not going to run, he's not going to quit, he's not going to be a boxer all of a sudden and that's where he is going to fall into The Executioner's hands."

Pavlik, during his time on the phone, said was hoping for a knockout. "He's only be dropped twice, but maybe the two times he was dropped is the two times he has been caught flush," Pavlik said. "If I could stop him it would be one of the biggest statements in the sport in the last 40 years. I definitely think I can win convincingly, either by stoppage or unanimous decision."

The WBC and WBO middleweight champion also said that he was not worried about Hopkins fighting dirty and promised some roughhouse tactics of his own. "If you watch the Calzaghe fight, in the second half, Joe started doing some of the things Hopkins had done and it was Hopkins turning to the referee and complaining," he said. "Hopkins has never fought a guy as strong as me on the inside."

The big question remains whether this will be Hopkins's last bout. The 43-year-old remained uncommitted. "I was a late starter and I'm a late bloomer," he said. "The last five years have been a blessing. Bernard Hopkins has not had the opportunities or the fights that a lot of boxers in my era had - but I'm still here.

"If I can still do it, why not? If I'm not the same person I was in 2001, I want someone to show me that and to put me on my ass, to show me that I shouldn't be in there. If you think about bad things, bad things happen to you. You take the Joe Calzaghe fight, someone who is capable of throwing 200 punches a round. I had not one mark on my face.

"I know my limits, I know my body. I have one fight on October 18. I will not put the cart in front of the horse, I will talk (about whether I box on) after that."