By Scoop Malinowski

Reigning Middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik will put his skills to the ultimate test in October in Atlantic City against the one, the only, the living legend Bernard Hopkins. The undefeated champ from Youngstown, Ohio, speaks on this highly important and potentially complicated matter which will be contested as a non-title match at 170 pounds:

Boxinginsider: Kelly are you surprised Bernard took this fight with you

Kelly Pavlik: No. He’s a warrior. He likes to fight. He’s gonna bring his A-game. He’ll never turn anybody down so I’m not surprised at all. With me fighting Hopkins, who else is out there for him to fight right now? He’s fought Winky Wright and everybody. So there’s really not anybody out there.

Boxinginsider: What are you most concerned with that he’s gonna bring to the ring on October 18?

Kelly Pavlik: Really nothing. Everything I pretty much know I’ve seen all his fights and every fight he pretty much does the same thing. He comes in and knows how to win, he’ll grab, he’ll use his head, he’ll throw the sneaky right hand, that’s what he likes to do. But we know how to counter that. He’s not gonna be able to get away with a lot of that stuff like he did against other fighters.

Boxinginsider: Is there any way you can lose to Bernard Hopkins?

Kelly Pavlik: No. No.

Boxinginsider: I asked you before the Calzaghe-Hopkins match and your prediction of how that fight would go was like 100% spot-on. So you pretty much see already what he’s gonna bring?

Kelly Pavlik: Definitely. I was watching him before I was even gonna fight him. I’ve been watching him for years. I watched the two Jermain Taylor fights. I’ve watched his fights before that. So I already know his style. Now the only thing is going back over it now like a drawing board, like a coach in football. You go over a drawing board, now you pinpoint everything. You go to the gym you have your sparring partners, same guys, you work on the bag and you work on the hand pads.

Boxinginsider: So you already fought him in your mind, you have visualized fighting Hopkins for years?

Kelly Pavlik: Yeah. Especially with the Taylor fight, that was the main thing.

Boxinginsider: What about the psychological warfare aspects that Hopkins so much excels at? Could his mind games it be a factor?

Kelly Pavlik: I don’t buy that. Miranda did it. And Taylor in the first fight. And that gives me confidence. Because when someone is trying to get in your head with their mouth, then you know that they’re not too confident in their other games?

Boxinginsider: Freddie Roach said that Hopkins walked back to the wrong corner four times during the Calzaghe loss, implying that Bernard may have lost his equilibrium or faculties in that fight and your power could damage him more. Your comment?

Kelly Pavlik: I don’t believe any of that. I don’t pay attention to that. What I saw is he gave Joe Calzaghe a great fight. It was a good fight. As for what Freddie Roach said, I don’t buy it. If he’s telling the truth or not, that’s something you just don’t go off of.

Boxinginsider: What if Bernard, who knows every trick in the book and if they don’t work invents new ones, decides to employ dirty tactics?

Kelly Pavlik: If he gets dirty I get dirty. I’m every bit as big as he is and I rough people up on the inside. He’s gotta be careful with that. I got elbows and I got heads.

Boxinginsider: In sum, how will this play out in your mind?

Kelly Pavlik: He’s never really fought a strong, strong fighter, that’s gonna be the big difference. I don’t hit like Calzaghe. And you gotta be able to take that for 10-12 rounds, you gotta take that. Our thing is to keep the pressure, fight the same way that we always fight.