Arthur Abraham and Kelly Pavlik both say that they want to fight each other. They are clearly the top two middleweight in the world. Abraham has traveled to the United States before and Pavlik has shown himself to be willing to fight the best. Sounds like a fight that should happen, right?

Wrong.

Abraham and Pavlik both say they want to fight each other, but we’ve reached a point where is becoming more and more clear that one or both of them is just throwing around words, with no intention of making a fight happen.

Pavlik’s camp says they have made offers to Abraham’s camp and gotten no response.

Abraham’s camp called B.S. on that claim and say they have been in constant contact with HBO and Showtime, and have had direct talks with Pavlik’s people. They claim that Top Rank has lost any interest in making the fight.

telling FightHype.com, “The money definitely has to be right. The HBO and Showtime networks definitely have to travel there. I really do want to fight Abraham. We just gotta make it happen for the right reasons.”

Call me old fashioned, but I still have a hard time with fighters passing up the only major fight they have, in order to fight a punching bag that gets a bigger paycheck.

That punching bag I’m referring to is none other than Ireland’s John Duddy. Pavlik is likely to face Duddy in his next fight, simply because it provides a better paycheck than a potential bout with Abraham, with just a fraction of the risk.

Am I the only one who remembers Pavlik and trainer Jack Loew vowing to never again chase a paycheck after the beating he got from Bernard Hopkins? That’s exactly what they’ll be doing if they choose to fight Duddy over Abraham. Sure, it lacks most of the risk, but it’s once again choosing the wrong fight over the right fight, based solely on money.

That’s not to say that all blame would fall on Pavlik if the Abraham fight doesn’t happen.

If Abraham thinks he can just fight cupcakes in Germany and be handed a major fight with Pavlik, he just doesn’t get boxing business. Instead of fighting tomato cans like Lajuan Simon, Abraham should be fighting names we know and deserving opponents. Get yourself on American television, even if it’s an undercard, and pretty soon the fight will make money, as well as sense.

Both fighters are to blame if this fight doesn’t happen, but neither of them will be much worse off in their careers if they don’t meet. They will end up just moving on and having giant question marks, while fight fans are denied another great middleweight matchup.

Having seen Bernard Hopkins fight Felix Trinidad and Jermain Taylor, among others, then Taylor fight Hopkins twice, Winky Wright and Pavlik, these two have some big shoes to fill as far as showing a willingness to fight the best.

Pavlik defeated Taylor twice, but since then has fought only Gary Lockett at middleweight. Both of these fighters must prove themselves against the other in order to claim middleweight supremacy.

It’s on both of them if the fight doesn’t happen, but if they know what’s good for their careers and their legacies, they’ll find a way to make the fight happen.

Until then, don’t hold your breath.