Kelly Pavlik-Bernard Hopkins fight slated for Oct. 18 in Atlantic City

After looking at numerous possible candidates for middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik's next opponent, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum announced Thursday that Bernard Hopkins is the likely choice.

"When we looked and saw who was out there, we realized this was the best fight for Kelly both from a money standpoint and a notoriety standpoint," Arum told The Vindicator. "Hopkins is a huge name in the middleweight division and a victory over Hopkins will put Kelly in good stead."

Arum told ESPN.com Thursday that he and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer reached a deal for the nontitle fight, which will take place Oct. 18 on HBO PPV at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.

According to The Vindicator, no contracts have been signed, but an agreement in principle has been reached.

Pavlik (34-0, 30 KOs) will move up 10 pounds and face Hopkins (48-5-1, 32 KOs) at 170 pounds, five under the light heavyweight limit.

There were talks of a fight with Joe Calzaghe, Marco Antonio Rubio, Randy Griffin, Sergio Mora, Paul Williams and Winky Wright, but for various reasons none of those bout panned out, leaving Arum to turn to the 43-year-old Hopkins, who lost the light heavyweight title to Calzaghe by split decision April 19.

Pavlik's co-manager Cameron Dunkin believes this fight is the best currently available for Pavlik.

"I'm just glad he's fighting," Dunkin told the Vindicator. "I think the people in Youngstown will be happy with it."

Pavlik, 26, was expected to wed his fiancee, Samantha Kocanjer, Friday in Hawaii, after spending time in Los Angeles for Wednesday's ESPY Awards. Kocanjer is the mother of Pavlik's 2-year-old daughter, Sydney Ellyse.

"It's a surprise. It's definitely a surprise," Pavlik told the Vindicator. "I didn't know one thing about it. I think it's a great fight, if he takes it. If that's the fight, I'll beat him."

Hopkins was the middleweight champion from 1994 until 2005 (holding all four middleweight titles for most of that time) when he lost two consecutive bouts with Jermain Taylor, the first a split decision, the second a unanimous decision.

"The Executioner" then defeated Antonio Tarver for the light heavyweight title and defended it successfully against Winky Wright before squaring off against Calzaghe in April.

Pavlik's most recent fight came June 7 against Gary Lockett, with "The Ghost" winning by TKO in the third round.

This will be the third trip Pavlik has made to Boardwalk Hall, the site where he defeated Taylor last September to win the WBC and WBO middleweight titles.

According to Arum, Pavlik could square off against Calzaghe next year.

"Kelly isn't thrilled with the fight, but one of the incentives he has is that if he's going to fight Calzaghe after Calzaghe fights Roy Jones, it will be 168 pounds anyway," he told ESPN.com. "So it gets him ready for that fight."

Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KOs) had hinted at retirement after the Jones bout, which will take Sept. 20 in Madison Square Garden, but Calzaghe told his hometown paper on Wednesday that he won't surrender his WBO super middleweight title and might fight Pavlik at that weight.

"I hope he's telling the truth," Pavlik told the Vindicator. "We really wanted that fight this time but he decided to fight Roy Jones. I'd like to fight him. He's one of the better ones. I would take care of him, though."