By Chris LaBate

According to Jack Loew, trainer for super middleweight Kelly Pavlik, the boxer's mood began to change after a telephone conversation with his manager Cameron Dunkin last Friday. Pavlik and Dunkin discussed his purse for a planned November clash with IBF champion Lucian Bute.

Pavlik was advised that Mikkel Kessler was offered $3.5 million to face Bute in Canada. Upon hearing that figure, he became very upset with Top Rank's offer to face Bute for $1.35 million.

Over the weekend, Loew states that Pavlik made up his mind and had no intention of moving forward with a planned fight with Darryl Cunningham, which was scheduled for this coming Saturday in the former champion's hometown of Youngstown, Ohio. Pavlik officially withdrew from the Cunningham fight on Tuesday.

“On Friday Kelly talked to Cameron Dunkin about the purse for Bute. Over the weekend Kelly apparently made up his mind. On Monday he didn’t show up for running in the park and he hasn’t been to the gym [Southside Boxing Club]. I have not talked to him. The ball’s in Kelly’s court. I have no idea what the contract [with Top Rank] consists of, so we’ll see where he goes from here," Loew told The Vindicator.

Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum, in an earlier report on BoxingScene.com, said the information given to Pavlik regarding Kessler purse was 100% false. Arum has a close relationship with Bute's promoter, InterBox.

"That information about Kessler is wrong, it is false," Arum said. "I don't know why Pavlik does not want to fight and neither does his father or his manager. But I say this, if he doesn't want to fight, then why push him? This is a hard business, a tough business."