By Jim Dower: Kelly Pavlik (34-1, 30 KOs) Going into his fight with Bernard Hopkins, Kelly Pavlik (34-1, 30 KOs) was thought to be near invincible as a fighter, a middleweight good enough perhaps to rule the division for years to come. There was one problem, however. Pavlik hadn’t ever fought an opponent with the boxing ability of the 43 year-old Bernard Hopkins, who ended up giving Pavlik a thorough beating for 12 long rounds. The fight was so one-sided, that it probably should have been stopped as early as the 8th round when it was apparent that Pavlik was totally out of his league and had no chance in beating the wily Hopkins.

In keeping the fight going, Pavlik took an incredible amount of punishment, in particular in the way of head shots, and had his left eye badly cut and his nose bloodied. Hopefully, the beating won’t have long lasting effects To Pavlik’s boxing career, similar to the type that occurred to Jeff Lacy after his equally one-sided loss to Joe Calzaghe in 2006. With no title on the line, and little to gain other than a good three million dollar payday, Pavlik had no reason to stay in the fight as long as he did, particularly when it became apparent that he was getting a bad beating from Hopkins.

In today’s news, the information that had emerged about Pavlik being ill with bronchitis shortly before his fight with Hopkins, makes it even more pointless for Pavlik to have stayed in the fight for the full 12 rounds.

If Pavlik was indeed sick with bronchitis, then he should have steered clear of the fight with Hopkins, and chosen a later date to fight him. After all, this is boxing, not a non-contact sport and every punch thrown can have potentially long-lasting debilitating effects for a fighter. In Pavlik’s case, he often takes huge punishment in his bouts and rarely gets out of them without getting hit with a massive amount of power shots from his opponents. For this reason alone, it would seem prudent for his fight to have been stopped against Hopkins in order to save Pavlik from needless additional punishment, to save him for legitimate title fights where it counts much more.

At 26, Pavlik was far too young to be facing old time pros like Hopkins just so that Kelly could get a big payday. He had plenty of time for that kind of thing later on down the road after he’d established himself more as a fighter. Instead, Pavlik seemed to be fighting as if he was in a rush to get big paydays at the expense of experience. As it turned out, it backfired on him against Hopkins, causing him to absorb a terrific amount of punishment in the one-sided fight.

Only time will tell how the loss will effect Pavlik, and we may not know for awhile because he doesn’t have any real credible mandatory contenders to face for awhile. Marco Antonio Rubio, his #1 mandatory for his WBC middleweight title, doesn’t have the power, movement or work rate to trouble him much. However, later on down the line, Pavlik will eventually have to meet up with a good middleweight like Arthur Abraham, and we may see another defeat along the same lines as his beating from Hopkins.

Abraham has the speed, power, movement and defensive ability to cause huge problems for Pavlik. And from what I saw of him last Saturday, I doubt that Pavlik will be improved enough anytime soon to beat a fighter with the skills of Abraham. If the Hopkins’ beating did something to Pavlik’s head, it could be an even more dangerous fight for him to take should he choose to fight Abraham.