By Dave Lahr: For boxing fans of former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (36-2, 32 KO’s) who think all he needs is a new manager to take back his titles, I think you’re kidding yourself. Pavlik can get Freddie Roach, Emanuel Steward or whoever, and I still see him getting out-boxed and badly schooled by Sergio Martinez in a rematch. This is beyond a training issue and is more of one that is based entirely on talent. Pavlik just wasn’t blessed with fast hands and fast feet. That’s just the way it is.
He’s always going to be slow of hand and slow of foot for the remainder of his career. He’s the equivalent of a hitter with poor bat speed who can’t hit a 98 MPH fastball from a power pitcher like Randy Johnson or Nolan Ryan. Pavlik was already exposed by 44-year-old Bernard Hopkins, who incredibly looked lightning fast compared to Pavlik. That loss pretty much told me all I needed to know about Pavlik. I think he’s a B level fighter in a C level division.
Pavlik may be among the best in the middleweight division, but he doesn’t have the innate physical tools to beat a fighter like Martinez who is more gifted in terms of hand speed and ability to get around the ring. This kind of thing was bound to happen again sooner or later. I knew Pavlik would lose to Martinez as soon as the fight was signed. Pavlik might have had a chance at beating Paul Williams, because he’s a lot slower than Martinez and would stand in front of Pavlik all night long. But Martinez is a whole different story.
Pavlik should have never taken this fight, because he’s not equipped to beat a fighter like this. What Pavlik needs to do now is forget all about using his rematch clause in his contract with Martinez and instead think hard about either moving up in weight to the super middleweight division or stick around and go after the weakest of the middleweight champions Sebastian Sylvester.
Pavlik can beat Sylvester and then hold onto that title for a couple of years beating the likes of top contenders Roman Karmazin, Anthony Mundine, Giovanni Lorenzo and Matthew Macklin. The boxing public might be turned off towards Pavlik for fighting those guys, but it’s still better than having no title at all. If Pavlik moves up in weight to the super middleweight division, he needs to go after WBO champion Robert Stieglitz, who is clearly the weakest and mot beatable of the super middleweight champions. Pavlik could beat him easy and then hold down the title fighting the likes of Arthur Abraham, Allan Green, Paul Smith and Mikkel Kessler.
Pavlik, if he wants to further his career, he should either stay at middleweight or focus on fighting and defending the IBF middleweight title or he should move up in weight to the light heavyweight division, which is even weaker than the middleweights. Pavlik could probably dominate and win a title at that weight and defend it much easier than if he tries to at super middleweight.
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