By Jim Dower: Former World Boxing Council/WBO middleweight champion (36-2, 32 KO’s) has only until May 17th to decide whether to utilize his rematch clause with Sergio Martinez. If Pavlik, 28, doesn’t make a decision by the 17th, he’ll lose his chance at fighting Martinez. This would give Martinez the chance to move forward for a big money fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., who has mentioned being interested in fighting Martinez.

According to Dan Rafael of ESPN, Pavlik’s co- manager Cameron Dunkin thinks that Pavlik will make his decision within the next few days, saying “He’s [Pavlik] going to weight himself and see how much weight he’s put since the fight.” Pavlik has ballooned up to 191 since losing to Martinez by a 12 round unanimous decision on April 17th. In that fight, Pavlik put on a 18 pounds after the weigh-in and entered the ring at a huge 178.

Rather than the weight helping him, it appeared to slow Pavlik down and cause him to have problems with his stamina in the last four rounds of the fight. If Pavlik puts on too much weight, he’s going to bypass the Martinez fight and look at another option. Taking off the weight will likely leave Pavlik drained unless he takes if off slowly over a long period of time. It’s not a good sign that he’s putting on even more weight in such a short time.

Taking off 30 pounds or more is never easy for a fighter, especially when they get in their late 20s like Pavlik. Besides the weight issue, Pavlik seemed ill equipped to deal with Martinez’s speed and movement. It probably wouldn’t matter what weight Pavlik came in for that fight, he would have likely struggled badly against Martinez. Pavlik was soundly beaten by 43-year-old Bernard Hopkins in a 12 round decision loss in October 2008.

In that fight, Pavlik was in perfect condition weight wise, yet he had no clue how to deal with Hopkins’s speed and movement. It may just be that Pavlik doesn’t have the skills needed for him to beat the faster fighters that don’t stand in front of him all night long. Most of Pavlik’s opponents, aside from Hopkins and Martinez, have been the slow variety that stood in front of Pavlik and made it easy for him to beat them with his power.