By Jason Kim: Former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (36-2, 32 KO’s) will be passing on his rematch with Sergio Martinez, according to news from HBO Larry Merchant. Unfortunately, the 28-year-old Pavlik is having problems making the middleweight limit of 160, as evidenced by his coming into the Martinez fight weighing a hefty 178 on fight night on April 17th. The weight ended up slowing down Pavlik and causing him to run out of gas in the second half of the fight. Pavlik put on 18 pounds after the weigh-in for the fight.
It’s unclear whether Pavlik will move up to the super middleweight division or skip it altogether and move up to light heavyweight. Pavlik is said to be weighing 191 right now, which would give you the belief that he would have problems making the super middleweight limit of 168 as well. Pavlik might be better off skipping that weight class, as the super middleweight division is stacked with a lot of speedy and talented fighters like Lucian Bute, Andre Dirrell, Mikkel Kessler and Andre Ward.
Looking at how badly Pavlik struggled with the speed of Bernard Hopkins and Sergio Martinez, it would seem unlikely that Pavlik would match up well with the top super middleweights. He should consider moving up to light heavyweight where he would challenge for the title against fighters like Chad Dawson, Jean Pascal and Tavoris Cloud. Pavlik would have a better chance of winning a title at that weight than he would at super middleweight in my view.
Boxing fans will no doubt be happy with Martinez being free from having to fight Pavlik again. This could mean that Martinez and Floyd Mayweather Jr. might be fighting next, if Mayweather can’t put together a deal with Manny Pacquiao. Right now, it’s looking like that fight won’t happen due to the blood testing that Mayweather wants.
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