By Jim Dower: Former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (36-2, 32 KO’s) plans on taking the summer off and resting, according to news from Vindy.com. Pavlik, 28, lost his two middleweight titles in a disappointing 12 round unanimous decision loss to the faster, smaller Sergio Martinez last month on April 17th. Instead of using his rematch clause that he had in his contract with Martinez, Pavlik has decided to bypass the rematch and move up in weight so as to avoid having to struggle to make the 160 pound middleweight limit, which Pavlik has had an increasingly difficult time making as he’s aged.

He made the weight for the Martinez fight, but re-hydrated to 178. The extra weight that Pavlik has put on, all muscle, has made it hard for him to make weight without draining water weight and taking off muscle to get within the middleweight limit. Pavlik says “Could I make 160 again? Yeah, I could,” said Pavlik, who lost his titles by unanimous decision to Sergio Martinez on April 17. “Would I be healthy? No. Would I look better than I did [against Martinez]? No. Even if I had won the fight, it got to the point where I had to make some decisions.”
Pavlik reportedly weighed a solid 190 before he went into training for his fight with Martinez and had to run 10 to 11 miles a day while eating next to nothing to take off the weight. He reached a point where the weight wouldn’t come off when he got down to 165.

Due to the Super Six tournament that is still going on there really isn’t much point in Pavlik moving up to that weight class. Most of the top fighters in the division will be wrapped up in the tournament until next year some time. That means that Pavlik will be looking to move up to light heavyweight for possible fights against either Bernard Hopkins or Chad Dawson. Pavlik has no problems about fighting a rematch against the 45-year-old Hopkins, who beat Pavlik by a one-sided 12 round decision two years ago in October 2008.

The only question is whether Hopkins would be interested in going over old ground and fighting Pavlik. Hopkins hasn’t looked sensational in his last two fights and appears to be finally starting to show his age. Unless Pavlik is slower and more lethargic at light heavyweight, he could end up outworking Hopkins and beating him by a decision. However, just getting a fight with Hopkins would be half the battle. It might not be interesting for Hopkins to fight Pavlik right now, especially given the fact that Pavlik is coming off a loss to Martinez in April.

Pavlik would like to fight at super middleweight, but he may have to settle for the light heavyweight division until the Super Six tournament is over. If Hopkins and Dawson don’t show any interest in fighting Pavlik, then he can always go after Tavoris Cloud or Jean Pascal. Those two would make for interesting bouts and Pavlik would have a good chance of beating them if he could throw enough punches.