By Liam Fitzgerald: After recently losing the WBC and WBO Middleweight belts that he held, Kelly Pavlik has stated his intention to leave the division and campaign at a higher weight.

However, after struggling badly in his only prior defeat to Bernard Hopkins at 170lbs, it is difficult to see where Pavlik will have most success in the future.

The obvious answer is Super Middleweight where he would feel more comfortable but his problem is the lack of quality opposition he has to choose from. The majority of the division’s top fighters are tied up in the Super 6 tournament which Pavlik is not a part of having said that he would let its competitors beat each other up and ruin their careers. However, having now lost himself this decision seems to have backfired on the Ohio man.

I feel Pavlik could have had some success if he had joined in the tournament. I believe his style would cause problems for the tournament’s main star at the moment, Andre Ward. Ward dominated Mikkel Kessler in his first bout but the Dane is a shadow of his former self now and I feel that Ward continuously coming forward against a powerful puncher such as Pavlik could leave him vulnerable. The aging Kessler would be someone else that I feel Pavlik could beat whilst the late replacement Allan Green is quite simply not in his quality and would most likely be blown away.

I would see Pavlik’s main opposition in the tournament coming from the Europeans Arthur Abraham and Carl Froch as well as the young American star Andre Dirrell. Abraham and Froch are very strong and could quite easily slug it out with Pavlik. Both men also come on strongly in later rounds whereas Pavlik has tended to tire recently which makes me believe that they would be tough for Pavlik to handle. Kelly’s static nature in the ring would also put him in big trouble against Dirrell who is lightning quick and would have no problems landing punches and slipping his opponents.

However, the fact is that everyone in the super 6 has some vulnerabilities so one defeat is not necessarily devastating. Pavlik would likely have lost if he had competed but whereas against Martinez this left him without his belts, in the tournament he would have a second chance. Therefore, I believe Pavlik has made a big mistake in not moving up in weight earlier like Abraham and joining in the innovative competition.

So that leaves one real option for Pavlik at Super Middleweight in Lucian Bute, the IBF champion who is also not participating in the Super 6. This potentially could be a great fight with the winner taking on the winner of the super 6 in a mouth-watering unification bout. Stylistically I feel Pavlik has a decent chance as well as Bute likes to move around the ring but is not particularly effective when doing so. Even though Bute is a southpaw, Edison Miranda tagged him with a number of right hands before being stopped in the 3rd round of their fight recently. You would have to feel Pavlik would stick around for a lot longer and potentially cause Bute the problems that Librado Andrade did in their first fight. I’d still probably make Bute favourite but it would be a great pick’em fight in the division.

The worst move for Pavlik in my mind would be to Light Heavyweight. He would have trouble with the main men who are all young and exciting like Dawson, Pascal and Cloud. Therefore, I believe Bute is the man he should look to next with a view to fighting the winner of the Super 6 afterwards. If he wants a fight beforehand to get used to the weight, Jermain Taylor could be an option. The man he has already twice defeated pulled out of the Super 6 but is looking to return and surely would jump at the opportunity. A win for Pavlik would also regain confidence and put him in a good position to challenge the major players at 168lbs.