By Jason Kim: Trainer Jack Loew believes his fighter former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (36-2, 32 KO’s) is going to jump right back “into the thick of things” when he takes his next fight instead of taking a minor tune-up fight. This is after Pavlik was recently released from an alcohol rehab clinic after spending two months there getting treatment.

Pavlik, 28, hasn’t fought since losing his WBC/WBO titles against Sergio Martinez in April of 2010. That was a crushing defeat for Pavlik, because he had held those titles since beating Jermain Taylor in September 2007. To be sure, Pavlik had been badly schooled by the 43-year-old Bernard Hopkins in a one-sided 12 round decision loss in October 2008, but that fight was held at a catch weight and Pavlik’s two titles weren’t on the line for that fight.

The loss did send out alarms that Pavlik’s one-dimensional fighting style needed to be re-tooled to fix his many flaws. However, Pavlik failed to change anything and as soon as he was finally matched against a fighter that had the talent to exploit his flaws in Martinez, Pavlik was easily beaten. The good news is that the middleweight division is so god awful poor, Pavlik will likely be able to easily recapture one of the titles and hold onto it for another two or three more years before he gets schooled again by somebody.

In an interview at vindy.com, Loew said “I don’t think it’s going to be a minor fight. Kelly wants to just get right back into the thick of things. One or two wins and he’s right back into the title picture. We’re not going to fight him anywhere where he’s uncomfortable. We’re not going to do him what we did against Sergio Martinez. Wherever his weight falls, if it’s 175, that’s what we’re gonna do.”

Pavlik has been having more and more trouble squeezing into the 160 pound division, and there’s speculation that he may decide to move up to 168 or 175. However, the super middleweight division is loaded with talented fighters and Pavlik may not be skilled enough to win a title at that weight. Pavlik would have a much better chance at light heavyweight, but even at that weight there’s several talented fighters that Pavlik might not be able to beat.