If Arthur Abraham and Felix Sturm are unwilling to fight Pavlik for unification should he move up to super?

Question

There are limited options at middleweight. He has a tune up scheduled with John Duddy and/or possibly a match with an aging Felix Trinidad. HE hopes to get the other two titles but they are in Germany and the UK. Joe Calzaghe has stated that if he comes to supermiddleweight that he wants to fight him. Also there are other exciting possibilities with Mikkel Kessler, rising star Lucian Bute, Jeff Lacy, Roy Jones Jr and other known fighters.

Answer 1

first of all calzaghe has said numerous times that after the fight with hopkins he might fight one more time until he retires so this time that a s is talking about idk where it is.  But kessler needs would be a good matchup.  Calzaghe has shown interest in Pavlik, on espn.com it said that he was very closely watching pavlik-taylor 2 and said he would like to fight the winner of tht b4 he retires.  Calzaghe i think would blow past hopkins which i think he will, he would fight pavlik.  Pavlik has only a couple of options at middleweight, duddy, wright, and maybe abraham and sturm who are not impressive.  Abraham is tho showing interest, he said he might be on the undercard of his fight with duddy or trinidad.  But i dont thin abraham will fight pavlik yet, so after he wins on the 7th and abraham was not on the undercard, i would without a doubt go up in weight to super middleweight only for one fight, to fight calzaghe, b/c by then maybe abraham and sturm would come to america and want to fight pavlik. And calzaghe said if he fights another time it would be pavlik.

Answer 2

Kelly is definietely going to stay at middle weight  he said hes gonna stay at middle weight until he can't make 160.

Kelly pavliks promoter bob arum wants kelly to fight trinidad to make a title defence and to make some money. Yet trindads father said he doesn't think tito can make 160.

I doubt kelly and tito will fight any time soon i think trinidad wants to get a win after his decision loss to roy. I think a good match up would be between tito and taylor.

As for kelly i think he'll make his first title defence against  john duddy on june 7th which i believe will be an easy fight for pavlik because duddys style is sloppy and its easy to counter him



If calzaghe beats hopkins then i think calzaghe will relinquish his super middle weight belts and will keep his new light heavey weight belt, and possibly unify belts with roy jones because   roy said he will fight calzaghe any where even whales.

But if hopkins wins then maybe calzaghe and pavlik will fght yet calzaghe said this might be his last year fighting. And kelly might not want to move up to super middle weight for another 2 years

guys like jeff lacy and lucian bute should fight taylor i'd very much like to see those fights,,, taylor did say he wants to fight at super middleweight

arthur abraham and felix sturm i belive would lose to pavlik. I know that sturm should have won that fight with de la hoya but the fact that de la hoya went 12 rounds with him shows alot,  i'm sure pavlik woul dhave sturm down with in 6 rounds. I don't know very much about arthur abrham other than hes 5"11 and has a shorter reach than pavlik so that would be a huge advantage for pavlik. I'm sure sturm and abraham are affraid to fight pavlik because they don't want to lose their titles but i would lke to see them fight each other.

Answer 3

Pavlik is the king of the Middleweights, he should stay at 160 as long as his body will let him. Eventually with his frame he'll have to move up to 168 and 175. As long as Pavlik stays in good shape and isn't killing himself to make 160 he should stay there and make guys come to him if they want a pay day.

Answer 4

he said he wants to stick around to defend his belts, i think its pretty much a guarantee his next fight will be trinidad and then duddy. Sturm and Abraham have no appear in america so i doubt he will waste his time with either of them.

Calzaghe is a possible opponent for the future but he will play with pavlik. Jones could also be a possibility. The other guys are lesser known names except for Lacy who has lost most of his appeal. Kessler or Bute seem more like guys Taylor will have to fight since he has no belts and needs to redeem his name.

Moving up wont be a problem for pavlik but for now hes so strong at this weight he should milk it for some time before fighting a beast like kessler or calzaghe.

Answer 5

The one guy not mentioned is Winky Wright, another name opponent who would provide enough of a challenge to make it interesting against Pavlik, Wink could easily get down to 160.  Whom ever Pavlik chooses to fight, I agree with the idea that he should stay at middle weight for at least 3 or 4 fights before considering moving up.  I honestly think Winky Wright would be tougher than Tito, or the three Europeans, even though Abraham and Duddy are unbeaten, they have no where near the level of competition that Wink has on his resume.  Both Roy Jones Jr. and Jeff Lacy are damaged goods, I honestly think Pavlik would KO both.  Kessler is a dangerous fight for Pavlik, that one would be interesting.  If I was Joe Calzaghe, after disposing of Hopkins, Pavlik would look like the perfect $$$$ fight.  The question is how long will Pavlik stay at 160 lbs, he was 166 for the second Taylor fight, which indicates possible weight issues already.  At 168 Pavlik/Bute would match up a couple of KO artists and make for some fireworks, Lucian has a string of over a dozen KO's in a row, but he doesn't fight outside of Canada much and Pavlik won't go to Montreal to fight him.

For now, Pavlik is the premier middle weight in the world, and his next couple fights should cement that status before he considers the higher weigh classes.

Answer 6

I like your idea, but i think Pavlik should stay at the 160 division and just run the table, if Abraham or Sturm dont want to give him a shot, i say he should force his way into fighting them by being the #1 contender for their respective belts. Pavlik has a good thing going right now, so at this moment in his career, there is no reason to move up just yet, as of right now, i see him as the heir to the Middleweight division and not Taylor, everyone just "knew" Taylor was the new man when he beat Hopkins, but now that new man is Pavlik and he should stay where he's at until he's forced out.