Abraham claims to be negotiating with Pavlik.

That's what I was referring to, the favorite before the super six starts. It's no surprise he(or anyone else) would drop off favorite lists after losing.

 

Gary Lockett
Marco Antonio Rubio
Miguel Espino
Sergio Martinez (loss)

Those names are Kelly Pavlik's title defenses. Until you get to Martinez who came up from 154, that also is a pretty crappy list.

The reality is that MW was a pretty terrible division. There were 3 main guys after Pavlik took out Taylor (which Taylor then moved up in weight). Pavlik, Abraham, and Sturm....and they all wouldn't fight each other for whatever reason. The only viable guy out there was Miranda (no sense in a rematch with Pavlik, AA had a rematch with him at a catchweight and won....and Sturm...well...). Anyways, if they were going to fight middleweights, they were going to fight guys of a lesser standard....because there wasn't anyone out there for them if they weren't going to fight each other. So, Pavlik eventually looked south to fight Williams which didn't happen and subsequently fought Martinez and it didn't work out.

 

As for the fight, I think you have to favor Pavlik. Just a bigger guy, he should be able to keep it at his range and win convincingly.

 

How badly has it affected his performance?

Like I said, hes been beaten by 2 HOF fighters. The Martinez fight was a tough back and forth contest where he had Martinez down.

And hes won his fights since.

Wheres the evidence,hes washed up?

 

Wasn't Sauerland trying to get Dirrell for Abraham? Can't trust Sauerland with anything they say, they're proven liars and scumbags.

 

Though I would favor Pavlik in the fight, the other part of this sums up my feelings on this. It's ridiculous to me to criticize AA and say "oh, he won't fight anyone but weak mandatories in Germany now that he has the belt! He's scared of Pavlik!"....at MW Pavlik basically fought weak mandatories too. If AA was scared of Pavlik, running up to 168 and fighting some of the best guys up there is a funny way to go about it. Also, about the mandatories....I believe his mandatory after Stieglitz(whos better than any Pavlik or AA MW defense) is George Groves, who very well might be a harder fight than one with Pavlik.

AA could have taken the easier route if he wanted to just milk a belt at 168. He could have gone up earlier and fought someone like Inkin or Balszay. Or he could have gone up and instead of fighting in the tournament, he could have fought Stieglitz then.

As it stands now, AA has been in with more quality opposition than Pavlik has and in a more compressed manner (less time to recover....Taylor, Dirrell, Froch, Ward almost consecutively). Put it this way, if I recall correctly, Pavlik fought Martinez in April 2010. Who has he fought since then? We're going on almost 3 years and he hasn't fought anyone that would be considered a "live body" on here. Before Martinez, you have to go a 1 1/2 years back to get to Hopkins. So, basically in 4 1/2 years he's fought 2 "live bodies" not even looking at the results of those fights...that's a considerable amount of time to recover.

 

Every promoter does this. Pretty much every promoter is a liar/sleezy.

 

Personally, I don't care if he's a drinker in regards to fighting, though I hope he gets his **** together for his own sake.

First off, I honestly don't know if Martinez is a HOF. Maybe. Maybe not. He kinda stepped up late in his career. In regards to the fight it was an 8-4 decision, but not every 8-4 decision is equal. One guy took a pretty bad beating in that fight, and it wasn't Martinez.

Secondly, just because he beat Alfonso Lopez, Aaron Jaco, Scott Sigmon, and Will Rosinsky doesn't mean he hasn't slipped. The first 3 names are club fighters...and Will Rosinsky is a fringe contender who is noted for the injustice of a fight against Edwin Rodriguez but that loses some steam when he went life and death against Otis Griffin the other weekend. He just hasn't been impressive...and against Lopez he looked really poor. I know some Pavlik fans on here have said certain things like "I don't look at the Lopez fight, Kelly had a bad camp"...but then Lopez loses every round to Dyah Davis Jr. and then loses to a fighter with a 3-5 record. That must have been some terrible camp. Overall he just hasn't looked impressive in his 4 fights and that's where I think people get the idea that he might be washed up.

 

This is true, however my point was that it doesnt prove he HAS slipped either.

He has just gotten the results against fighter who are worse than him, but it could be argued he was getting used to a new trainer and trying things out.

 

Who did you want him to fight smartass. He fought all boxers rated by the IBF and he fought all the boxers who were available and willing to fight him (Pavlik and Sturm were not). Of course some of those defenses were against poor contenders but the whole division was poor by that time and not as packed as nowadays.

 

I would love this fight I don't care about a fight with Stieglitz but this would be a really fun fight

 

when pavlick lost to Hopkins and moved back down I didnt think it was clear cut who the #1 mw was any more and I was really hoping this fight would come off.

Both are at a similar stage of rebuilding their damages reputation but AA is a step further since he's beaten a world class opponent and Pavlick is looking for that fight himself atm.

It's hard to say how this goes since Kelly has huge question marks about him. Both personally and professionally.

I think arthurs traditional high guard won't really work against the piston like attacks of Kelly. If you stand in front of him, you're gonna pay. Arthur will have to be a bit more aggressive after losing the early rounds and I think that makes for a cracking fight.

Both huge punchers, both huge chins. Both came out on top of shoot outs with Miranda which is saying something.

A good honest 50/50 crossroads matchup.

 

The negociations have been confirmed by Cameron Dunkin, at least now Pavliktards can't come up with that ******ed statement again.

 

I've wanted this fight for a long time. Sure, it lacks the shine it had a few years back. I'll take it now anyway. I'll go with a Pavlik UD.

 

Abraham turned pro in 2003, in his 13th pro fight, he was already fighting 36-1 Nader Hamdan for the Inter-Continental WBO belt. He then defended that belt against decent opposition (Howard Eastman, Ian Gardner). In 2005, only 2 years after turning pro, he fought Kingsley Ikeke and beat him for the IBF title. He defended against poor to decent opposition for more than 10 fights. He was willing the meet the very best but Pavlik and Sturm didn't. Consequently, he decided to move up in weight and started by taking on the best fighters in a complete new weighclass. He got his ass handed to him pretty badly but at least he tried and lost like a man. He's now recovering his carreer and beat a legit world class fighter in Stieglitz.

On the other hand, Kelly Pavlik turned pro in 2000, he fought 25 cab drivers and janitors and padded his record to 25-0. He waited 5 ****ing years to meet his first test in gatekeeper Fulgencio Zuniga for the NABF title. He then waited another 2 years (fighting AA's leftover Miranda and 2 or 3 other bums) before he gets his first world chance, in 2007, 7 years after turning pro. atsch He defended it against some more bums and a welterweight who beat the **** out of him and made him look like Frankenstein. Now he's back fighting Jaco and Scott Sigmon and those bitchass Pavliktards still got the nerves to say AA is the one who doesn't fight live bodies ? :think