Even if that's true, Pavlik was the reigning MW champ at the time and was therefore in the driver's seat. He could have insisted Bernard come back down and if he didn't told him to take a hike. He wasn't put over a barrel, and to my knowledge has never in his career been in a position where he was at the mercy of an opponent's wishes regarding weight.
Taylor did indeed invoke his rematch clause with Pavlik and asked for 166, but as the sitting champion Kelly could have insisted that Jermain make 160. He who has the belt has the leverage. Martinez moved up. He was the reigning 154 lb champion despite having moved up once already to fight Williams (who himself has been unable to make up his mind between 147/154/160 for years now). I'm pretty sure he was still rated at light middleweight between the two bouts.
i wasnt trying to split hairs about who was in a more advantageous position. just pointing out that the fight was the hopkins camp's idea.
That's okay, I wasn't 100% sure who initiated the talks, but going back to what Loew was saying about Pavlik always having to move up in weight...unless we're talking about hypothetical fights that weren't ever made, that statement doesn't make much sense to me. Since coming into contention and then securing the title, Pavlik's fought over the middleweight limit twice, and both were for gravy paydays he could have passed on in choosing to just defend his title against the MW field instead. That actually gets me wondering - what would have been the worst case scenario if when Taylor invoked his rematch clause, Pavlik had told him to go cry a river? It's not like he could have been stripped, as Taylor wasn't even trying to win his titles back. It was a meaningless (to the division) catchweight bout. Would he have just had to pay some fine?
i never understood why the rematch was at a catchweight in the first place...why would jermain want the rematch at that weight i mean :huh but i have thought about the point you brought up. i have no idea what woulda happened. are these contracts w/ rematch clauses essentially a two fight deal where you have to give back some of your purse from the first fight if you refuse to give the rematch when the clause is invoked?
That has to be the extent of it. I can't imagine the WBO or WBC would have punished Pavlik in any way for turning away a non-title catchweight bout...it would have been totally absurd if they had. If he had bigger fish to fry at 160 he surely could have taken the financial hit and kept his belts. Unfortunately, short of a unification with either Sturm or (preferably) Abraham, there probably wasn't a MW fight lucrative enough to recoup whatever that hit might have been.
p.s. shaw just basically told arum to put up or shut up by responding to Loew saying angulo and dawson are ready to go....just stop having all your guys fight eachother in house and match up w/ fighters w/ other promoters. shaw said they can come up in weight or down in weight (reference to angulo and dawson) and that pavlik needs to tell arum to get his ass in gear if this is the case.
I read VM's statement and immediately thought of the Ouma fight. Vanes struggled with a small, half-shot, and feather-fisted pressure fighter, and now he wants to fight Kelly freaking Pavlik! Sounds like a death wish to me.
It was the combination of Pavlik/McKart and Taylor/Ouma that originally lead me to believe Pavlik could beat Taylor. Nobody ever just straight up handed Bronco his ass the way Kelly did, and if you struggle with Ouma, Pavlik will beat you senseless.