According to the local paper, his next move may be healing the right hand he thinks he broke in the 7th. They have an abbrieviated version of the article on line and left that part out.
I think Trinidad would be the best fight for him. An older champion, with a great resume, bad chin, and who always packs Madison Square Garden! That fight would make Pavlik the most by far of any optional defense and would be relatively safe.
Duddy is the best choice for him. Unbeaten prospect at the height of his career. It's also a bt of a gimme fight for Pavlik. I'd love to see Duddy win, but I really can't see him doing it. Duddy, Abraham, Sturm and then 168.
Kelly doesn't lose anything by giving Duddy a shot before anything else - he would defend his middleweight title for the first time since winning it, and could make the most of that fight to readjust back to 160 pounds and against less credited but still an undefeated, hungry challenger... In Jermain's short reign, there were indications that it's not a good idea to put all the best contenders in line so that you can impress. Duddy will, at least, try to to make Kelly look bad and that is enough good reason for the Champion to work hard and prove him wrong... Arthur Abraham is an accomplished fighter and a unification fight should be considered when either Kelly or Arthur run out of options. Both of them have time and this is nothing like 43 years old Bernard Hopkins or 34 years old Joe Calzaghe... Actually, I'm sure a lot of people don't really care who's Kelly Pavlik opponent at this moment, they just want to see him fight as often as possible.
Id rather see Pavlik destroy Duddy in June and Tito **** up someone on the undercard to set up a huge showdown for the belts in October. How do u promote a title match now with the guy challenging losing 2 fights in a row where he wont maybe 3 rounds total of 24 and last win was October,5th,2004.