Pavlik is early into his career, people will still clammer to watch him fight lowly contenders and write is off as "he is only a young up and comer"". The man has a ton of options and I think they will only grow.
And just what options are you talking about. Who on your list was 1) available for a fight no later than mid October; 2) finacially viable; 3) a big enough name for HBO; 4) willing to take the fight? They have to meet all four criteria. Only Hopkins fit the bill. Since Calzaghe can't find his balls, after BHop we'll probably see Pavlik/Abraham at 160. The last time Kelly fought at 170 he fought at 160 five weeks later, so I don't think the weight is an issue.
The only fight between P4P in the last few months is Pavlik-Hopkins. It's a very legitimate and pretty interesting fight, the pressure, power and stamina is really bad for a 43 year-old and Hopkins ability to take predictable fighters apart can be Pavlik's kryptonite. There's no other legitimate fight for 2008. What is a good news for the big MW showdown, Pavlik-Abraham hopers is that since Calzaghe fights Jones only in November and HBO/Top Rank has already reserved January 24 for Kelly, so win or lose vs. Hopkins, the Abraham fight is very possible. And since Arthur's fight will be available to watch (on PPV) in the US, no more 'interim' fights are needed.
All those guys are either busy or less challenging than Hopkins Calzaghe, RJJ, Kessler, Abraham, Dawson, Bute, Tarver are the only challenges on that list that can be argued as worthy, and they are all busy. Keep in mind that Hopkins recently demolished Tarver and fought close with Calzaghe. And RJJ is more shot than Hopkins. Dawson and Tarver are fighting each other. Abraham, Kessler and Bute have mandatories. When writers say "he has few options" they mean on the short term. Noone expects Pavlik to stay inactive for another 7 or 8 months waiting around for his next fight. Pavlik has few options, the writers are dead on. and btw Mora sucks and Margarito is too small for Pavlik
Joe Calzaghe - Pavlik's trying. He's really trying. But Joe simply won't take the bait. RJJ - No. RJJ isn't going into the ring with someone with the potential to hurt him. He's semi-retired. Chad Dawson - Pavlik's fighting out of his weight class against Hopkins. It's a significant disadvantage for him as the additional weight he has for the fight won't be muscle mass. It's offset by the fact that Hopkins isn't in his prime. Dawson is in his prime. As such Pavlik shouldn't go for that fight until he's ready to abandon middleweight division altogether. Adrian Diacona - Same boat as Chad Dawson Tarver - I don't think Tarver is quite marketable enough to justify going up two weight classes. Kessler - Very cool fight though Kessler is still lacking in the US appeal department. Butte - Same boat as Kessler. Arthur Abraham - Loosely scheduled for next year. Until then he's stuck in mandatory purgatory. Sergio Mora - They tried but Sergio just couldn't get out of his rematch. They may try again. Margarito - Horrible fight for Margarito. Instead of being the indomitable pressure fighter he would instead become the pressured fighter against a power puncher with an extremely strong stanima. And its not like their aren't good fights at Welterweight.