Well they said that he fought Martinez right after he dropped out of rehab and who knows how bad his alcoholism was the past 3 years, so you never know. If he gets fit again and sober there is no reason why he won't be competitive at 160.
As a recovered alcoholic with a couple decades of sobriety, and an active roll in the recovering community, I see 2 fundamental questions. 1) Will Kelly Pavlik be succsessful in his attempt to recover? 2) Will Pavlik ever fight again? Tens of millions of alcoholics world wide have recovered from the disease, but they are not the majority. They actually represent of pretty small minorty. Kelly's chances are good, because he has a lot of support behind him. However, knowing the alcoholic mind the way I do, I can also tell you that there is a strong possibility that Pavlik is still in denial, and only agreed to treatment so that his wife and family would shut the **** up! There are good reasons to be hopeful, but there are also plenty of reasons to be pessimistic. Either way I can all but guarantee you Pavlik will fight again. I was under the impression that KP had done quite well with his money, but now that the whole truth is out, I doubt that. Alkies aren't exactly great money managers. Alcoholics can blow through money like the **** was on fire, and have nothing to show for it afterward. In fact, that is the norm. Kelly does not have any other way to earn a decent living. He'll probably keep fighting even if he stays drunk. If I had the chance to speak to Pavlik face to face, I'd tell him the same thing they told me in the beginning. "Get busy livin' or get busy dyin' cuz there ain't no third option." The only person who can make that choice is Kelly Pavlik.
I hope he does come back and your not around b/c fans like you make people want to see Kelly lose. Just so they can shut the dumb kid down on the boards.