No - they are not. Sergio Martinez is no Jermain Taylor. ****!! Imagine what BHop would have done to Martinez!
The Jermain Taylor that was struggling against smaller, quick southpaws like Spinks? Roy jones Jr did better than Pavlik for ****s sakes against Hopkins!:rofl
I think Bute would probably win...But let's not forget that Bute was out on his feet against Andrade. And if there's one thing Pavlik can do it's punch.
At this point, Pavlik may just decide to take a couple more money fights and pad the nest. If there is good money for him to fight Bute then he may decide to take the money and test the waters. If he loses then retire or just take a couple more decent paying fights.
What B-Hop did was to celebrate victory with mineral water, take off the Sunday as vacation and get back to gym on Monday. The gym rat mentality is extremely beneficial long-term.
The problem is that Pavlik doesn't have the desire to train hard enough to improve his footwork and handspeed. No way he competes with elite fighters in ANY weight class if he isn't willing to get better. Maybe he can fight Pacman as slow, flat footed, and clumsy as he's looked recently I'm not sure Pac wouldn't weird him out...lol. Dude is done, bottom line, at any weight class if we are talking about him being elite.
I'm not Pavlik's advisor or anything, but in my mind that sounds like a horrible decision. You're talking about guys who take punches from natural 175lbers and deliver and KO natural 175lbers. Could be wrong, but that just seems like a really bad idea.
According to my wife, one of the local channels says it looks like he will move up but nothing official. I didn't hear the report so I'm not sure if they are guessing or not. I was told just prior to the last fight there was little chance of him returning to 160.