Pavlik's Choices [Poll]

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After Lucian Bute beat a mandatory challenger who was a little tougher than expected, before a crowd that was slightly smaller than expected, the unbeaten Bute and his handlers gladly talked about the fight they all want to bring to Bell Centre.
Jean Bedard, president for Interbox, said early on Saturday at a press conference that the French-Canadian promotional company’s plan is to have Bute box former middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik sometime in March. That fight surely would draw a capacity crowd to the home of the NHL’s Canadiens, but it is contingent on Pavlik (36-2, 32 KOs) beating Bryan Vera (17-5, 11 KOs) on the Manny Pacquiao-Antonio Margarito undercard Nov. 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
“I know there is talk, but Pavlik has a big fight coming up,” Stephan Larouche, Bute’s trainer, said following Bute’s ninth-round stoppage of Jesse Brinkley on Friday night. “He is fighting in November, and when you’ve lost a fight the next fight is always big. So he’s fighting Nov. 13. Let’s see how he will do. I’m sure if you talked to Pavlik, he’d say, ‘Hey, let me do my fight and then we’ll talk.’ But I heard that there’s talk between his promoter and our promoter.”
Larouche also specified that a Pavlik-Bute bout could be contested at a minimum catch weight no lower than 166 pounds, if Pavlik decides he doesn’t want to give away all eight pounds that separate the middleweight and super middleweight divisions. Bute (27-0, 22 KOs) has been the IBF’s super middleweight champion since October 2007, but Pavlik has been a middleweight for all but two of his major fights, a lopsided loss to Bernard Hopkins two years ago (170 pounds) and a unanimous decision defeat of Jermain Taylor in their rematch 2½ years ago (166 pounds was the contract weight).
Bute has weighed in at less than 168 pounds for each of his last four title defenses, but not lower than 166¾ pounds.


“Our plan was, after April [17] we were supposed to fight Pavlik, but he lost against Martinez,” Jean Bedard said, referring to Bute’s third-round technical knockout of Edison Miranda (33-5, 29 KOs) at Bell Centre.



“[Pavlik] has got a fight in November, but that is our plan, to do a fight in March, probably here at the Bell Centre, probably with HBO. And they would love to have a fight with Lucian and Pavlik.”
Carl Moretti, vice president of boxing operations for Top Rank Inc., said Saturday morning that Top Rank’s decision-makers have discussed matching Pavlik against Bute if their fighter from Youngstown, Ohio, defeats the rugged Vera. Pavlik is a heavy favorite in that fight, despite that Argentina’s Sergio Martinez out-boxed Pavlik so soundly that he declined to exercise a rematch clause in their contract following Martinez’s career-changing win at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
Like Martinez, Bute is a smart, smooth southpaw who moves more than enough to create a daunting stylistic challenge for Pavlik, an athletically limited boxer who has fared far better against opponents who’ve remained right in front of him.



“[Bute-Pavlik] clearly is an attractive fight all around,” Moretti said. “The question is, after Nov. 13 does Kelly want to campaign at middleweight or super middleweight? Pavlik is in a position where he still wants big fights. Well, you can’t get a bigger fight than Bute at 168, if he decides to move to that weight class.”


If Pavlik opts to remain at middleweight, he could pursue the winner of the Paul Williams-Martinez rematch Nov. 20 at Boardwalk Hall, where Pavlik was supposed to oppose Williams twice last year before complications from a nagging staph infection forced him to postpone the first fight and cancel the second one. Williams (39-1, 27 KOs) and Martinez (45-2-2, 24 KOs), who waged one of the best brawls of 2009 on Dec. 5 at Boardwalk Hall, will fight for the WBC 160-pound crown Martinez won from Pavlik.
“Recapturing the middleweight title is something that’s attractive to Pavlik,” Moretti said. “It’s just a matter of how his body feels and everything else.”
Financial factors could dictate Pavlik’s path if he overcomes Vera as well, since making a deal with Interbox to battle Bute figures to be easier for Top Rank than negotiating with Al Haymon, Williams’ adviser, or Lou DiBella, Martinez’s promoter.
Bute, 30, clearly would welcome a fight against Pavlik, 28, as he awaits the conclusion of Showtime’s messy “Super Six World Boxing Classic,” which has tied up virtually every relevant super middleweight in boxing other than him.
For now, however, the Romanian-born boxer is savoring a win against the tough-but-overmatched Brinkley (35-6, 22 KOs), who has shown marked improvement after appearing on NBC’s “The Contender” five years ago. Bute dropped Brinkley three times in the bout, before referee Sam Williams mercifully waved an end to the action as Brinkley collapsed in a heap at 2:48 of the ninth round, once Bute blasted him with what was literally a breath-taking left uppercut to the body.
Bute, who has stopped three straight opponents with body blows, also floored the game Brinkley with well-placed punches to his body in the fifth and eighth rounds.
“Brinkley was very, very tough,” Bute said. “He has a good heart, very good punches. He has a good right hand and a good left hook. He was in good shape. But I had good preparation. I was in camp [in Florida] for six weeks. I’m very proud of my performance tonight.”
Larouche felt as though Brinkley benefited from long counts by Williams following the first two knockdowns, but credited him for continuing to come forward against a superior fighter who was cheered wildly by a crowd of 11,682.
“Brinkley is a bit of an awkward fighter,” Larouche said. “We knew he’s a courageous guy. We knew he has heart, and he would never quit. Even though I felt that Lucian probably knocked him out three times tonight, the guy was hard to time. He’s awkward … but he did almost what we were expecting him to do.”
[FONT=&quot]If Pavlik does what they expect on Nov. 13, they’ll anticipate a much more difficult fight here come March.[/FONT]

 

I've heard that Kelly entered the training camp for Vera fight weighing less than 170 pounds.
Against Martinez he entered at 195 pounds.

 

I didn't thought to add that option to the poll.
I don't think he's damaged goods , i just think he met a great opponent in Martinez. The weight and the cut's(bleeding) problems didn't help either.