IMO He will get back in the ring immediately to get the sour taste of defeat out of his mouth. Probably fight his mandatory, Rubio... destroy him, regain some confidence, and then unify the MW titles with Abraham. Anything less is unacceptable at this point! Oh and never ever fight Calzaghe if he knows what's good for him :deal
Pavlik just lost his shot at Calzaghe I do believe and he did mention that he was going back down to 160.. I say he fights his mandatory Marco Rubio, beat him and get his confidence back up and then sign a fight with Abraham..
The question isn't can he come back but what should he do? Are you suggesting retirement? Yeah he has to get in with some can in 6 months or so, maybe another tuneup and then Abraham. that was ****ing brutal. I don't care what anyone says that was a completely different version of Nard than we have seen in a long time. He was great tonight. That ****er made me feel old at 29.
Steve Bunce mentioned on the Sentanta coverage (UK) carl froch would own pavlik. tht would be a good fight to watch but 160 is Pavlik's comfort zone, shud just move down and build up his confidence, it is devastating to lose to a underdog 43 year old Hopkins, so he will need to bang up a few to gain back some confidence.
It's official he's going to fight Rubio next at middleweight according to Arum then maybe a fight with Abraham mid or late next year.
Yup and mandatory, seeing as Abraham needs to take care of his mandatory next too both are on the same page.
It's obvious that Pavlik has to continue his career at MW. His biggest asset is his physical advantage compared to most other MWs, he's a tall, big strong MW, but these assets are gone at heigher weights. I've always said that Pavlik should stay at MW. And he's still the MW champ. Like the threadstarter said, he should fight his mandatory to get back on track and then seek a unification fight with Arthur Abraham. One thing I wanna say is that I can't understand how many people here at ESB already write him off due to this loss, saying he's shot, never was any good etc... I mean it's true that he was overhyped, he's not the white Marvin Hagler like some claimed he is before Saturday, but he still is a very good fighter. And it's not like he lost to some nobody, but to an ATG, and he still went the distance. He proved again that he's tough and he probably learned a lot on Saturday, and I believe he will be back stronger.
The main thing is Pavlik should never fight above middleweight. His management team, and to a degree I suppose, Pavlik himself greatly miscalculated his ability to win at higher weights. Bottom line, he is just too slow above 160 to compete at the highest level. Stay at 160, clean out the division. Simple as that.
Return to 160, where he belongs. The good thing for him is that nobody else fights like Hopkins. He can't fight that style, even if the fight took place at 160.
