His hand isn't now being forced by the sanctioning bodies because he satisfied his mandatory by fighting his last fight. From what I gather, he didn't want to fight that fight because of the staph infection, but they would have stripped him of his belts if he didn't.
I bet two things happened. One, Pavlik himself wants big money fights after a dismal 2009 as does HBO who won't continue to give him big dates if he doesn't face top-level challenges. Martinez satisfies that. Two, Pavlik knows he will have to move up in weight soon and putting him against Martinez on a split feed with Bute sets up a big fight with Bute in the late summer.
That is a completely ridiculous statement. You must be bitter about Pavlik failing to fight Williams. Pavlik had a poor 2009. No doubt about it, but he is no coward. I don't need to point out that he fought Miranda immediately after Miranda had broken Abraham's jaw; he fought Taylor who had never been beat and was the middleweight champion of the world; and, he went up ten pounds to fight p4p Bernard Hopkins. After all that, how is it possible that he is a coward?
Is he not a coward if he beats Martinez?


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