By Jake Donovan

With his repeat win over Jermain Taylor now in the books, Kelly Pavlik can now focus on the future. The Taylor bout was fought at a catchweight of 166 lb. While Jermain ventures on in the super middleweight division, the move for Pavlik was one and done as he plans a return to the middleweight division that he presently rules.

The question now is, what exactly awaits him?

It's an issue that has plagued the middleweight division for years – a clear or potential number one, but a bunch of number twos mostly by default.

The division was loaded with talent in the 1990's. The hard part was actually matching them together. With Don King controlling most of the titlists throughout the decade, fighters like James Toney, Roy Jones and most notable Bernard Hopkins found themselves without middleweight rivalries while the crown remained splintered.

Save for his super fights with Felix Trinidad and Oscar de la Hoya, not many middleweights were eager to step up and become Hopkins' rival. William Joppy and Howard Eastman, the closest the division had to a true number 2 during Hopkins' reign, both landed the slot by default. Jermain Taylor rose to the top of the challengers list in similar fashion, but it proved to be a moot point when he, and arguably with assistance from the judges, upended Hopkins not once but twice to end his 10-year reign.

Taylor's reign would prove to be the exact opposite to that of his predecessor: a short run, loaded with top contenders. In winning the title, he had a Hopkins rematch already waiting. By the time they finished their two-fight series, former linear junior middleweight champ Winky Wright established himself as next-in-line, by virtue of his achievements at 154, his shutout win over Felix Trinidad and decision win over Sam Soliman.

After his June 2006 bout with Wright ended in a stalemate, Taylor was afforded some breathing room. Wright was still regarded as the top middleweight challenger, but ultimately priced himself out of a rematch, leaving Taylor time to take on optional defenses while awaiting a new number two to surface.

Enter Pavlik, who turned back the challenges of Jose Luis Zertuche and Edison Miranda to stake his claim as Taylor's top threat. No sooner than Taylor was announced as the split decision winner of Cory Spinks did Pavlik, who stopped Miranda in the evening's co-feature, and promoter Bob Arum begin lobbying for an immediate title shot.

Pavlik received his shot, and overcame major adversity to eventually make the most of it, climbing off of the canvas in round two to rally back and knock out Taylor in a seven-round war that was voted by the Boxing Writers Association of America as 2007's Fight of the Year.

Now that Pavlik returns to middleweight, he finds his next assignment to be an optional defense, presumably against John Duddy an unbeaten - though unproven – contender who is every promoter's dream; major box-office appeal with limited skills.

Duddy still needs to get by his tuneup this weekend at Madison Square Garden before thinking about landing the Pavlik fight at the same venue in June. But let's pretend things play out as planned; Duddy wins this weekend, Pavlik wins in June.

What's next?

Most are calling for a showdown with Arthur Abraham, an undefeated transplanted Armenian with alphabet hardware, presently living in and fighting out Germany.

Abraham enjoyed a precocious beginning to his career, sprinting out to am 18-0 (16KO) start against a level of competition most newcomers and prospects would normally avoid. His star was officially on the rise the moment he iced credible contender Kingsley Ikeke in December 2005, less than three years as a pro.

Disappointingly, his career has since stalled, to a degree. A September 2006 title defense against then unbeaten Edison Miranda left Abraham with a broken jaw and a unanimous decision marred by controversy and fouls.

A rematch appeared in order, but both traveled separate paths. Miranda instead took HBO money, which led to a showdown – and a beatdown – against Pavlik. Abraham sat out for eight months to allow his wounds to heal before returning against Sebastian Demers, an undefeated contender who spent most of his career at 154 lb. Demers would represent the pick of the litter in Abraham's post-Miranda opposition, which includes next month's optional defense against Elvin Ayala.

That said, Abraham might very well become to Pavlik what Joppy, Eastman and Taylor were to Hopkins – the top contender by default.

Beyond Abraham, the pickings are slim. Taylor and Miranda are now both campaigning at 168. It's unclear as to what weight class Wright plans on returning to when he decides to resume his career. His last fight was a catchweight bout against Bernard Hopkins, and has since turned down fights at 160 (against Abraham) and 168 (Mikkel Kessler).

To find the best of the rest among those still campaigning at middleweight, you'll have to look overseas: Felix Sturm and Sebastian Sylvester, both representing Deutschland; Amin Asikeinan of Finland; 39-year old former two-division titlist Javier Castillejo of Spain, and finally, Ireland's own John Duddy.

Sturm had the best chance of all middleweights to make something of his career after falling on the wrong end of a highly controversial decision against Oscar de la Hoya in 2004. Instead of cashing his lottery ticket, Sturm let it expire, returning to Germany against a string of has-beens and no-hopers.

Even at that, he couldn't maintain his winning ways, turning a badly used-up Castillejo into a middleweight contender in their first fight in July 2006. Sturm edged out the Spaniard in the return go nine months later, but that it took two tries to squeeze out one win against that version of Castillejo, never much to begin with, doesn't speak boldly of any middleweight with linear title aspirations.

Sturm's last appearance was a draw against Randy Griffin, an American-based contender who can't even get himself arrested these days. The Philly-born boxer would be a solid contender with the right guidance, but instead often finds himself buried on Don King undercards, yet to garner any stateside TV time.

Rivals Asikeinan and Sylvester are similar in contender status. Both are durable and aggressive, even if not reflected in their knockout-to-win ratio. Their also joined by their hip due to their rivalry, tied at 1-1. The series produced their only notable wins, to date.

Asikeinan won their first fight in 2006, rallying from a slight deficit on all three scorecards to knock down Sylvester towards the end of the eighth round. Sylvester was up early, but spent the entire mandatory eight count fading backward, and was unresponsive as the referee waved off the bout. Sylvester would get his revenge a little over a year later, recovering from a rocky start to drop and eventually stop Asikeinan in the 11th round.

Both have since taken steps forward in proving their worth as middleweights. Asikeinan stopped Yori Boy Campas in seven rounds earlier this year, having a much easier go of it against the faded former contender than did Duddy (which partially explains why the Irishman is the opponent of choice as Pavlik's well-deserved "soft touch").

Sylvester next faces Castillejo in a bout that either further exposes his limitations, or once and for all rids the middleweight division of Castillejo. The winner of that fight could very well wind up as Sturm's mandatory challenger, with the last man standing possibly boasting a stronger claim to the #2 spot overall in the division.

That's IF Sturm fights the winner, providing he emerges victorious in an April bout against unbeaten but extremely unproven Aussie contender Jamie Pittman. Sturm-Castillejo III would be easier to make than Sturm-Sylvester, given that Universum (Sturm's promoter) and Sauerland Events (Sylvester's backers) rarely play nice together.

It'd be nice if American contenders decided to play at all. Griffin is still angling for a Sturm rematch, but without anyone waving a flag for his cause, don't expect to see him in a major middleweight fight anytime soon.

Sergio Mora looked solid in a win earlier this year, a nice recovery from his embarrassing draw against Elvin Ayala last October. To his credit, Mora is a straight shooter and offered no excuses for his subpar performance, nor did he avoid questions surrounding his decision to decline a May 2007 title shot against then champion Jermain Taylor. What has avoided his career, thus far is the type of performance that suggests he's worth anywhere near the enormous amount of hype received from winning the first Contender season finale.

Perhaps someone from beyond everyone's top ten will emerge, or at least serve as a footnote in building the next great middleweight challenger. There's undefeated Dominican contender Giovanni Lorenzo, who boasts a glossy record (26-0, 18KO), but a God-awful resume. That could change in the near future, as one rumor has him possibly fighting in the spring against murderous punching Fulgencio Zuniga in an alphabet-ordered eliminator.

Zuniga would represent a monumental leap in class for Lorenzo. His last loss came against Pavlik over two years ago, having scored an early knockdown before being forced to retire following nine rounds of punishing action. Zuniga has since won three straight, including a huge upset over notable prospect Victor Oganov last year on ShoBox.

If the Zuniga-Lorenzo bout comes to fruition, the winner would be in line to face Arthur Abraham, possibly in the co-feature slot of the June 7 Pavlik PPV. Would a win in such a bout be enough to cement Abraham's claim as #2 with a bullet? No, not objectively speaking. But in a bout pitting two contenders beneath a main event featuring the linear middleweight champion, the end result helps create the necessary hype to atone for such trivial matters.

Simply put, the end wouldn't justify the means. But life rarely follows that rule, so why should the middleweight division - even if their leader did, in climbing to the top.

Jake Donovan is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the Tennessee Boxing Advisory Board. His feature column runs every Tuesday, and his Prospect of the Week series runs every Thursday. Jake is also BoxingScene's official Telefutura correspondent.

Please feel free to submit any comments or questions to Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com