Would Pavlik be where he is today if he had beaten Hopkins?

funny thing is i remember 1 HBO special where he was throwing darts in a bar and they said he didnt drink at all

you don't just start drinking hard like that in your mid/late 20s.

Pretty sure the drinking problem started before the Hopkins fight. And likely contributed to him losing in such an embarrassing fashion. Not that he was going to win regardless.

He doesnt have the mental capcity/toughness to overcome adversity, so not beating Hopkins and becoming a drunken loser as soon as things get tough go hand and hand.

It is not like he just started drinking with that loss, sure it probably hastened the process but it was always going to happen at some point if it became this big of an issue, it was just a matter of when not if.

No I think he would have eventually lost to Martinez if he would have fought him.

I think he had drinking problems b4 but that fight def couldn't have helped.....

I can quite honestly say that, if he won that fight, it would be such a HUGE victory for him that he would've died within the week celebrating over dosing on alcohol. Very real possibility. Alcohol was going to ruin him at some point.

It's hard to say - for those people who have a genetic pre-disposition to addiction, it may not take as many life events to put them over the edge and start abusing substances as it would for people who no family history of addiction. That was a big loss, and it was about as embarrassed as one can get inside the ring. it probably was traumatic. I mean ****t, im just a fan and i haven't put down the bottle since then either