In the end, Pavlik emerged victorious after knocking out Taylor in the seventh round and became one of boxing's newest superstars. It was the hope that he could attract people who weren't boxing fans and hopefully make the sport more mainstream.

Fast forward to today after two losses (One to Bernard Hopkins and another to Sergio Martinez for the middleweight title), public battles with alcohol and frequent withdrawals from high profile bouts and fans are wondering if they'll ever see Kelly Pavlik in the professional ring again. With his decision to pull out of his fight with Darryl Cunningham just days before the fight, not due to injury or personal problems with alcoholism but simply because he didn't like the money he was going to be paid for this fight. Adding fuel to the fire that he was going to be paid only 1.5 million to fight super-middleweight titleholder Lucian Bute while Mikkel Kessler (Also on the comeback trail) was apparently offered twice that amount.

On one hand, I can sort of understand Pavlik's position. He claims that he wasn't told that he was only going to be paid $50,000 for this fight until this week. And if that's the case then he has every right to be mad. Also...well, to be fair I think he should be making a little more than $50,000 for this fight. Granted, no one's heard of Cunningham but Kelly Pavlik's name still carries some weight in the sport. Beating him takes your career to new heights and thus, he should be paid accordingly.

On the other hand...  this sort of leaves me scratching my head. Now, I'm not a professional fighter but I know that fights aren't official until the contract has been signed and I imagine that one of the things that they go over in a contract signing is how much the purse for the fighters is going to be. Sorry, but that's one of the first things I would want to know.

Secondly, Pavlik can't really afford to be acting like this. If I were him, I would have gone forward with the fight, vocally voiced my complaints, kicked Cunningham's ass and made it clear that if I was going to be fighting Bute, then I should be getting the maximum amount possible. Not an unreasonable amount but enough for a former champion who is trying to get his career back on track by taking on a big name (Bute) in his adopted hometown.

But he didn't. He pulled out of a fight in his own hometown and has let the people of Youngtown, his fans around the world, his promoters and the sport of boxing down. Don't count on ever seeing him on Showtime boxing again. Not that Pavlik would mind after he publicly bashed the network by saying no one watches it. Although I wonder if he ever saw the numbers for his Top Rank PPV's against such riveting opponents as Marco Rubio and Miguel Espino.

Right now Pavlik is doing a lot of talking, saying how he may not fight again. It kind of reminds me a bit of Charlie Sheen as soon as he got fired by CBS. If we hear Pavlik declaring himself to be "winning" then we know he's in trouble.

Pavlik needed this fight. He hadn't had a significant win since he rematched Jermain Taylor in early 2008 and even that was a bit unmemorable. But he's proven himself to be unreliable and really tarnished the image of the working class hero he worked so hard to establish. It's too bad because he was an entertaining fighter. Yes, his corner offered him the same advice all the time ("Double the f__kin' jab and throw the right hand!") but he gave it all he got when he fought. However at this point, it's looks like he's given boxing all he's got.

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Andrew Schweitzer is a contributing writer to Boxing4Free.com. When not writing or discussing the sweet science, Andrew can be found at the gym or at work. Currently Andrew is looking for someone who will pay $50,000 to fight him. If you enjoy Andrew's work, visit www.SchweitzerMan.blogspot.com for wonderful rants on stuff you may not care about, but will enjoy nonetheless and can be found on Twitter  @SchweitzerMan.