Kelly Pavlik will fight on Pacquiao vs Margarito undercard!

Former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (36-2, 32 KO’s) will be fighting on the undercard of the November 13th bout between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito at the Cowboys Stadium, in Arlington, Texas.

Pavlik, 28, last fought in April, losing a 12 round unanimous decision to Sergio Martinez. Pavlik weighed in at 160 at the weigh-in for that fight but re-hydrated up to 178 by fight time, which was a lot heavier than Pavlik usually is for his fights.

The added weight didn’t help Pavlik move around the ring and he quickly found himself getting outworked by the older Martinez. Pavlik did a fair job in the middle of the fight but got battered in the last three rounds when Martinez upped his work rate all of a sudden. There’s still no opponent for Pavlik to fight on the Pacquiao vs. Margarito undercard, but someone will be found soon.

Pavlik’s manager Cameron Dunkin is trying to find someone suitable for the fight. Since Pavlik is likely to be the co-main event, his opponent is going to have to be at least a semi-decent fighter. It won’t be anyone really good because his promoter Bob Arum isn’t going to want to risk having Pavlik get beaten yet again. The middleweight division is still really poor, so you can expect the opponent to be someone that Pavlik will likely be able to blow out quickly in a one-sided fight.

Look for Pavlik to be matched against a light middleweight because there just isn’t enough decent fighters to pick over in the middleweight division for Pavlil. If they choose someone too good like Gennady Golovkin, Pavlik will likely get beaten. And if they choose someone too obscure, boxing fans will be less likely to want to purchase the $54.95 pay per view card. It would be nice to see Pavlik in with someone good like Erislandy Lara. However, we’re likely to see Pavlik matched against Michael Medina, Joe Green, Ronald Hearns or Joachim Alcine.

Pavlik is still good enough to be one of the middleweight champions. He would likely do well against WBA champion Felix Sturm and IBF title holder Sebastian Sylvester. However, WBC champion Sergio Martinez already beat Pavlik and WBO champion Dmitriy Pirog may be too skilled for Pavlik to handle. But at least Pavlik should be good enough to win one or maybe two of the belts in the next year if he moves quickly to try and compete for one of the titles. What Pavlik shouldn’t do is move up to the super middleweight division. There’s too many quality fighters at that weight and I can see Pavlik getting beaten by a lot of them.

Source: peacefmonline.com