By Eric Thomas: According to the latest boxing news, IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (28-0, 23 KO’s) could be facing former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (36-2, 32 KO’s) next instead of Mikkel Kessler. Jean Bedard, the president of Interbox, says that Bute-Pavlik is also a possibility as well as the Bute-Kessler fight. It’s hard to imagine that Bob Arum, the promoter for Pavlik, would allow Pavlik to fight a hit and run fighter like Bute though.

This is the kind of opponent that Pavlik has historically had problems with. Pavlik has lost to Bernard Hopkins and Sergio Martinez, both of which used a lot of movement to win rounds and beat Pavlik. Bute is the same kind of fighter. However, Bute doesn’t much of a jab to speak of and is in love with his left uppercut.

Bute would take a lot of punishment from Pavlik on the outside due to Pavlik’s much superior jab, and Bute would have problems with Pavlik if he narrowly focuses on throwing uppercuts all night long. Bute can beat lesser fighters with an uppercut like the ones he’s had served up to him in the past three years, but Pavlik is a world class fighter and that kind of limited gimmick won’t work. Bute will need more weapons to beat a guy like Pavlik. I would like to see this fight happen, but I can see either Bute’s management or Pavlik’s saying no to this fight.

Pavlik has a tune-up bout coming up on May 7th against Alfonzo Lopez (21-0, 16 KO’s) on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Shane Mosley bout at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The win for Pavlik is a forgone conclusion, as Lopez is just someone with an inflated record being brought in for Pavlik to beat up and sharpen his skills while at the same time give the appearance that Pavlik isn’t facing a soft guy.