By Eric Thomas: Former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (38-2, 33 KO’s) will be facing Scott Sigmon (22-3, 12 KO’s) in a 10 round bout on June 8th at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. This will be the second tune-up fight for the 30-year-old Pavlik, who is trying to get the cobwebs out of his system after having fought only once in 2010 and 2011 due to personal problems and injuries.

It’s hard to say what Pavlik got out of his last fight against Aaron Jaco last March, because Pavlik blasted him out so quickly in a 2nd round TKO. I think Jaco landed all of one punch, and spent the majority of the fight running. Pavlik did show that he can fight on the move, which is about the only thing I think he got from that fight. There was no resistance from Jaco to speak of, and hopefully Pavlik doesn’t get spoiled by facing these kinds of opponents because he’ll be in shock when his promoter Bob Arum eventually puts him in with a good opponent.

The idea here is that Arum wants Pavlik to fight a handful of 3rd tier opponents and then put him in with WBC middleweight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for an in house Top Rank fight. For that to happen, Chavez Jr. will have to first beat Andy Lee on June 16th, which is big ask, and then defeat Sergio Martinez in September. I think it’s safe to say that Pavlik won’t be getting that fight against Chavez Jr.

I saw nothing from Pavlik’s performance against Jaco that would suggest that he’d do any better against Sergio Martinez in a rematch. Hopefully, Arum doesn’t have any ideas of putting Pavlik back in with Martinez, because he took a real pounding from him last time they fought in April 2010.

There’s not much to say about 25-year-old Sigmon. He’s obviously being brought in as the sacrificial lamb whether he wants to admit that or not. In looking at Sigmon’s record you can’t help notice the lack of quality opposition. Although he’s beaten most of his opponents, he’s not faced anyone of note. He’s been dining on 3rd tier opposition. Sigmon was beaten by Jessie Nicklow and Chris Fitzpatrick, and that’s not a good sign for him going into a fight against Pavlik. Those guys would be wiped out if they were fed to Pavlik.