By Jason Kim: Former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (39-2, 34 KO’s) will be taking a step up in class on Saturday night against Will Rosinsky (16-1, 9 KO’s) in a 10 round bout on the undercard of the Nonito Donaire – Jeffrey Mathebula fight at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.

Pavlik, 30, has to win this fight to get to the bigger bouts that he’s interested in taking in the 168 pound division. His promoter Bob Arum has promised to set Pavlik up with a big named super middleweight opponent in the tall provided that he gets through the Rosinsky fight with flying colors. Pavlik may win the Rosinksy fight on Saturday, but it’s doubtful that Pavlik will impress in doing so given his mediocre performance against his last opponent Scott Sigmon last month on June 8th.

Pavlik took a lot of shots in that fight against a guy that he should have been able to obliterate without any problems. Pavlik did eventually get a stoppage in the 7th, but it wasn’t impressive. Pavlik spent a good portion of the fight battling Sigmon on the inside in back and forth exchanges. The difference in the fight was that Sigmon didn’t have the power to give Pavlik any worries. Rosinksy does.

Rosinsky, 27, has one loss on his record, a controversial 10 round decision loss to Edwin Rodriguez last October, but he appeared to win that fight in the minds of many boxing fans. Rosinsky has good power and he’s a superior inside fighter to Pavlik. If Pavlik makes the mistake of trying to fight Rosinksy the way he did the light hitting Sigmon, then Pavlik can forget all about getting a big fight in the fall, because Rosinksy will beat him. Rosinksy’s biggest win of his career came against Aaron Pryor Jr. last month in an impressive eight round unanimous decision victory. Rosinsky beat a good fighter in Pryor Jr. and made it look easy in doing so.