By Dan Ambrose: According to the latest boxing news, former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik could wind up facing IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute in November.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum started negotiations on Friday for a bout between Bute, a star in Canada, and the former middleweight champ Pavlik. There isn’t a venue thus far, but it could end up taking place in either Canada, which seems more likely given the huge crowds that Bute typically draws over there or in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Arum had this to say to vindy.com: “If Kelly wins, he’s back on top of the heap. If he loses, but gives the crowd an incredible performance, he’s still right in the mix.”

If Pavlik’s recent poor performance against Alfonso Lopez is any indication, Pavlik will indeed lose and lose badly to Bute. I can’t see Pavlik coming out of a fight with a skilled fighter like Bute looking like a star. Most likely, Pavlik will look just as awful as he did in his losses to Sergio Martinez and Bernard Hopkins.

The blueprint has already been made in how to beat Pavlik, and I saw no changes to his style in his recent narrow win over the little known Lopez. If anything, Pavlik looked even worse than he was before. Throwing him in with a fighter like Bute sounds like a great idea of you don’t mind seeing Pavlik get boxed around for 12 round one-sided rounds. If you’re a fan of Pavlik, then you might not want to see him fight Bute because it’s going to be one-sided.

Pavlik and Bute actually have a lot in common. Both of them have been disappointing champions who, for one reason or another, have failed to make many interesting fights.