By Matt Stein: WBO/WBC middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik recently had his June 27th bout with Sergio Mora cancelled by his promoter due to a staph infection on one of Pavlik’s hands. How that Pavlik has resigned a contract with his promotional team Top Rank, Pavlik’s promoter is reportedly looking to reschedule Kelly’s bout with Mora for September.

Following that, a bout with either International Boxing Federation middleweight champion Arthur Abraham could be up next or WBA middleweight champion Felix Sturm according to Cleveland.com. The Mora bout sounds especially unappealing to many boxing fans, who don’t relish the thought of seeing Pavlik chase around the defensive-oriented Mora for 12 long rounds.

However, the talent in the middleweight division is extremely poor and other than a few prospects as well as the current champions in the division, there are not many options for interesting bouts for Pavlik to fight. This is one of the reasons why there’s such intense pressure for Pavlik to fight Abraham, because he’s one of the few decent fighters in the division.

The good things about the lack of talent in the division, though, is that it’s allowed Pavlik to not only win two titles but to hold onto them for the past couple of years since defeating former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Jermain Taylor by a 7th round stoppage in 2007.

Had Pavlik been a strong contender in the mid 90s to 2005, he would have had a hard time capturing a title with the likes of Bernard Hopkins ruling the middleweight division. Hopkins recently gave Pavlik a major spanking last year, beating him by a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision in October 2008.

Pavlik looked bad in the fight and was simply out of his class. Beyond the fights with Mora, Abraham and Sturm, there are few other good options for Pavlik. Sebastian Zbik, ranked number #1 in the WBO and #2 in the WBC, is more of a technically oriented fighter with little speed or power. He’s mostly unknown to most Americans, and not much of a threat to Pavlik.

Gennady Golovkin, from Kazakhstan, ranked #4 in the WBO and WBC, is a potential problem for Pavlik in the future, as Golovkin has a lot of power and is an explosive puncher. He’s not very big, though, at 5’10” and could be too small against a big middleweight like Pavlik.

However, he’s probably a better test for Pavlik than what he’s gotten in bouts with Gary Lockett and Marco Antonio Rubio. If Pavlik can get by Golovkin, Abraham, Zbik, and Mora, there’s not much else out there in the middleweight division for him to fight and we could see him holding onto his middleweight titles for a long time to come due to the poor opposition in the division.

Daniel Jacobs, an undefeated middleweight prospect, is someone that is moving up quickly in the division. He’s only 22, however, and might outgrow the middleweight division. If he doesn’t, he’ll be problems for Pavlik because Jacobs is a good boxer/puncher and can do a lot of different things that Pavlik can’t in the ring.