By Eric Thomas: WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (35-1, 31 KO’s) is looking forward to getting back in the ring and taking on Paul Williams (37-1, 27 KO’s) on December 5th, at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Pavlik, 27, has been out of the ring for seven months since his last fight, a 9th round stoppage victory over number #1 challenger Marco Antonio Rubio in February. Pavlik has been unable to fight since then because of a lingering staph infection on his left hand that he’s had problems getting rid of with medication.

However, Pavlik is finally about ready to start training for his fight with Williams, and will reportedly begin training next month on October 12th. Pavlik really needs a win over a big star like Williams just to get back to where Pavlik was a year before he was trounced by Bernard Hopkins in a 12 round decision defeat in October. In some ways, the defeat has made Pavlik a ghost because he’s rarely mentioned in internet forums nowadays since the defeat by 43-year-old Hopkins.

Pavlik is taking a big chance by fighting Williams, because this is a very tough opponent for him. Williams, 28, has won titles in the welterweight and light middleweight divisions and is known for his high work rate. Williams had to eventually leave the welterweight division because none of the top fighters wanted to fight him because of his huge 6’1” height, long 82” reach and due to his high work rate.

It was thought that Williams would be less effective once he moved up in weight because he would be facing bigger fighters like himself with much better power. However, Williams has continued to shine since moving up to the light middleweight division, beating Andy Kolle, Verno Phillips and Ronald “Winky” Wright in his last three fights.

However, Williams will finally be in against a bigger fighter than himself when he faces the 6’2 ½” Pavlik. Williams will still have the longer reach by seven inches against Pavlik. That might not matter much, as Williams typically doesn’t use his reach by fighting on the outside like most tall fighters do.

Instead, Williams prefers to stand at medium range where he throws punch after punch from every angle without stop. Pavlik will have to land something big in the fight otherwise he’s going to get outworked by Williams, it’s as simple as that.

A loss to Williams would be a huge blow to Pavlik’s reeling career, one that he can’t afford at this point. This would force Pavlik to start all over again, and likely cause him to go after one of the other middleweight champions if Williams beats him badly.

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Israel Vazquez to fight Angel Priola on October 10th

Former International Boxing Federation/WBC super bantamweight champion Israel Vazquez (43-4, 31 KO’s) will be making his first appearance since March 2008 when he meets 36-year-old journeyman Angel Priola (30-7, 20 KO’s) on October 10th, at the Nokia Theater, in Los Angeles, California.

Vazquez, 32, had eye surgery to repair a detached retina in his left eye, an injury suffered in his last fight against Rafael Marquez. The eye has now reportedly healed and Vazquez is ready to get back to action. In the last two years of his career, Vazquez has taken a great deal of punishment in his three fights against Marquez, winning two and losing one.

Despite the damage that Vazquez has sustained in these exciting bouts, there’s talk of Marquez and Vazquez fighting for a 4th time in the future. It’s hard to say how much Vazquez has left after fighting the three wars with Marquez. The time off clearly won’t have helped Vazquez’s skills any. I wouldn’t be surprised if he looks less than impressive against Priola.

Priola, 36, shouldn’t be too much of a problem for Vazquez, because Priola has lost his last six bouts, five of them by early knockout.