By Jason Kim: After 10 months out of the ring including two cancellations of bouts against Paul Williams, WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (35-1, 31 KO’s) is reportedly ready to get back to action with a fight against number #3 ranked World Boxing Council middleweight contender Miguel Angel Espino (20-2-1, 9 KO’s) on December 19th at the Beeghly Center, in Youngstown, Ohio.

Pavlik, 27, twice pulled out of fights against Williams due to a slow healing hand that was infected by staph. After the second cancellation by Pavlik, Williams decided to fight someone else on December 5th, the same date that he supposed to be fighting Pavlik. As for Pavlik’s slow healing left hand, it is reportedly still healing up, but should be ready by December 19th for the Espino fight.

Let’s hope so, because Pavlik has missed a lot of action and has had fights against Williams and Sergio Mora crumble because of it. The cancellation of the Williams bout may actually be a good thing for Pavlik, because many boxing fans felt that Pavlik would lose to Williams, just as Pavlik was beaten soundly by 44-year-old Bernard Hopkins last year by a lopsided 12 round decision in October.

Pavlik hasn’t exactly been one of the most exciting champions since defeating Jermain Taylor to win the WBC/WBO middleweight titles in September 2007. Since that time, Pavlik has defended his WBC/WBO middleweight titles exactly two times – one per year – against the obscure and terribly over-matched Gary Lockett and Marco Antonio Rubio.

In between those bouts, Pavlik has fought a rematch against Taylor at a catch weight, a fight that Pavlik won by a close 12 round unanimous decision, and a loss to Hopkins last year in October. To say that Pavlik has been a disappointment as a champion is a tremendous understatement. Now, Pavlik will be defending his titles against Espino, 29, a largely untested, little known fighter that will likely serve the purpose of being another easy defense for Pavlik.

According to Dan Rafael of ESPN, Pavlik will be receiving a big pay cut for this fight, and will be making only $500,000 for the bout. It’s not all that surprising given that Espino isn’t well known by many boxing fans. What is unclear is whether or not Pavlik’s slow healing hand will be ready to go by the time that the bout takes place next month. The word is that Pavlik will be ready, but with his track record in the past six months with cancellations, nothing is certain.

Incredibly, Pavlik hasn’t been stripped of his titles despite the cancellations. However, you would have to think that boxing organizations will have to consider doing that if Pavlik cancels yet another fight. It’s certainly difficult for the contenders in the WBC/WBO middleweight division, because with Pavlik out of action for so long, it has effectively frozen the careers of some of the fighters that would have otherwise had a chance to move up for a fight against him.

In the meantime, Williams, 28, will be fighting Sergio Martinez on December 5th at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. There is talk of Pavlik fighting the winner of the fight. However, that remains to be seen. Either one of those fighters would be a very tough option for the one-paced Pavlik, and I couldn’t see him beating any of them.