By Eric Thomas: World Boxing Council/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik has a fight coming up against little known Miguel Angel Espino this Saturday night in Youngstown, Ohio. This is a fight that hardly any one wants to see, other than die hard Pavlik and Espino fans. Pavlik is only two fights removed from his one-sided loss to 43-year-old Bernard Hopkins. That loss was a huge blow for Pavlik’s career, because many people expected that Pavlik would have little problem with Hopkins and would knock him out.

Instead, Pavlik ended up being humiliated by Hopkins in a fight that Hopkins dominated from start to finish. Pavlik has since come back from that defeat against Marco Antonio Rubio, a fighter that isn’t exactly a household name among boxing fans. Pavlik has a chance to fight Paul Williams earlier this month, but bowed out, complaining of a staph infection on his left hand.

It doesn’t make Pavlik look good that his hand suddenly heeled fast enough for him to go ahead and still fight in December. Espino was brought out, some would say ‘hand picked,’ for Pavlik to look good against and not get beaten again. Let’s hope that Pavlik does look good for his sake, because if he loses to Espino on Saturday night, it might very well be finished as a fighter.

Sure, Pavlik could fight on but if he can’t get by a fighter like Espino, a relatively light puncher with halfway decent boxing skills, then it would be a bad sign for Pavlik. The middleweight division is improving day by day, with fighters like Daniel Jacobs, Matthew Macklin and Gennady Golovkin moving up quickly to challenge for titles in the near future.

If Pavlik struggles and losses against the likes of Espino, it could be a signal that Pavlik’s day as the top dog at middleweight will have been finished after two years at the top. Pavlik defeated Jermain Taylor in 2007 to win the WBC/WBO middleweight titles. It was thought then that Pavlik would be an exciting champion and would defend the titles for a long time to come. However, as a champion, Pavlik has been a disappointment, beating fighters like Gary Lockett, Rubio and fighting Taylor and Hopkins in non-title fights.

Espino isn’t a big hitter, and is more of a boxer/puncher. He should be way in over his head in this fight, but then people said the same thing about Hopkins. If Espino uses his boxing skills, then he has a chance of beating Pavlik. However, if Pavlik loses this fight, his future will look bleak.

Prediction: Pavlik by 8th round stoppage.

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Also on the same card:

Vanes Martirosyan vs. Willie Lee – Martirosyan is a slugger with poor defense. He tends to get hit flush a lot and fade in his fights. He’s made some inroads with his defense and learned how to box more, but he still gets hit way too much for his own good. He’s still good enough to beat Lee.

Prediction: Martirosyan by 5th round stoppage.

Nehomar Cermeno vs. Alejandro Valdez – Cermeno (18-0, 10 KO’s), the interim WBA bantamweight champion, is a wild puncher who throws massive amounts of shots, misses many of them, but overwhelms his opponents. Defeated Cristian Mijares by a controversial decision 12 round split decision in March 2009. I personally thought that Mijares easily won the fight. In their rematch, Cermeno appeared to edge Mijares by a couple of rounds in beating him by a 12 round decision in September. Once again, the scores were fairly lopsided. Cermeno is much too busy for Valdez.

Prediction: Cermeno by a 12 round decision.

Humberto Soto vs. Jesus Chavez – This is another mismatch. Although Chavez was at one time a great fighter with excellent power, at 37, Chavez doesn’t appear to have it anymore. He’s been defeated in his last two fights to Michael Katsidis and David Diaz and probably eight years removed from the prime of his career. Soto (49-7-2, 32 KO’s) is just too young, too strong and too much of a better fighter for Chavez to have much of any chance in this fight.

Prediction: Soto by 5th round TKO