By Chris Williams: WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (36-1, 32 KO’s) will be facing light middleweight Sergio Martinez in middleweight action on April 17th at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The fight will be shown by HBO as a doubleheader with a fight against International Boxing Federation super middleweight champion Lucian Bute facing knockout artist Edison Miranda in the other fight being shown.

Arum, the promoter for Pavlik, is expected to make a formal announcement for the Pavlik-Martinez bout within the next two weeks. In contrast to the Cotto-Foreman fight, which I see as a stinker, the Pavlik vs. Martinez fight is actually a good fight. Pavlik hasn’t done much since winning the WBC/WBO middleweight titles from Jermain Taylor in 2007, and has mainly defended his titles against a list of dull opponents.

Some boxing fans feel that Pavlik has been milking his middleweight title by taking on easy opponents rather than going after risky fights against Paul Williams or Arthur Abraham. Pavlik was badly spanked by 43-year-old Bernard Hopkins in a non-title fight in October 2008. Hopkins made Pavlik look like a one-dimensional 2nd tier fighter in beating him by a lopsided 12 round decision.

Martinez, 34, could very well do the same thing to Pavlik unless Kelly is able to knock him out. Pavlik didn’t exactly impress in his last fight, beating a very ordinary looking Miguel Espino by a 5th round stoppage in December. Pavlik basically slugged it out with Espino in the trenches until Espino was moved down in the 5th round. Based on how Pavlik looked against Espino, I’d say that Martinez should beat Pavlik without too many problems. That doesn’t mean that Martinez will actually win the fight, though.

It’s not easy to beat a champion, especially when they’re fighting on their own soil. I can see Pavlik winning a questionable decision over Martinez. If Pavlik can get by Martinez, a potential fight that looms out on the horizon for Pavlik is a bout against Bute. If Pavlik can somehow can by Martinez, I have no doubts that Pavlik will lose and lose badly to Bute.

This is a bad match-up for Pavlik, because Bute is a lot like Foreman with his hit and run style of fighting, only much better and with bigger power. I see Pavlik losing all 12 rounds against Bute in a hopelessly one-sided fight. However, I seriously doubt that Pavlik will ever fight Bute. I can see something getting in the way of making this fight happen, perhaps another staph infection on Pavlik’s hand or something like that.