By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum will be looking to match WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (36-1, 32 KO’s) against either 38-year-old fellow Top Rank fighter Winky Wright or Paul Williams next, according to an interview by Greg Leon of Boxing Talk.. Although I wouldn’t mind seeing Pavlik fight Williams, I have absolutely zero interest in watching him fight Wright. And I’m betting that’s who Arum will match Pavlik against. That would be so perfect and so fitting for the kind of dull opponents that Pavlik has been matched up against in the past. I think Wright was a good fighter in his prime, but the guy is getting old. Arum says “I really believe that Winky Wright or Paul Williams will be next.” Notice how Arum mentioned Wright first? I bet that’s because he’ll be the one facing Pavlik next.

Wright has fought only once in the past three years, and lost two consecutive fights to Paul Williams and Bernard Hopkins. Is that the type of fighter that should be matched against the middleweight champion Pavlik? We’ve already seen Pavlik fighting the likes of Gary Lockett, Marco Antonio Rubio and Miguel Espino. None of those fighters are marquee names by any stretch of the imagination.

I cringe at the thought of the 38-year-old Wright being added to the list. I have no doubts that a prime Wright would beat the brakes off of Pavlik, but probably not now. And I hate the idea of fighter who has lost his last two fights being given a shot at the world title. That seems weird and not really fair to all the contenders that have been fighting actively and winning their fights to try and get a shot at the title. I’d rather see Pavlik fight Williams or another top contender like Gennady Golovkin or Matthew Macklin.

Golovkin would be good because he can punch a little. Setting up a fight between Pavlik and Williams might be difficult because Williams will want to be paid well, maybe even asking for a 50-50 deal. I think Williams would beat Pavlik, so I doubt they’ll want to fight him. I just want to see Pavlik fighting some good fighters for a change that have the talent to beat him.

But I see Pavlik probably fighting Wright, and then going after guys like John Duddy or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. I think Pavlik wouldn’t be doing himself any favors if he fights those guys. I mean it might give him an easy title defense and allow him to hold onto his title a little while longer, but those aren’t the kinds of fights he needs to win new fans. Pavlik needs to fight guys like Daniel Jacobs, Golovkin, Lucian Bute, and the winner of the Super Six tournament.

Pavlik will be facing Sergio Martinez on Saturday April 17th at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Pavlik is expected to win the fight, if only because he’ll have a big size and strength advantage. You can’t say for sure, because of how horrible Pavlik looked in his loss to Bernard Hopkins in October 2008. Anything can happen when you put Pavlik in with a boxer like Martinez.