Fight Notes by Noel Salwan: Only one division in professional boxing has a Champion with a direct unified lineage to all 4 of the World Championship Belts -The World Middleweight Title belonging to Kelly Pavlik.

Some of the greatest Middleweight Champions spent most of their reigns fighting mandatory defenses against top contenders who weren’t big names. Hagler spent years fighting mandatories until Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran stepped up and provided Marquee action in a Middleweight Championship fight. Bernard Hopkins had 20 Title defenses and lost his title to a marquee name in Jermain Taylor, but up to that point most people only remember Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya, both marquee names who stepped up from junior middleweight to make monumental fights.

Now it’s Pavlik’s turn to defend this historic crown against a marquee name in reigning Junior Middleweight Champ Sergio Martinez. Pavlik knocked out the #1 WBC Contender, Marco Antonio Rubio, and he knocked out of the #1 WBO contender, Gary Lockett.

Last December, in a top caliber middleweight clash, Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez, faced off in what was widely recognized as the best fight of 2009. Williams won the majority decision but the general public saw Martinez as winner.

In the immediate aftermath, The Williams camp entered negotiations with the Pavlik Camp with an obvious philosophy of “Risk Vs. Reward”. It became starkly apparent that Williams previous failed negotiations with other World Champions in other weight classes weren’t so much about him being “The most feared man in boxing” but rather “The most out priced man in boxing” or “The most unrealistic man in boxing”. Williams demanded a 50/50 split against Pavlik. Needless to say, a challenger negotiating like a champion is odd. Needless also to say, the negotiations went sour.

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Enter Martinez, a bold brash Challenger who took a fight with Williams on 5 weeks notice. Not only did he take the fight but many believe he outright won the fight. Add also the fact that his camp’s negotiating philosophy is not “Risk Vs. Reward”, but rather “Seize the Day”. And as a result, boxing fans and the sporting public win. This fight will be on regular HBO and it stands to be a legendary clash on par with Hagler Vs. Hearns and Hopkins Vs. Trindad.

When Jermain Taylor won the Middleweight Title from Bernard Hopkins in 2005 he captured all 4 of the World Middleweight belts becoming only the second person in any weight class to hold all 4 world belts at the same time. In his re-match with Hopkins the IBF stripped the belt and it was awarded to Arthur Abraham in a vacancy match in 2005. Taylor beat Hopkins a second time and in his next defense he fought Winky Wright. Wright was one of the hottest commodities in boxing in 2006 but the WBA stripped the belt and awarded it in a vacancy match. Felix Sturm currently has that strap.

After Pavlik won the World Title in 2007 his two most obvious rivals and their camps came to the negotiating table like Champions when in reality they were clearly top ranked contenders. Those unification matches never happened but there was no need because those belts were never lost, they were handed to less deserving fighters in vacancy matches. The most important thing to note is that once all 4 belts became unified in 2004 the belts became virtually irrelevant. The legendary status of Middleweight King and an undisputable lineage was initiated. The Title could only be lost in the ring in a middleweight fight -period.

On April 17th, In a clash of mammoth proportions, Kelly Pavlik will defend the most credible Title in the sport of boxing against Sergio Martinez -The World Middleweight Championship.