By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (36-2, 32 KO’s) is softly matched on November 13th against Bryan Vera (17-5, 11 KO’s) on November 13th at the Cowboys Stadium, in Arlington, Texas. This is a fight in which Pavlik is looking to get back on the winning track after losing his two titles to Sergio Martinez and taking a real pounding on April 17th.

Pavlik says he had problems making the 160 pound limit for that fight, which had him weakened after rehydrating after the weigh-in. To make it easier for Pavlik, his fight with Vera will be at a 164 pound catchweight. Pavlik isn’t sure whether he’s going to be staying at middleweight or whether he’ll be moving up in weight to the super middleweight division.

Pavlik is interested in fighting the winner of the November 20th fight between Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez. This would give Pavlik an opportunity to win at least one of his titles back. Pavlik is also interested in facing IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute and WBA super middleweight title holder Andre Ward.

Both of those fights would figure to be a little harder than facing the Martinez-Williams winner, because Bute and Ward are a little more slick than Martinez and a lot more skilled than the stationary Williams.

Pavlik really needs to work on his movement or lack thereof before he faces guys like Martinez, Bute and Ward. Pavlik might be better off if he used the Vera fight to work on his mobility and boxing skills rather than just going out there and trying to drill Vera into the canvas as soon as possible.

That’s not something that will help Pavlik become a better fighter. He needs to work on his deficiencies before taking on fighters that can move. Pavlik was badly schooled by Bernard Hopkins in a 12 round decision loss in 2008.

Pavlik had supposedly fixed his problems from that fight, but he looked totally clueless in how to deal with movement and speed in his loss to Sergio Martinez in April. I can’t see Pavlik beating Martinez, Bute or Ward right now. I think Pavlik could beat Williams, but that’s about it.