By Chris Williams: On November 13th, former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (36-2, 32 KO’s) will be fighting Brian Vera (17-5, 11 KO’s) on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Antonio Margarito bout. Believe it or not, the Pavlik-Vera fight will be the co-mail event for this fight card and that seems downright incredible and sad at the same time. Vera, 28, has lost four of his last five bouts. How this could be a crossroads fight for Pavlik is really beyond me. Isn’t a crossroads fight one in which a fighter is matched up with someone good? Isn’t that supposed to be how it goes?

I know Pavlik is struggling and all, and has looked awful in three out of his last four fights, losing two of them, but the guy should at least be put in with someone better than this if it’s going to be the co-main event for the Pacquiao card. And I certainly can’t call this a crossroads fight. It’s more like an ugly mismatch. The fight is going to be held at a catch weight of 164 to make it easier for Pavlik to make the weight. This is after he struggled to make 160 for his last fight against Sergio Martinez.

What good is it if Pavlik make the weight? The dude needs to move up in weight and forget about the middleweight if he needs a handicap to come near the weight. I guess Pavlik isn’t ready to take that big step and start competing with super middleweights and risk getting out-boxed the same way he was against Bernard Hopkins and Sergio Martinez. I think Pavlik has already been exposed as one dimensional and they can continue to put him in with guys like Brian Vera forever, but he’s still likely going to get out-boxed when he finally does face anyone with boxing skills and movement.

This fight is a waste of time for Pavlik. He doesn’t need another plodder to fight. He’s already plenty of them, and built a nice inflated with wins over those type of fighters. What Pavlik needs is to learn how to beat a guy that can move. They should have matched him against someone Ishe Smith. That would be an excellent fighter for Pavlik to learn something from. You can’t keep matching Pavlik against plodders and expect him to get any better at beating fighters that move.

This is a huge waste of a fight, and I can’t see it convincing boxing fans that Pavlik is back. He won’t be back if he beats this guy. It will just prove that he can beat another plodder like the ones he’s been beating. If I was Top Rank, I wouldn’t put this fight on the card. I’d find someone else for Pavlik to fight and put the fight down at the bottom of the card where will have less of a chance to look bad if he doesn’t perform.