By Michael Lieberman: Former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (36-2, 32 KO’s) will be seeing action on the undercard of the May 7th fight between Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
No opponent has been picked out as of yet, but Pavlik will be fighting at super middleweight (168 lbs), according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. Pavlik last fought a year ago, losing by a 12 round decision to Sergio Martinez in April.
Pavlik took a battering in that fight, and looked like he had come in too heavy for the fight. Pavlik can no longer make the 160 pound weight limit for the middleweight division without great struggle.
Pavlik’s co-manager Cameron Dunkin said this in Rafael’s article at ESPN: “I would think he will fight at 168 or 169 pounds. He says he wants to be a super middleweight now. There’s no way he can go back the other way [to 160]. He realized he is just too big.”
There are opportunities for Pavlik in the super middleweight division. Some of the top fighters in that weight class have been thinned out recently with Mikkel Kessler and Andre Dirrell taking time off from boxing to heal injuries sustained in the gruelling Super Six tournament, and some other fighters like Arthur Abraham being exposed as being too small for the division.
Pavlik would be right at home battling the likes of Carl Froch, Andre Ward and Lucian Bute. Ward and Bute would be tough because of their boxing skills, but Froch would be a good fight for Pavlik because he would come straight at him looking to exchange.
As for May 7th, Pavlik isn’t going to be matched tough in his first fight back from alcohol rehab. Expect either a 2nd tier or a fringe contender to be put in with him.
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