By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (36-2, 32 Ko’s) will be making his first appearance at super middleweight next month against undefeated Alfonso Lopez (21-0, 16 KO’s) in a scheduled 10 round bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pavlik, 29, has been given a choice television spot on the Manny Pacquiao vs. Shane Mosley card. The card is pretty much lacking in terms of exciting fighters and interesting matches.

The Pavlik-Lopez fight is just one of many less than interesting fights on the card. Pavlik at least has an excuse for being matched softly in this fight because he hasn’t fought since last year when he was dominated by Sergio Martinez in a 12 round decision loss in April. Pavlik has since taken part in an alcohol rehabilitation program and is now ready to resume his career. Pavlik says he wants a rematch with Martinez, albeit at a 165 pound catch weight.

That would obviously benefit Pavlik greatly because Martinez is a small middleweight and only last year moved up in weight from the junior middleweight division to defeat Pavlik. A rematch between Martinez and Pavlik will likely have to wait until Pavlik gets some wins under his belt and after he faces IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute. That’s the fight that Pavlik’s promoter Bob Arum has been talking about as being the biggest money fight in the division.

But once that fight is out of the way, Pavlik will then be looking to take on someone like Martinez. If Pavlik loses the fight against Bute, he won’t be in the position to ask for a rematch with Martinez. There just won’t be any interest from the boxing public. The same applies to his fight against Lopez next month. If Pavlik gets beaten by Lopez, he can forget about Bute, Martinez and a lot of the big named fighters.