By Dan Ambrose: Kelly Pavlik (37-2, 32 KO’s) badly wants a big fight against IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (29-0, 24 KO’s) in November, and sees a win over Bute as a fight that can reignite his sagging career. However, Pavlik first must beat his 36-year-old tune-up opponent Darryl Cunningham (23-2, 10 KO’s) this Saturday night at the Coveli Center in Youngstown, Ohio.

On paper, Cunningham isn’t in the same class as Pavlik, as he doesn’t have much in the way of power and has faced almost exclusively lower level opposition during his nine-year pro career. One-third of Cunningham’s opponents have had losing records at the time that he fought them, and his last two opponents, Alberto Mercedes and Marcos Primera, have had records of 14-16 and 20-23. So you can see that Pavlik has really taken it easy for this fight after almost getting beaten by the young fringe contender Alfonso Lopez last May.

Pavlik won the fight but just barely, beating Lopez by a 10 round majority decision. For this reason, even a fighter like Cunningham has a chance of beating Pavlik because his boxing skills leave a lot to be desired. Like Bute, Cunningham is a southpaw, and obviously he’s been picked out to get Pavlik ready for the Bute fight. However, Pavlik really seems to have made a huge mistake by targeting a fighter as good as Bute to fight instead of a more stationary champion like WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz, who Pavlik would match up with better.

Stieglitz may be considered a paper champion by a lot of boxing fans, but at least he’s someone that has the kind of immobile fighting style that Pavlik does well against. Pavlik has never done well against movers, and Bute is great at moving around the ring. I think Pavlik is making a huge mistake by looking towards Bute rather than someone that is more designed for him.