By Dan Ambrose: 29-year-old former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (37-2, 32 KO’s) is talking about wanting to take two tune-up fights against what will likely be very soft opposition before facing either the winner of Carl Froch vs. Andre Ward or Lucian Bute vs. Glen Johnson in 2012.

Why Pavlik needs two tune-up fights has more than a few boxing fans wondering. Pavlik has been fighting as a professional for 11 years now and it’s hard to believe he feels he needs two back to back tune-ups to get ready for a fight against the Froch-Ward or Bute-Johnson winner.

One thing that Pavlik may be overlooking is that he’s not exactly an in demand fighter. He hasn’t been active in 2011 and fought only once in 2010 when he was beaten by Sergio Martinez in a 12 round decision loss last year in April. The guys that Pavlik wants to fight have all been busy and working hard to stay in the limelight.

Why would the winner of one of those fights want to take on Pavlik? I don’t see it happening. I know Pavlik wants it but he might have to work his way back to a world title shot instead of having one thrown in his lap. Pavlik had the perfect opportunity this year when he was scheduled to fight a tune-up against Darryl Cunningham before facing Bute in November. Instead, Pavlik backed out of both the Cunningham and Bute fights because he felt the money wasn’t good enough. I doubt that it will be any better a second time around, especially with Pavlik out of sight and out of mind for much of this year.

Pavlik hasn’t fought since last May when he looked pretty average in barely beating fringe super middleweight contender Alfonso Lopez by a 10 round majority decision.

I don’t see the upside in Ward, Froch, Bute or Johnson fighting Pavlik. That fight doesn’t make sense to me. The winner of the Froch-Ward fight is better off facing the Johnson-Bute winner instead of wasting time on Pavlik. And the losers of the fights are still better off either facing each other or looking after active targets.