By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (37-2, 32 KO’s) will be fighting on April 14th in Las Vegas, Nevada, likely on the undercard of the Brandon Rios vs. Yuriorkis Gamboa fight at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino.

According to vindy.com, the opponent will possibly be little known super middleweight Scott Sigmon (21-3, 12 KO’s) in a 10 round scheduled bout. Nothing is conclusive yet, but one thing that is known is that Pavlik will be facing a weaker opponent next.

Pavlik hasn’t fought since last May when he struggled to beat fringe contender Alfonso Lopez by a 10 round majority decision. Bob Arum, Pavlik’s promoter, wants him to take a couple of tune-ups at super middleweight before bringing him back down to 160lbs next year for a possible fight against Arum’s fighter WBC middleweight middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. if he hasn’t been stripped of his title by then for failing to fight his mandatory challenger Sergio Martinez. It would set up a weird situation where Pavlik is fighting a paper champion who fails to fight mandatory challengers.

Robert Garcia, Pavlik’s new trainer, thinks Pavlik can get back down to 160 without any problems. Pavlik recently moved up in weight to 168 after struggling to make weight for a fight against Sergio Martinez in April 2010. Pavlik ballooned up in weight over 180 after rehydrating for that fight, and was too slow and sluggish to compete with Martinez. Pavlik’s best chance of capturing a title is for him to move back down in weight because he would likely be out of his class against guys like Andre Ward, Lucian Bute, Mikkel Kessler and Robert Stieglitz. Arum could have a feeling about this as well, because if he wants to move him back down in weight, then he sees a benefit for Pavlik at that weight rather than 168. Chavez Jr. is another fighter in Arum’s stable that would have huge problems trying to compete if and when he’s forced to move up in weight to 168.

Arum told vindy.com this about Pavlik: “There’s a lot of ring rust. We want to see how he handles the weight. Garcia said there’s no problem getting him back down to 160, so if he looks like he’s back, then we’ll make a pay-per-view fight against Chavez.”

Arum had previously wanted to match Antonio Margarito against Chavez Jr., but the WBC ruled out that fight happening due to Margarito not being ranked in the middleweight division.