By Dan Ambrose: Kelly Pavlik (37-2, 32 KO’s) is in a good position to land a fight on the Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley undercard on June 9th if the 29-year-old Pavlik can get by his next opponent Aaron Jaco (15-2, 5 KO’s) on March 31st at the Illusions Theater, San Antonio, Texas, United States. It’s a given that Pavlik will beat that guy, because he’s way out Pavlik’s league and it’s little more than a 10 round tune-up bout for the ring rusty Pavlik.

Pavlik is trying to turn his career around after having been busted on a DUI recently and having served a couple of stints in an alcohol treatment center. He’s no longer living in Youngstown, Ohio, and has a new trainer in Robert Garcia, as well as a new home town in Oxnard, California. Things are looking good for Pavlik to turn his career around if he can keep out of trouble and get his weight and conditioning together. He’s currently weighing a little over 170lbs, but it’s possible he’ll be able to make a return to the 160 pound division where Pavlik was at one time considered the best middleweight in the division from 2007 to 2010.

It’s pretty important that Pavlik find a way to get back down in weight because his chances of success at 168 are pretty limited due to the high number of skilled fighters at that weight. At 168, Pavlik is like an American version of Carl Froch. That’s good in a way because he’d be a popular addition to the super middleweight division. However, he’d likely have to settle for being little more than a title challenger and trial horse for the up and coming fighters at that weight, because there are too many fighters in that weight class that would box circles around Pavlik. He’d be in the same boat as WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. if and when he’s eventually forced to move up in weight. The only thing a fighter like Chavez Jr. could hope for is to land one of the regular titles and then be hold onto it by skipping mandatory challengers. Pavlik would be just the same. There would be a lot of guys he can beat, but others that he could never hope to beat in a million years.