By Eric Thomas: On March 31st, former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (37-2, 32 KO’s) fights for the first time since winning a narrow decision 10 round majority decision over Alfonso Lopez when he steps in the ring to fight Aaron Jaco (15-2, 5 KO’s) in a 10 round bout at the Illusions Theater, San Antonio, Texas, United States. Things are different now for 29-year-old Pavlik, as he’s no longer with his long time trainer and is living and fighting in California with new trainer Robert Garcia.

Pavlik is trying to reinvent himself and learn new things and working hard at staying in shape. His problem is he’s still thinking of fighting at super middleweight and he may not have enough talent at that weight to do much. However, he’s going to beat Jaco no problem because there’s a wife gulf in talent that separates Pavlik and this guy. Pavlik will have likely one more tune-up fight later on this year before getting a nice payday fight against WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. later in this year if Chavez Jr. isn’t forced to fight Sergio Martinez first.

Pavlik has a lot to prove in his come back because a lot of boxing fans see him as a shot fighter due to his losses to Bernard Hopkins and Sergio Martinez. Pavlik has to improve a lot of he’s determined to stick it out at super middleweight because this isn’t a division that’s barren of talent like the 160 pound division was when Pavlik held the WBC/WBO titles in the past. He’s not going to get any free rides at 168, and will be quite lucky if he ever wins any titles.

Other than WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz, there isn’t any other easy marks for Pavlik to go after for him to pick up an easy strap in the 168 pound division. This is why Pavlik should either move up in weight to the light heavyweight division or try and get back down to 160 if he can find a way to shed the extra weight to fit in that class.