By Jason Kim: Former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (38-2, 33 KO’s)n will be back in the ring on June 8th in a fight that will be televised on ESPN2 and will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to Vindy.com.

Pavlik will likely be matched against another weak opponent like the one he defeated last Saturday night at the Illusions Theater, in San Antonio, Texas. Pavlik stopped a fighter by the name of Aaron Jaco (15-3, 5 KO’s) in the 2nd round. Jaco was fighting only for the 2nd time in the past six years. Good match-making, huh?

Pavlik’s promoter Bob Arum wants to take him slowly one step at a time to rebuild his confidence and his skills before putting him in with his WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. next year, if Chavez Jr. isn’t stripped of his title by then for still not having faced his mandatory challenger Sergio Martinez. If Chavez Jr. does face Martinez in 2012, then the Chavez Jr. vs. Pavlik fight probably won’t happen because Chavez Jr. won’t have the WBC title any longer. Martinez will.

Pavlik said to Vindy.com “It’s pretty much a guarantee at this point. It’s the night before the [Manny] Pacquiao fight [against Timothy Bradley]. Anything can happen in boxing but that’s the way it’s looking.”

Pavlik no doubt wouldn’t mind having his fight put on the Pacquiao-Bradley pay-per-view undercard at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea for that to happen because Pavlik is probably going to be matched against another 3rd tier fighter and it might upset fans knowing they’re big money to see a terrible mismatch like the Jaco-Pavlik fight turned out to be. When boxing fans are dumping $55.95 on a PPV card, they like to get value for their money and not mismatches from top to bottom on a fight card.

Pavlik’s next fight will definitely be a mismatch going into the fight because his promoter isn’t ready to put him in with a live fighter yet. Based on the way Pavlik looked last night against Jaco, he’s more than ready to fight quality opposition again. Its’ a waste to use up another year of Pavlik’s career by putting him in with fodder over and over again believing that it’ll his confidence. I don’t know that it will and it’s not useful to spent an entire year putting him in with one weak opponent after another. The talk is that Pavlik will fight three more times in 2012 against weak opposition and then sometime next year, possibly in April or May, he MIGHT get a fight against Chavez Jr. There goes a year of Pavlik’s career. Is that smart? I don’t think it is. I understand two tune-up fights, but not three and not where it consumes an entire year of his career. Pavlik fought only once in 2010 and once in 2011. Does he really need to waste anymore time? Arum needs to make the Pavlik vs. Chavez Jr. fight now while Chavez Jr. still has the title. Waiting and letting the fight marinate will ruin it because Chavez Jr. will get beat or get stripped of his title for avoiding the Martinez fight for too long. Pavlik would have destroyed Chavez Jr. last night. He may be rusty but he beats Chavez Jr. in his sleep. It’s a mismatch.