By Dan Ambrose: At today’s weigh-in, Kelly Pavlik (38-2, 33 KO’s) came in pound under the limit at 167 lbs for his bout tomorrow night on Friday against Scott Sigmon (22-3, 12 KO’s) at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Sigmon, 25, also weighed in at 167 lbs.

The fight will be televised by ESPN2 on Friday night with a number of other fights on the undercard. ESPN may need to show a few more bouts than they might have wanted to because the Pavlik-Sigmon fight figures to be a huge mismatch with Pavlik easily winning in one or two rounds.

Pavlik needs this win badly. He can’t afford to get beaten again, and nor can he afford to struggle against lesser fighters. He needs to win tomorrow and win big by knockout to show that he’s still got what it takes to be a major player in boxing. He’s fighting at a new weight now that he’s moved up to super middleweight, and he’s got a lot to prove because this division is totally stacked with talent.

The guys at this weight class are not only big punchers with the same power as Pavlik, but they’re also much more athletic and skills than Pavlik. He may not realize this now but he had a really good thing going when he was the big puncher at 160, a weight class that has been weak ever since Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr. moved up in weight.

At 160, all Pavlik would have to worry about is Gennady Golovkin and Sergio Martinez. But at 168, Pavlik has to worry about Carl Froch, Andre Ward, Andre Dirrell, Anthony Dirrell, Mikkel Kessler, Adonis Stevenson, Edwin Rodriguez, James DeGale, Thomas Oosthuizen, George Groves, Lucian Bute and Arthur Abraham.