By Chris Williams: After almost getting beaten by little known fringe contender Alfonso Lopez last May, Former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (37-2, 32 KO’s) will be getting back in the ring, this time against a weaker opponent in 36-year-old Darryl Cunningham (23-2, 10 KO’s) in a scheduled 10 round bout at the Covelli Center, in Youngstown, Ohio.

If Pavlik goes life and death with this guy then he really needs to seriously consider retirement because the Lopez fight gave a good indication that Pavlik won’t be having any future success in his venture in the super middleweight division.

Pavlik’s trainer Jack Leow is reportedly tripping over himself about how great Pavlik is looking in his training camp, saying in affect that he looks a lot better than he did in his recent bout against Lopez. That’s not hard to do, because Pavlik looked awful in that fight, but pretty much like he’s looking for quite some time when facing guys that can move their feet and box a little.

If Pavlik beats Cunningham, he’ll be facing IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute in a money fight in November. I don’t like to dismiss a fighter’s chance, but I don’t think Pavlik has a prayer against Bute. That’s like facing another Sergio Martinez or Bernard Hopkins, both of which already easily beat Pavlik.

I think Pavlik isn’t going to shine against Cunningham, and will look as average as he’s been looking. That’s going to leave Top Rank with the hard decision to throw their money fighter Pavlik into what will be a certain defeat against Bute or whether to try and work on getting yet more rust off of Pavlik before matching him against a quality fighter. I see them cashing out with Pavlik and throwing him in with Bute in what will be lopsided 12 round decision loss for Pavlik. I don’t care how many tune-up fights Pavlik has, he’s too slow and flawed to beat a guy like Bute in this lifetime.