By Lem Satterfield
The manager of former WBC middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik would like to see him in a tuneup fight in August, followed by a super middleweight clash with either Canadian southpaw IBF king Lucian Bute or former WBA belt-holder Mikkel Kessler of Denmark.
Pavlik's manager, Cameron Dunkin, also mentioned as a possibility the 25-year-old English southpaw James DeGale (10-1, eight KOs).
"With Kelly, we want to get him back into the ring again to knock some more of that ring rust off. I want to get him into the ring in August. But he has to be paid, and you don't pay a Kelly Pavlik $20,000," said Dunkin of Pavlik, who is promoted by Top Rank Promotions.
"Do you jump right into a major, major fight so that he can get paid, or do you go after another warmup fight before that," said Dunkin. "That second situation is what I would like, it's what [Top Rank matchmaker] Bruce Trampler would like, and that's what the Pavlik camp would like."
A 29-year-old resident of Youngstown, Ohio, Pavlik (36-2, 32 knockouts) is coming off of May's 10-round unanimous decision over 29-year-old Alfonso Lopez (21-1, 16 KOs) of Cut And Shoot, Texas, at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.
"Everybody's contacted us. Kessler's people, Bute's people, James DeGale with Frank Warren," said Dunkin. "We've talked about DeGale with Frank Warren. So there is a lot of stuff going on out there with Kelly."
The 31-year-old Bute (28-0, 23 KOs) will make the seventh defense of his belt and pursue his sixth knockout during that run on July 9 against Jean Paul Mendy (29-0, 16 KOs) of France.
A 32-year-old former champion, Kessler (44-2, 33 KOs) has won two straight bouts since being dethroned by WBA champion Andre Ward (24-0, 13 KOs), including a decision, and, a sixth-round knockout, respectively, over current WBC titlist Carl Froch (28-1, 20 KOs) of England and Mehdi Bouadla (22-4, 10 KOs) in April of 2010 and on June 4 of 2011.
DeGale is coming off of May's majority decision loss to his 23-year-old countryman George Groves (13-0, 10 KOs) that ended a run of five consecutive knockout victories.
"Kelly is looking at a big fight. Kelly wants to fight somebody of prominence, so we're looking and we're talking with several people," said Dunkin. "We have to try and find something," said Dunkin. "Maybe we can do a two-fight deal where we can compensate the first fight for the second fight."
In a bout that contested on the undercard of a unanimous decision by WBO welterweight and eight division titlist Manny Pacquiao (53-3-2, 38 KOs) over Shane Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KOs), Pavlik was in his first fight since April of 2010 against Lopez, and also since being released on Jan. 4 from the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., after having been admitted for an alcohol problem on Nov. 4.
"I thought that in the 10th round, he was starting to catch the guy and to really do much better against Lopez. So my thought is that we do another fight," said Dunkin.
"That would be the perfect situation to setp him up some, but not a ton," said Dunkin. "And that way, we go and let him knock some more ring rust off and get him a little sharper and then we fight somebody for a title."
The win over Lopez improved Pavlik to 12-0, with eight knockouts in Las Vegas fights, and was his first in the gambling city since a February, 2008 rematch with Jermain Taylor, over whom he earned a non-title, 164-pound, unanimous decision victory at the MGM Grand Hotel.
Pavlik was in his fourth appearance at the MGM Grand Hotel against Lopez, having exploded on to the boxing scene in September of 2007 by dethroning the previously unbeaten Taylor as WBC and WBO middleweight champion during his Atlantic City debut at the Boardwalk Hall, this, after rising from a second-round knockdown.
Pavlik was released in January from a two-month stay at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., for treatment for issues with alcohol.
Pavlik is 2-2, with two stoppages in Atlantic City, where he knocked out Taylor, stopped Gary Lockett in the third round of a June, 2008 defense of his belts, lost an October, 2008, non-title, 170-pound clash to two-division titlist Bernard Hopkins (51-5-2, 32 KOs), and, was dethroned during April's unanimous decision setback against southpaw Sergio Martinez (47-2-2, 26 KOs).