By Keith Idec (photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank)

NEW YORK — Simply winning won’t suffice for Kelly Pavlik tonight.

The middleweight champion needs a convincing, impressive performance against Sergio Martinez to really reclaim some of the status and popularity Pavlik has lost since he demolished mandatory challenger Gary Lockett nearly two years ago at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. Even Pavlik acknowledges that he must make fight fans remember what made him must-see TV in his first non-pay-per-view fight since he knocked out Lockett in the third round in June 2008.

As difficult as dominating Martinez might seem, the heavy-handed Pavlik has noticed flaws in the Argentinean southpaw that he is certain he can exploit in their 12-round fight for Pavlik’s WBC and WBO 160-pound titles.

“He’s got good hand speed,” Pavlik (36-1, 32 KOs) said. “I wouldn’t say that he’s as fast as everybody thinks. I believe a lot of his speed looks like that because of the angles that he punches from. He throws punches and his body is already halfway there. But at the same time, that kind of hurts him, too. He leaves himself wide open.”

Often with his hands at his sides, Martinez was wide open when he fought Paul Williams, too. But many fight fans and media members believe Martinez did enough early in his 12-round middleweight fight with Williams to earn a win.

Martinez (44-2-2, 24 KOs) instead settled for a maligned majority decision defeat Dec. 5 in the Adrian Phillips Ballroom at Boardwalk Hall.

One judge, Julie Lederman, scored the fight a draw (114-114). Williams won 115-113 on judge Lynne Carter’s card, but it was the third scorecard that created controversy.

Pierre Benoist credited Williams with a 119-110 victory in an extremely close, all-action brawl that warranted serious “Fight of the Year” consideration. Martinez, a Madrid resident raised in Buenos Aires, definitely deserved better than that, but the questionable loss to Williams (38-1, 27 KOs) didn’t deter him from returning to Atlantic City for a bigger opportunity in Boardwalk Hall’s bigger room.

“I have nothing against the commissioner, but I expect to have a fair shake, like you’re supposed to give every fighter,” Martinez said, referring to Aaron Davis, commissioner of New Jersey’s State Athletic Control Board. “I expect this time that the commissioner will make sure it’s fair for me, and for my opponent as well.”

Lou DiBella, Martinez’s promoter, is “very comfortable” with the judges Davis has chosen in conjunction with the WBC and the WBO. Canada’s Craig Metcalfe, New Jersey’s Barbara Perez and Puerto Rico’s Roberto Ramirez have been assigned to score the Pavlik-Martinez match, which will headline a split-site “World Championship Boxing” doubleheader scheduled to start at 10 p.m. EDT on HBO.

DiBella is much more concerned about the size difference between Pavlik and Martinez, who is not naturally a middleweight.

Pavlik stands 6-foot-2, about three inches taller than Martinez. The Youngstown, Ohio, native also has contested two of his last five fights at catch weights of 166 pounds (the Jermain Taylor rematch) and 170 pounds (his lopsided loss to Bernard Hopkins).

“My guy’s team is more than confident,” DiBella said. “My concern lies when you look at the stare-down. You see guys that are clearly in different weight classes. Kelly is clearly the biggest, strongest middleweight by far. And in my mind, he would be a dominant factor at [super middleweight], where he really belongs. It’s two weight classes above my guy. And my guy has been moving up in weight and fighting bigger guys because no one at his own weight wants to go near him.”

DiBella credited Pavlik for agreeing to fight Martinez, but Sampson Lewkowicz, Martinez’s adviser, insists Pavlik had “no choice” but to meet Martinez after negotiations to reschedule his twice-postponed fight with Williams failed.

Pavlik preferred to fight Williams because he wants to prove there’s no truth to Williams’ claims that Pavlik pulled out of their bouts scheduled for Oct. 3 and Dec. 5 because he really didn’t want to square off with Williams. Pavlik withdrew from those two fights due to a slow-healing staph infection in his left hand, which he contracted after his technical knockout win against Mexico’s Marco Antonio Rubio (46-5-1, 40 KOs) in a mandatory match 14 months ago in Youngstown.

“It does irritate me, especially when it’s medically proven, especially when it’s coming straight from a doctor at the Cleveland Clinic, which is a very, very prestigious hospital,” Pavlik said. “Those guys aren’t going to sit there and lie about it and take chances with their jobs. It was kind of frustrating, but at the same time you’re going to have people who are going to be on the bandwagon and are going to be off the bandwagon. We couldn’t prove any more than we did with the infection.”

The 28-year-old Pavlik does need to prove he is still capable of beating an elite-level opponent. He hasn’t done that since he out-pointed Taylor (28-4-1, 17 KOs) in their rematch in February 2008 in Las Vegas.

Despite Pavlik’s size advantage, Martinez, 35, presents plenty of problems. The former professional cyclist and soccer player’s speed and movement are concerns, and he has displayed a reliable chin, though mostly at 154 pounds.

Pavlik’s primary advantage, of course, is sheer strength. He noticed in watching Martinez on tape that Kermit Cintron consistently hit him with right hands in an infamous majority draw, and Cintron can’t punch quite as hard as Pavlik.

“I definitely feel that I have a strength advantage,” Pavlik said. “That’s if it’s Martinez, or a naturally big middleweight like [Edison] Miranda or Jermain Taylor. I overpowered them and my strength was an advantage in those fights. But I don’t bank everything on the strength.

“When I go into a fight, I work on my hand speed, I work on my conditioning. And if that strength is a factor, a plus, then I’m glad. I think it will be, eventually, in the fight. Going back on the films, Martinez, for being a cyclist and a soccer player, he kind of [fades] midway through a fight, and at the end of a fight. So we’ll see what happens when he’s in there with a natural middleweight that’s hitting him and putting pressure on him.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com.