By Lem Satterfield
The manager of New Jersey junior middleweight Pawel Wolak, Ivan Edwards, told BoxingScene.com that he would like to see his fighter face either middleweight contender, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., of Mexico, IBF king, Cornelius Bundrage, of Detroit, or WBA titlist Miguel Cotto, of Puerto Rico, in that order.
"What we would prefer to do is to fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. or Cornelius Bundrage, get our target practice in, and then to go after a fight with Miguel Cotto. But if they offered us a fight with Miguel Cotto tomorrow, we would take it," said Edwards.
"But we prefer to go out there and to get our experience in against a guy like Bundrage, and then, we would be totally prepared to fight Cotto," said Edwards. "After a fight with Bundrage, I know that we would be completely prepared to fight Cotto, who I think is getting a little long in the tooth and that we could be ready to beat Miguel Cotto."
The 29-year-old Wolak (29-1, 19 knockouts) is coming off of a March 12, sixth-round stoppage of ex-WBA belt-holder, Yuri Foreman (28-2, eight KOs), for his second straight knockout and his fifth early ending among eight consecutive victories.
Wolak has not lost since suffering defeat by 10-round unanimous decision to Ishe Smith in August of 2008, and was coming off of December's middleweight, seventh-round stoppage of Jose Pinzon (18-2-1, 12 KOs), against whom Wolak rose from a second-round knockdown.
Edwards now believes that Wolak is ready for the next step, meaning, a challenge against either the 37-year-old Bundrage (30-4, 18 KOs), the 30-year-old Cotto (36-2, 29 KOs), or, the 25-year-old Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KOs), whom Pinzon replaced the Tuesday prior to facing Wolak when Chavez pulled out of the bout with a 103-degree temperature.
Chavez has a June 4 clash for the WBC's vacant middleweight belt opposite Sebastian Zbik (30-0, 10 KOs), whose winner is in line to face WBC "emeritus" champion Sergio Martinez (47-2-2, 26 KOs).
"As I said before, our main goal is that we would like to fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. So we would like to face the winner of Julio Cesar Chavez against Zbik," said Edwards.
"Julio Cesar Chavez, we figure, is the only guy we would go up in weight to fight at middleweight, because Wolak is a natural 154-pounder," said Edwards. "We want to stay at this weight of junior middleweight, and we would prefer that. But if Julio gave us an opportunity, I think that we would take it."
In August, Bundrage dethroned IBF titlist Cory Spinks (37-6, 11 KOs) by dominating him from the start to the finish of a fifth-round knockout.
"I think that Bundrage is vulnerable right now, and I think that Wolak is on a high. I think that if we could make that fight, you know, then it would be great," said Edwards.
"I think that Wolak was ranked pretty high in the WBA at like No. 7 prior to beating Foreman, and I think that he was at No. 10 in the IBF," said Edwards. "So I'm pretty sure that with the win over Yuri Foreman that he will move up. So Wolak is in the mix. I think that it makes sense. I think that it makes good business sense."
Cotto is coming off of a March 12, 12th-round stoppage of ex-champion, Ricardo Mayorga (29-8-1, 22 KOs), this, after Cotto had dethroned Foreman as WBA king by ninth-round knockout in June.
"I think that a guy like Wolak makes sense for the average boxing fans against Miguel Cotto because he brings a lot of action, and Wolak can hit you with some power, and he takes a good punch," said Edwards.
"So Wolak is a guy who comes in and he gives it and he also takes it," said Edwards. "Wolaks's not out there to dance or to fool around. He's out there to get involved in the action. I think that he's out there to give the fans what they paid for."
