Word on the street is that Kelly Pavlik will be putting on ten pounds and taking on former middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins this fall at a catchweight of 170 pounds. Add that to a potential super-middleweight match with Joe Calzaghe, and the already complete fight with Jermain Taylor at 166 pounds, and you don’t really have much of a middleweight champion.

I have nothing against Pavlik, he seems very likable and he’s immensely talented. But enough is enough. When you wear the belt and call yourself champion, you have an obligation to your weight class. Either move up and vacate your belts, or fight your opponents. The fight that Pavlik needs to make is with Arthur Abraham. No one else. A fight with Calzaghe is intriguing, but not necessary. A fight with Hopkins is also slightly interesting, but is a terrible decision for Pavlik.

There are four reasons I disagree with Pavlik’s decision to accept this fight:

1) No one ever looks good against Hopkins. No one. Don’t expect to knock him out. Don’t expect to put on a show. Expect to be outsmarted and tricked. Expect a dirty fight. Work rate alone will get Pavlik the win, but all it does is add to his resume, and at this point, is Hopkins even adding to it?

2) He’s not a light-heavyweight. Pavlik is the middleweight champion. Chasing a worthless fight two weight classes away is a bad decision. Going back down in weight is harder than going up, and I don’t like this move for Pavlik’s future.

3) Arthur Abraham. This is the fight that needs to be made in the middleweight division, and Pavlik’s unwillingness to remain in his division makes it less and less likely that this fight will happen.

4) Boxing fans aren’t made of money. This is another sub-par matchup that will be put on Pay-Per-View. There is already Cotto-Margarito, Calzaghe-Jones, Marquez-Casamayor, and perhaps Mosley-Mayorga scheduled for PPV, and of those, Cotto-Margarito is the only can’t miss fight. I am fine with Calzaghe-Jones being on PPV, on a count of two living legends squaring off, but that’s about it. Remember 2007 when Pavlik-Taylor and Calzaghe-Kessler were on regular HBO withing two months of each other. HBO needs to remember why last year was so special. Pavlik-Hopkins on PPV is not acceptable to the average fight fan.

The bottom line is that this is a bad matchup for Pavlik, and an unnecessary fight for both. Hopkins fancies himself a light-heavyweight now, he should fight other light-heavyweights. Pavlik is the middleweight champion, he should fight all comers. This is the same reason that Floyd Mayweather never won over the boxing world. Clean out your division and the money comes. Don’t go chasing fights when there is business to be finished in your own weight class.

I like Kelly Pavlik, but I think he’s making a big mistake by fighting Bernard Hopkins. He may come out of this with an ugly win and a nice name on his resume, but this doesn’t sit well with me.

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