HBO Boxing Is On Fire In April: Enter Berto, Martinez, Pavlik & Quintana

Now that the weather is warming up around my area, boxing seems to be following suit. Excluding the recent Hopkins-Jones II debacle, the next couple of weeks are truly worthy of anticipation and excitement.

Andre Berto (25-0, 19 KOs) vs Carlos Quintana (27-2, 21 KOs)

Welcome back Andre Berto. I just wanted to get that shout-out out of the way. As you all know, Berto skipped his fight with Shane Mosley to take care of personal business in the aftermath of the tragic hurricane in his homeland of Haiti. Now he gets a difficult ring assignment in Carlos Quintana on April 10.

On the surface, this appears to be a showcase matchup to promote Berto's hyper-kinetic reflexes against a fading veteran. But don't be fooled. Carlos Quintana is no pushover. I actually give Quintana advantages in key areas such as competition, defense and ring generalship. However, I do not believe that these advantages will be enough to defeat the younger, fresher Berto.

Look for Andre Berto to use his much quicker hands and much quicker feet to out-hustle Carlos Quintana. But it won't be easy. Just ask Paul Williams .

Kelly Pavlik (36-1, 32 KOs) vs Sergio Martinez (44-2-2, 24 KOs)

One week after Berto-Quintana, Sergio Martinez travels to Kelly Pavlik's "home away from home" in Atlantic City, New Jersey to try to take Pavlik's middleweight title away. This fight has all of the makings of a fight of the year candidate. It's the classic boxer (Martinez) versus puncher (Pavlik).

Who's going to win?

If you know anything about me, you know that I usually favor the boxer over the puncher in superfights. Kelly Pavlik will have the crowd behind him, since many of his Youngstown, Ohio fanatics will undoubtedly make the trip to Jersey to watch their favorite son defend his crown. Additionally, Pavlik is the naturally bigger man, packs a heavier wallop, has fought slightly better competition, and probably has the better chin.

Sergio Martinez has some of the fastest hands and feet in the business. Combine that with his natural feel inside the ring and his sneaky punching power, and you have a pound-for-pound caliber fighter. Yes, he's that good and he's my pick here. I say this with caution though. Pavlik's power and Martinez's knack for dropping his hands scare me.

But when it is all said and done, I am going with the mild upset. I am predicting Sergio Martinez to win a highly-competitive, split decision against Kelly Pavlik, wresting the middleweight title away in the process.