Kelly Pavlik to Return June 8 in Las Vegas

In less than three months, Kelly Pavlik will make his return to the ring against Scotto Sigmon.

This is good, considering before his last fight in March, it was almost a year when he fought on the Pacquiao vs Mosley undercard.

Pavlik continues his rise back to relevance by taking stay-busy fights and working with new trainer Robert Garcia.

Kelly looked fantastic in his last fight against Aaron Jaco at light heavyweight. His punches looked crisp, he used the jab well and his left hook was devastating. After Pavlik landed his first clean shot of the night against Jaco, he was in surviva l mode until his knockout in the second.

Jaco wasn't meant to be any real challenge to Pavlik, inactive for about five years before taking the fight. This match was just a showcase to show what Garcia and Pavlik are working on.

Kelly was actually supposed to be fighting tonight on what was supposed to be the Brandon Rios-Yuriorkis Gamboa undercard. There was communication problems, as Kelly said he never signed a contract to fight Sigmon while Sigmon said he did.

This match is now being set up in Las Vegas on the eve of Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley on June 8. 

After watching a Sigmon fight, I can say I'm not impressed and I give him nothing more than a puncher's chance to win. He's a club fighter at best and is in nowway prepared for the caliber of fighter that Pavlik is.

He appears to be a come-forward pressure fighter that'll be ripe for Pavlik's picking. If Sigmon makes it out of the fifth round, I'll be impressed.

I'm not too critical of Pavlik's opposition right now because he's with a new trainer and it's been some time since he fought since getting out of rehab. They need to work on their chemistry and get on the right page before facing the elite.

I'll give him until 2013 to fight upper-level competition if he doesn't do so by this fall.