By Andrew Fruman

After almost a 10 month absence from the ring, middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik returns to action tomorrow night… and nobody appears to be all that enthused.

The rightful apathy for the Top Rank PPV is hardly a big surprise.  Plain and simple – the main event is a mismatch.

Pavlik's opponent, former Contender contestant Miguel Espino, has obviously been chosen because he's extremely unlikely to offer a strong challenge.  It's somewhat understandable that Pavlik is getting a soft touch given his recent health issues and inactivity, but as a fan...how do you get excited about a fight like that?  Unless you're a huge Kelly Pavlik supporter, it's not possible.

Unfortunately fights with little chance of being competitive are an unappealing staple of this sport.

Just last Saturday, HBO handed Victor Ortiz an overmatched Antonio Diaz. Ortiz needed a confidence booster, and Diaz was brought in as the fodder.

The boxing public was force fed an even bigger mismatch the previous weekend, when Chris Arreola was generously given Brian Minto to beat up on.

The point was not to give fans decent fights, but to get Ortiz and Arreola back in the winner’s circle with little bother. Mission accomplished on both counts.

At least those fights were under-cards to more appealing main-events.

Pavlik vs Espino is the feature attraction… And it comes with the lofty price tag of $39.95.

The under-card would have to be terrific to warrant that price.  It's not.  There's only one fight, between bantamweights Nehomar Cermeno and Alejandro Valdez, that promises to be competitive.  Humberto Soto should hand Jesus Chavez a beating, while Willie Lee is unlikely to provide problems for Vanes Martirosyan.

If Top Rank wants to get Kelly Pavlik back in action, that's great.  But they could have at least tried to give the fans some value, and this card has very little.

Adding it all up… Main-event mismatch + underwhelming under-card + Lousy price = Not worth purchasing.

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