FanHouse Gary Lockett

Kelly Pavlik put together a dominant performance in destroying Gary Lockett by third-round TKO tonight to retain his world middleweight title.

But he did more than that: Pavlik stated a case that he might just be the best boxer in the world, not just among middleweights, but in any weight class.

In recent years Floyd Mayweather has owned that distinction, but Mayweather announced his retirement yesterday. And while I don't believe that Mayweather is really retired, I think that he might sit out long enough that people stop talking about him as the best fighter in the world.

If that's the case, the undefeated Pavlik can absolutely fill that void. If he fights and beats Joe Calzaghe, he'll deserve to be called the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

There are four title fights on cable TV Saturday night, a bonanza for fight fans who won't have to pony up for pay-per-view to catch some good boxing. Since it's boxing in 2008, there's gotta be a drawback and in this case it is that two fights are on HBO and the other two are on Showtime. Still, some judicious flipping and/or the use of a DVR should make it a full night of pugilistic enjoyment.

We'll start by looking at the two HBO fights, live from Atlantic City at 10PM Eastern.

Kelly Pavlik (33-0) vs. Gary Lockett (30-1) for the WBC, WBO and Ring Magazine Middleweight Titles
We start with Pavlik because he's the biggest name, not because this is going to be the best fight of the night. Lockett is a mandatory challenger for Pavlik and he's going to have to come up with a pretty magical effort to hang with Pavlik. He's never fought in the United States before, never fought anyone close to Pavlik's ability and doesn't have the skills of Jermain Taylor or Edison Miranda, each of whom couldn't solve Pavlik's mix of punching power and boxing skills. Unless Pavlik is looking past Lockett, he should end this one fairly early.