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LAS VEGAS – As Juan Diaz trudged back to his corner after the sixth round of his lightweight title bout Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center with Juan Manuel Marquez, he looked to the floor and shook his head.

He was doing everything he had trained 11 weeks to do and yet he was still being schooled by Marquez.

It was a case of a good fighter getting drilled by a great fighter.

Marquez retained the World Boxing Association and World Boxing Organization lightweight titles with a wide unanimous decision victory in the main event of a Golden Boy Promotions card before 8,383 raucous fans.

Logic and economics would dictate that the win should propel Marquez into a third bout with Manny Pacquiao, but this is boxing and in boxing nothing is ever easy or makes much sense.

And just as Floyd Mayweather Jr. is clearly ducking and dodging Pacquiao, Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum is doing a bit of ducking of his own. He's made it clear he wants no

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Nothing that Jon Jones says would suggest that he's fallen in love with himself or that he believes he's God's gift to mixed martial arts. He speaks softly and humbly, talking of what an honor it is to fight Vladimir Matyushenko and scoffing at suggestions he's on the verge of becoming a superstar.

Listen to him rave about Matyushenko's skills and you might walk away fearing for Jones' safety.

Yet, one needs to go no further than UFC.com to see the 23-year-old light heavyweight referred to as the future of the MMA. Search the Internet and you'll see words such as "star," "sensation," "phenom" and "generational talent" next to his name.

Jones, who fights Matyushenko in the main event of UFC on Versus 2 on Sunday at the Sports Arena in San Diego, has heard and read it all. He's been the darling of the fight crowd since his UFC debut at UFC 87 on Aug. 9, 2008, when he outworked veteran Andre Gusmao and then admitted he learned the sport by

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LAS VEGAS – Amir Khan was speaking about his burgeoning boxing career, discussing the future the way great young athletes do, full of hope, full of confidence, full of excitement.

As he spoke, his eyes tracked a figure in the distance.

"That's the kind of guy any young fighter could aspire to be," Khan said, motioning toward Juan Manuel Marquez. Khan nodded his head in admiration at a potential opponent in the not-too-distant future, one who has, in the twilight of his career, finally begun to get the recognition that was due years earlier.

"He's obviously a great fighter and he's a guy you can respect because he's so sound and he's always in great shape," Khan said.

On Saturday, Khan will have a front-row seat at the Mandalay Bay Events Center to watch Marquez fight Juan Diaz in the main event of an HBO Pay-Per-View card for the World Boxing Association/World Boxing Organization lightweight belts. It is a rematch of the 2009 Fight of

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LAS VEGAS – Zuffa LLC, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Extreme Cagefighting, has filed suit against Ken Pavia, one of the sport's most prominent fighter agents, alleging Pavia passed along trade secrets and confidential Zuffa documents to rival mixed martial arts promotion Bellator.

The suit alleges that Bellator used the documents to help run its business.

Pavia is the founder of MMA Agents and represents in excess of 50 fighters, more than 40 of whom are now or have been in the past under contract to Zuffa.

Bellator, which is a co-defendant, is a fledgling MMA promotional company that has earned rave reviews for the entertaining fights it made during its first two seasons, which were broadcast initially on ESPN Deportes and then on FOX Sports Net, among other networks.

According to the suit, filed Wednesday in Clark County District Court, Pavia delivered confidential contracts, including fighter

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LAS VEGAS – Juan Diaz would lie in bed at night, his eyes staring at the ceiling, his head filled with dreams of the future. He was a professional boxer at 16 and was a world champion at 20, but for as long as Diaz could remember, the Houstonian's dreams included not only visions of his boxing successes but also of his ability to help create a more just society.

He dreamed of becoming the mayor of his beloved hometown, leading a charge to improve the education system, to make the health-care system more accessible. He wanted to right injustice and reward hard work, to make Houston an example of what a city can become when it's run by citizens who care and are willing to fight for what they believe.

Diaz now stands at a crossroads in his professional career, facing a defining moment on Saturday, when he'll meet Juan Manuel Marquez for the World Boxing Council/World Boxing Organization lightweight titles in the main event of an HBO

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HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg released a four-paragraph, five-sentence statement Monday which cast doubt upon the veracity of Floyd Mayweather Jr.; Mayweather's best friend, Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe; Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer and which forever eliminated any doubt about Mayweather's intention: He's ducking Manny Pacquiao.

There can be no other rational explanation.

Welcome to "Mayweather in Wonderland," where they try to convince you that up is down, the grass is blue and the sky is green. Never mind that Mayweather has tarnished, perhaps forever, his legacy as one of the best boxers of all time. Given his disinclination to fight Pacquiao, it's hard to regard him as the best fighter of his own time.

Mayweather was nowhere to be found on Monday, still on vacation, apparently oblivious to the millions of boxing fans desperate to hear a word about his

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Anderson Silva is headlining yet another Ultimate Fighting Championship pay-per-view card on Aug. 7, which should send shudders up and down the spines of those responsible for paying a cable or satellite bill.

In a terrible economy with a poor recent track record in terms of producing exciting fights, Silva is going to struggle to gain forgiveness from the fans he's burned so often in the last 22 months or so.

He'll also fight Chael Sonnen with the pressure of knowing that his boss vowed to cut him if he fails to perform or, more significantly, if he repeats his performance from UFC 112.

The UFC's uber-talented middleweight champion hasn't been a hit in the last three pay-per-view cards he's headlined. Yes, he scored a first-round knockout of Forrest Griffin in a light heavyweight bout at UFC 101 in Philadelphia last year, but that was the semi-main event.

Silva is the UFC's version of Mike Tyson, a knockout artist unparalleled in the

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Major League Baseball blacked out in Las Vegas the three-game series between the San Diego Padres and the Pittsburgh Pirates that was held at Pittsburgh's PNC Park over the weekend. The rule, in which Vegas is blacked out as San Diego's "home market," is zany, makes zero sense and it misses a significant marketing opportunity: "Hey, fans, look, not only do you get every major league game when you buy the 'Extra Innings' package, but we'll throw in the games of a Triple-A team at no extra cost when you pay in full!"

It was frustrating, though, to not be able to watch, especially for the handful of us Pirates fans out there who are interested in seeing the development of rookies like Pedro Alvarez and Jose Tabata.

This frustration is nothing, though, compared to what it is like to be a boxing fan. Boxing fans are the most patient people on earth. We deal with zero free fights on network television. Not only do we have to buy cable to see