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The mortgage is overdue. He's holding down three jobs to make ends meet. He's struggling to make his own small business succeed while security at his other job is very tenuous, at best. Jacob Volkmann knows that each day he reports to work could be his last.

He's no different than millions of working class Americans who, during the recession, have to struggle to survive on a day-to-day basis.

Volkmann, though, is a bit different than most in that he's managed to retain his job in spite of overwhelming evidence that he might lose it. Volkmann is a lightweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, but lost his first two bouts to Paulo Thiago and Martin Kampmann at welterweight.

That's a recipe for a pat on the back, a one-way ticket home and counsel to find a new line of work.

To many mixed martial arts fighters who dream of competing in the UFC, UFC matchmaker Joe Silva is like the NFL's version of the "The Turk," the guy who visits

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Robert Guerrero had showered and dressed one day in March 2009 when he bumped into his trainer, Bob Santos, as he was preparing to leave the gym.

In a few days, Guerrero would meet Daud Yordan in an important super featherweight bout in San Jose, Calif., that would be broadcast nationally on HBO.

Santos said Wednesday that he recalled watching as Guerrero peacefully strode through the door on his way home, carrying a smile on his face and offering a friendly word for everyone he passed on the way out.

"I've been with him for a long, long time and I remember thinking that if I could mold a human being after someone, to make that person I'd want my son to grow up to be, it would be Robert Guerrero," Santos said. "Just looking at him, watching him leave, he was so relaxed and so at peace and I felt he was ready to put on a tremendous performance."

Guerrero, 27, is an athletic and courageous boxer with surprising hand and foot speed and a

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The most significant news to come out of Bob Arum's bizarre 3-in-the-morning conference call on Saturday, that essentially announced nothing, was when Arum confirmed what many in the boxing industry suspected was already occurring: As best he can, he's going to keep all of his fights in-house.

That means he isn't going to match Manny Pacquiao, his star attraction, against Timothy Bradley, who is promoted by Gary Shaw Productions, or Paul Williams, who is with Goossen Tutor Promotions. Both are ranked in the pound-for-pound Top 10 and have combined to win 65 of the 66 professional matches they have fought.

No matter, though, Arum said in his middle-of-the-night conference call to report nothing. There will be, he insisted, "no free rides" for other promoters. If Pacquiao fights someone not promoted by Top Rank, the promotional company Arum founded nearly a half-century ago, it will only be Floyd Mayweather Jr.

That's mighty big of him.

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It was three in the morning Saturday on the East Coast when Bob Arum delivered the bad news. The 78-year-old chairman of Top Rank, boxing's preeminent promotional company, called a news conference in the middle of the night to tell the world that there was no deal for Manny Pacquiao to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Yet.

Sadly, if there is going to be one, it almost certainly won't be until May 2011. A Top Rank-imposed deadline of 11:59 p.m. Pacific on Friday for Mayweather to accept an offer on the table for a Nov. 13 fight with Pacquiao passed with nary a peep from Mayweather or his representatives.

The deadline, Arum said, was simply the end of an exclusive negotiation period for a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight.

He'll begin to work later Saturday on reaching a deal for a Pacquiao fight with either Antonio Margarito, the former World Boxing Organization welterweight champion who in 2009 was suspended from boxing for a year by the California

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It's hard to fly under the radar when you're 25-0, a world champion in one of boxing's best divisions and widely regarded by industry experts as one of the game's pound-for-pound finest.

Yet, Timothy Bradley somehow manages to do it.

He hasn't run for public office. He hasn't adorned himself with an outrageous nickname. He just fights – and beats – the best fighters in the world.

Bradley, the World Boxing Organization super lightweight champion, will fight unbeaten Luis Carlos Abregu in a non-title welterweight bout July 17 in Rancho Mirage, Calif., that will be televised on HBO's "Boxing After Dark" series.

There are a lot of great fights to be made at super lightweight against men like Devon Alexander, Marcos Maidana, Amir Khan, Victor Ortiz and Zab Judah, among others. Bradley, though, doesn't want to be confined to a single division.

Bradley is only 5-feet-6, but he fought as high as 152 pounds in the amateurs where he became

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Short shots about the world of professional boxing:

• In 2009, it seemed there was a Fight of the Year candidate every other week. From major names engaging in memorable battles to lesser lights trying to build a reputation, 2009 was filled with classic scraps.

Such is not the case in 2010. There is no clear leader in the clubhouse for Fight of the Year after the end of the first half, nor are there a list of good candidates.

Probably the best fight to this point was a super bantamweight brawl between Yonnhy Perez and Abner Mares at the Staples Center in May.

That bout came on the undercard of the fourth bout between Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez, but it was nowhere near in the class of Vazquez-Marquez I, II or III.

Hopefully, the second half of the year will provide much better choices.

• Golden Boy announced it would promote a pay-per-view bout between Sergio Mora and Shane Mosley on Sept. 18 at the Staples Center. It's a "Who

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There is a wide variety of topics covered in this week's edition of the boxing mailbag, which will be the last for a while since I'm on vacation.

I discuss (what else?) the potential Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao fight, my top 10 list and other hot-button topics in this week's edition of the boxing mailbag.

I'll be back to work on July 19, so enjoy and see you then.

Kevin, in the midst of this rather uneventful boxing summer, are we really supposed to get excited about the Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz rematch? While the first match won Fight of the Year honors in 2009, it essentially was a great fighter, Marquez, systematically breaking down and then beating down a very good but limited fighter, Diaz. It is difficult to imagine that the rematch will be a more competitive affair. I frankly see very little Diaz can do this time to change the outcome, except that perhaps the end might come more quickly. I

You can follow Kevin Iole on Twitter at @KevinI

UFC 116 was one of the most action-packed mixed martial arts cards in a long time. Brock Lesnar's ability to survive the first-round assault from Shane Carwin was an amazing capper to a stirring night of fights.

The mailbag is full of questions about Lesnar's victory, his future and the status of the heavyweight division.

Before we get to your questions and comments, and my answers, let me remind you that I'm on vacation. I'll be back to work on July 19, but keep checking the Yahoo! Sports MMA page because Dave Meltzer, Dave Doyle and the Cagewriter crew will keep it filled with great content.

And now, without further adieu, let's get to the current edition of the MMA mailbag.

I agree 100 percent that UFC 116 was a night of some of the most awesome, action-packed fights I've seen in a long time. From preliminary card fights to main card action, the fighters went to war. Classic. As heart-breaking as it was to see my