Ten years from now, Israel Vazquez will slowly pull himself out of a chair, wince, and think of Rafael Marquez.

In 15 years, Marquez will roll over in bed, feel a pain, and remember Vazquez.

They won't be the same men. They'll carry with them for the rest of their lives the reminders of their epic battles: A sore this, a painful that.

They won't be the same men on Saturday, when they meet for a fourth time in their epic series at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, as they were the night in 2007 when they first stood across the ring from each other.

Then, they were young fighters eager to please, anxious to pummel someone as much for glory and honor as for the ability to secure their futures. Now, they're grizzled, wizened veterans, keenly aware of the toll the sport exacts on some of its greatest warriors.

They're no less proud and no less competitive, though, and so Saturday's Showtime-televised bout likely won't be significantly different from the first three.

They'll punish each

You can follow Kevin Iole on Twitter at @KevinI

I was very impressed by Alistair Overeem in his win over Brett Rogers on Saturday's Strikeforce card in St. Louis.

I picked Rogers before the bout, but I knew I was wrong seconds into the match when Overeem took the center of the cage and had Rogers circling tentatively and backing up. Overeem's advantage in terms of experience was clearly evident, but if he continues to fight that way he's going to be a handful for any heavyweight.

With that, let's delve into the mailbag, where I respond to your questions and comments on a wide variety of mixed martial arts topics.

Boxers Ricardo Mayorga and James Toney coming to fight in mixed martial arts (or trying to) got me thinking about boxers who may have a chance in MMA. The only boxer I could think of who could make the transition is Kermit Cintron. With his wrestling background, I think it would be interesting to see him in MMA. I don't think it will ever happen, unless they

You can follow Kevin Iole on Twitter at @KevinI

When 20 of 33 boxing writers voted for Floyd Mayweather Jr. and not Manny Pacquiao as No. 1 in the May Yahoo! Sports boxing rankings, it created quite a firestorm among Pacquiao supporters.

Cries of racism abounded. Many questioned the validity of the panel, though their logic is somewhat lost given that Pacquiao held the top spot even after Mayweather returned in 2009 from a brief retirement.

The same panel that Pacquiao supporters wanted to deride as racist, pro-American and incompetent voted Pacquiao, not Mayweather, No. 1 from October 2009 through April 2010.

Pacquiao fans complained in large numbers about the change at the top. Very few, though, actually made a point. Most – more than 95 percent, I'd estimate – resorted to ranting, name-calling and race-baiting.

Conveniently, nearly every one of those left off their last names, their e-mail addresses and/or their hometowns.

Lito Ferrer was one of the few who included his last name.

You can follow Kevin Iole on Twitter at @KevinI

Short shots about the world of professional boxing:

What was Paulie Malignaggi's corner thinking on Saturday when he was being pummeled by Amir Khan in their fight for the World Boxing Association super lightweight title in The Theater at Madison Square Garden?

It was clear by about the fifth round that Malignaggi, whose forte is his boxing skill, had no chance to win the fight. He was being clearly outboxed by Khan and was taking an extraordinary amount of punishment in the process.

Malignaggi entered the fight without a knockout in more than six years, but at one stage late in the fight, his trainer, Sharif Younan, was telling him he needed to go out and knock Khan out.

What Younan should have told him was that he wasn't going to allow him to take a beating any longer.

Khan won by technical knockout in the 11th round when referee Steve Smoger mercifully jumped in to halt the carnage. Khan had won all 10 completed rounds on the

You can follow Kevin Iole on Twitter at @KevinI

A Florida judge on Saturday barred former boxing champion Ricardo Mayorga from competing on a Shine Fights mixed martial arts card later in the evening, forcing the entire pay-per-view card at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, N.C., to be canceled.

Broward County Circuit Court judge Marc H. Gold ruled Mayorga's participation was primarily because of his notoriety as a boxer and that it thus interfered in Don King Productions' exclusive boxing promotional contract with him.

Mayorga was to fight Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran Din Thomas in the main event, and Shine Fights was prepared to go forward with the card despite the judge's ruling, Shine CEO Devin Price said. But hours before the card was to begin, it was canceled by the North Carolina Athletic Commission.

A commission representative could not be reached and Price, who was in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., at the hearing, said he had not been told the reason. Shine will suffer

You can follow Kevin Iole on Twitter at @KevinI

Boxing is a strange sport. There are a lot of folks who call themselves boxing fans, but who are among the first to boo a classic exhibition of pure boxing.

Power is revered in this sport. Fighters who use angles, head movement, who slip, slide and dance away from danger, are derided as runners.

Those who bore forward intent on concussing their opponent without regard for their own well-being are lionized. The ability to make a man miss without the ability to make him pay for it is often reviled.

And so, when Paul Malignaggi and Amir Khan climb into the ring Saturday in the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York before a national television audience on HBO to battle for the World Boxing Association super lightweight championship, power will be very much center stage.

Malignaggi can take it but he can't really give it. He's 27-3 and a former International Boxing Federation super lightweight champion who has only been stopped once in

You can follow Kevin Iole on Twitter at @KevinI

Boxing fans who have never seen mixed martial arts before often come away with the impression that it's just bad boxing after watching their first MMA bout.

Of course, that's far from the truth. MMA fighters have to take different stances in their stand-up than boxers do because they have a lot more to defend against than just punches.

A fighter who takes a boxing stance in an MMA fight is more often than not going to have his front leg kicked out from under him and be taken quickly to the ground.

Ricardo Mayorga – who will instantly become the most high-profile boxer to transition to MMA when he takes on veteran Din Thomas on Saturday in the main event of a Shine Fights pay-per-view card at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, N.C. – insists he's not all that impressed with the skills of MMA fighters.

Mayorga, who held welterweight and super welterweight world titles as a boxer, suggested that MMA fighting is not much different than

You can follow Kevin Iole on Twitter at @KevinI

Now that Floyd Mayweather Jr. has dispatched of Shane Mosley and risen to the top of the May Yahoo! Sports rankings, attention once again has focused on getting Mayweather and Congressman-elect Manny Pacquiao into the ring with each other. And like the negotiations for an aborted March 13 bout, which began in November, both sides are saying all the right things.

Despite the positive vibes coming from the early days of the talks in November, though, participants were soon at each other's throats, lawsuits were filed and the bout wasn't consummated.

A disagreement over Mayweather's demand for "Olympic-style" random blood and urine testing ultimately torpedoed attempts to make the match the first time around.

Pacquiao went on to rout Joshua Clottey on March 13 to win the World Boxing Organization welterweight belt in front of a crowd of 51,000 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Mayweather blew out Mosley on May 1 in a match that drew an