Throughout Corey Hill's brief career as a mixed martial arts fighter, there was one constant for his wife, Lauren.

She didn't attend his bouts in person, instead preferring to remain at home caring for their three children. Their routine was that about 20 or so minutes after his bout ended, the telephone would ring and Corey would call to say he was fine.

Things were different on Dec. 10, 2008, however. Twenty minutes after she figured his fight would be over, the phone hadn't rung. Another half-hour went by with nothing. Lauren Hill began to get a bit anxious.

"I knew his fight was supposed to start around 6:15 and here it was 7:30 and he hadn't called me," she said. "The other fights he had, the latest I heard from him was 20 minutes (after). Corey would always call me right away and when he didn't, that's when I kind of got a little bit nervous."

After another few minutes went by with nothing but silence, she was excited when the telephone finally rang. But the voice on the other

Manny Pacquiao may indeed fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on March 13, but the opponent may not be Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Promoter Bob Arum on Thursday made an offer to former world champion Paulie Malignaggi for a fight with Pacquiao on March 13. Arum extended the offer to Malignaggi promoter Lou DiBella, who could not be reached for comment on Christmas Eve.

"Lou liked it, but he was having trouble getting a hold of Paulie to discuss it with him because of the holiday," Arum said.

While the offer hardly means the proposed Pacquiao-Mayweather fight is off, it makes resuscitating it that much harder. The fight, which is expected to be the highest-grossing bout in boxing history, has come to a halt over a dispute over drug testing.

Mayweather is insisting upon testing administered by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which requires random urine and blood testing up to and including on the day of competition. Pacquiao is willing to submit blood samples, though he doesn't want

Boxing always has been needlessly complex. Instead of one sanctioning body that awards world titles, there are four.

Instead of eight weight classes for fighters to compete in, as there were for much of the sport's existence, there are 17.

Instead of just one world champion in each class, there are champions, super champions, interim champions, champions-in-recess and champions emeritus.

Two of the primary sanctioning bodies, the World Boxing Association and World Boxing Council, refer to the newer classes as "super," as in super featherweight, super lightweight and super welterweight. The World Boxing Organization and the International Boxing Federation refer to the same new classes as "junior," as in junior lightweight, junior welterweight and junior middleweight.

None of that insanity can top the comic absurdity that has come up during the negotiations to finalize a fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. When a journalist referred to Golden Boy Promotions as

Thankfully, my job only requires me to choose the Yahoo! Sports Fighter of the Year for 2009 and not select a runner-up, where there are several very good candidates.

Picking the Fighter of the Year for 2009 is easy. Who, other than Manny Pacquiao, could it possibly be?

There were many brilliant individual performances in 2009, but no boxer accomplished as much in the year as Pacquiao did with his devastatingly quick knockout of Ricky Hatton and his 12-round bludgeoning of Miguel Cotto. In fights in which there were more than a handful of knowledgeable boxing experts who thought he might lose both of his fights, Pacquiao breezed to dominant victories in each.

Pacquiao confirmed in 2009 what many began to suspect in 2008: He deserves to be considered among the greatest boxers of all time.

Burt Sugar, a boxing historian whose book "Boxing's Greatest Fighters" is a list of his choices of the top 100 fighters ever, said Pacquiao deserves to be considered one of the 25 greatest fighters of

The hotly anticipated fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao was teetering on the brink of collapse on Wednesday over a dispute regarding drug testing procedures, a debate that has some experts standing on Mayweather's side.

On Wednesday, Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank proposed a drug testing schedule that would include three blood draws and an unlimited number of urine tests in an attempt to salvage the bout that hit a negotiating snag on Tuesday, when Mayweather's side insisted on random Olympic-style drug testing administered by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. The world's top two boxers had agreed to meet on March 13 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas for what is expected to become the largest-grossing bout in the sport's history.

Arum said frequent urine testing is sufficient in the final 30 days to prevent either fighter from using performance-enhancing drugs. He said Pacquiao is willing to submit blood samples in early January, in mid-February around

Nearly every detail is finalized for Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao to fight on March 13 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas but one. That one detail, though, may kill the fight.

Negotiations are at an impasse over Pacquiao's failure to agree to random Olympic-style drug testing, said Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions, on Tuesday.

Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach said his fighter is willing to comply with strict drug-testing standards, but Roach won't allow Pacquiao to have blood drawn 48 hours before the fight.

Ellerbe said he would not let Mayweather enter the ring unless Pacquiao agreed to it.

Both sides agreed that the drug testing issue is the only hurdle preventing the fight from being finished. Earlier Tuesday, Golden Boy Promotions officially requested March 13 from the Nevada State Athletic Commission to host the show.

"As Floyd's management, we are insistent that there be a level playing field," Ellerbe said. "This is in the best interests of the

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The Ultimate Fighting Championship's Hall of Fame is an elite group consisting primarily of fighters from the sport's early days. TapouT's Charles "Mask" Lewis, who died tragically in an auto accident, is the only non-fighter among the seven who are in the Hall currently.

The others are Dan Severn, Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Mark Coleman, Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock.

There are a number of deserving active fighters, and they'll get be inducted in due course. But one man who deserves to be in the Hall of Fame is Marc Ratner, the UFC's vice president of regulatory affairs.

UFC president Dana White often speaks about how the company is "opening up" various states, Canadian provinces and other countries. But the man who is doing the work is Ratner.

He's tirelessly traveling the world spreading the word of MMA and helping it to be sanctioned everywhere.

There are very few non-fighters who deserve inclusion in such an elite group, but Ratner is

You can follow Kevin Iole on Twitter at @KevinI

Manny Pacquiao's ability to block out distractions and focus on his job as a fighter is legendary. Despite the storm that often surrounds him – a former manager once said, "Manny loves the chaos" – he's going to have a challenge like never before when he fights Floyd Mayweather Jr. on March 13 in the year's most significant fight.

Pacquiao is running for Congress in the Philippines, with the election set for May. According to the Manila Bulletin, two supporters of Pacquiao's election campaign were recently shot and killed by gunmen riding on a motorcycle.

The paper quotes a leader of Pacquiao's political party speculating that the killings were politically motivated and intended to dissuade Pacquiao supporters from going to the polls. Hopefully, a free, fair and non-violent election will be held, but there's going to be a lot more pressure on Pacquiao in this fight other than just dealing with Mayweather's many boxing skills.

With that,