NEW YORK – Mikey Garcia barely cracked a smile Saturday after a surgical destruction of Orlando Salido netted him his first world title.

Garcia won a technical decision after eight one-sided rounds in the theater at Madison Square Garden before a crowd of 4,850, winning the WBO featherweight title. Mikey Garcia punches Orlando Salido during their fight on Saturday. (USA Today)

He knocked Salido down four times and was evoking memories of a young Floyd Mayweather, when Mayweather won his first title by routing Genaro Hernandez.

Garcia's nose was broken when he was head-butted late in the eighth round and ringside doctor Robert Polofsky decided it was too dangerous to continue.

While there was chaos in the ring and then later in a brief meeting with reporters, Garcia was the epitome of calm. He fought smart, patiently and with a high degree of skill.

He vowed he would handle the moment and was true to his word.

"I told everybody it was just another fight for me," Garcia said after running his record to 31-0. "I'm not so worried about what's at

Read More »from Sour ending does little to spoil Mikey Garcia's clinical demolition of Orlando Salido

Something dawned on Orlando Salido while getting drubbed by Juan Manuel Marquez: I can fight. I can actually make a living doing this.

On Sept. 18, 2004, Salido met Marquez in the co-main event of a pay-per-view show at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas that was headlined by Oscar De La Hoya against Bernard Hopkins. Orlando Salido lands a punch against Juan Manuel Lopez. (AP)

Salido was all but totally ignored in the pre-fight buildup and, truth be told, didn't give himself much of a chance. He didn't really believe he could win and went out and fought that way.

"I gave him way, way too much respect," Salido says now.

The bout was Marquez's first since a thrilling draw against Manny Pacquiao earlier that year. Salido was little more than a warm body thrown in because commission regulations required two fighters in the ring at all times.

Judges called the fight by a wide margin for Marquez, with two of them giving him nine of the 12 rounds and the third giving him 10 of 12.

But as time on the clock wound down, Salido realized he was

Read More »from Again labeled an underdog, Orlando Salido relishing opportunity against Mikey Garcia

In 2008, when Eddie Alvarez was an untested commodity as a mixed martial arts fighter, he signed a contract with the Bellator Fighting Championships that gave the promotion an exclusive 90-day negotiating window with him when the four-year deal ended. Eddie Alvarez. (MMAWeekly)

Alvarez also agreed, at the conclusion of the 90-day period, to give Bellator the right to match any contract offer for one year. So, in essence, he would be bound to Bellator for 15 months beyond the end of his original deal, unless the sides came to agreement on an extension or Bellator signed off on it earlier.

As 2013 opens, Alvarez is one of the elite lightweight fighters in the world and very much in demand. He's been sued by Bellator in an attempt to prevent him from completing a deal with the UFC, a dispute that could literally cost him millions of dollars.

Alvarez has filed a counter claim in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, seeking to be freed from Bellator and allowed to sign with the UFC.

Alvarez is seeking an

Read More »from Eddie Alvarez in limbo as UFC and Bellator spar over rights to coveted lightweight

Vitor Belfort didn't fare too well against Anderson Silva at UFC 126. (Getty)The reward for Michael Bisping in his middleweight fight Saturday against Vitor Belfort in the main event of UFC on FX 7 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, is obvious: 

Win, and Bisping's next outing will be against Anderson Silva for the UFC middleweight title. 

A victory over Belfort would lead to a potentially life-altering moment for the brash Brit.

For Belfort, though, the prize is not so obvious. 

When UFC president Dana White was asked what was in the fight for Belfort, he uncharacteristically hemmed and hawed.

"Well, the position Vitor is in, what he has done, the way he lost to Anderson Silva, he's going to need to clean out the division to get another shot [at the middleweight title]," White said. "It will be another notch on his belt."

Belfort, comfortable at nearly 36 and regularly referring to himself as "the old lion," couldn't do much better.

[Also: Michael Bisping surprised by support for him in Brazil]

There is nothing but pride on the line for Belfort. He's fighting in

Read More »from Vitor Belfort fighting for pride with no more title shots in foreseeable future

There aren't a lot of middleweight boxers eager to take on Gennady Golovkin these days. Gennady Golovkin looks on during a press conference. (AP)

That's because Golovkin is perhaps the worst combination for a highly rated boxer: He's a tremendously skilled, hard punching middleweight who also happens to be next-to-anonymous in the U.S. 

If you're a middleweight contender and you're offered a bout with Golovkin, chances are your payday isn't going to be that big, and certainly not commensurate with the risk a fight against Golovkin would bring.

So, after several middleweights declined and after making overtures to a number of super middleweights, Golovkin's promotional team, K2, settled on super welterweight Gabe Rosado as his opponent for Saturday's WBA title fight on HBO in the theater at New York's Madison Square Garden.

Rosado is a quality fighter and no pushover, though he's never been referred to as great. He was, though, the best that could be gotten.

In the boxing business, word spreads fast: anonymous, talented fighters

Read More »from Gennady Golovkin struggling to find willing foes during his rise to middleweight prominence

More than a dozen times during a nearly hour-long interview, Bellator Fighting Championships CEO Bjorn Rebney referred to the cable network Spike TV as "the home of MMA" on television.

Bellator and Spike are both owned by Viacom, and Rebney is gambling that Spike's reach and influence can take his burgeoning mixed martial arts company to the top of the industry.

"King" Mo Lawal.

It will be a long and difficult road, to be certain. The UFC is almost universally regarded as the major league of MMA and, indeed, it was UFC programming that helped build Spike's brand.

Spike officials, of course, point out that they also helped spur the UFC's phenomenal growth from 2005 through 2011, when it went from near-bankruptcy to a global powerhouse worth in excess of $1 billion while broadcasting its programming on Spike.

"It's fair to say that we did great things for each other," Spike president Kevin Kay said.

For the last year, Bellator's shows were broadcast on Spike's website and on MTV2 as Spike TV's

Read More »from Bellator betting big on Spike TV's MMA reputation as it tries to ratchet up competition with UFC

No professional athlete, let alone a boxer, can last for 24 years at the pinnacle of the business without great genes, good fortune and a competitive streak that runs deeper than any normal person could possibly understand.

Former middleweight and light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins turned 48 on Tuesday, the same day he announced he would fight Tavoris Cloud on March 9 in Brooklyn, N.Y., for a 175-pound title.

The bout with Cloud will come nearly two full years after Hopkins set perhaps the most unbreakable record in sports when he became, at 46 years, four months and six days, the oldest world champion in boxing history.

Bernard Hopkins, 48, will continue to make history March 9 in Brooklyn, NY. (Getty Images)But if, as expected, Hopkins beats Cloud, he will regain a world title at 48 years, one month and 23 days.

Hopkins' training discipline is legendary. When he was released from a Pennsylvania prison in 1988 after serving a bit more than five years on a strong-arm robbery conviction, he vowed he would never go back and would turn his life

Read More »from Aging bull: Boxing wonder Bernard Hopkins to challenge for world title at 48

Michael Bisping has fought 17 times in the UFC over a 6 ½-year span and only once was he not competitive. 

With a just small amount of luck, Bisping could be heading into his bout Saturday in Sao Paulo, Brazil, against Vitor Belfort with a 16-1 record. Michael Bisping thought he beat Chael Sonnen, but instead suffered a close loss. (Getty)

A win on Saturday over the veteran Belfort will not only improve Bisping's UFC record to 14-4, but also it will finally vault him to a title shot.

One of the great MMA mysteries of the modern era is how Bisping was able to keep winning so regularly without getting a title shot.

But UFC president Dana White has promised Bisping that if he beats Belfort on Saturday, he'll challenge Anderson Silva for the middleweight title later this year.

That's good news to Silva, who disposed of Belfort in less than 90 seconds in 2011 and who isn't interested in fighting rematches.

But it's great news for Bisping, who seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time in terms of getting a title shot.

"Some other guys have had an easier

Read More »from Always competitive, Michael Bisping now just one win from elusive Anderson Silva title fight