On the surface, you can't make a better impression than Arthur Abraham did with his knockout win over Jermain Taylor to kickoff Showtime's Super Six World Boxing Classic Tournament. Abraham finished Taylor with that 12th KO with less than 20 seconds left in the fight. The Armenian's straight right was so effective that it knocked Taylor stiff. When Taylor hit the mat, his head bounced violently against the canvas. He was admitted to a Berlin hospital with a concussion.

In the tournament's format, Abraham picked up three points, but does it mean he should be a heavy favorite? I beg to differ on that one. Viewers of the Abraham-Taylor fight got cheated a bit by Showtime. Without Compubox stats and listening to the slanted call from Steve Albert, you would've thought Abraham was leading 11-0 entering the 12th round. Far from it. Abraham was virtually inactive in six rounds. Sure the scorecards had Abraham leading handily (105-103, 107-103, 106-102) entering the final round but it could've been a different story if the American wasn't dealing with a homefield advantage. Showtime did a good job in the prefight of warning the audience about Abraham's propensity to beg for low blow calls. His wish was granted early in the fight when referee Guido Cavalleri called a couple on Taylor. It took a lot of the steam out of Taylor's efforts to lower Abraham's hands by going to the body. Without a ringside judge of its own on the scene, Showtime didn't have an objective voice on what the score really was entering the final round. There's no way with the Abraham's low punch output in half of the rounds, that he was leading that fight 9-3 as one judge had it. 

Even with a low punch output, Abraham also looked a bit winded in rounds 9-through-11. Abraham did a get a big win but he'll have to step things up to win the Super Six. If he fights in front of judges who favor volume over power, he may have trouble beating a guy like Andre Dirrell. Abraham faces Dirrell in Round two and said he's ready to take America. Be careful what you wish for. The next time around, on a level playing field, the story may be different.  

And you thought Cris Arreola was in over his head against Vitali Klitschko. Klitschko, the WBC heavyweight champ, mauled Arreola in Los Angeles earlier this month to retain his title strap. He nearly did the same to some unsuspecting political co-horts during a local assembly session in Kiev, Ukraine.

"If anyone resorts to force, then I'll resort to force too," the World Boxing Council heavyweight title holder threatened, as a scuffle broke out.

Klitschko, 38, was angered by the session's inability to approve a land redistribution. Klitschko and his allies tried to bring a halt to the proceedings.

"I didn't hit anyone, I just tried to push a few people away," he told television channel 1+1 afterwards. He added that a real fight, "could have led to certain lawmakers being admitted to hospital."

Klitschko, who has a doctorate in Sports Science, has twice run unsuccessfully for Mayor of Kiev. Klitschko and his brother, Wladimir have always been active on the Ukranian political scene. Back in 2004, Wladimir, the WBO and IBF heavyweight champ, led a protest 10,000 strong in Kiev.

It's a perplexing time in the heavyweight division. Some say it's the worst it's ever been and there is zero talent. Others say the talent is there but because it's not American, we U.S. boxing fans ignore it. Then there's CBC writer Chris Iorfida who says Vitali Klitschko is unbeatable and may be the best heavyweight since Mike Tyson. Youza!

Sure, Lewis was a better overall fighter than Klitschko, but there was always a healthy dollop of vulnerability. We saw early on that his chin could be reached, and that threat never really left, even against someone like Shannon Briggs. The Canadian also compounded matters by not always showing up in top-notch shape.

Klitschko gave Lewis a run for his money but in the end an old Lewis shredded the Russian's face and forced a stoppage. In general, he put his punches together much better. And most importantly, Lewis (38-2, 37 KOs) faced much better competition than Klitschko. "Dr. Ironfist" is a solid fighter and his defensive abilities defy logic, but let's not gloss over the fact that this rebirth at 38 has come against Chris Arreola, Juan Carlos Gomez and Sam Peter.

While we're at it, is 38-year-old Vitali even the best Klitschko? Iorfida says so:

Yes, younger brother Wladimir is also a heavyweight titleholder with several defences under his belt, but he's been knocked out twice and doesn't have the "It" factor Vitali does. Wladimir has scored some great KOs, but too often his game plan is mechanical.

Iorfida also says the heavyweight picture is better now than it was five years ago. That's a tough call to make especially since it looks like both Klitschkos have run out of worthy opponents. The good news is Oliver McCall is fighting Lance Whitaker next month in Las Vegas. Kidding. It's no knock on the Klitschkos. They may be all-timers for all we know, it's just tough to gauge what they've done considering the competition.

Cris Arreola broke down in the ring after the fight. He cried uncontrollably after not being able to catch a Vitali Klitschko, 6-foot-7, 252-pound heavyweight for 10 rounds. Klitschko, with his hands down for most of the fight, put on a show nailing Arreola throughout with six and seven unanswered punches at a time. By the end of the tenth, the big Russian was leading 10-0 and 9-1 on most cards, and had outlanded Arreola 301-86. Arreola's trainer Henry Ramirez told referee John Schorle that was it. Klitschko, 38, retains his WBC heavyweight title with a thudding technical knockout victory over Arreola at Staples Center.

"He was taking too much punishment," Ramirez told the L.A. Times. "Arreola was irate. It was not an easy decision, but we had discussed it, and I had to do it."

Arreola, weeping for minutes after the fight, could barely pull it together to speak with HBO announcer Larry Merchant:

"I couldn't get to him," said a sniffling Arreola (27-1, 24 KOs). "He ran when he was supposed to. Whatever I did he found a way to counteract that."

Klitschko (38-2, 37 KOs) was super confident from the start holding his left hand by his side. Arreola stood in front of the big guy the entire fight and got nailed by three and four-punch combinations. When it wasn't three or four punches, Klitschko was masterful pcking apart Arreola with two-punch combos and then sliding to his left or right. Arreola couldn't pull the trigger after getting drilled or would simply swing and miss.

"I don't know [what happened] man. I worked my ass off. [Expletive]!," said Arreola. "Vitali is a strong [expletive]. He hit hit hard."

The 28-year-old from just outside L.A., in Riverside, was distraught about the fact that his corner threw in the towel:

"That's never in me. I didn’t want to quit. I knew he was [expletive] me up. I'm sorry guys."

Schorle had no choice. By the middle of the fight, Klitschko's confidence soared as held both hands at his side and landed almost everything he threw. He mixed together clubbing lead left hooks, straight rights and wicked uppercuts to puff up Arreola's face.

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He's a mean looking dude but Cris Arreola has a soft side and a good sense of humor. That said, he should've let poor Dan Goossen in on the joke at yesterday's weigh-in for his fight against Vitali Klitschko. Arreola is always fighting the battle of the bulge. So when he chose to step on the scale in front of Staples Center with his shirt on, first thought had to be, "did this guy train at all?" Then Michael Buffer announced, "272 pounds!" It appeared that Goosen was freaking out that the scale was malfunctioning:

"Everybody keeps bitching about the weight. That's the first question. I [said] I'm going to run with this and put the weight vest on (2:04 mark)," Arreola told Elie Seckbach from AOL Fanhouse. "And make them all believe that 'damn, this is a fat [expletive],' but I'm not."

Arreola removed the vest and weighed in at a trimmer 251 pounds. He averaged roughly 256 for his last three fights up from the 230's he fought at back in 2007. Arreola challenges for Klitschko's WBC heavyweight title tomorrow night Los Angeles.

It turned out that UFC brought a pistol to its Sept. 19 pay-per-view war with boxing. In the first head-to-head pay-per-view battle of the year, the Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight appears to have crushed UFC 103. According to HBO, Mayweather lost zero sizzle in spite of taking 21 months off:

The one million buy total represents the highest performing boxing pay-per-view event in 2009 and generated $52 million in pay-per-view revenue. The million buys include 525,000 from cable homes and 475,000 from satellite homes. It is only the fifth time in boxing pay-per-view history that a non-heavyweight event has attained the one million buy mark. [Mayweather] has now participated in two events that have reached the one million buy mark.  

HBO PPV chief Mark Taffet was fired up:

"Sept. 19 was an event that connected with sports fans across the country. Floyd Mayweather has clearly reinforced his standing as a top attraction and fans are excited about his return to the sport."

Yahoo! Sports Kevin Iole told Cagewriter that his sources said UFC 103 finished in the 450,000 range. The UFC does not release its PPV buy statistics.

An injury to a knuckle on his left hand has forced middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik to postpone his title defense against highly ranked Paul Williams.

A news conference on Tuesday to announce the bout, which originally had been set for Oct. 3 in Atlantic City, was also postponed.

The earliest Pavlik would be able to return for a rescheduled fight is Nov. 21, though it could end up with an early-December date.

Pavlik, who is 35-1 with 31 knockouts, informed Top Rank chairman Bob Arum of the injury on Monday.

He was scheduled to face the toughest test in his career in Williams, a lanky punching machine who is ranked third in the Yahoo! Sports poll of the world's finest boxers.

Williams is coming off a rout of Winky Wright.

The first Fight Night Club went so well, we've decided to do it again.

Make sure you tune in on Thursday night, when Yahoo! Sports, The Ring and Versus team up to give you a free night of live-streamed pro boxing action from Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles. The live stream starts at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT.

Fight Night Club is your chance to check out some of boxing's most promising up-and-comers before they become stars. Thursday night's main event is a six-round bantamweight contest featuring unbeaten Charles Huerta against Derrick Wilson. Four other matches will also be broadcast.

So make sure you stop by Thursday night and check out the fights. Follow all the action via the live stream from L.A.

What is better than a night at the fights? A free night at the fights, of course.

On Thursday, Yahoo! Sports teams up with Versus and The Ring magazine to present a live stream of the Fight Night club event at Club Nokia in Los Angeles. Bell time is 9 p.m. Eastern/ 6 p.m. Pacific.

The card features a co-main main event. In a junior lightweight showdown, David Rodela (12-1-3, 6 KOs) meets Juan Garcia (14-2, 5KOs). And at featherweight Charles Huerta (10-0, 5 KOs) meets Noe Lopez Jr. (4-0, 3 KOs).

And you don't have to pay a dime. So be sure to tune in to Yahoo! Sports and The Ring magazine on Thursday to watch the fights.

Boxers are like baseball closers, you got to have a short memory otherwise a beating can put your career down for the count. Ricky Hatton recovered once from a whipping at the hands of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and now it sounds like he's regaining his confidence after the Manny Pacquiao disaster. His father Ray says Ricky wants to make sure the decision to retire will come at the right time:

"He's taking his time. He is single minded, stubborn if you like, and once he makes up his mind that will be it. We will respect that decision and knowing him it will be final and certainly he won't be a Frank Sinatra, forever making comebacks."

The older Hatton says there's no need rush into the second phase of life at such a young age:

"This is one big decision for a 30-year-old. It's not like old Father Time is catching up on him. It's the biggest decision of his career, even of his life, and he's got to get it right."

Hatton's legacy is at stake if he walks away off a defeat where he was last seen laid out:

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