It wasn't their finest hour. It turns out that Pacquiao hadn't quoted the biblical verse from Leviticus that they accused him of doing. They could have learned that, because six hours before they went on the air and made fools of themselves, the writer of the original report said the Leviticus quotes were his, not Pacquiao's. A slew of other reporters actually got a hold of Pacquiao and clarified the matter.

Smith and Bayless, though, didn't check. They spent about six minutes Wednesday debating whether what Pacquiao had said would impact the finances of a potential fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. They were reporting -- inaccurately -- that Pacquiao had advocated death for homosexuals, and yet they chose to discuss the financial implications those comments might have upon a boxing match rather than addressing the substance of what Pacquiao supposedly said. If Pacquiao had made that Leviticus comment, he would have deserved the excoriation he got from The Two Stooges.

Smith and Bayless, though, largely overlooked that part and instead debated how it may impact a Mayweather fight. Rather than condemning Pacquiao for such an outrageous comment and advocating the need for tolerance and understanding, Smith and Bayless treated it as an economic situation.

The true horror of this story came on Thursday, however, after they'd learned that Pacquiao had not made the comments they attributed to him.

They chose to apologize, which was a good idea. Pacquiao deserved it, and so, too, did their viewers.

What occurred, though, wasn't an apology but rather a couple of self-righteous rants in which both Bayless and Smith placed the blame for their mistakes on others.

Host Jay Crawford began the apology segment Thursday by reading a statement from Pacquiao in which he denied the Leviticus quotes. Crawford then noted that writer Granville Ampong of Examiner.com, who wrote the original story that ignited the controversy, made it clear the Leviticus quotes were his words.

Bayless then took over. Here's their initial exchange:

Bayless: Stephen A., I don't feel guilty about what we discussed near the end of yesterday's show. There's no need for us to apologize for it.

Smith: I had no intentions of apologizing.

Crawford: You were reacting to what you believed was the truth.

At that point, it became truly bizarre. Nobody at ESPN checked their sources. Someone somewhere at ESPN read a story on the Internet and believed it to be correct. It was, of course, salacious since it involved a high-profile personality and a hot button topic.

It appears a First Take producer failed to do the simple fact checking one might expect of a high school journalist. Then Crawford, Bayless and Thompson opted to discuss at length a topic about which they knew nothing.

Bayless, though, wasn't about to take the blame.

But I do feel terrible that we were prisoners of the shoddy journalism that we were handed on the fly up against the end of our show. We reacted accordingly to that. And I feel terrible for Manny Pacquiao's sake because he took a beating yesterday that he did not deserve,  from all that I've gathered.

Apparently in Bayless' world, if you're running out of time, you're allowed to skip the basic tenets of journalism and rip first and report later.

On television discussion shows like First Take, the on-air talent is often told of breaking stories by their producers, and so they're often at the mercy of the information their producers give them. When they learned of the Pacquiao situation, it should have been clear a gentle touch was required. Both know Pacquiao well enough to know that he had never made such outlandish statements. They could have commented while also making it clear that there was much to still learn. Most of all, they should have stressed tolerance.

Instead, they chose to dive full bore into the fray without possession of the facts, but increduously, they somehow saw fit to blame others for their failings. Smith's attempt at an apology was even worse, if possible, than the half-baked one Bayless delivered.

Smith essentially patted himself on the back for agreeing to admit he'd utterly and completely failed to do his job.

We also have to take into account that this show right here is also one of those moments that makes me proud. We're able to sit here and correct whatever erroneous information is put out there. We're men enough to do it, which is far more than we can say for some of our contemporaries in this business who will remain nameless. They know who they are. Because you got a lot of people out there who sit there and because of the blogosphere and the social networking and the age that we live in, everybody is interested in being first. Not everybody, but a lot of people of people are interested in being first rather than being correct.

It was Smith and Bayless who were interested in being first rather than correct. Why not wait a day to address the issue when you'd had a chance to look into it? Oh, because it might have been old news by the next day.

In Smith's warped logic, he is to be commended for going off half-cocked and then coming back the next day and apologizing. He tried to insinuate it's because unlike others, he's interested in substance and not sensationalism.

But they would never sit up here and address something that was erroneous and had their name attached to it because they are devoid of courage.

What Bayless or Smith should have said on Thursday was something like this: "Folks, as we were going off the air on Wednesday, we criticized boxer Manny Pacquiao for comments we believed he had made advocating death for homosexuals. Unfortunately, we were wrong and Pacquiao had not made those comments. We know you, our viewers, expect more from us. You expect insightful, intelligent and fearless discussion of the day's hottest issues. You also expect us to have our facts correct. We did not in this instance and we apologize to Manny Pacquiao for that, as well as to those of you who tuned in."

The blogosphere that Bayless and Smith railed upon made them look like a pair of two-bit journalists hardly worthy of the prestigious positions they hold.

While reporters who care about small things like facts and accuracy went out, dug into the story and uncovered the truth, Smith and Bayless revealed themselves in their apologies as nothing more than a pair of bloviating, self-righteous boobs.

On this day, as apparently on many others, First Take was clearly a False Take.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer told the Times' Lance Pugmire that he's spoken to Top Rank president Todd duBoef regarding a potential Juan Manuel Marquez-Erik Morales fight at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on June 14.

A Marquez-Morales fight should have happened years ago, but that's beside the point in terms of the bigger picture here.

The fact that representatives of the two warring companies are talking about working together again should be cause to celebrate for anyone who wants to see good fights.

They are, by far, the two largest and most successful promoters in the world and they have the largest stable of fighters. But for most of the last five years, and a lot of the last 10, they've refused to do business together because of feuds that are so difficult to unravel, a full explanation would take longer than Chris Berman's speech at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010.

That feud has cost each company, and their fighters, untold thousands, if not millions of dollars, and deprived fans of a lengthy list of great fights, up to and including the much desired Floyd Mayweather Jr. (Golden Boy)-Manny Pacquiao (Top Rank) fight.

The Times, though, in a story largely about Amir Khan's next fight, quotes Schaefer confirming that he's talked with duBoef about putting Morales in against Marquez at Cowboys Stadium.

That's a good fight, but what's significant is that Todd and I are having a conversation

It's good that Schaefer gets the significance of it. In the last year or so, duBoef has begun to refer to himself as the "boxing evangelist" and has talked about many of the good but under-reported things that are going on in the sport. Significantly, he's praised things Golden Boy has done and hasn't taken the tack of trashing the opposition like has been done so often between the parties recently.

It's a long way from a quote in the newspaper to the realization of Mayweather-Pacquiao, but in this boxing Cold War, it's about as good as it gets these days.

Distractions, they'll say. The controversy surrounding Pacquiao's comments to Examiner.com regarding same-sex marriage will have taken his focus off his preparation for the bout, they'll point out.

Pacquiao is one of the two best fighters in the world, alongside Floyd Mayweather Jr., and super human things are expected of each of them. Pacquiao's better than a 4-1 favorite to beat Bradley, who himself is one of the world's 10 best fighters, and anything less than a dominant win won't be seen as enough.

The truth is, the controversy isn't even a blip on Pacquiao's radar. It will have zero impact upon the way he fights. If he loses, it will be because either Bradley was better on that night or that Pacquiao is slipping a bit, as most fighters his age (33) with the amount of fights he has (59) tend to do.

The controversy battered his image as a sweetheart of a guy who had unfailingly been portrayed as a wide-eyed innocent only looking to help others and make his country proud.

The truth is, he's a flawed man, as all of us are, with his share of skeletons in his closet. He was a big-time gambler and, apparently, quite the ladies man despite being a married father of four. Media in the Philippines have reported allegations of an affair with actress Krista Ranillo.

Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, told the Los Angeles Times in a recent interview that Pacquiao's many distractions before his November win over Juan Manuel Marquez were "girls and everything that goes with it." Roach described Pacquiao out late gambling and said it all took its toll.

Perhaps. If it did, Roach would know better than anyone. However, it's nothing new and Pacquiao is in the midst of a 15-fight winning streak over the last seven years in which he rose from just another talented smaller fighter to an icon of his sport.

Since that 2005 loss, he's beaten at least six guys -- Juan Manuel Marquez twice, Erik Morales twice, Marco Antonio Barrera, Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley and Miguel Cotto -- who figure to be elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame one day.

He's not only won, but he's done it most times in spectacular fashion.

The distractions didn't bother him then, and there were plenty of them.

When he steps into the ring on June 9, he's going to be as physically ready to fight as he can be. If there is one thing Pacquiao does as well as anyone, it's training amazingly hard.

The controversy caused by his views on same-sex marriage -- which, it is fair to point out, are the same as virtually every Republican member of the U.S. Congress -- may not be forgotten by fans, media and sponsors by the time Pacquiao steps into the ring at the MGM Grand Garden on June 9 to defend his title against Bradley.

The one person in the world you can be assured who won't be thinking of it that night, though, is Manny Pacquiao.

It's not too often a boxer blasts the President of the United States, but it's also not too common that an active fighter gets elected to Congress. But boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao, a freshman congressman from Sarangani Province in the Philippines, laid into President Obama because of Obama's support for gay marriage.

Pacquiao, who defends his World Boxing Organization welterweight title against Timothy Bradley on June 9 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, is a devout Catholic who has brought a spiritual advisor, Pastor Jeric Soriano, with him from the Philippines to Los Angeles. He visited Obama in the Oval Office last year, discussing basketball and boxing with the president.

In an interview with the National Conservative Examiner, Pacquiao criticized Obama's stance as an attack on the will of God.

"God only expects man and woman to be together and to be legally married, only if they so are in love with each other.

"It should not be of the same sex so as to adulterate the altar of matrimony, like in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah of Old."

Pacquiao's comments, along with statements in 2011 opposing birth control, put him in line with conservative Republicans and against Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), whom Pacquiao campaigned for during a hotly contested reelection campaign in 2010 against Sharron Angle. Reid may not have won without Pacquiao's late support. Ironically, Reid supports gay marriage and Angle was strongly opposed.

[Related: Timothy Bradley Jr. ready to step into the spotlight vs. Manny Pacquiao]

At the Catholic Bishops Conference in the Philippines in 2011, Pacquiao took a hardline stance against contraception, supporting the church's position.

"God said go forth and multiply. [...] He did not say go and have just one or two children."

Pacquiao is entitled to his beliefs, but he looked a bit hypocritical when it turned out that his wife, Jinkee, nearly divorced him in November. The Los Angeles Times last week reported that trainer Freddie Roach said Jinkee Pacquiao served divorce papers upon her husband shortly before his fight with Juan Manuel Marquez.

Roach subsequently denied saying she served divorce papers, though he didn't deny that Pacquiao's lifestyle was hurting his fight career. Roach said that, among other things, the distractions that negatively impacted Pacquiao were "girls and everything that goes with it." In January, Martin Rogers reported on ThePostGame.com that Jinkee Pacquiao had given her husband an ultimatum and forced him to clean up his act.

Subsequently, Pacquiao said he had a religious "awakening," and has been deep into Bible study. Roach told the Times that Pacquiao also sold a casino he owned. He's also no longer into cock fighting.

"Now, he's back with his wife, reading the Bible every day, and he's given up basketball," Roach said.

In 2006, Pacquiao signed two promotional agreements, one with Top Rank and another with Golden Boy, essentially beginning the feud between the companies that exists until this day. In the litigation, Roach testified that Golden Boy President Oscar De La Hoya gave Pacquiao a suitcase filled with $250,000 as an inducement to sign with GBP. De La Hoya had met Pacquiao at Los Angeles International Airport after a flight from the Philippines as he was to begin training camp.

"I never saw the suitcase open, but (De La Hoya) told me it was Manny's signing bonus, and I later heard it was $250,000, but I'm not sure of the amount," said Roach.

Pacquiao ran for Congress because of his desire to help his countrymen, many of whom live in dire poverty. He is leading the fight in Congress to build a hospital in Sarangani, where the nearest hospital is located about an hour away in General Santos City. Pacquiao has committed some of his money to the cause, and is trying to help raise the funds needed privately so the cost of the hospital won't be borne by Filipino taxpayers.

He's also a staunch opponent of human trafficking, which has been a significant problem in his country.

He's done more for his countrymen than most people have ever done for theirs, and he's to be commended for that. It's why he's one of the world's most popular athletes.

But his condemnation of Obama's stance on gay marriage would not look as suspect as it does, though, if he wasn't living such a promiscuous lifestyle only a few months ago. The timing of his comments could have been better, after he demonstrated that his recent behavior and attitude changes aren't simply short-term fixes but more permanent and fundamental in nature.

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Brian Viloria had a long and frustrating history with Omar Nino, but as the member of the 2000 U.S. Olympic boxing team discovered, all's well that ends well.

Viloria stopped Mexican Omar Nino in the ninth round Saturday to retain his World Boxing Organization flyweight title in Pasig City, Philippines, finally putting to rest a long and frustrating six-year saga with the Mexican.

In 2006, the heavily favored Viloria lost his World Boxing Council junior flyweight title to Nino in Las Vegas. Later that year, they fought to a draw, but the result was changed to a no-contest when Nino failed a post-fight drug test, getting caught with methamphetamine in his system.

Even that drug test played a role in Saturday's fight. Nino had failed to pay an $11,250 fine to the Nevada Athletic Commission and, as a result, the WBO refused to sanction the scheduled March 31 bout. That pushed the bout back until Saturday in the Philippines.

Viloria was relieved to finally put Nino in his rear-view mirror, he told Roy Luarca of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

It was a big psychological win; It got the monkey off my back.

Hopefully, the win will also lead to what should be a sensational bout with WBA flyweight champion Hernan "Tyson" Marquez. Viloria told GMA News in the Philippines that he's interested in a bout with Marquez, who defeated Luis Concepcion in the 2011 Yahoo! Sports Fight of the Year.

It will be a really great fight, the way his style is and the way my style is. The way I see it, it's going to be fun for the crowd and the boxing fans. It's going to be really marketable, the Mexican versus the Filipino.

That makes it the second-biggest non-heavyweight fight of all-time, behind only the 2007 match between Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya, which did 2.5 million. It is also the sixth largest boxing pay-per-view ever.

The Mayweather-De La Hoya bout sold 2.5 million pay-per-view units and generated $137 million in revenue, according to HBO.

The top pay-per-view bouts ever, according to research by Yahoo! Sports:

1. Floyd Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya, May 5, 2007, Las Vegas, 2.5 million
2. Mike Tyson-Lennox Lewis, June 8, 2002, Memphis, Tenn. 1.98 million
3. Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield II, June 28, 1997, Las Vegas, 1.98 million
4. Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield I, Nov. 9, 1996, Las Vegas, 1.59 million
5. Mike Tyson-Peter McNeeley, Aug. 19, 1995, Las Vegas, 1.55 million
6. Floyd Mayweather-Miguel Cotto, May 5, 2012, Las Vegas, 1.5 million

The $94 million generated by Mayweather-Cotto is fourth all-time. It trails Mayweather-De La Hoya ($137 million); Tyson-Holyfield II ($110.8 million); and Tyson-Holyfield I ($100 million).

The replay of Mayweather-Cotto, along with the rebroadcast of Canelo Alvarez's win over Shane Mosley, will be on HBO on Saturday at 7:15 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.

Peterson tested positive for a synthetic testosterone following a March 19 random drug test. The results were obtained by the Voluntary Anti-Drug Association, which was overseeing the testing, on April 12. Peterson was informed that his A sample tested positive the next day. On April 30, his B sample was tested and came back positive on May 2. Richard Schaefer, the Golden Boy Promotions chief executive officer, said he only discovered the positive test on Tuesday.

Schaefer was irate that he hadn't been notified by Peterson or anyone from  VADA about the tests. He said if either had let him know, he could have found a suitable replacement. Because of Nevada open meeting law requirements, the earliest a hearing could be held on whether Peterson could be licensed was Tuesday, May 15, which would have been too close to the fight for Schaefer to proceed without assurances Peterson would be licensed.

"We absolutely had the right to be informed and we were not, by several parties," Schaefer said. "Why, I don't know, but this was critical information and Golden Boy should have been informed."

In an email to Yahoo! Sports on Wednesday, Goodman wrote, "I have great admiration for Richard, but his characterization of the contractual situation is inaccurate." That followed on the heels of a statement she issued Tuesday to the Las Vegas Review-Journal in which she denied there was a requirement on VADA's part to notify anyone other than the fighter who failed the test.

VADA felt it was inappropriate for it to notify third parties of the positive test result at the time because there had been no confirmation of it. It appears as though Mr. Peterson and Mr. [Jeff] Fried, [Peterson's attorney], also chose not to notify third parties at that time in the hope that Mr. Peterson's 'B' sample would test negative. As soon as Mr. Peterson's 'B' sample tested positive, VADA notified Mr. Peterson, Mr. Fried and the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Neither Golden Boy Promotions nor HBO was a signatory to the VADA contract.

Schaefer admitted he did not have a signed contract with VADA. But he said that he had been sent a contract via email from Goodman that did include a clause requiring notification to Golden Boy.

He said that though the contract wasn't signed, "VADA performed under the contract. [It] took payment and it went forward with the testing."

He emailed Yahoo! Sports the clause pertaining to notification, though not the full contract.

Samples collected will be collected in duplicate (an "A Sample" and a "B Sample") with only the A Sample being tested unless the A Sample tests positive for a substance banned by VADA in which case GBP and the offending Athlete shall be notified so both can be present for the testing of the B Sample.

Because Peterson did not hold a Nevada license and had not applied for one, he can not be penalized, at least at the time. Unlike UFC fighter Alistair Overeem, who was denied a license last month and not allowed to re-apply for one for nine months after he failed a random drug test, Peterson had never formally requested a hearing in front of the commission. As a result, the commission has no jurisdiction over him.

However, the issue won't go away and Peterson's ability to box anywhere in the future will almost certainly be impacted by the failed test. When he applies for a license again in the future, he'll almost certainly be hauled in front of a state athletic commission to explain what led to the cancellation of the Khan fight.

Pacquiao arrived just as, a couple hundred miles to the East, Floyd Mayweather Jr. stepped into the ring at the MGM Grand Garden for his bout with Miguel Cotto. Pacquiao, who resumed training on Monday, said he managed to catch a portion of the bout.

"It was a good fight and everyone was happy," Pacquiao said.

Mayweather and Pacquiao are regarded as the top two fighters in the world and boxing fans have been eager for them to get into the ring against each other. But a series of issues, notably the purse split and an agreement on a drug testing regimen, have stalled the match.

[Dan Wetzel: Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao could happen if jail time used wisely]

Mayweather defeated Cotto by a unanimous decision, winning nine rounds on two judges' cards and 10 rounds on the third. Apparently, that wasn't enough to impress Roach.

"Would Manny beat Floyd?  You bet," Roach said. "The way to beat Floyd to outwork him every minute of every round. Manny is the only one capable of executing that game plan. Activity kills Mayweather. You need to stay busy against him and not let him dictate the pace by slowing down the fight. Southpaws are his other weakness. Manny is just a bad combination for Floyd to fight. If it would bring Floyd into the ring, I'd agree to have Manny fight him right handed."

Though Mayweather hinted at retirement on Saturday, Pacquiao said he doesn't harbor the same thoughts. There had been talk he would only fight a handful more times, but he said Monday retirement isn't on his agenda.

"I still love what I'm doing," he said.

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On May 7, 2005, one of the greatest fights in the sport's history occurred at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, when Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo put on an epic match in a battle for the lightweight title.

They went at each other with a fury for nine fast-paced rounds. Castillo, though, seemed on the verge of an historic victory in the 10th when he knocked Corrales down twice. Corrales' eyes were swollen almost completely shut and he was on unsteady legs when he arose after the second knockdown.

When the action resumed, Corrales landed a huge straight right that badly hurt Castillo. Always a great finisher, Corrales jumped on him and landed a series of savage blows that forced referee Tony Weeks to jump in and save Castillo. Neither man was ever nearly close to the same fighter again.

Tragically, two years to the day later, Corrales died in a motorcyle accident in the shadow of Mandalay Bay. The 2007 Suzuki 100 motorcycle he was driving at a high rate of speed crashed into the back of a Honda Accord. Corrales was thrown from the bike and was pronounced dead on the scene.

Corrales had personal demons he fought, but he was beloved in the boxing community, particularly in Las Vegas, for his cheerful, friendly nature, his willingness to help anyone and his fearlessness in the ring.

His funeral attracted a huge throng of a who's who in boxing.

Those who saw that match with Castillo will never forget it. A few days before the bout, I was walking with Corrales down a hallway in the bowels of Mandalay Bay. We were headed to an open workout, and I was taking the chance to ask him a few questions.

He was talking about the significance of the match and said "I'd walk through the fires of hell," to win the match. A couple of days later, he pretty much did exactly that.

He left a large family, but also a legacy as one of the most entertaining fighters and most engaging athletes in history.

He's gone, but never will be forgotten.

Essentially, what Mayweather said to Pacquiao, who arrived in Los Angeles from the Philippines on Saturday at about the very moment Mayweather was about to start his match with Cotto, was dump promoter Bob Arum and we have a fight.

It's just been a problem trying to make this fight. The fans and the public are being fooled. Bob Arum does not want to make this fight happen. Once he's free from Bob Arum, will the fight happen? Absolutely.

Pacquiao is contractually bound to Top Rank, and if he tried to make some sort of end-run, Top Rank would undoubtedly sue and the courts would prevent him from fighting until the matter was determined. That would take way longer than a guy who doesn't have much time left in the sport would want to wait, so it's almost certain that Pacquiao would not attempt to jump ship.

Mayweather has talked about fighting a second time in 2012, after he is released from a 90-day jail sentence that begins June 1. So, if it is not Pacquiao, here is an assessment of who might be under consideration, who would work and the pros and cons of each opponent:

Canelo Alvarez, WBC super welterweight champion: Alvarez is clearly being groomed by Golden Boy to become the successor to Mayweather and Pacquiao as the sport's biggest attraction. He was clearly the most popular fighter on the pay-per-view card Saturday, getting louder cheers than anyone in his fight against Shane Mosley. He's going to fight again on Sept. 15.
Pros: He's unbeaten, he's a champion, he's with Golden Boy and he's immensely popular with Hispanic fans.
Cons: He'd only be 22 at the time of a potential Mayweather fight and he's still got a ways to go to be ready for that level of competition.
Odds of landing the fight: 4-1, the leader in the clubhouse

Amir Khan, former super lightweight champion: Khan would already be at welterweight, Mayweather's best weight, if he'd taken care of business in December against Lamont Peterson. But Khan and Peterson have a rematch on May 19 for the super lightweight title in Las Vegas.
Pros: Khan brings a large following in the U.K., which will mean solid television money. Mayweather is popular in the U.K. Khan is also very athletic and has speed. Most significantly, he's with Golden Boy.
Cons: He's inconsistent and will look like a world beater one time out and then look kind of questionable the next time. He's still also not much of an attraction in the U.S. and wouldn't necessarily appeal to the large Hispanic fan base that has been critical to the sport's success.
Odds of landing the fight: 7-1, which would be lower if he beats Peterson on May 19

Sergio Martinez, middleweight champion: Martinez is No. 3 in the Yahoo! rankings and he's very athletic with an entertaining style. He hasn't been marketed particularly well, if at all, and so he hasn't developed a broad fan base. He's not a big middleweight and has already said he'd be willing to get as low as 150 pounds if it meant landing a Mayweather fight. Given that Mayweather made a point of allowing Cotto to come in at the 154-pound limit, it's likely that Mayweather would agree to meet Martinez at 154 or even at 160 for a middleweight title bout.
Pros: He's widely regarded as in the top three pound-for-pound, which will create a natural marketing hook. He's an entertaining, action fighter and he's willing to do an 80-20 purse split in favor of Mayweather.
Cons: Despite his in-ring success, he's not a big name. He's not easy for American media to reach and he doesn't speak English. He's from Argentina and hasn't found a big fan base with either Mexicans or American Hispanics.
Odds of landing the fight: 10-1

Andre Berto, welterweight: Berto is managed by Al Haymon, who guides Mayweather's career. That makes him easier to land. Berto faces Victor Ortiz on June 23 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in a rematch of an entertaining 2011 bout that was Fight of the Year in some places.
Pros: His association with Haymon, and if he beats Ortiz, he'd be coming off a big, high-profile win.
Cons: Still very unknown and not a ticket seller at all.
Odds of landing the fight: 15-1

[Related: Floyd Mayweather Jr. eschews strip club at 3 a.m. to begin training for Miguel Cotto bout]

Victor Ortiz, welterweight: Ortiz already fought Mayweather and a bizarre fight it was indeed. If he beats Berto, though, he'll undoubtedly renew his calls for a rematch.
Pros: He's known from the first Mayweather fight, he'd be coming off a win over Berto and there is a large segment that believes he was cheated the last time he met Money. He's also Golden Boy property.
Cons: He's mentally in a fog sometimes and there's little upside to Mayweather fighting him again. There are strong rumors the PPV didn't do as well as HBO and Golden Boy said it did.
Odds of landing the fight: 20-1

Kell Brook, welterweight: Brook is next-to-unknown in the U.S., but the 26-year-old from Sheffield, England, is an emerging star. He's 26-0 with 18 KOs and looks as if he's going to become a major force.
Pros: He's got talent, U.K. backing and an unbeaten record.
Cons: Hasn't faced very good competition, has no worldwide appeal and is still a developing fighter.
Odds of landing the fight: 50-1

Andre Ward, super middleweight: Ward is an Olympic gold medalist who is quickly rising up the professional pound-for-pound ranks. I think this is the man Mayweather should fight if he can't make a match with Pacquiao. Ward is considerably bigger, and so it would be a risk, and that risk would mean that a lot of people would tune in. Could Mayweather handle an unbeaten gold medalist who is that much bigger? The Mayweather haters would buy because they'd think he'd be in big trouble against such a big man. His supporters would rightly argue that a win would help cement his place in history and move up way up on the all-time rankings. Floyd would have to agree to give up a lot of weight, but Ward could probably cut to 162 in order to make the big payday.
Pros: Great talent, charismatic personality, gold medalist, squeaky clean image to play the good guy role versus Mayweather's bad guy role.
Cons: Too big, not well-known enough.
Odds of landing the fight: 50-1, though I think if Mayweather is smart, this is his play.

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According to the Nevada Athletic Commission, Mayweather is guaranteed $32 million for Saturday's match for the World Boxing Association super welterweight championship, the largest guarantee for a boxer in history.

That, however, is only a guarantee. Mayweather will also take home a hefty share of the pay-per-view profits and will make significantly more. No one is saying, but Mayweather said during an interview on Tuesday that it could be upwards of $100 million.

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No doubt, that was hyperbole, but he's going to be paid very well for risking his 42-0 record against the Puerto Rican star.

His guarantee surpasses the $30 million guarantee given to Mike Tyson for his 1997 fight with Evander Holyfield. Cotto is guaranteed $8 million, so the combined $40 million payouts are less than the combined $41 million given to Tyson and Holyfield. Holyfield earned $11 million for that fight.

Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions, couldn't say how much more Mayweather would make, other than it is a lot.

This is the largest guarantee ever in Nevada. Ever. And where are the big fights held? In Nevada.

[Related: Miguel Cotto is quietly confident he can beat Floyd Mayweather]

In pure dollars, Mayweather has the record. Adjusted for inflation, though, Tyson's mark might still be the record. According to the Bureau of Labor statistics site, a $30 million payment in 1997 would equate to $42.9 million in 2012 dollars.

Both men easily made weight. Cotto weighed in on the number at 154. Mayweather weighed in at a career-high 151.

The two had a lengthy staredown, far longer than normal, and began jawing at each other.

At the MGM Grand sports book, Mayweather is now nearly an 8-1 favorite.

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Already on his resume are wins over greats such as Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley and Juan Manuel Marquez, all three of whom are destined to wind up in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Mayweather also has victories over elite fighters like the late Diego Corrales, Zab Judah, Jose Luis Castillo, the late Genaro Hernandez, Ricky Hatton, Jesus Chavez and Carlos Hernandez, among others.

But is it possible that his opponent on Saturday in the HBO Pay-Per-View mega-fight at the MGM Grand Garden, Miguel Cotto, is the best of all of them? You can make a good case for it.

Cotto, now the World Boxing Association super welterweight champion, is 37-2 with 30 knockouts and has been a world champion at super lightweight, welterweight and super welterweight. His only losses were to Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito. The loss to Margarito, avenged in December, is somewhat questionable because of Cotto's belief that Margarito fought him with loaded hand wraps.

They have five common opponents: Mosley, Judah, DeMarcus Corley, Victoriano Sosa and Justin Juuko. Mayweather won decisions over Mosley, Judah, Corley and Sosa. He stopped Juuko in the ninth round. Cotto decisioned Mosley and stopped the other four: Judah in 11, Juuko and Corley in five and Sosa in four.

Given that he has a win over a prime Mosley, Cotto would have to be regarded as the better of the two. That would seem to leave only De La Hoya and Marquez to compete with Cotto as Mayweather's best opponent.

You could argue the merits of those three over drinks for hours, but Cotto stands up well in the debate. Pacquiao has beaten all three of them, stopping De La Hoya and Cotto and beating Marquez twice and drawing with him once.

Mayweather didn't take the fight that everyone wanted him to take -- against Pacquiao -- but he took the next-best opponent he could find. And while he's beaten a slew of greats in his career, it's not much of a stretch to say a win over Cotto would be his most significant.

So all of you who want to trash Mayweather and accuse him of ducking, it might be wise to check the records. It sounds good, but it's not necessarily the truth.

It would have been great if he had fought Kostya Tszyu at 140, but there is really no notable fighter he could have met that he has not met other than that. Hopefully, the Pacquiao fight happens, but if it doesn't, remember that blame belongs on all sides of that equation.

But on Tuesday in front of a small group of reporters in the VIP check-in area at the MGM Grand, Mayweather put on quite a memorable show. He ended one of the most intriguing interviews he ever gave by concluding with a 15-minute tirade in which he said his health was too important to fight someone on performance-enhancing drugs.

He was giving the interview ostensibly to promote his pay-per-view bout Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden against Miguel Cotto for the World Boxing Association super welterweight championship. Mayweather, though, spoke much more about Pacquiao than he did about Cotto, even though he was never asked about Pacquiao until after he brought up Pacquiao himself.

Mayweather and Pacquiao are the top two fighters in the Yahoo! Sports rankings and are the two most popular men in the sport. They've negotiated, unsuccessfully, to fight each other since late 2009. Most experts believe the bout would break the pay-per-view sales record, which Mayweather holds at 2.5 million with Oscar De La Hoya.

When a reporter asked Mayweather if he was convinced Pacquiao was using PEDs, the unbeaten fighter, said it is "basic common sense."

When my career is over, anything can happen and my health is more important than anything. I'm not saying nobody is, or nobody is not doing it. But my health is more important than anything. Guess what? When my career is over, if I'm hurt, or something is going on, because something has happened in a fight, I can't come to you and say, 'Yo, I need you to pay my rent for this month. I need you to pay my bills for this month. I need you to pay my car note. I need you to put my kids through school.'

So, my health is more important. So, you're an American, right? I'm an American. I was in the Olympics. I represented the red, white and blue. You know what the American writers should say? 'Well, why is this guy from another country coming over here and making money [and] taking it back to his country?' Once again, I'm feeding American citizens every day. All I ask is, give a little blood, give a little urine. That's a crime?

Mayweather also pointed to what he said was Pacquiao's head growth as evidence of PED usage. He said Pacquiao's head had "probably grown" from a 7 1/4 to an 8. Head growth is a side effect of anabolic steroid abuse.

Arum said Wednesday that he believes he's figured what set Mayweather off: A cognac commercial Pacquiao did that has been appearing regularly during NBA playoff telecasts.

"What has really triggered this, I think is that Floyd is a basketball junkie and he's watching all these playoff games," Arum told Yahoo! Sports. "What does he see when he's watching those games, over and over? Manny's Hennessy commercial. It's a piece that shows Manny chasing his dreams, from when he was a kid to the present."

Arum said Mayweather's comments about Pacquiao's hat size was the clue he needed to come up with this idea: An actor who resembles Pacquiao was hired to play a young Pacquiao in the commercial, while the scenes involving the current Pacquiao were played by Pacquiao himself.

"There is this actor who sort of looks like Manny, but you can't really tell and they shoot it in a way that makes you think it's a younger Manny, and he's in a gym working out," Arum said. "Then it segues to a scene where it is Manny. So when Mayweather is talking about the size of the head, that's got to be where he gets it. He's seeing this commercial over and over and over in just about every NBA game that's on television and we know he loves to watch basketball. He's a basketball junkie. And yeah, there are two different-sized heads, but one's an actor's and the other's is Manny's."

Still, Arum said Pacquiao's rants make no sense since Pacquiao has agreed to accept the random blood and urine testing that Mayweather demands of all opponents now. In a Feb. 17 interview with Yahoo! Sports in his suite at the MGM Grand, Pacquiao said he would take the test without restriction, as Mayweather had requested.

I told him, 'OK, 50-50 [with the money] and I'll agree to everything else.' I told him I would agree to all of the other things he was demanding. Everything. Even the blood testing he wanted, I would do it. But it had to be 50-50.

Arum said Mayweather's stance about protecting his health makes no sense since Pacquiao has agreed to the testing. When pushed, Arum said he agreed that no one would want to fight someone who was boosted by PED usage, but he said it's a moot point since Pacquiao has unequivocally agreed to all of the testing.

"Manny Pacquiao is not using now and has not ever used steroids," Arum said. "But for now, forget about whether [Mayweather] has proof about what he's saying. It doesn't matter because for two years, Manny has said he'd agreed to the testing. Manny is saying that, not me. You've talked to him. He's told you himself. So if Manny has agreed to the testing, how is Floyd going to be disadvantaged when they'll be checking the blood and urine of both guys?"

Fighting on the undercard of the HBO-televised Bernard Hopkins-Chad Dawson light heavyweight title fight, Harvell knocked out Pietrantonio in a bout that got scant attention.

It was scary at the time, though, because when Pietrantonio went down, he slammed his head violently against the mat. He landed right in front of press row and his head hitting the mat was easily audible to reporters in the first several rows.

[Martin Rogers: Shane Mosley vows to make Saul Alvarez pay]

Immediately, officials signaled for a stretcher to be brought in, but Pietrantonio was fine and left the ring under his own power a few minutes later.

Shaffer's incredible photo caught the moment of impact perfectly. If you wanted to know what it feels like, look at Shaffer's picture. Pietrantonio's entire face is distorted as Harvell's punch lands squarely in the middle of his face.

What's scary is, the left hand that is cocked in the photo followed seconds later and Pietrantonio went down and out.

The good news is that Pietrantonio is fine.

And if there is a competition for boxing Photo of the Year, now we know the leader in the clubhouse. Boxing has been blessed to have had some legendary photographers, such as Neil Leifer, recording its history over the years. And guys like Chris Farina, Tom Casino, Ed Mulholland and Will Hart are giants in the field today.

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But it's hard to imagine any of them shot a picture that is more dramatic than Shaffer's. I have always had a soft spot in my heart for the photo of Muhammad Ali standing over a downed Sonny Liston in Lewiston, Maine, urging him to get up.

Shaffer's photo, while not as historically significant given the stature of the fighters involved, is not to be forgotten. You can not only see the moment of impact in his picture, but you can almost feel it, too. Ouch!

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One of the more bizarre scenarios of recent times ended the way it should have on Friday when the chancellor of the University of Texas system reversed an earlier decision and now will allow Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to defend the World Boxing Council middleweight title against Andy Lee on June 16 at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.

On Tuesday, minutes before a press conference to formally kick off the fight promotion, chancellor Francisco Gonzalez Cigarroa canceled the bout for security reasons. Promoter Bob Arum then suggested the cancellation was retribution for critical comments made by his son, Richard Arum, that were critical of the performance of students in the Texas system.

At a news conference on Thursday in El Paso, FBI El Paso Special Agent in Charge Mark Morgan said he knew of no reason the fight should not be permitted, saying there were n "know, credible or specific" security threats.

On Friday, Cigarroa reversed himself, though he put conditions on it. State, local and federal law enforcement must devise a security plan in advance and must promise they can handle any issues. Also, he banned sales of alcohol.

Cigarroa released a seven-minute video in which he professed his love for the Texas-Mexico border region. He attempted to explain why he cancelled the fight by referring to a vision statement he wrote when he accepted his position. He went to great length to point out he wrote the statement in El Paso.

In that vision statement, I also stated that the safety of our students and our faculty and our staff on all of our campuses is of utmost concern to me. Because I want to make certain that they can learn and work and live in a very safe environment. And I know that those principles are also extremely important to you.

A risk report done by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement pointed out that leaders of the Sinaloa and Juarez drug cartels would be present at the fight.

However, the report said there were no threats to the security of the city, the event or those attending it. But that was enough for Cigarroa to order the fight out of the Sun Bowl.

When I heard and read the risk assessment that was performed on the Julio Cesar Chavez-Andy Lee boxing match, there were concerns raised to my office that this specific event could not be viewed as a normal event because of certain risk indicators.

But he said he changed his mind after hearing the pleas of all segments of society in El Paso.

This decision that I made resulted in significant concern from the El Paso community. And over the past two days, I have heard the uniting voice of El Paso in a very unifying and respectful way.

He said after meetings with law enforcement, his concerns were mitigated and he felt the bout could proceed safely.

Part of the reason for concern could be the identity of Chavez's girlfriend, Frida Munoz Roman. She was the common law wife of the late son of reputed drug lord Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. But Joseph Arabit, the special agent in charge of El Paso for the Drug Enforcement Agency, said he wasn't aware of the Chavez-Roman relationship and didn't see it as an issue.

If in fact that is correct, it is something we should be aware of and are not. But I don't see that as a credible threat if it were.

For his part, Arum said he still believes the decision was a vendetta by Cigarroa for his son's words.

"I don't trust the chancellor, quite frankly, and he doesn't act like the chancellor of a major university system should," Arum told Yahoo! Sports. "I still believe this is about his desire to get at me because of what my son said, and that is just wrong. A lot of people believe that, too, because it makes sense and there was no other explanation to do what he did."

Arum said he expects a crowd in excess of 40,000. Tickets go on sale Saturday and are priced between $25 and $200.

"This is a great event for the sport and for this city and it's ridiculous what we had to go through," said Arum, who said he was in no position to comply with the chancellor's conditions. He said the burden for providing the security plan and carrying it out will fall on city, state and federal law enforcement as well as UTEP.

Only minutes before a news conference at the Sun Bowl in El Paso on Tuesday to formally announce the fight, promoter Bob Arum was told Francisco Gonzalez Cigarroa, the chancellor of the University of Texas system, had canceled the bout. In a statement released by his office on Tuesday, Cigarroa said, "The Sun Bowl on the UTEP campus is not the appropriate venue for this event."

Arum was instantly skeptical and on Tuesday, told the El Paso Times that though he didn't know what was going on, he was certain it wasn't a security issue regarding the Mexican border town.

High security is code for something else. You figure it out. The problem was not with UTEP. This university has been great. The fight will happen June 16, and the fight will happen in Texas. Unfortunately, it may not be in El Paso.

On Wednesday, a news conference in El Paso was held in which the mayor, the city manager, the police chief, the sheriff and an FBI representative all said they were unaware of any security threat and that the Sun Bowl is safe to host the card. Ramiro Cordero, a spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol, told the Associated Press that the agency has received no specific threats or intelligence indicating violence in El Paso related to the fight.

U.S. Rep Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) of El Paso sent a letter to Cigarroa demanding an explanation and praising the city's safety record.

El Paso is the safest large city of over 500,000 in the country. In El Paso, we pride ourselves in hosting large functions, dignitaries, heads of state, and ambassadors. I am disappointed with the UT Administration's decision to cancel the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. sporting event and have contacted UT Chancellor Dr. Francisco G. Cigarroa to express my concern. During my conversation with Dr. Cigarroa, I suggested our local law enforcement agencies, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office and the El Paso City Police Department, meet with the UT System Police Office of the Director of Police to address any concerns Dr. Cigarroa may have in regards to hosting the sporting event in El Paso. I have also reached out to the El Paso Intelligence Center and asked for a threat assessment of the City of El Paso. Finally, I asked Dr. Cigarroa that he reverse his decision immediately. I have an open invitation to all the UT Board of Regents and Dr. Cigarroa to visit El Paso so they can see for themselves the beauty and life of our great and safe city

Arum told Yahoo! Sports he thinks he's unraveled the issue behind the cancellation. His son, Richard, is a prominent professor of sociology and education at New York University who co-authored a heavily praised book, "Academically Adrift," that New York Times columnist David Brooks called "a landmark study." According to the Washington Post, the book found that 36 percent of students made no significant learning gains from freshman to senior year.

Though the University of Texas was not one of the 24 schools that was examined in Arum's book, Richard Arum was critical of Texas' performance in comments to The Post.

The seniors have spent four years there, and the scores have not gone up that much.

When Bob Arum was telling his son at a meal in New York on Wednesday about the odd circumstances surrounding his fight's cancellation, Richard Arum's jaw dropped. He immediately thought of his book and his critical remarks regarding the University of Texas.

"This is a crazy situation," Richard Arum told Yahoo! Sports. "It's hard for me to believe it's connected to my criticisms and the book. However, the timing of things is an incredible coincidence."

Bob Arum said he's given university officials until the end of the day Thursday to reverse the ruling. If they do not, he has a deal ready with the Toyota Center in Houston to move the fight, which is for the World Boxing Council middleweight title, there.

"They had this big press conference in El Paso and all the city leaders were there and everyone, including the FBI, said there isn't a security problem related to this fight," Bob Arum told Yahoo! Sports. "My son had been criticizing the University of Texas system and this is all retribution against me because my son told the truth about what is happening there in their education system."

Cigarroa could not be reached for comment. His office pointed to the statement it released Tuesday announcing the cancellation.

In the history of combat sports, there have been less than 30 bouts which have exceeded 1 million pay-per-view sales. There have been only three which have touched or surpassed 2 million.

Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya set the record when they sold an astounding 2.45 million pay-per-view units for their 2007 super welterweight title fight in Las Vegas. Two Mike Tyson bouts, against Lennox Lewis in 2002 and Evander Holyfield in 1997, did 1.98 million.

Nothing else is close.

But on Tuesday at Mayweather's media day gathering in Las Vegas, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer predicted the upcoming Mayweather-Miguel Cotto fight on May 5 at the MGM Grand Garden could set the record or, at the very least, surpass 2 million in sales. He told BoxingScene.com:

I'm basing that on early results from closed circuit. I'm basing that on sponsors' feedback. I'm comparing the [statistics from the] movie theaters. There you can track it very nicely. You can look two weeks before, for the [Victor] Ortiz fight or the [Juan Manuel] Marquez fight or the [Shane] Mosley fight ... How many tickets did you sell? And we can compare it to [our figures] now and we've been getting those numbers updated. I don't even want to say how much more [we've done than in previous fights], but if these numbers are going to translate to [pay-per-view buys], and the early indications are that they will because of the kind of feedback that we're getting. If those numbers in fact are true, I think we might break the record. Based on those early indications, it's unreal.

Mayweather did his part at Tuesday's public showcase to hype the show. He showered praise upon Cotto, but then predicted a victory by knockout. There is some semblance of pressure on Mayweather to perform, because Cotto was stopped by Manny Pacquiao in 2009 and fans who are desperate to gauge the various strengths and weaknesses of Mayweather and Pacquiao will pay close attention to that sort of thing.

Mayweather is never shy about predicting a win, but he doesn't frequently predict knockouts. This time, though, he told the Las Vegas Sun that he's going to take Cotto out.

This fight won't go the distance. He's coming in for the kill and I'm going in there for the kill. This is boxing, this is the hurt business, it's about excitement and that's what I'm here to do.

He told Las Vegas television station KLAS, Channel 8, that he considers Cotto undefeated. He dismissed the loss to Pacquiao because it was at a catch weight and he discounted Cotto's loss to Antonio Margarito because he said Margarito "got caught cheating."

That's not exactly accurate. There has never been evidence that Margarito cheated in his 2008 fight in Las Vegas against Cotto. But Margarito had an illegal knuckle pad in his hand wraps that contained a plaster-like substance prior to his 2009 bout in Los Angeles with Shane Mosley. After that came out, Cotto began to believe Margarito had loaded his gloves in their 2008 fight, as well. Keith Kizer, the executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, has always denied anything was untoward with Margarito's gloves.

But many of those who watched Saturday's bout in Las Vegas between Brandon Rios and Richard Abril seem convinced that the outcome was rigged. Most are pointing the finger at Top Rank chairman Bob Arum as the culprit.

Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya, who should know better, joined the fracas via Twitter. Strangely, after the bizarre conclusion to the James Kirkland-Carlos Molina fight in Texas last month, in which Kirkland won by disqualification, De La Hoya had nothing to say about a fixed fight. This, despite the fact that the scoring was outrageously bad and that his own buddy and matchmaker, Eric Gomez, ran to the commission table and demanded that Molina be disqualified. That, though, is because Golden Boy promotes Kirkland and had a vested interest in him winning, whether Kirkland deserved it or not.

[ Kevin Iole mailbag: Shane Mosley faces long odds on the far side of 40 ]

De La Hoya, though, hates Arum and uses Twitter like a 12-year-old to constantly bash his rival. On Saturday, De La Hoya intimated that something was amiss in the outcome of the fight, when Rios won by split decision despite the fact that most media and a majority of fans felt Abril had won.

De La Hoya managed to rile up his more than 371,000 followers when he suggested the result wasn't on the up and up.

I can't wait till top ranks ship sinks because I am sick and tired of these bad calls.

He wrote as if Top Rank had anything to do with the outcome when he clearly knew better, just as he knew that his company had nothing to do with the outrageous scoring and finish to the Kirkland-Molina fight.

Some suggested that Arum wines and dines the officials in order to see the fights his way, which shows a lack of understanding of the process. In Nevada, the commission tells a promoter what the costs for officials will be. Promoters are required to pay the fees for the judges and the referees working a card, as well as their expenses. But the promoter pays the commission directly with one check, and then the commission pays its officials.

Rios got a gift, but it wasn't all that surprising to those who have followed Nevada judging over the years, because Las Vegas judges always tend to favor the aggressor. Rios was the one pushing the fight and he was given the benefit of the doubt on most of the close rounds.

I scored it 116-112 for Abril, preferring his counter punching and boxing to Rios' mauling. Judge Adalaide Byrd also had it for Abril, 117-111. She was overruled by her counterparts, Jerry Roth, who had it 116-112 for Rios; and Glenn Trowbridge, who favored Rios 115-113.

Unlike some who were watching on television and weren't in the arena, it wasn't a runaway rout. There were a lot of rounds which were difficult to score because the fighters competed at close range a lot and there weren't a tremendous amount of clean punches landed by either man. Power is scored in professional boxing and Abril's punches didn't have a lot of pop.

Still, he landed more and deserved the decision, but it's hardly as if Frankie and Blinky came back from the grave to order Roth and Trowbridge to score the bout their way.

When there are bad calls in the NFL, say, the first inclination of fans, team owners and executives and media is not to suggest the outcome is rigged.

It's common in boxing, though, and that's sad. De La Hoya is only hurting the sport he purports to love by making such suggestions. When one promoter is successful, it's good for the entire sport. Golden Boy and Top Rank are the sport's two most successful promoters. If they can help raise interest in the sport, it helps each other as well as all the other promoters.

De La Hoya's childish Twitter taunts only serve to harm the business in which he makes his living.

He knows as well as anyone that the result of the judging on Saturday was simply human error and nothing more.

He needs to start acting like a professional or someone should take his rattle away.

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But Top Rank president Todd duBoef added a bit of spice to the bout by promising a $50,000 bonus for the winner on top of his regular purse.

"I said it before that we want to bring the prize aspect back into it to make it true prize fighting," duBoef said. "This will be a little incentive, an extra $50,000 to the winner. Hopefully, that makes them fight a little harder to try to win that money."

The plan was hatched in October after Nonito Donaire won a clear but very boring decision over a safety-first Omar Narvaez in New York. Narvaez fought to survive, not win, and engaged very little, much to the consternation of duBoef, Donaire, the HBO announce team and the live audience at the Theater at Madison Square Garden.

After that fight, duBoef revealed exclusively to Yahoo! Sports that he planned to offer a $100,000 bonus for Donaire's next bout.

He was planning to do another $100,000 bonus when Saturday's bout was originally going to pit Rios against Yuriorkis Gamboa. But after Gamboa pulled out of the bout, and was sued by Top Rank, duBoef decided to make the bonus $50,000 for the Rios-Abril match.

In a statement released by -- and likely written by -- Top Rank publicist Fred Sternburg, Rios applauded the move and predicted victory.

That's why it's called prize fighting. When I win my title back on Saturday night you can call my bank account Rios Grande!

UFC president Dana White began the practice a number of years ago, awarding bonuses for Fight of the Night, Knockout of the Night and Submission of the Night on every card. It's been a big hit with fans, media and, most importantly, to the fighters, who clearly compete with the bonus on their minds.

If the $50,000 helps to make Rios and Abril compete that harder, I'm all for it.

Boxing fans in those days were desperate to see Sugar Ray Leonard, the Olympic gold medalist and welterweight showman, take on the mean and nasty Marvelous Marvin Hagler. Leonard toyed with it several times and on Nov. 9, 1982, managed to get ABC to broadcast in prime time an announcement he was making at the Baltimore Civic Center about his plans.

But with a tuxedoed Hagler beaming, expecting to get the biggest fight of his life, Leonard told the national television audience the fight was not to be.

A fight with this champion would be one of the greatest in boxing history. This is the only man that could make it possible, but, unfortunately, it will never happen.

Leonard, of course, made several comebacks and ultimately did fight Hagler 25 years ago on Friday in one of boxing's greatest nights.

The anticipation in the outdoor stadium at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas was thick. There were many who feared for Leonard's safety, who were concerned he'd be injured by the bigger and brutish Hagler.

Leonard, as was typical, used his speed and lateral movement to dictate the fight. Hagler, ever the killer, relentlessly plodded forward, looking for a fight. Too often, though, Leonard would use his fast hands and flurry at the end of rounds to win rounds that had seemingly been up for grabs.

He told Sports Illustrated's William Nack after the bout he was shocked by the advantage in speed he had over Hagler.

I was so fast, man!  He couldn't hit me for nothing! When he finally did hit me, it was like, 'This is it?' He was more of a pusher than a puncher. I couldn't believe he was that slow, that vulnerable, that susceptible to punches. It was my speed that upset him, my movement that threw him off. People said I lost the zip, but my hands are just as fast as they were when I was 20 years old!

When the bout ended, the crowd erupted and play-by-play man Barry Tompkins made perhaps the greatest call of his career, shouting, "How do you like it? How do you like it"

Hagler was angry at Leonard's refusal to stand and fight. In his autobiography, "The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring," Leonard quoted Hagler as saying:

Fight like a man, [expletive]. Fight like a man.

The fight was viewed differently by just about everyone who saw it. Jim Murray, the late Los Angeles Times columnist and the greatest sports writer who ever lived, saw it as a Leonard blowout.

Murray wrote:

Leonard didn't just outpoint Hagler, he exposed him. He made him look like a guy chasing a bus. In snowshoes. Marvelous Marvin Hagler should have put stamps on his punches. He kept aiming them at places Sugar Ray had left much earlier in the evening.

As effective as Leonard's movement and his flurries were, it's undeniable that Hagler's body work was piling up points. And Hagler had plenty who felt he did more than enough not only to retain his title, but to clearly win the fight.

Hugh McIlvanney, writing in Sports Illustrated, didn't think Leonard's plan to try to steal rounds was effective and that Hagler deserved the bout. McIlvanney wrote:

But, however much the slick ploys blurred the perceptions of those on the fevered sidelines, they never broke Hagler. He has a different kind of spirit, but it is no less resolute than Leonard's. The hounding intensity that kept him unbeaten through 11 years from 1976 will soon be a memory, but he had enough left to press on through his early frustrations, throw the superior volume of hurtful punches. I'm convinced Hagler won the fight; a draw, and the retention of the title, was the very least he deserved.

The judges were all over the place. Jo Jo Guerra apparently wasn't watching the same fight everyone else was. He had it 118-110, or 10 rounds to 2, for Leonard. Lou Filippo, long a respected judge and referee in California, had it 115-113 for Hagler. Dave Moretti broke the tie, seeing it 115-113 for Leonard.

Author Steve Marantz, a former sports writer at the Boston Globe and Boston Herald, wrote a 2008 book on the bout, "Sorcery at Caesars." He spoke to Eddie Futch, the highly regarded trainer, who felt Hagler deserved the nod.

I thought Hagler had a slight edge, probably by a few points. He was the champion and he made the fight with his aggressiveness.

Former lightweight champion Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini also saw it for Hagler, according to Marantz.

Hagler definitely won the fight. Doesn't body punching count for anything any more? Leonard wasn't doing anything in there but showboating.

I've watched the fight dozens of times in the intervening years. Watching live, I scored it a draw. Each time I watched it again, I noticed something I hadn't seen before. I've scored it for Hagler, for Leonard and even, multiple times each.

It's hard to believe that, a quarter century later, the fight is still being debated as fiercely as it was on the night it happened.

The only thing harder to believe is that it's been 25 years.

Sadaf Rahimi, a 17-year-old amateur boxer who plans to compete in the Olympics in London, could complain about what she doesn't have: A ring to train in, proper equipment, high-level coaching.

Instead, the Afghan teenager pursues the sport she loves despite innumerable obstacles. The Taliban banned women from competing in sports, prompting the International Olympic Committee to ban Afghanistan from competing in the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia.

Members of Rahimi's own family, fearful for her safety, have advised her to quit. Despite that, she forges ahead with the dream shared by every amateur boxer, of winning Olympic gold.

She told CNN.com that she couldn't train for a month because of fears for her safety and that her aunt advised her not to box.

My aunt used to say girls should stay at home and do housework, they shouldn't be going out and playing sports. She would say my actions are not in line with Islam.

A lack of funds in Afghanistan means there is no ring for her and other Afghan women to use to train. Traditional boxing equipment is either old and dilapidated or simply doesn't exist.

The equipment we have is pretty inadequate. I've even had to buy my own boxing socks.

What equipment they have, they have to share because gym space is limited. Women's boxing will be in the Olympics for the first time in 2012, but women have been boxing for years and the state of the game is far more advanced in other countries than it is in Afghanistan.

She said she only gets to train in the gym for an hour a day.

Despite that, Mohammed Saber Sharifi, her coach, told CNN.com that she and her teammates are working diligently to send a message to the world.

I hope the world can see that Afghan women are breaking down barriers by pursuing their dreams of becoming a professional athlete. We represent this country with pride.

The odds against her winning even a single match are enormous, but Sadaf Rahimi is a winner just for having the courage and the dedication to try. In a country where women are oppressed and treated like second-class citizens, Rahimi is every bit the trailblazer that athletes like Jackie Robinson and Billie Jean King were in this country.

Boxing is a sport filled with rags to riches stories. Few, though, can match this one.

I know for sure she has one new fan.

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The Puerto Rico Professional Boxing Commission is lucky that Juan Manuel Lopez doesn't have a huge mainstream following in the U.S. If he did, the commission would be getting battered after its ridiculously harsh suspension of the former featherweight champion.

Following a 10th round stoppage defeat at the hands of Orlando Salido on March 10, Lopez accused referee Roberto Ramirez Sr. of gambling during an interview with Showtime's Jim Gray.

On Tuesday, the Puerto Rican commission suspended Lopez for a year, fined him $10,000 and ordered him to do community service work. There are men convicted of serious crimes who don't receive such stiff sentences.

Top Rank's Bob Arum, who promotes Lopez, was none too happy about it, calling the move "outrageous." Arum, who said Lopez was diagnosed with a concussion after the hard fight, should not be blamed for his words when he was clearly in the throes of post-match trauma.

"I think it's outrageous what they did to this kid and makes zero sense," Arum said. "You can not and should not punish someone for saying stupid things when they're being interviewed only seconds after they were concussed. It's the commission's fault for allowing him to be interviewed. What were they thinking? It's nuts.

"Legally, he can't be responsible for what he says in that condition. If it was the next morning, or a few days later, after the effects of the concussion had passed, that's one thing. But this is a guy who suffered a serious injury. Look at the NFL and how seriously they treat concussions. These are nothing to [expletive] around with and here, you have the commission trying to suspend a kid for something he said in that condition? Ridiculous."

There has to be more to this story than meets the eye, because while what Lopez said was wrong, it doesn't come close to meriting the kind of punishment he received. He's already apologized twice, but he was treated as if he robbed the biggest bank on the island.

Lopez plans to appeal the suspension, but if it is not overturned, he'll be banned from boxing in the U.S., since other states will recognize the suspension.

When Floyd Mayweather Jr. meets Miguel Cotto for the World Boxing Association super welterweight championship on May 5 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, it will be one of the year's biggest boxing events.

Mayweather is unbeaten and is the top-ranked fighter in the world, according to the Yahoo! Sports poll and nearly every other service. Cotto is 37-2 with 30 knockouts, with his only losses coming to Antonio Margarito in 2008 and Manny Pacquiao in 2009.

In 2005, Mayweather and Cotto were both promoted by Top Rank and each were undefeated stars. Mayweather was preparing to face Henry Bruseles and told David Mayo of MLive.com he thought Top Rank was using Bruseles as a test run for an eventual pay-per-view bout with Cotto.

I think that was the tester. Puerto Rican, identical style -- if you go back and look at Henry Bruseles, identical style -- comes from the Cotto camp, same trainer at that particular time, which was his uncle. And Bruseles, he tried. I gave him the opportunity. He tried but I was the better man.

Mayweather stopped Bruseles in the eighth round, but no one on Earth ever thought Bruseles was remotely as good as Cotto.

At the time, Mayweather and Top Rank chairman Bob Arum were feuding over the direction of his career. Mayweather wanted to be marketed to an urban audience, and Arum wanted to paint him as the next Sugar Ray Leonard, e.g., a friendly, clean cut guy with a brilliant smile and other worldly skills. Mayweather also desperately wanted to fight on pay-per-view and Arum thought it wise to continue to build him via bouts on HBO.

After beating Bruseles, Mayweather got the pay-per-view bout he craved, against the late Arturo Gatti, and dominated in one-sided manner. More importantly, the fight did far better than expected on pay-per-view.

A few months after the Gatti fight, Mayweather bought his way out of his contract with Top Rank and talk of a match with Cotto cooled. Mayweather, though, never forgot about it.

I always thought it was a fight that was going to happen. He was with Top Rank, I was with Top Rank. I dominated at 130, moved to 140, fought at 147, I thought, eventually, the fight was going to happen. It didn't happen. I didn't pain none about it. But it's a great thing that [Cotto's] got his promotional company up and going, I've got my promotional company up and going, and now that we can make the fight happen. I think it's a great thing for the sport of boxing.

The Mayweather-Cotto fight is far bigger now than it would have been had it occurred in 2005. If it had happened then, it might have done around 350,000 units in sales. Now, it's likely to do in excess of 1 million and probably in excess of 1.25 million.

Cotto has become a pay-per-view attraction on his own. While Pacquiao was the A side in their 2009 fight that did 1.2 million, Cotto was largely responsible for the more than 600,000 units sold for his rematch with Margarito at Madison Square Garden in December.

Bert Sugar, who was as much a part of the fight racket over the past 50 years as the boxers he loved to cover, died Sunday at a hospital in Mount Kisko, N.Y., of cardiac arrest, following a long battle with cancer.

Sugar, 75, was never seen anywhere without his fedora and his large stogie. He often wore brightly colored clothes, particularly loud pants, and was easily recognizable in any crowd. He loved boxing and was a throwback to an era when it was one of the three biggest sports in the country, along with baseball and horse racing.

In addition to loving boxing, he loved talking about it and helping others to understand its history. He was a regular on talk radio shows around the country and had worked for HBO Sports in recent years promoting pay-per-view cards by doing a series of interviews.

He had a quick wit and keen sense of humor and used it to make his point about the fighters he covered.

He authored more than 80 books, including dozens on boxing. His 2006 book, "Boxing's Greatest Fighters," is regarded as the definitive guide to the greatest fighters of all-time. He also served as the editor of Ring and Boxing Illustrated magazines and wrote for many others, including Sports Illustrated.

He was a character who was willing to do anything to get a story and once sparred with Muhammad Ali.

My sparring with Muhammad Ali. Up at Deer Lake, Pa., in the early 70s. I got the bejabbers beat out of me. I wanted to do it. I'd been an amateur boxer. I actually hit him -- once.

Sugar, who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame as an observer in 2005, became so well known that he played himself in a host of movies and television shows. Among the movies he appeared in are "Cinderella Man," "The Great White Hype," "Rocky Balboa," and "Play It to the Bone."

The Boxing Writers Association of America in 1990 named Sugar the winner of the "Nat Fleischer Award," for career excellence in boxing journalism, the most prestigious honor for a boxing writer.

When it comes to where to put a fight, I agree with the old saying, "Don't mess with Texas."

Unless you're a superstar or you have deep Texas roots, you can't count on an even playing field any longer if you fight in Texas. More evidence of that was on display on Saturday at Reliant Arena in Houston, when not only was Carlos Molina inexplicably disqualified in his fight with James Kirkland, but judge Gale Van Hoy somehow managed to have Kirkland on top after nine rounds.

Kirkland, a Texas resident, was heavily favored in the important super welterweight bout, which was televised by HBO. But Kirkland was being throttled throughout the fight by Molina, who was clearly and convincingly ahead. Except, of course, to Van Hoy, the Texas judge who never ceases to amaze with his inept scoring.

Molina was disqualified at the end of the 10th round when one of his cornermen entered the ring after the bell rang. We'll deal with that in a second.

But let's deal for a moment with what Van Hoy saw, or didn't see. Because of the disqualification, the 1oth round wasn't scored, though that clearly would have been a 10-8 score in favor of Kirkland.

After nine, though, judge Dave Moretti had it 88-83 for Molina, giving Molina seven of the nine rounds. Judge David Sutherland had it 87-84 for Molina, giving him six of the nine. Van Hoy? The same guy who gave Juan Diaz a 118-110 victory over Paulie Malignaggi in a 2009 bout had Kirkland up 86-85, or five rounds to four.

Harold Lederman, the long-time judge who now scores fights for HBO Sports, had it 89-82 for Molina, eight rounds to one. Yahoo! Sports had it the same way. Dan Rafael of ESPN.com had it that way, as well.

Even Kirkland and his trainer, Ann Wolfe, felt he was behind. But Van Hoy, the Texas judge appointed by the Texas commission, had Kirkland, the Texas fighter, ahead. If you scored the 10th, which would have been 10-8 Kirkland, that would have put Kirkland into an almost unbeatable situation on Van Hoy's card. He then would have it had 96-93, meaning Molina would have needed not only to win each of the last two rounds on Van Hoy's card, but also would have needed a knockdown simply to earn a draw.

Ridiculous.

Molina promoter Leon Margules was astounded by Van Hoy's card.

I've known Gale Van Hoy for many years. He was once a fine judge, but based on the last two years and tonight's card, it's obvious that he can't see.

The sad part is, such poor outcomes happen regularly in Texas. Bad scoring is rampant. So are one-sided jobs by the referees there. It's disgusting.

As for referee Jon Schorle, a Californian who was brought in to work the bout, he handled the fight sequence bizarrely, at best. Kirkland knocked Molina down near the end of the 10th round. Though some believe it was not a knockdown, I believe it was and think that Schorle made the right call.

Molina was up, standing with his back toward his own corner, as Schorle gave him the count. First, Schorle did not send Kirkland to a neutral corner, as he should have. Kirkland went to his own corner and stood there as Schorle gave Molina the mandatory eight count.

As Schorle counted, the bell rang and one of Molina's cornermen entered the ring, with the stool. Schorle, looking directly into the corner, ordered the man out and then resumed the count. When he reached eight, he walked to the side of the ring and consulted with the commission.

At that point, he disqualified Molina because his cornerman had illegally entered the ring.

There are but a few problems with that, but let's start with the rules. According to the Texas Department of Licensing & Regulation's Combative Sports Administrative Rules, a disqualification is an option for the referee, not a requirement.

Rule 61.41 (b) states "The referee may eject from an event any person who violates the Code or department rules. If a second violates this chapter or the Code, the referee may disqualify the seconds' contestant." (Note: Emphasis on the word "may" is mine)

In other words, the referee isn't automatically required to disqualify a fighter if his second enters the ring. It gives the referee discretion by using the word may. In this case, Molina's corner wasn't entering the ring to stop the fight, as Vinnie Vecchione did in 1995 when Peter McNeeley fought Mike Tyson.

In this case, the cornerman was doing no such thing. He jumped up at the bell and simply put the stool down. Schorle interrupted his count to admonish the second and ask him to leave the ring, which he did promptly. Plus -- and this is important -- there is an inspector sitting in the corner with the seconds and it is his job to prevent a cornerman from going into the ring.

Thus, there is no way that Schorle, or the commission, should have dealt with Molina so harshly. The cornerman was in the ring for a matter of seconds, he didn't enter until AFTER the bell had sounded and he left immediately upon the referee's command.

It's not the first time a fight has been screwed in Texas and it won't be the last. In boxing circles, promoters and managers are wary of fighting a German or a German-promoted fighter in Germany, believing more unfair decisions/rulings come out of there than any other jurisdiction. But if Texas hasn't passed Germany in that regard, it very well may soon, giving the way it is going.

If a boxer is an underdog like Molina, and doesn't have the house promoter in his corner, the deck is stacked against him in Texas before the bell ever rings.

Why would anyone want to put fights in that state knowing that?

Arturo Gatti was one of the most entertaining boxers who ever lived, a real-life Rocky Balboa who jumped off of a movie screen and into the ring to become an icon in his sport.

He died, sadly, on July 11, 2009, in a condominium in Brazil. Brazilian police initially arrested his wife, Amanda, on suspicion of murder, than released her and termed the death a suicide.

Gatti's family and friends cried foul and insisted one of the toughest men who ever lived would never have taken his own life.

Sadly, we'll probably never know the truth, though the television program, "48 Hours' is working hard trying to prove that Amanda Rodrigues Gatti had no role in her husband's death.

On Saturday at 10 p.m., "48 Hours" will air another episode on Gatti's death, after an awful episode in September.

Believe it or not, "48 Hours" happens to be one of my favorite shows. I record it on my DVR and I have it listed as one of my favorites on my Facebook page. I was particularly eager to see what it had done on Gatti, because of my interest in him, and because my friend, noted boxing photographer Tom Casino, was interviewed as part of the piece.

The show received a great deal of hype, but it failed miserably to live up to it. It didn't prove Gatti committed suicide. Nor did it prove Amanda Rodrigues Gatti wasn't involved in her husband's passing. It really was little more than a recitation of previously known facts about the case with some half-baked theories offered.

Correspondent Erin Moriarty on Friday wrote about the upcoming episode on her blog at CBS News.com. The opening paragraph left little to the imagination. It sounds almost as if it could be the opening statement for Rodrigues Gatti's attorney at a potential trial. Moriarty believes she is a victim, not a murderer, and is being treated reprehensibly.

Moriarty wrote (in her opening paragraph):

Amanda Gatti is 25 years old, but she has lived through more drama and survived more trauma than many women twice her age. She's been called a killer, a slut and a gold digger. The truth is, she is none of these, but may never be able to get her good name back. Fans and friends of her husband simply can't accept that her husband, the great boxer Arturo Gatti, gave up on life and killed himself.

I certainly am not among those who blindly believe what Gatti's family has said in painting Amanda as a gold-digger, and worse. HBO's Real Sports did an excellent piece on the Gatti death in 2010 and there are plenty of troubling questions in the case that need to be answered.

I get that "48 Hours" is entertainment, but Moriarty has gone well too far in taking up Amanda Rodrigues Gatti's case and writing conclusively that she is innocent.

Moriarty wrote that there is "little question that the initial Brazilian police investigation into Gatti's death was poorly conducted," as if she is qualified to make that kind of blunt judgement. Moriarty wrote that the police chief in charge of the investigation says it is unlikely charges will be brought against Amanda Gatti.

But Moriarty makes it seems that it is Chief Paulo Alberes' job to somehow clear Amanda Gatti's name, which clearly it is not.

(Alberes) ... says that no one, not even the hired American private detectives, can show any evidence of how Amanda Gatti could have killed her husband. Still, the truth is, as long as the case is officially 'open,' Arturo Gatti's widow will live under a cloud of suspicion.

I don't know if Gatti was murdered or committed suicide. I didn't put much stock into the investigation that former Gatti manager Pat Lynch commissioned last year, which determined that the boxer's death "was not a suicide." If you pay enough money, you can find an expert to tell you pretty much anything.

And Lynch got one in noted forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht, who said:

This was not a suicide hanging. This is a homicide.

Wecht is a highly accomplished man, but his opinion would carry a lot more weight if he were hired by law enforcement and not by those with a stake in how Gatti's estate was settled.

Any honest person wants justice in this case and for the truth, no matter who it points to, to come out. If Amanda Rodrigues Gatti truly is innocent of her husband's death, it's horrendous what she's been forced to endure. If the boxer was murdered, the responsible parties need to be arrested and charged as quickly as possible.

But I'll place my faith in official police investigations rather than ones commissioned by Gatti's friends and family or by a television entertainment program.

It's beyond pitiful that Gatti's death has been turned into a media circus, by both sides.

Gatti has had as much turmoil after his death as he had in his all-too-short but crazy 37 years on this Earth.

There have been a lot of successful brother combinations in boxing history, but probably none more so than Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko. The heavyweights hold all of the major belts, with Wladimir owning the Ring, the World Boxing Association, the World Boxing Association and the  International Boxing Federation belts, while Vitali has the World Boxing Council title. Neither of them have been seriously threatened in years.

Houston's Charlo brothers, though, may go the Klitschkos one step better if they are able to reach their goals. That's because, unlike the Klitschkos, the Charlos are identical twins who are just a minute apart.

Jermall Charlo (8-0 4 KOs) is one-minute older than "baby" bro Jermell Charlo (16-0, 7 KOs).

They'll be fighting together on a card Saturday at Reliant Arena in Houston, where the headliner features a super lightweight bout between champion Erik Morales and budding star Danny "Swift" Garcia.

Jermall will fight Sean Ryan Wilson in a six-round super welterweight bout, while Jermell will meet Chris Chatman in his first-ever 10-rounder.

Like the Klitschko brothers, the Charlos don't plan to fight each other, they told Kelsey McCarson of The Boxing Tribune. Jermall told McCarson their trainer, the highly regarded Ronnie Shields, won't even allow them to spar.

The Klitschkos say they won't fight each other because it will upset their mother. But with the Charlo brothers, it's an entirely different reason.

Jermell and I made a similar agreement to each other that we will take to whatever division we grow into and hold titles there. Last time we did spar, it was too intense so Ronnie Shields won't allow it anymore.  We are each other's motivation, not competition!

Jermell told KTRK, Channel 13 in Houston that the brothers began to box because their father was an amateur boxer. But beyond that, Jermell had an interesting take on why they fight rather than compete in another sport.

Because it's hard. It's a difficult arena to be in. You got to be ready, equipped. You have to dedicate your whole life to it.

Jermall Charlo trained for his fight in Big Bear, Calif., with former world champion Sugar Shane Mosley, who serves as his advisor.

He pleaded for the Houston crowd to turn out early to watch them, because he said the fans are in for a treat.

It's a homecoming for us, so please everybody, please show up and be prepared for a rumble, because it's going to go down.

The brothers won't fighting on the televised portion of the card -- HBO's broadcast will open with James Kirkland against Carlos Molina and then Morales-Garcia -- but to hear Jermell talk, it's only time until they are featured.

We're going to be the next world champions out of Houston!

They have a long way to go to even think of a championship. But they have a good style and playful personalities. Their journey should be enjoy fun to watch.

Former featherweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez held a news conference in Puerto Rico Tuesday to apologize for ill-advised comments he made about referee Roberto Ramirez following a March 10 bout in San Juan with Orlando Salido.

After being stopped in the 10th round by Salido, Lopez ripped Ramirez and accused the official and his son, also a referee based in Puerto Rico, of gambling in an interview with Showtime's Jim Gray.

In the first fight, his son stopped it. Now the father stopped it. The referee stopped the fight because he has gambling problems. I told the (Puerto Rican Boxing) Commission the referee was a gambler. And they did wrong putting him as the referee. It was very irresponsible for putting him as the referee knowing he has a gambling problem.

Lopez apologized the following day, but Ramirez Sr. wasn't certain it was since and did not accept it. On Saturday, the Puerto Rican boxing commission announced it had suspended Lopez for a year.

Thus, on Tuesday Lopez held another news conference to discuss the topic.

I want to apologize again, now in public, to Roberto Ramirez for the comments I made after the fight against Salido. I'm embarrassed for all what happened and I want that Ramirez forgive me. I don't remember what I said. I'm ashamed. I saw the fight and, really, I was hurt. Roberto [did] a good job in stopping the fight. I apologize again to Ramirez and to all the fans in Puerto Rico and around the world.

Lopez clearly hopes his apology will lighten his punishment. He said the impact of a year-long suspension in his homeland would be severe.

It would advance my retirement. Boxing is my job, I couldn't go a year without fight.

Lopez's comments were ridiculous and way off-base. Ramirez did a perfect job stopping the fight. However, I believe Lopez wasn't thinking clearly after the violent knockdown and his words were, at least in part, induced by the trauma he suffered.

Judging by the words of a lot of fans and a lot of boxing writers, it's easy to program fights for television.

If you've thought that way, now is your chance to prove what you're boasted about for years.

HBO is giving fans the opportunity to pick one classic Floyd Mayweather Jr. bout and one classic Miguel Cotto bout, which will air on its HBO2 service prior to the May 5 pay-per-view bout between the men.

You can vote on your choice of six bouts from each man's career. For Mayweather, you can opt to see his 2001 bout with Diego Corrales, his 2006 match with Zab Judah, his 2007 fights with Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton, his 2009 match with Shane Mosley and his bout in September against Victor Ortiz.

Cotto fights against Ricardo Torres, Judah, Mosley, Joshua Clottey, Yuri Foreman and Antonio Margarito are available to be selected.

If you need a refresher on any of the bouts, HBO Sports has posted a video with highlights from each of them. Voting closes on Friday.

Superstar boxer Manny Pacquiao has long had strong religious beliefs. A Roman Catholic, one of Pacquiao's habits has been to attend Mass on the morning of one of his fights.

But now, the eight-division world champion told a Filipino radio station that God has told him he must retire soon.

I will not stay long in boxing because He said 'You have done enough. You have made yourself famous, but this is harmful.'

However, in his interview with DZMM, which was also broadcast on the Teleradyo TV show, that he didn't expect his new religious beliefs to impact his boxing.

I will do my work inside the ring.

Pacquiao will defend the World Boxing Organization welterweight title against Timothy Bradley on June 9 at the MGM Grand Garden on pay-per-view. Promoter Bob Arum said he hasn't spoken to Pacquiao recently and isn't sure what to make of the comments.

[ Related: HBO lets fans pick Mayweather, Cotto fights they want to see ]

Arum has been consistent in saying that Pacquiao would retire sometime in 2013 in order to run for governor of his province in the Philippines.

"If I said 'Yes, I think he's going to retire,' I'd be accused of using this to hype up sales," Arum told Yahoo! Sports on Monday. "The answer is, I don't know. Honestly, I don't know. When he talks to me, he talks differently, but we haven't talked in weeks. When I was in the Philippines, we had a lot of religious discussions, but he said nothing that would indicate he is going to retire soon. I've learned, though, that when you're dealing with religious stuff, you never know."

In another interview, with the morning show Rated Korina on ABS-CBN, Pacquiao said he no longer gambles or womanizes.

Neither story mentioned how Pacquiao's religious beliefs may impact a potential bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr.

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Former world champion boxer Victor Ortiz, who will fight Andre Berto on June 23 in a rematch of one of 2011's best fights, proved on Saturday he has no excuse if he gasses in the latter stages of his bout.

Ortiz ran the Los Angeles Marathon on Sunday, completing it in a personal-best time of three hours, 27 minutes.

"It was such great fun running with all these world class marathoners," Ortiz said.  "I know that made me run better than ever. In many ways, it couldn't be any more different than boxing.  I mean, nobody is punching you in the nose, the gut, the kidneys and on the chin and up the side of your head. But in other ways, doing this very much relates to boxing.  Conditioning the lungs, the legs and building endurance. That's why all fighters do road work.  But 26-plus miles is something else.

"I won't say going 12 three-minute championship rounds is easy.  Anything but. But Berto must know how prepared I'll be when he hears I ran this well three months before our fight. I'm very happy."

It was mostly a good day for Ortiz, though not entirely. His manager, Rolando Arellano, also ran in the race but injured his knee. Arellano, who said he will need surgery, didn't quit and finished the race.

"Rolando is a bulldog," Ortiz said. "He finished the marathon hurt knee and all -- in eight hours."

Ortiz, who also surfs frequently and competes in triathlons, will meet Berto in a fight televised nationally by Showtime. The bout is expected to be at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, though the venue has not been finalized.

World champion boxer Timothy Bradley is an aggressive fighter in the ring, so much so that he's been accused of using his head as a weapon in an attempt to gain an advantage.

Bradley, though, wasn't so aggressive in making his selections on his bracket for the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament. Bradley, who fights Manny Pacquiao on June 9 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, picked three No. 1 seeds and a No. 2 to reach the Final Four.

He did make a few first-round upset picks, choosing No. 11 Colorado State over No. 8 Murray State, No. 12 Long Beach State over No. 5 New Mexico, No. 12 Harvard over No. 5 Vanderbilt and No. 11 Texas over No. 6Cincinnati.

Of Harvard, Bradley said, "Harvard's first appearance in 66 years is 'Linspirational.' It wasn't supposed to happen. A lot of naysayers will be crimes in the face when I upset Manny Pacquiao, too."

He said he picked Texas because it has better boxing fans than Cincinnati, which is sure to make him popular with the many fight fans in the Queen City.

"Texas has better basketball, boxing fans and chili," Bradley said. "Texas will bring on the heat, just like I will against Manny Pacquiao. Make no beans about it."

In the Sweet 16, Bradley took Syracuse over Wisconsin, Michigan State over Louisville, Kentucky over VCU, Baylor over Duke, Marquette over Missouri, Ohio State over Florida State, North Carolina over Michigan and Kansas over Georgetown.

He has Kentucky beating Michigan State and North Carolina besting Ohio State in the Final Four, with Kentucky winning it all.

Safe picks, to be sure, but I don't think Bradley will be so safe when he fights Pacquiao.

To celebrate his own underdog status, he might have been wiser to have picked the Vermont Catamounts to upset North Carolina in their opening-round game. Bradley always says he doesn't worry about the odds. Someone needs to tell him the Cats aren't worried, either. There's still time for him to change his picks.

What could have been one of the great fights in recent times was scuttled on Wednesday when Top Rank filed suit in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas against boxer Yuriorkis Gamboa, ending the potential classic lightweight title match between the 2004 Olympic flyweight gold medalist and Brandon Rios.

Instead, Rios will fight Richard Abril on April 14 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said he is attempting to secure a new television network for the deal, and expects to have something "by the end of the day" on Wednesday.

Yahoo! Sports reported on Feb. 16 that the Rios-Gamboa fight was finalized. Top Rank president Todd duBoef flew to Miami last month to meet with Gamboa and later confirmed he had a deal reached.

"I just had to do it to push the ball over the goal line," duBoef told Yahoo! Sports on Feb. 16.

But Gamboa skipped both stops on a press tour designed to promote the bout with Rios, on March 6 in Miami and the next day in Los Angeles. He turned up at Floyd Mayweather's gym in Las Vegas and told Ring that he was unhappy with his $1.1 million purse for the bout.

"Whenever everything is clear with my contract, that's when the fight will happen, but right now I'm not under the terms that I want the fight to happen. I don't have a problem with HBO, and I hope that HBO doesn't have a problem with me either, because everything that's happening with me, I didn't choose to be in the position I'm in right now.

"But this is the time to do this, because if I don't stand up for myself, nobody else is going to do it. I never thought that things would wind up this way, but there was never a contract and there was never a signature from Gamboa agreeing to fight with Brandon Rios on April 14."

Arum said Wednesday "we have emails confirming" that Gamboa had agreed to terms. But Gamboa wouldn't budge and Arum said he felt he had no option but to sue.

"This would have been a hell of a fight, but what can we do?" Arum said. "We had a deal and he's not living up to the deal. We've sued him, but at this point, we have not made any claims against whoever may have induced him to breach his contract. We'll see about that."

That was clearly a veiled reference to Mayweather, the pound-for-pound king who used to be promoted by Arum. The two, though, have a very poor relationship.

Sekou Gary, Gamboa's attorney, did not return a call from Yahoo! Sports seeking comment on the suit. Neither did Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather's manager.

Abril caused a scene -- and may have gotten himself the fight -- after slapping Rios at the Miami news conference. Rios was speaking with reporters when Abril walked into the scrum and started speaking to Rios in Spanish.

Rios said in English, "You want to fight me? That's my manager right over there. Tell him. I don't give a [expletive]."

Abril, 17-2-1, defeated former lightweight champion Miguel Acosta in his last fight. Rios won his lightweight title from Acosta on Feb. 26, 2011.

Arum said full refunds would be available for those who want them through March 23. He said he was unable to lower ticket prices at this point.

Anyone who has lived through the 1970s probably isn't in a hurry to go back. The fashion was garish and it was tame compared to the music.

Perhaps the only good things about the decade were that the quality of the boxing was great -- fighters like Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Carlos Monzon and Bob Foster ruled the sport -- and my teams, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Steelers, combined to win two World Series and three Super Bowls in the 70s.

Other than that, we had to endure lengthy gas lines, gas rationing, rampant inflation, Chuck Barris, the Ford Pinto and the Bionic Woman in the decade. It makes me shudder to think of it.

But boxing promoter Steve Bash decided he thought it would be a good idea to recreate the the feeling of the 1970s, so on March 31 in Woodland Hills, Calif., the Warner Center Marriott will host "Saturday Boxing Fever."

The promo video for the show features the Bee Gees' 1978 hit, "Stayin' Alive" and the poster with the picture of the fighters on it includes a large disco ball and colored lights.

None of the fighters currently on the card were alive in the 1970s and unbeaten lightweight Herbert Acevedo missed the 1980s, as well.

Hopefully, it will be a great night of boxing. But listening to that music again for several hours? No thanks. I have sympathy, though, with those who will have to endure that music. As the 1979 disco hit by Machine reminds, "There But for the Grace of God Go I."

There were heavyweight title fights of one form or another in each of the last three weeks. But the heavyweight division is no longer near what it was once. Brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko are elite fighters, but they don't have elite opponents, so it's difficult to come up with a compelling bout these days.

There have been, though, many great heavyweight fights in the history of boxing. Here are my picks as the five best I've ever seen live.

5. Evander Holyfield TKO 10 Michael Dokes, March 11, 1989, Caesars Palace, Las Vegas: Holyfield had been a heavyweight for less than a year and there was concern at the time how he'd hold up against a big, durable and talented fighter like Dokes. The answer was, extraordinarily well. Pat Putnam, the late, great Sports Illustrated writer, called the bout "more than 28 minutes of unrelenting violence." It certainly was that, and more. The best part is, though it was a brawl, it was a brawl with great skill. These weren't two cavemen flailing away. These were experts of the craft performing at the highest level.

[Related: Klitschkos' lack of competition killing interest in heavyweights]

4. George Foreman KO 5 Ron Lyle, Jan. 24, 1976, Caesars Palace, Las Vegas: This was Foreman's first fight after losing his heavyweight title to Muhammad Ali in Zaire 15 months earlier. Given that Foreman and Lyle were two of the biggest punchers in the game, no one could have been surprised that there would be some big blows landed. This fight was like the old "Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em Robots" game, in which each guy took turns getting his block knocked off. Foreman was down twice, and at one point was in deep trouble, but he was landing too cleanly on Lyle. And as tough as Lyle was, when Foreman was hitting you in the head that often, no one could have survived long. It was a breathtakingly violent battle.

3. Riddick Bowe W 12 Evander Holyfield, Nov. 13, 1992, Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas: Both men entered the fight unbeaten. There was no question about Holyfield's toughness, but there were some about Bowe's, as he was dogged by suggestions he quit against Lennox Lewis in the 1988 Olympics. But neither man quit in this and the 10th round is one of the most remarkable rounds in recent boxing history. This was the first of what would become one of boxing's greatest trilogies, but it was by far the best of the three.

2. Larry Holmes W 15 Ken Norton, June 9, 1978, Caesars Palace, Las Vegas: Norton is unique in boxing history because he's a former world heavyweight champion who never won a championship bout. He was awarded the WBC belt after it was stripped from Leon Spinks. In his first defense, he met Holmes, and it turned out to be one of the great fights ever. The 15th round was spectacular, as the men stood in front of each other for long stretches and blasted each other with combinations. Holmes won a split decision, with two judges siding him with by a score of 143-142, while the other judge had it 143-142 for Norton.

1. Muhammad Ali TKO 14 Joe Frazier, Oct. 1, 1975, Araneta Coliseum, Manila, Philippines: There aren't adjectives to describe how incredible this fight was. Frazier trainer Eddie Futch mercifully stopped the bout after the 14th, because Frazier had a cataract in his left eye and his right eye was closed and he couldn't see the punches coming at him. Futch espoused the perfect sentiment when he said to a protesting Frazier, "No one will forget what you did here today." It was a marvelous display of skill, courage and tenacity on the part of both men. Some think it is the greatest fight ever. That's somewhat questionable, but it is, without doubt, the best heavyweight fight of all time.

That's my list. I'm curious to hear yours.

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The always confident ring tactician is a mental mess with the sticks in his hands.

"I think of too many things. I read too many magazines," Leonard told ESPN1100/98,9 FM in Las Vegas. "I think about putting my hands properly, my feet, my head, my back, my posture, my legs, my shoes ... all these things come into play."

Leonard has a golden opportunity to fix his game as part of The Golf Channel's "Haney Project" airing Mondays at 9 p.m. ET.

The former three-division boxing champ is competing against actress/model Angie Everhart, celebrity chef Mario Batali and singer Adam Levine. Each one of the stars is a "project" for Tiger Woods' former swing coach Hank Haney.

"Sugar" Ray says the early tips have amazed him.

"It seems so simple, the things that he suggested," Leonard said. "[Like] using my hands when I make a swing. He says 'Ray, you don't use your hands. You have fast hands.'"

The second episode is this week and the tease says Leonard makes a shocking discovery.

"I was blown away by the simplicity of these things ... the pointers, the advice, the adjustments ... I see and feel improvement already," said Leonard.

That may be the biggest key for Leonard. He just needs to calm down and it'll help him maintain his energy and confidence.

"At times, I have a tendency, more so than not, to affect my game [negatively]. I get so juiced up. I want to hit the ball right," Leonard said. "When I finish the 18 holes, I am totally wiped out, exhausted."

Leonard, 55, began golfing back in 1991. He's never been better than a 16 handicap. He's hoping with Haney's help, he'll move into single digits.

Take a listen to the rest of the interview. Leonard gives his take on the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao impasse and if the fight is ever happening.

Boxing fans have had a love-hate relationship over the last year with Epix, the premium cable movie network and online site that has picked up the feed of several major bouts emanating from Europe.

On March 19, 2011, Epix picked up the German feed of the Vitali Klitschko-Odlanier Solis heavyweight title fight that otherwise would have been unavailable in the U.S. It was available on TV, though given that Epix isn't included on DirecTV, Comcast and Cablevision, many around the country can't get it. So Epix included the broadcast free online at EpixHD.com, which it geoblocked for the U.S. audience only.

"You're not getting these free fights at HBO or Showtime," said Nora Ryan, the chief of staff at Epix.

Epix has another show on Saturday, picking up the Wladimir Klitschko-Jean Marc Mormeck bout from Dusseldorf, Germany, that begins at 4:30 p.m. ET and 1:30 p.m. PT. It is the third show from Europe on Epix in as many weeks. On Feb. 18, it aired the Vitali Klitschko-Dereck Chisora bout and on Feb. 25, it broadcast the heavyweight match between Alexander Povetkin and Marco Huck.

The problem for the fans watching online was that the stream couldn't accommodate the audience it was attracting.

Fans who watched online have complained bitterly that Epix's streaming was buffering frequently. Ryan admitted that the network was surprised by the demand. She wouldn't give exact numbers, but said online viewers for the fights have "been in the hundreds of thousands."

She said that Epix is primarily a movie-on-demand service. When a customer wants to watch a movie, there aren't hundreds of thousands of others generally watching it at the same time and it streams smoothly. But the fights attracted many viewers and the servers got overloaded.

"We're re-engineering how it works," Ryan said. "Basically, what we had was like a small turnstile with too many people trying to go through it at once. Simply managing that huge amount of traffic because an issue. We moved to a different vendor to provide a better experience."

Epix switched to Akamai for the Povetkin-Huck fight and, though there were a few issues with the stream, it was far better. She said Epix has been working closely with Akamai and expects Saturday's stream to be the best offered yet.

"This is something we're committed to getting right, and we need our [viewers] to love the picture," she said. "We don't want it be less than a perfect experience, and that means not having buffering, starting and stopping or a less than beautiful picture."

Richard Plepler, the co-president of HBO, has continued to keep a close watch over the network's boxing operation even after the hiring of Ken Hershman in October as president of HBO Sports.

On Wednesday, Plepler made a move that stunned nearly all of the HBO Sports employees and made at least a few of them nauseous: He hired boxing writer and author Thomas Hauser as a consultant.

Hauser has been an ardent, and eloquent, critic of HBO Sports, particularly the regime of its now-former president, Ross Greenburg. Writing for Internet sites such as Seconds Out and The Sweet Science, Hauser repeatedly blistered HBO in a series of lengthy articles about the inner workings and failures of its sports division in the boxing space.

His pieces would often exceed 5,000 words and would describe, in great detail, what had occurred in private meetings.

Greenburg resigned as president of HBO Sports in July amid heavy pressure, much of it brought on by Hauser's writings.

Plepler and Michael Lombardo, the president of HBO Programming, had sought to identify the source of the leaks to Hauser, but were unable to do so.

So, on Wednesday, Plepler made a brilliant move in the game of office politics when he hired Hauser as a consultant. With that one move, Plepler plugged the leak and kept more embarrassing information about HBO from getting into the media.

Plepler has a background in public relations and has a habit of surrounding himself with talented writers. When he was looking to solve some of the problems that were raised in Hauser's columns, he sought the counsel of author, magazine writer and journalist David Remnick.

Last summer, Plepler hired Peter Owen Nelson, a talented writer who had done work for Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated and ESPN.com, and who is working on a biography of boxing trainer Freddie Roach, as his director of sports programming.

On Wednesday, he continued the trend of bringing aboard boxing writers, adding Hauser.

Hauser announced in a statement he released Wednesday that he would continue to write, but that has become extraordinarily problematic. He is now highly conflicted, and even by putting a disclaimer on everything he writes that he is employed as a consultant by HBO Sports, questions will be raised about his work.

More significantly, what Hauser doesn't write will be as much of an issue, if not bigger, than what he does. Readers now can only speculate what information he has gained from being part of HBO's team that he is not disclosing that he would have disclosed previously.

In an email to Yahoo! Sports, Hauser defended his decision to continue to write about boxing.

"I'm not (and never have been) the HBO police," he wrote. "If you go back and look in my article archives, I wrote one or two articles about HBO each year. I'm still free to write about HBO and anything else I choose to write about. At the end of the day, my articles will speak for themselves. Readers (knowing that I'm a consultant to HBO) can put that in the equation when they judge the merits of what I write. It's no different from Frank Rich (who writes regularly about the arts and politics) being a consultant to HBO."

It is different, though. Rich was an op-ed columnist at the New York Times and a noted drama critic when Plepler hired him in 2008 as a consultant.

In announcing the move, Rich said he had no difficulty getting the OK from the Times to accept the consultancy.

"I am completely out of covering HBO whatsoever," Rich said at the time.

The problem is, Hauser won't be out of covering HBO. If you're a boxing writer in the U.S., you can't cover the sport without covering HBO. It's one of the sport's dominant forces and broadcasts a great majority of its biggest fights.

Roy Peter Clark is a veteran journalist who teaches writing and journalism ethics for the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla.

He said the problem of journalists working for people they cover is becoming increasingly common. He said he is not familiar with boxing, but said a journalist must work fiercely to maintain independence. Going to work for a large player in the boxing industry, Clark said, "clearly complicates the process of covering an industry that has traditionally been regarded as corrupt."

"If I am going to cover this industry with integrity, and as much of it as I can muster, it's better for me if I'm covering it from the outside in," Clark said. "Once I step in to play any role whatsoever in the industry [I'm covering], my position is compromised."

Hauser is one of the few boxing writers who wrote with depth and a long-range view of the sport.

It's a dark day for boxing journalism. Despite Hauser's protestations, Plepler essentially bought the silence of one of the few men with the sources, the gravitas and the courage to take on the sport's powerful forces.

By all accounts, the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., is going to be an awesome facility. The $1 billion arena, which will open in September, will be the home of the NBA's New Jersey Nets.

The building's managers wanted to keep it busy between Nets games and so have been working on bringing in other events. It approached Bernd Boente, the manager of heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, about putting an Oct. 20 Klitschko fight in the building, and Boente was interested.

Klitschko defends his IBF, WBA, WBO and Ring Magazine belts against former cruiserweight champion Jean-Marc Mormeck on Saturday in Germany. If Klitschko wins, the plan then would have been to match him with American Chris Arreola in Brooklyn on Oct. 20.

It seemed a perfect match: The dazzling new arena could debut with a heavyweight title fight featuring Klitschko, one of the biggest attractions in the sport, defending his belt against the hard-hitting Arreola. Instead, it will get a card that is expected to feature former super lightweight champion Paulie Malignaggi, who is a New York native.

The reason? According to Chris Mannix of SI.com, the arena signed an exclusive deal with Golden Boy Promotions. And because Boente doesn't have any interest in working with Golden Boy, Barclays will lose what would have been a mega-event.

The people who run the building came to us and asked us to bring a Klitschko fight to the Barclays Center. When we said yes, they said we had to take Golden Boy as a co-promoter. We're not going to do that. I don't want to do a co-promotion with an American who has nothing to do with the Klitschkos. Why should we? We're about to do our seventh stadium event. We do huge shows all over Europe. We have fought at Madison Square Garden. They bring nothing to the show.

Talk about being blunt, but Boente has a point. The question is, why would a New York City venue ever want to do an exclusive deal with a promoter, particularly a promoter based in Los Angeles? Had the building remained open to all boxing promoters, it could have gotten a number of great shows which would have local interest from New York metropolitan promoters such as DiBella Entertainment, Main Events and Star Boxing.

As it is, it will get only Golden Boy shows from folks who are willing to cede their promotion to Golden Boy. Boente told Mannix that was hardly appealing to him.

If the Barclays Center wants a Klitschko fight, there can't be any preconditions. If they want to deal with Golden Boy and their crappy fighters, fine. I can't understand why an arena is doing an exclusive deal with an American promoter. What do they bring to the table? A Klitschko fight is a worldwide event. It would be covered by 150 countries. It would be huge with the Russian speaking community [in Brooklyn]. I just don't understand what they are doing.

Golden Boy is one of boxing's two most successful promoters, along with Top Rank, and it undoubtedly will put on a number of big shows in the venue.

Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, told Tim Smith of the New York Daily News that the issue is bigger than Klitschko himself.

It's pretty simple. We have a multi-year deal with the Barclays Center. We made a commitment to bring boxing to Brooklyn. Opening night is Oct. 20. It's a big event with fighters signing autographs, and a red carpet. That night is not about Golden Boy Promotions. It's not about the Klitschkos. It's about Brooklyn and bringing boxing to Brooklyn. This is all part of a bigger picture. For the Klitschkos to think they can show up, steal the show for one night and then leave town and not show up again, they're a bit naïve.

Still, you have to think that someone from Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, the building's owner, is asking the arena manager how he ever saw fit to do an exclusive deal with a boxing promoter and wound up blowing a major heavyweight championship fight.

]]> Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:34:51 PST Kevin Iole box Boxing Experts Blog urn:newsml:sports.yahoo,yhoo:20050301:box,article,yhoo-ept_sports_box_experts-wp1076:1 http://sports.yahoo.com/box/blog/ept_sports_box_experts/post/timothy-bradley-preparing-for-manny-pacquiao-by-eating-all-of-his-vegetables?urn=box,wp1062

Timothy Bradley isn't a tall guy, but there is no one who has seen him who would say the super lightweight champion is not big. Bradley, who will move up to welterweight to face Manny Pacquiao on June 9 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, is massive in the arms and through the chest and shoulders.

The unbeaten Bradley told Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal that he once was a "meat and potatoes guy," but he now maintains his powerful physique with a vegan diet.

He is such a regular at the Palm Greens Cafe in his hometown of Palm Springs, Calif., that the restaurant manager named one of its smoothies after him. The Bradley Ultra Green includes spinach, kale, mint, ginger, probiotic, bananas, aloe vera, apple juice and Spirulina.

Tydel Wilson, the manager of Palm Greens, told Gay that Bradley visits the restaurant twice a day when he's in training.

He's such a great patron. He knows most of the people here.

Bradley said he began a vegan diet in 2008 and has maintained it when he trains to this day. He joked that he doesn't eat vegan year-round because his wife, Monica, couldn't take it.

But he said he feels much more energetic eating vegan than he did when he was eating a meat-based diet.

Dude, I swear, it's the most unbelievable feeling ever. The reason I love it so much is that I feel connected to the world. My thoughts are clearer, crisp. I am sharp. Everything is working perfectly — I feel clean. It's a weird feeling, man. It's just a weird feeling.

He'll need everything he can get to get past Pacquiao and win the World Boxing Organization welterweight title. Pacquiao is No. 2 in the Yahoo! Sports boxing ratings behind only Floyd Mayweather Jr. and hasn't lost March 19, 2005. Since that time, Pacquiao has gone 15-0 with eight knockouts and has won world titles at super featherweight, lightweight, super lightweight, welterweight and super welterweight.

Bradley, though, isn't concerned. He's 28-0 with 12 knockouts and told Gay he's confident of victory.

It's new blood going against old blood. I'm in my prime, man.

A victory over Pacquiao would be a life-changing moment for him. And if he does it, he can thank a life-changing decision he made in 2008, when he decided to adopt the vegan lifestyle.

]]> Mon, 27 Feb 2012 09:39:13 PST Kevin Iole box Boxing Experts Blog urn:newsml:sports.yahoo,yhoo:20050301:box,article,yhoo-ept_sports_box_experts-wp1062:1 http://sports.yahoo.com/box/blog/ept_sports_box_experts/post/is-talent-and-hair-brushing-enough-to-make-adrien-broner-a-boxing-superstar?urn=box,wp1050

I'm a believer in Adrien Broner. Well, I'm a believer in his ability to fight. Whether he'll become a star in boxing is another matter entirely. Talent alone is not enough to become a star in this sport. You need that something else.

Broner, clearly, has the fighting ability, as he showed on Saturday in the opener of an HBO doubleheader from St. Louis, when he knocked out previously unbeaten Eloy Perez in four rounds to retain his World Boxing Organization super featherweight title.

Broner has fast hands, power and a killer instinct. He wasn't ready for prime time in his HBO debut, when he struggled to a so-so victory over Daniel Ponce de Leon in Anaheim, Calif., on March 5.

Since then, however, Broner has been dynamic. He stopped Jason Litzau in the first round, knocked out Vicente Rodriguez in the third and then cold-cocked Perez on Saturday.

He's only 22, but he's clearly the best super featherweight in the world. The problem for the man nicknamed "The Problem," is that there aren't many great fights to be made at 130 pounds. There are a number of good options at featherweight, and more at lightweight, but he doesn't have a ton of choices at super featherweight.

His shtick is brushing his hair in the ring. After his fights, as he's being interviewed in the ring, his father stands next to him and brushes his hair.

"Listen, man, if you were in the ring you might be brushing my hair. I love it, the fans love it. So that's just me. It's not a gimmick. I didn't make this up. I didn't plan it out. This is something I felt like needed to be done, so I just do it to brush my hair."

Of course, it might be better were it Don King in the ring brushing his hair, since "The World's Greatest Promoter" has more of a need to brush his hair than does Broner. As shticks, go, well, it's OK.

What Broner really needs, though, is a good opponent to fight. Given that he's with Golden Boy Promotions, you can rule out anyone with Top Rank. One possibility for a big fight might be Golden Boy lightweight Jorge Linares, who was stopped in his last outing by Antonio DeMarco in one of 2011's best and bloodiest battles.

If Linares can make 130, Golden Boy could put together a compelling match for Broner's World Boxing Organization title. And if he can't make it, Broner seems willing to fight someone with a big name at a catch weight.

He's got the talent and he's got a shtick. He just needs an opponent who will bring him the recognition he needs to become a star.

Joe Frazier, the great former heavyweight champion, died of liver cancer in November, but not before granting writer Katherine Dunn a lengthy interview that she turned into a terrific portrait of the man.

Frazier is best known as the boxer who defeated Muhammad Ali on March 8, 1971, in the most famous bout in history, but Dunn paints an indelible picture of Joe Frazier the man in her profile that appears in the March issue of Playboy.

She takes you inside Frazier's personal life with vivid details. She tells how, despite being blind in one eye, he repeatedly managed to pass eye examinations.

Frazier had also injured his left eye while preparing for the Olympics. He was hitting a speed bag when the steel swivel broke and a piece of shrapnel flew into his eye. The lens was damaged, the vision clouded. No boxing commission in the country would have allowed Frazier to fight as a pro if word got out. He kept it secret.

All these years later he laughed like a naughty kid, explaining how he got through dozens of commission eye exams by memorizing the eye chart and switching hands instead of eyes when the doctor said "And now cover the other one."

She writes of his infidelity and his long-time relationship with Denise Menz, who was at Frazier's side when he finally succumbed to liver cancer.

Menz went from being the other woman to his constant companion, the most significant figure in his life. She helped guide him through his post-retirement years with skill and aplomb.

On the night Frazier flattened Buster Mathis, another important thing happened. At a party after the fight, the 24-year-old Frazier met Denise Menz, the spunky 19-year-old from New Jersey who would be his lover, friend, office manager, interior decorator, supply clerk, nurse, historian, jokester and companion off and on for the rest of his life.

The laughing, redheaded Menz welcomed me into the apartment she'd been sharing with Frazier since his last spinal surgery, in 2008. She said, "I have a Ph.D. in Frazierology." In addition to running the popular Menz Restaurant near Cape May, New Jersey with her family, Denise is an interior designer. The big front room was full of comfort and grace all the way to the glass wall looking onto the terrace.

Dunn eloquently tells the tale of the time when Frazier was married and Menz was the other woman. She checked into a hotel with Frazier, only to find out he had three other women in the same hotel.

Over the decades, when Denise got mad at Frazier, it was usually over women. The first time, she said, she was devastated. "I was so naive. I knew I was the other woman, but I didn't know there were others."

The best stuff, though, is when she talks about the pressure Frazier felt in 1971 in the build-up to the first Ali fight. Frazier was protected by the police but still didn't feel safe.

There were so many police around him, even as he trained, that Frazier said he felt like "a jailbird."

The pressure became most intense as the fight neared, and Dunn skillfully weaves a narrative.

Frazier was set to fight Ali on March 8, 1971. Two days before, Philadelphia police escorted Frazier to New York City. In his gold Cadillac the usually friendly fighter was so silent and grim that the cops joked about taking an order for his last meal.

In Manhattan a contingent of New York cops met the Cadillac and guarded his hotel room. When fight time came the police smuggled Frazier into Madison Square Garden through an underground tunnel to avoid the mobs outside.

It's a wonderful piece about a fascinating man and one of the greatest boxers ever.

It's so good, you can say you read Playboy for the articles and, at least this time, you'd be telling the truth. (Warning: The landing pages hosting the Frazier story contains links to explicit content.)

Alvarez, though, is 39-0-1 with 29 knockouts and already holds the World Boxing Council super welterweight title. It can be a lot for a young man to handle the demands of being a champion at such a young age, but Alvarez has adapted well.

He's so confident that he was picking apart the way that Manny Pacquiao, the second-ranked fighter in the current Yahoo! Sports boxing rankings, dealt with Shane Mosley. Mosley was a shell of his former self against Pacquiao, but the Pacman was unable to finish him and went on to win an unsatisfying decision last May.

Alvarez will Mosley on May 5 underneath the Floyd Mayweather-Miguel Cotto fight at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas. He said if he gets Mosley hurt, it will be curtains for the Sugar Man.

Obviously, I'm going to apply pressure. Pacquiao didn't close exits. I'm preparing with fighters who are faster than Shane, and I am going to close those exits when we meet. We're doing a lot of work concerning speed. Shane is fast and he's an accomplished counter puncher. We're working on all of this.

Pacquiao is one of the best finishers in the game, and he couldn't finish Mosley. Nor could Mayweather, who in May 2010 won 11 of 12 rounds but was unable to get the stoppage.

Clearly, Mosley isn't the fighter he once was, and Alvarez figures to win the fight handily. But it seems just a bit cocky to be critiquing someone with Pacquiao's resume.

Alvarez nearly got the May 5 fight against Mayweather, but talks broke down over money. He needs to look good against Mosley, who is coming off three dreadful performances in a row. Between his flops against Pacquiao and Mayweather, Mosley looked finished in a bout against Sergio Mora, fighting to a split draw.

Alvarez is one of the game's rising stars, but he's going to need to throttle Mosley the way that Pacquiao and Mayweather did in order to be considered as a legitimate option for either of them.

Devon Alexander has a sterling record and a prime position on HBO. On Saturday, he'll face power-punching Marcos Maidana in his welterweight debut at the Scottrade Center in his hometown of St. Louis, competing in yet another main event on HBO.

But as his bout nears, Alexander has had to fend off suggestions from Maidana's camp that he's a PED user, as well as suggestions from the media that, at 25 years old and with a 23-1 record, he's yesterday's news.

He told ESPN.com's Kieran Mulvaney that he was struggling to make the super lightweight limit of 140 pounds and it may have contributed to a subpar 2011, in which he lost to Timothy Bradley in a title unification fight and then looked less than impressive in a win over Lucas Matthysse.

He knows he needs to come up big on Saturday, or he may be relegated to second-tier status.

It's very important. People forget how good I am. People forget about how good I looked when I stopped [Juan] Urango and [Junior] Witter, and even before that. One or two bad performances -- and I was only at 65 percent, struggling to make 140 -- and people write you off. I'm at 147 now, my legs are back, I'm going to put on a great show.

But even if he looks good, there may be questions, since Maidana advisor Sebastian Contursi stirred up steroids allegations. Contursi said he heard "rumors" that Alexander was using performance-enhancing drugs and requested the Missouri Office of Athletics to implement stringent testing.

In response, Tim Lueckenhoff, the commission's executive director, ordered pre- and post-fight steroids tests.

Over the weekend, I got this e-mail where Sebastian is alleging that Alexander is using illegal drugs. So I e-mailed him ... (and) I said, 'OK, you've made this allegation,' and I said, 'If that's the way that you feel, then we're going to take my office out of the equation since Alexander's from St. Louis and I want to make sure that there is no cheating.

Alexander hasn't been known as a puncher. He's 23-1 with 13 knockouts, but he's primarily a boxer who has relied on speed and quickness. On a conference call, he seemed amused about the allegations, but vehemently denied taking any illegal substances.

He said on the call that he can't even take legal substances, because it throws him off.

"I'm a drug-free type of guy," Alexander said.  "I can't really even take Tylenol PM because it makes me dizzy or woozy. I can't even take Tylenol, really, because it has a certain type of effect on me, the regular Tylenol. My body is clean. I don't infect it with beer, alcohol, smoking, drinking, weed and all that.  So for them to even consider that is ridiculous."

What's not ridiculous is the pressure that Alexander faces to look good on Saturday. Not only did he have a mediocre, at best, 2011, but he got what many believe was a gift in his last bout of 2010 when he won a unanimous decision over Andriy Kotelnik.

Alexander has admitted to hearing the whispers, and he knows what he has to do.

"I was going to make a statement anyway regardless, because the rumor's out that I didn't look good my last few outings against Kotelnik, Matthysse and Bradley, so I was aiming to make a statement regardless," he said. "Like I said, it's my debut at 147, and I'm going to be ready to rock and roll. I've got my legs. I'm strong and fast. And I'm ready to rock and roll."

But as Steve Kim of MaxBoxing.com correctly points out, Alexander actually has to do it. Saturday's bout is, as Kim writes, a chance "to reestablish himself as a legitimate blue-chip talent."

The stage is set for him, so now it's up to Alexander.

Long before he became the most powerful man in mixed martial arts, UFC president Dana White was a boxing fan. On Tuesday during the "UFC Tonight" show on Fuel TV, White laid into superstar boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr.

White called Mayweather racist for Mayweather's comments on Twitter about New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin. He also blasted Mayweather for failing to sign to fight Manny Pacquiao and said a 50/50 purse split, as Pacquiao has demanded, is the most logical move.

Don't worry about what all these other guys are doing and shooting your big mouth off on Twitter. What you should worry about is getting in there and making the fight that all the boxing fans want to see. Get in there and fight Manny Pacquiao. You don't deserve more of the purse. If ever there were a fight in history that should be split 50/50, it's the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight. Shut up! Both of you split the money up and put on the fight that everybody, including me, wants to see.

Mayweather commented about Lin on his Twitter account on Feb. 13. He didn't really rip Lin, as numerous sites have alleged, but simply said that Lin is getting a lot of hype because of his race and that African-American players don't receive a comparable amount of hype.

As the controversy was beginning to die down, White stirred it up again by ripping Mayweather on a segment called, "Presidential Address." Fuel put White's face in what appeared to be the presidential seal for the commentary.

White also ripped Mayweather for 2010 comments that the WBC welterweight champion made about Pacquiao. His most incendiary words, though, were when he flat called Mayweather a racist.

First of all, what he said I think was racist. He's made a couple of racist comments and, yes, Floyd, you're racist with the stuff that you've said. First of all, Jeremy Lin gets all of this credit because he's an Asian player in the NBA that African Americans never get? Yeah. He's getting all this praise because he's an Asian guy playing in the NBA. You say that African Americans don't get it? Really, Kobe Bryant doesn't get any praise? Michael Jordan never got any praise? The list goes on and on of the guys who completely get praised for being great NBA basketball players. Not only can he compete and make it in the NBA, the guy is tearing it up and is breaking records, you knucklehead. OK?

White, who managed boxers in the 1990s, ended his tirade by telling Mayweather to "shut up and make the fight."

Yes, I run the UFC and all this stuff. I'm a boxing fan and I want to see this fight, too. I know that I speak for millions and millions of other people. Shut up and make the fight, Floyd.

Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather's manager, didn't hold back when responding to White's comments.

[ Related: Jeremy Lin asks Taiwan media to respect his family's privacy ]

"He needs to shut the [expletive] up and mind his own business, stay in his own lane and keep on taking advantage of the UFC fighters, while underpaying them," Ellerbe told Yahoo! Sports after learning of White's rant. "If he keeps on running his mouth, we may decide to give a free seminar to all of the UFC fighters on how the pay-per-view revenue should be distributed. This is typical Dana, who is always prone to ignorant outbursts. He should be the last person to try to judge someone else."

After learning of Ellerbe's response, White sent a text to Yahoo! Sports directed to Ellerbe.

"Just for the record, shut the [expletive] up [because] I wasn't talking to you," White said by text. "I was talking to Floyd. We're doing something amazing. We're building a sport while you guys are destroying one. "

So, do you think White has a point or is it, as Ellerbe said, just an ignorant outburst by someone sticking his nose where it doesn't belong?

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Few athletes in history have had the impact upon their sport, and the world, that Muhammad Ali has had upon his. Once Ali became the world heavyweight champion, pretty much every fight he had for the rest of his illustrious career became an event, not just a sporting contest.

Leon Spinks, the 1976 Olympic gold medalist who is the only man to have beaten Ali when Ali entered the bout as the defending champion, told Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal that "it was an honor to fight" Ali. Hard-hitting Earnie Shavers called Ali "the nice guy in the world," but said fighting him was different than fighting anyone else.

Shavers said he respected Ali so much that he wasn't 100 percent committed to winning.

"Ali was the nicest guy in the world. When I fought Ali, I had mixed feelings. I wanted to win. But there was a small part of me that didn't want to beat him. That's how much respect I had for Ali."

Many boxing dignitaries, including former opponents Spinks, Shavers, George Foreman, Chuck Wepner, Ken Norton and George Chuvalo attended a gala at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas to raise money for the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health. It was at that gala, which was to celebrate Ali's 70th birthday, that UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta bid $1.1 million to buy the gloves Ali wore when he first met Floyd Patterson. He outbid Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

Wepner, who was the inspiration for the "Rocky" movies, told Carp "I love the guy."

"I'll always remember just getting in the ring with him. I'm walking from my dressing room to the ring, and when Ali got into the ring, it really hit me -- I'm about to fight the most famous person in the world."

Ali is now muted by his Parkinson's, but Foreman said he's still jealous of him. Foreman said Ali is "still tall, handsome and beautiful."

Not everyone loves -- or loved -- Ali, though. Las Vegan Bill Anton, a retired Army Ranger who served in Vietnam from 1969 until 1971, expressed bitterness over Ali's refusal to be inducted into the military service.

He said Ali's decision, which has been widely described as courageous, was nothing of the sort.

"But for him to not go into the service and not even report, I still find it deplorable. When your nation calls on you, you should serve."

Ali, though, was a man of convictions and he stood up for them. He was one of the greatest athletes of his day and he touched the lives of millions of people. For that, he'll always be "The Greatest."

During a radio interview Tuesdsay with Dan Patrick, Mike Tyson confirmed he'll be part of "The Hangover 3," but in even bigger news, gossip guru Robin Leach is reporting that the former heavyweight king is going to host his own show on the Las Vegas strip.

Tyson confirmed to Leach's Luxe Life blog that the show is a go. A theater and location will soon be announced for "Tyson: The Raw Truth" which is set to debut some time in March.

"It will be raw. Nothing will be held back. He's not going to shrink from the problems he's faced and the battles he's fought professionally and personally. It will be unfiltered, and he'll tell it like it is," one of Mike's pals confirmed. "The project has the full blessing of his wife Lakiha and their family." Mike has seven children (he lost his 4-year-old daughter in 2009 in a tragic treadmill accident when he lived in Phoenix).

Leach says Tyson, 45, will stick around after each show to answer questions from the audience and hold meet and greets. The show will include video and photo flashbacks.

"The Hangover 3" is scheduled to start filming later this summer and fall in L.A. with a tentative release planned for Memorial Day weekend of 2013.

Meantime, Mike told radio interviewer Dan Patrick on Wednesday that he's set for "The Hangover, Part 3," the next installment of the wildly successful comedy franchise starring Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms. The first, shot here in Las Vegas, featured him and his pet tiger, and the sequel, filmed in Thailand, included him singing.

Vitali Klitschko hasn't lost since 2003 and he's finished 9-of-11 opponents. Apparently, that doesn't impress WBC challenger Dereck Chisora.

When the fighters went forehead to forehead at today's weigh-in, Chisora slapped Klitschko right across the face. The 40-year-old Klitschko was stunned but showed his maturity in not turning the mild fracas into a full-scale brouhaha.

Chisora (15-2, 9 KOs) shoots for the title tomorrow night in Munich, Germany. The 6-foot-7 Klitschko weighed in at 243.5. The 6-2 Chisora was 241. The Brit from Zimbabwe says it's time for a change at the top of the heavyweight division.

"Everybody's tired of you and your brother," Chisora said. "There's no excitement in the ring. It's time for the new king. People want a new relief in boxing. Him and his brother have killed the sport I love."

For a guy who's been in hot water for controversial words before, this seems pretty minor or is it? Too often when Floyd Mayweather speaks it creates major waves.

Monday afternoon Mayweather tweeted about Jeremy Lin's newfound star status in the NBA.

Yahoo! Sports' The Postgame wrote that Mayweather "Floyd Mayweather Hits Jeremy Lin On Race." The Wall Street Journal used an AP blurb and tagged it with this "Mayweather trashes Jeremy Lin on Twitter."

Mayweather got wind of the criticism and fired back.

Are you offended by what Mayweather said or did he state the obvious? ESPN debated the racial aspect of the Lin story and to our knowledge no one is calling for an apology. Unfortunately Mayweather's words from the past regarding Asian athletes have set him up to take shots even if this wasn't offensive.

In a bizarre 2010 video rant, Mayweather called Manny Pacquiao a "little yellow chump." He went on to say "Once I stomp the midget, I'll make that [expletive] make me a sushi roll and cook me some rice."

On ESPN1100/98.9 FM in Las Vegas, we discussed both the Mayweather tweet and the more flammable one sent by writer Jason Whitlock. Whitlock made a crude joke regarding Lin. After outrage was expressed by some especially from the Asian American Journalist Association, Whitlock apologized.

A chance to lock himself into a Manny Pacquiao fight and take out a legend wasn't enough to steer Lamont Peterson away from righting what he believes was a wrong.

Peterson passed on a chance to possibly face Juan Manuel Marquez at Cowboys Stadium during the summer for a Las Vegas rematch against Amir Khan on May 19. The choice is interesting since Bob Arum has mentioned that the winner of the potential Peterson-Marquez fight could've faced Pacquiao in November if he gets by Tim Bradley in June.

Peterson beat Khan back in December but has dealt with cries from the Khan camp saying the win was less than legitimate. Supposedly judges were compromised by a mysterious character near the ring and Khan also had two late point deductions to give Peterson the split decision victory (110-115, 113-112, 113-112).

"We've been looking at this thing for awhile now. We took several offers and at the end of the day, it's the fight Lamont wanted, number one. Number two, it was a fight that at that time, it made better sense," Peterson's trainer/manager Barry Hunter told Maxboxing. "It went down to the wire, actually. [...] He gave me his reasoning as to why he would like to fight Amir and he gave me his reasons why the other fight was attractive. But ultimately, he decided to go this way and I backed him."

Golden Boy Promotions' Richard Schaefer was more than happy to steal Peterson's services away from Top Rank Promotions.

"Let [Bob] Arum talk," Schaefer said. "I work behind closed doors until I get the deal done, and then I announce it. Arum did a lot of talking. You can't believe everything Arum tells you."

Maxboxing's Steve Kim said there's no way the fight could be in Washington D.C. again because of all the nonsense surrounding the fight. Schaefer agreed.

"You have all of these dynamics unfold, it made for a challenging negotiation. This fight will be terrific because the first one was an action fight with controversy. Plus, we'll be instituting a no-hats-allowed policy for ringside at Mandalay Bay," said Schaefer.

As a result, the former heavyweight boxing king will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on March 31 in Miami, the day before Wrestlemania 28.

Tyson first worked for Vince McMahon's company back in 1998 at Wrestlemania 14. He was the special enforcer for a brawl between "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels. Tyson reappeared in the squared circle in 2010 as a guest host during "Monday Night Raw."

Tyson is part of a Who's Who of non-wrestlers to enter the WWE's Hall of Fame - Drew Carey, Bob Uecker, William "The Refrigerator" Perry and Pete Rose have been enshrined alongside the elite of the elite.

Tyson joins masked superstar Mil Mascaras and the legendary "The Four Horsemen." on March 31.

Tyson's role with the WWE was more than a celebrity appearance, he got physical at times. From WWE.com:

First welcomed into WWE by Mr. McMahon, "Iron Mike's" introduction was interrupted by The Texas Rattlesnake, resulting in a wild brawl between the two tough guys. Weeks later, Tyson aligned himself with HBK and D-Generation X. WWE fans who thought this association would sway the brawler's involvement at WrestleMania XIV were shocked when Tyson ended up being the one who counted the pin to give Austin his first WWE Title. After the bout, the heavy hitter knocked an angry Michaels out cold in front of a rabid Boston crowd.

Tyson was honored last year by the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

"I was the youngest heavyweight champion of all time, but the most fun I ever had in the ring was with WWE," Tyson told AP.

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The beneficiary is boxer Floyd Mayweather, who learned today that his 90-day jail sentence won't start until after June 1.

Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Melissa Saragosa reconsidered her original decision to send Mayweather to the Clark County Dentention Center starting today and pushed back his arrival date at the Las Vegas-area jail.

Justice of the Peace Melissa Saragosa said she weighed Mayweather's contractual obligations to a fight set for May 5 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas against an as-yet unnamed opponent.

Mayweather's lawyer Richard Wright had pleaded with the judge to allow Mayweather to fulfill commitments regarding the fight, emphasizing the economic benefit to Las Vegas when Mayweather fights.

Two weeks ago, Mayweather copped a plea to multiple misdemeanor charges. The prosecutor pushed hard for no leniency and jail time, and the judge agreed.

Shortly after today's decision, Camp Mayweather was already talking about the fighter's proposed May 5 fight. According to Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Mayweather's fight will be announced next week.

Carp mentioned names like Saul Alvarez and Robert Guerrero. The chances of the May 5 fight being against Manny Pacquiao appear to be somewhere between slim and none.

To no one's surprise, Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions fired a shot at Pacman's promoter Bob Arum.

"It's clear (Arum) doesn't want to do a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight. I hope it's an eye-opener," Schaefer told Carp.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. will spend 90 days in jail in a room just like this.

After being swarmed with requests about Mayweather's jail term, the Las Vegas Police Department released this picture of a similar cell that he will be staying in for the duration of his sentence.

The boxing star pleaded guilty to a reduced battery domestic violence charge and no contest to two harassment charges after a 2010 incident where Mayweather allegedly hit his ex-girlfriend, Josie Harris, and threatened two of their children during an argument at her home.

[Related: Bob Arum, Oscar De La Hoya weigh in on boxing's stengths, weaknesses]

The 34-year-old Mayweather was also ordered to complete 100 hours of community service and pay a $2,500 fine. The plea deal avoids trial on felony allegations.

Mayweather will likely serve most of the 90-day sentence, but could serve several weeks less if he gets credit for good behavior, said Officer Bill Cassell, a Las Vegas police spokesman.

The cell is a far cry from the bedroom space Money Mayweather is used to:

Special Christmas thanks to Larry Brown Sports

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How could he adequately train for a fight while he's spending 90 days in the Clark County Detention Center? Mayweather may also have an issue with the Nevada State Athletic Commission. His current license expires on Dec. 31, from there, executive director Keith Kizer says it's up to the commission:

"One of the questions [on the application] is, have you ever been convicted [...] of a felony or a misdemeanor? He'd have to answer that and give details just as any fighter in the same situation," Kizer told ESPN1100/98.9 FM in Las Vegas. "And then it's up to the commissioners themselves whether or not that's relevant."

Kizer said getting all the licensing business taken care of before May 5 would be tough.

"That's not that long from now. That's one of the issues that comes into play for the promoter and the site itself," Kizer said. "Whether you can make that a go assuming he gets a license once he is released."

In the highest profile cases of lengthy suspension not involving positive drug tests, the NSAC handed down severe penalties to Mike Tyson and Floyd's uncle/trainer Roger Mayweather.

Tyson got a year suspension and a $3 million fine back in 1997. Mayweather had his license revoked for one year and received a $200,000 fine for his role in a postfight brawl during Floyd's 2006 fight with Zab Judah.

He'll be a little more sedentary for part of 2012 serving 90 days in jail for a 2010 run-in with ex-girlfriend Josie Harris.

Mayweather worked his way out of several pickles involving lawsuits and minor charges, but always looming was his most serious legal problem - the seven felony charges he faced for a run-in with his ex-girlfriend/mother of his children. He paid the piper today as Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Melissa Saragosa handed down her ruling:

Saragosa sentenced Mayweather to six months in jail, 90 days of which must be spent in the Clark County Detention Center and 90 days which will be suspended.

Mayweather was ordered to attend a year-long domestic violence counseling program, perform 100 hours of community service, pay a $2,500 fine and stay out of trouble.

Saragosa wanted to send a message to Mayweather and victims of domestic violence:

"I think a period of time in incarceration will send the right message to the community and to his children that no matter who you are you will have consequences to your actions that are appropriate when this level of violence is inflicted," Saragosa said.

Yesterday, Mayweather escaped the felony charges and a maximum of 34 years in jail by pleading guilty to one count of battery-domestic violence and no contest to two counts of harassment.

Local prosecutor Liza Luzaich explained to the judge that fines and counseling alone haven't worked for Mayweather in the past during previous domestic violence incidents. She said jail time was the only way to go with the world champion boxer.

"The only thing that is going to get this man's attention is incarceration," Luzaich said.

Mayweather must also pay $2,500 in fines, perform 100 hours of community service and attend a 12 month class for domestic violence counseling.

As part of a plea agreement, Mayweather escaped the most serious serious felony charges of grand larceny, robbery and coercion were dismissed.

Mayweather's legal team asked for his time be served under house arrest. The request was denied by Saragosa.

Just last month, the fighter announced his intentions to return to the ring on May 5, 2012. It's unknown whether the three months in jail will derail those plans or if the Nevada State Athletic Commission may have an issue with granting the fighter a license to fight.

Poor Joe Frazier has his day overhadowed by the sickness going down at Penn State with Jerry Sandusky and Joe Paterno. As if that was bad enough, in China, one newspaper rubbed a little more salt in the wound by mistakenly posting a photo of George Foreman thinking it was Joe Frazier.

This was on the front page of the South China Morning Post.

Tip via Deadspin

Joe Frazier, one of the biggest sports icons of the 1960s and 70s,  passed away tonight from liver cancer at the age of 67. He was diagnosed less than six weeks ago and spent his final days in a Philadelphia-area hospice.

His family released this statement:

"We The Family of the 1964 Olympic Boxing Heavyweight Gold Medalist, Former Heavyweight Boxing Champion and International Boxing Hall of Fame Member Smokin' Joe Frazier, regrets to inform you of his passing. He transitioned from this life as "One of God's Men," on the eve of November 7, 2011at his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We thank you for your prayers for our Father and vast outpouring of love and support.

Respectfully, we request time to grieve privately as a family. Our father's home going celebration will be announced as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding."

In the weeks before his death, Frazier was said to have lost 50 pounds. Friends like Rev. Jesse Jackson and fellow heavyweight king Larry Holmes requested visits, but Frazier decided against it.

"Joe doesn't want to see anybody, the way he is now," his manager Les Wolff explained earlier this week. "I think you can understand why. He's a proud man."

Frazier's legacy is etched in stone as part of the greatest individual rivalry in sports history. The stocky, less-than-graceful Frazier was the perfect foil for the elegant and athletic Muhammad Ali.

[Photos: Remembering 'Smokin' Joe Frazier]

Their trilogy, contested between 1971-75, tops everything else in boxing's long history. Frazier was the first person to defeat Ali.

Outside the ring, Frazier was helpless in the p.r. battle against the loquacious and charismatic Ali. Ali made it personal before their first meeting in 1971 calling the quiet Frazier an "Uncle Tom."

Both unbeaten, Frazier met Ali in New York City's Madison Square Garden on March 8, 1971 and got his revenge on Ali's trash talk by winning "The Fight of the Century" via unanimous decision. He cemented the victory by flooring Ali with a leaping left hook, his trademark punch, in the 15th round.

To illustrate the lack of respect Frazier received from some, veteran boxing writer Jerry Izenberg told the story of the fighter greeting some kids on the streets of his adopted hometown of North Philadelphia a week after the biggest victory of his career.

[...] Joe told them: "Now y'all stay in school. Don't make me have to find you."

Two of them laughed, but the third one said:

"My daddy says Muhammad Ali was drugged,"

In that instant a cold, cold mask seemed to slide across the champion's face. "'Yeah ... yeah," Joe said, "I drugged him with a left hook." And they saw the look in his eyes and all three of them ran away.

Frazier turned to me and said:

"You heard that. What I got to do? What the hell I got to do?"

There was nothing he could do. Frazier, a reserved gentleman, was never going to win a trash talk battle against Ali. Ali went on to win the 1972 rematch against Frazier, again at MSG.

The third fight in the Philippines, "The Thrilla in Manila" trumped the first two. The back-and-forth battle, ended after 14 rounds because Frazier's eyes were nearly swollen shut. His trainer, Eddie Futch, argued with his fighter before calling it a night. On a night with the temperature in Manila hovered around 100 degrees, rounds 13 and 14 were grueling. Both fighters were completely exhausted, but still wailed away at each other.

[Obituary: Joe Frazier, 67, dies from liver cancer]

Frazier fought just two more times. He lost badly to George Foreman in 1976 and fought to a draw during a short-lived comeback in 1981.

Frazier, the son of Rubin and Dolly Frazier. was born in the poor town of Beaufort, S.C. He was the youngest of 12 children. He relocated to Philadelphia as a teenager.

While working in a slaughterhouse, Frazier began to take boxing seriously. By the time he was 20, Frazier was one of the elite heavyweight prospects in the world. He stormed to the Olympic heavyweight gold medal in 1964 in Tokyo. Six years later, he was the king of the heavyweight division, winning the WBA belt with a fifth-round TKO stoppage of Jimmy Ellis.

Frazier was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. He finished his brilliant career with professional record of 32-4-1,  with 27 wins by knockout.

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According to the N.Y. Post's Kevin Kernan, the 67-year-old Frazier is battling advanced stages of liver cancer.

"He's in serious shape, we're looking for a miracle,'' said a source close to the former heavyweight champ. "They're only giving him a short time to live. We need to have as many people as possible praying for Joe right now.''

According to Leslie Wolff, Frazier's personal and business manager, the former fighter was diagnosed four or five weeks ago, but hasn't been told how long he has to live.

"We have medical experts looking into all the options that are out there," Wolff told the AP. "There are very few. But that doesn't mean we're going to stop looking."

Frazier will always be linked to Muhammad Ali for their series of fights between 1971-1975.

Sosa was driving with his sister Jeneffer on Sunday morning. From the New York Daily News:

The Sosas were among 10 people packed into a Chevy Venture traveling east on the Cross Bronx Expressway about 5:45 a.m. Sunday as temperatures hovered near freezing and road surfaces turned treacherous.

An accident in the west-bound lane caused some drivers to hit their brakes to rubberneck, prompting a wild pile up, with cars spinning around on the black ice. "It was like tops," one police source said.

Both Pedro and Jeneffer got out of their car and walked ahead to check on the other cars when they were slammed into by another motorist. The collision caused both of them both to fly off the overpass and fall 75 feet.

The 20-year-old Sosa, the 2011 National Golden Gloves champ, was rushed to the Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. Monday morning he underwent surgery to stop bleeding in his brain.

"All we know is that he's in the toughest fight of his life right now. We're not really thinking of his boxing career. We're just thinking of him. He's a fighter. Hopefully he'll be able to pull through. He's strong," said Steven Martinez, a close friend who grew up with the boxer.

Pedro Sosa Sr. told the Daily News that he's looking for answers about the tragic accident. These last two days must be a horrendous flashback for the Sosa family, to when Pedro Sosa Jr.'s older brother Andy was murdered in August of 2000.

"I take my brother into the ring with me — every time," Sosa [told Ring Magazine last December]. "I have a lot of anger about what happened to my brother," he said, but is quick to clarify, "I'm not an angry person. It's just something that's inside of me and in my control. I let it out when I want to, which is only in the ring."

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