Mayweather ready for Mosley

You can follow Kevin Iole on Twitter at @KevinI

Short shots about the world of professional boxing:

• Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions, said Floyd Mayweather Jr. is working harder for his May 1 fight against Shane Mosley than he has for any other. That's saying a lot, given how hard Mayweather prepares for even his least consequential fights.

Ellerbe predicted a (Diego) "Corrales-type performance," against Mosley. Mayweather knocked Corrales down five times and stopped him in the 10th round of a highly hyped 2001 bout between then-unbeaten super featherweight champions.

• Roy Jones Jr. was as poor as expected in what turned out to be a unanimous decision loss to Bernard Hopkins on Saturday in Las Vegas, but Hopkins was much worse than anticipated. The 45-year-old Philadelphian had difficulty fighting in more than spurts and never really had Jones in trouble despite the fact that Jones is completely shot and wasn't throwing much back.

• My suspicion is that Hopkins is going to tumble in the various pound-for-pound rankings after that debacle. He's currently fifth in the Yahoo! Sports poll. Voting will take place after the Kelly Pavlik-Sergio Martinez fight April 17 and if I had to bet, I'd guess Hopkins will have difficulty staying in the top 10.

• Color analyst Sugar Ray Leonard said several times on the pay-per-view broadcast that "This is for them; this isn't for the fans or anybody else." He was right, of course, but that's the problem with boxing. Deliver to the public what it wants and the sport will thrive. Put on dreck like Jones-Hopkins II and fans will go to something else.

• It was good to see "The Contender" Season One winner Sergio Mora back on the Jones-Hopkins undercard after an 18-month layoff. He's a good fighter and a good guy, but his career has been terribly mishandled. Here's hoping he gets back to competing regularly.

• As bad as Jones-Hopkins II was, it's going to look like Hagler-Hearns in comparison to the Evander Holyfield-Francois Botha fight that will be held Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center. Some people will never learn.

• Kudos to Skip Avansino of the Nevada Athletic Commission for being the only commissioner with sense enough to vote against licensing Holyfield.

• I thought David Haye would defeat John Ruiz on Saturday in their fight for the World Boxing Association heavyweight title, but I thought Ruiz was a live underdog. Haye, though, blew him out and deserves much credit.

• I don't think Haye could beat either Wladimir Klitschko or his older brother, Vitali Klitschko, but Haye vs. one of the Klitschko brothers is the best heavyweight boxing can offer at this stage. Unless, of course, the brothers decide to climb into the ring with each other, which, of course, they'll never do.

• If Tomasz Adamek defeats Chris Arreola on April 24 in Ontario, Calif., Adamek would be a great opponent for Haye. That would be an excellent bout.

• I reserve the right to change my mind, but my pick now on the 24th is Arreola.

• I'm also looking forward to the Alfredo Angulo-Joel Julio fight on the Arreola-Adamek undercard. Neither guy is as talented as they've been hyped to be, but both come to fight. It should be a high-contact, exciting bout. I'll go with Angulo by TKO in the second half of the bout.

• My pre-tournament pick of Andre Ward to win Showtime's Super Six tournament is looking better every day.

• If there is a fighter you can admire and root for, it's Robert Guerrero. His wife, Casey, is fighting leukemia and he surrendered his International Boxing Federation super featherweight world title to care for her. He returns to action in Las Vegas on April 30 against Roberto David Arrieta.

• Promoter Lou DiBella is very frustrated by the state of the sport right now. Boxing desperately needs DiBella, so hopefully, he doesn't decide to walk away. He's one of the good guys.

• Let's can the talk that Pavlik somehow ducked Paul Williams last year. It's simply untrue and not fair to one of the game's most courageous fighters.

• Antonio Margarito is going to hold a news conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday. If he doesn't apologize and show remorse for his actions that led him to be suspended from boxing for a year, I have no interest in seeing him fight again. Margarito was caught with a hardened knuckle pad in his hand wraps before his Jan. 24, 2009, fight in Los Angeles with Mosley. There's no way – zero – that Margarito didn't know something was amiss with his wraps. I would have preferred a multiyear ban when he was originally penalized, but California regulations don't allow for that.

• It's pitiful that Thomas Hearns, one of my favorite fighters ever, had to hold an auction of many of his belongs to pay a tax debt in excess of $400,000. I don't feel sorry for him, though; that's his own fault. Just because you're a world-class athlete doesn't mean you don't have to pay your tax bill.

• Speaking of pitiful, former world champion Johnny Tapia is back in a New Mexico jail after he reportedly tested positive for cocaine. Most of the people who know him like him, but those same people also fear a very bad ending.

• Miguel Cotto hired Emanuel Steward as his trainer. Wouldn't it have made sense, Miguel, to have made this move before the biggest fight of your life, last year against Manny Pacquiao? Not only did Joe Santiago do a poor job training him, but Santiago failed utterly in his duty to protect his fighter when he did not call for a stop of the Pacquiao fight.

• Cotto is going to have a lot of difficulty with Yuri Foreman when they meet June 5 in Yankee Stadium, Steward or no Steward.