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The fickle, hard-to-please nature of boxing fans and writers never ceases to amaze. This past Saturday night, Sergio Martinez dispatched the tough-yet-unheralded Darren Barker in the 11th round to retain his middleweight title. As the referee waved off the fight, many reporterss at ringside had already claimed this was far from vintage Martinez. Perhaps.

But had Martinez ended the fight early, we would have complained that a stiff was put in front of "Maravilla" and we'd have decried the bout a waste of HBO money and fans' time. Where are the fights with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao that we all crave?

Well, the Darren Barker fight exemplifies the poisoned chalice that is firmly in Martinez's grasp: too big for Pacquiao and Mayweather (despite Martinez's protestations that he can drop as low as 150 pounds) and too small for the big men at super middleweight. Martinez is a small middleweight. No disrespect intended, genuinely, but who can blame Martinez for perhaps not being as motivated for a fight with Darren Barker as his past brutal wars with marquee names Paul Williams or Kelly Pavlik?

For now, middleweight bouts for Martinez will mean middle-tier opponents, and while he gazes hopefully into a fantastical future of bigger paydays, the opponents he'll face in the interim will not be headliners. But you know what? Perhaps a distracted Martinez levels the playing field somewhat and will result in some entertaining fights. A St. Patrick's Day matchup in New York against Andy Lee or Matthew Macklin could be in the cards, especially after Lee brushed aside Brian Vera on Saturday's undercard.

Canelo coming back quickly?

Rumors abound that Saul Alvarez will soon confirm that he's signing on to fight Kermit Cintron in Guadalajara in November. If the report from Boxing Scene's Ryan Maquinana is to be believed, then we'll see Alvarez in his fourth fight this year. How exciting it is to see Mexico's biggest star fight that many times in one year.

Although some seem intent on decrying his technical deficiencies, let's put Alvarez into context: He's the biggest star in Mexican boxing, capable of packing arenas on the West Coast as well as back in his homeland. Go ahead and quiz the quality of his opponents, but when was the last time the sport had a young fighter who was guaranteed to fill venues and create "event" boxing? Oh, and he has only just turned 21.

Is Bernard's record-breaking getting old?

I may be in the minority, but I get pretty excited for Bernard Hopkins fights. For some, the ratio of respect commanded to excitement generated is weighted more heavily on the former. But there is a curiosity to witnessing the Peter Pan of boxing (Hopkins is 46) try to elude Father Time once more. There was no doubt that the record-breaking night against Jean Pascal was a milestone. But for some reason, there is an underwhelming feel for the build-up to the Chad Dawson fight. A record extended is not as exciting as a record broken. And though Hopkins still says all the right things, Dawson isn't quite the same sales partner that Jean Pascal was.

Tweet of the day

"I've put a lot of thought into the ring entrance. I will be carried into the ring in a cage by actual African tribesman." -- Sharif Bogere @SHOsports

On May 13, unbeaten junior welterweight prospect Danny "Swift" Garcia sat down on the couch with his father/trainer, Angel Garcia, turned on the TV to watch "Friday Night Fights" on ESPN2 and was struck by a peculiar premonition as the main-event fighters, Kendall Holt and Julio Diaz, stepped into the ring.

"You know what?" Danny said to his dad. "I think I'm going to fight the winner of this fight."

Holt prevailed by spectacular third-round knockout in the battle of veteran former titleholders, reinserting himself into the fringes of the 140-pound title picture. A few weeks passed. Then Garcia's phone rang.

"They called and were like, 'You want to fight Kendall Holt?'" Garcia recalled. "And I was like, 'Yeah, let's do it, baby!'"

The crossroads fight will take place on Oct. 15, on the pay-per-view undercard of the Bernard Hopkins-Chad Dawson light heavyweight championship bout in Los Angeles. It's undoubtedly a step-up test for the 23-year-old Garcia (21-0, 14 KOs), whose most noteworthy opponents so far were the faded likes of Mike Arnaoutis and Nate Campbell, both of whom were riding three-fight winless streaks coming in. Holt (27-4, 15 KOs) has scored knockouts in each of his past two fights and possesses the punching power to invoke the "be careful what you wish for" clich&#233.

Garcia is confident, however, that he can escape the fate that befell Diaz.

"I saw that knockout, it was a great knockout, but I said to myself, 'He's not going to touch me with that!'" Garcia said. "You can't hit what you can't see. Diaz was coming forward, landing shots, and then Diaz got overanxious and ran into a shot. Next thing you know, it's over. But Diaz was smaller; he couldn't hurt Kendall Holt. Now Holt is fighting a guy with skills and with speed, and I just know I'm going to beat him."

The Philadelphia-born Garcia is exactly half the age of the fellow Philadelphian headlining the card. Philly isn't the fight town it once was -- the gyms are no longer teeming with Joe Fraziers and Matthew Saad Muhammads and Meldrick Taylors, and the South Philadelphia Sports Complex hasn't hosted a major card in nine years. But Garcia is out to show that the city's boxing lineage will not die with Hopkins. He looks at this high-profile undercard fight as a chance to begin receiving the torch.

"I'm just blessed to have this opportunity," Garcia said. "I'm strong, I'm fit, I'm cut up, I'm ready to go. And I know one thing: Philadelphia will be in the house on Oct. 15."

How much of Philadelphia will be in the stands at Staples Center, in a fight card that most boxing folks agree belonged on the East Coast, remains to be seen. But Philly will be well-represented in the ring, with a promising prospect stepping up against an opponent who can reveal a thing or two about whether Garcia will be his hometown's next elite fighter.

When Mike Tyson was at his best in the late '80s, blowing out the likes of Michael Spinks and Carl "The Truth" Williams in half a round apiece, the prevailing thought was that many of his opponents were beaten before they even stepped into the ring.

Bernard Hopkins doesn't blow out anybody in half a round -- in fact, he hasn't scored a knockout since 2004 and hasn't finished off anyone in the first round since 1996 -- but he too carries a reputation for beating opponents prior to the ringing of the opening bell.

On most counts, Hopkins' head trainer, Naazim Richardson, believes the legendary "Executioner" doesn't get enough credit. However, on this particular count, he thinks the reigning light heavyweight champion of the world, who will defend against top contender Chad Dawson on Oct. 15, gets too much credit. Speaking with ESPN.com during a workout for the media at the Joe Hand Boxing Gym in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia on Tuesday, Richardson refuted the commonly held belief that the 46-year-old Hopkins is taking kids half his age to school because he gets inside their heads.

"This thing about Bernard getting in people's heads, it's not really true," Richardson said. "What I've seen is Bernard get upside people's heads, with that hook and that right hand of his. People place such an emphasis on the fact that he's in their heads, it's almost like he's not fighting. Well, he is fighting. He is punching these guys in the mouth, and that's why he's winning these fights and looking the way he's looking.

"When people say he got in someone's head, that just creates an excuse. It just sets up the next fight for these young guys, so they can say, 'It won't happen again, because this next opponent is not going to get in my head.'"

If you ask us, Hopkins is equally masterful at beating opponents with his mind and his body. But one thing is for sure: No boxer has ever been knocked out by an intimidating glare or a verbal promise of destruction. Those things might start the job, but it always takes a punch to finish it.

If you thought Bernard Hopkins' amazing and record-breaking 2011 couldn't be any more improbable, well, you might have another thing coming.

At 46, Hopkins defied both age and history with his unanimous decision victory over Jean Pascal in May to claim the lineal light heavyweight crown, becoming the oldest fighter ever to win a world title. His next scheduled bout, a title defense against former champion Chad Dawson (30-1, 17 KOs) on Oct. 15 in Los Angeles, offers a potentially different opportunity to make history.

If Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KOs) can outwit and outhustle a second top-rated fighter in his prime within the same calendar year, it would almost assuredly earn him enough votes to become most media outlets' 2011 fighter of the year.

Let's be clear: A victory over the highly talented yet often unspectacular Dawson is far from a given for Hopkins. Additionally, there are other candidates who have yet to close the books on their 2011 r&#233sum&#233s, including exciting bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire.

Barring any last-minute ballot stuffing, a victory for Hopkins -- who opened as the betting underdog -- should be more than enough to secure him the award.

But what's the significance?

Ring Magazine has named its choice for fighter of the year annually since 1928, and during that span five men have earned the distinction at the age of 35: Joe Brown (1961), Evander Holyfield (1997), James Toney (2003), Glen Johnson (2004) and Sergio Martinez (2010).

Who was the oldest to win the award? The honor falls to a pair of then-36-year-old fighters you might have heard of: Muhammad Ali -- who rebounded to reclaim the heavyweight title from Leon Spinks in 1978 -- and, yes, Bernard Hopkins in 2001.

It has been 10 years since Hopkins defied the odds to dramatically stop unbeaten Felix Trinidad in a middleweight title unification bout that most believed was a swan song for "The Executioner." Clearly it wasn't, as Hopkins went on to record more historically impressive victories after turning 40 than he arguably had notched in his entire career up to that point.

Hopkins now has the opportunity to capture the top two spots -- accomplished an astounding 10 years apart -- as the oldest fighter to win the equivalent of the sport's most valuable player award.

Talk about peaking late.

With his receding hairline and scraggly gray beard, Hopkins has conned many younger opponents and eager gambling enthusiasts into counting him out. But with a performance against Dawson that's anywhere near what the ageless wonder turned in against Pascal, he won't need to con anyone who gets paid to vote on the year-end awards.

LAS VEGAS -- At first, Saul "Canelo" Alvarez must have seemed that he was in for an early night. Alfonso Gomez came to fight, as he always does, and in fact he also came to fight cleverly, moving in and out with fast combinations. But then, at the end of the opening round, Alvarez landed what appeared to be a hybrid hook/jab, and Gomez went down. He bounced up easily enough, but given the ease with which he had put him on the canvas, Alvarez could have been forgiven for thinking that it was a harbinger of what was to come.

Instead, Gomez, undeterred, kept coming, moving in and out, throwing straight punches in fast combinations. At times, Alvarez's response was to channel Floyd Mayweather, slipping the incoming artillery by shifting his head and protecting it behind a high shoulder. He never looked troubled, but he was being outworked; bit by bit, Gomez was starting to edge away.

But at no point did even a hint of concern cross Canelo's cinnamon features, and by the fifth, he decided to open up, ripping punches to Gomez's body and head. He entered the ring looking as if he belonged in a different weight division, his sculpted body appearing as if it had been squeezed into a 154-pound frame, while Gomez looked every bit the small-to-average-sized welterweight he truly is.

Those physical advantages manifested themselves, expectedly, in far greater power. Whereas Gomez's punches bounced off Alvarez, even when they landed flush, Canelo's ripped into Gomez, their heaviness exacerbated by the torque with which Alvarez twisted into them.

And when Alvarez landed a fast, flush right hand with his back to the corner, the end was in sight. Gomez staggered backward and sideward, clearly affected by the punch, and Alvarez moved in for the kill. He backed Gomez to the ropes and landed several flush blows before the referee stepped in and halted the contest.

The stoppage was premature, but at the same time, less compassion would have only delayed the inevitable. It was notable that, as the referee moved Gomez along the ropes and toward his corner, the fighter stumbled slightly.

For Alvarez, it was a glass-half-empty/glass-half-full performance. On the downside, he was, for several rounds, being outboxed by a popular and efficient but not exactly world-beating opponent. On the plus side, he showed patience, poise and some genuine defensive skills; and when the time came to close the show, he did so in style.

Against that, there is perhaps a sense that much of the time Alvarez is succeeding because of his physical advantages, because on fight night he is so often the much larger man. Eventually, he will have to move to middleweight, where those advantages will either be less pronounced or will disappear. Until then, he will continue to hone his skills in readiness for the time he must face better opposition. And as long as he continues to do so in such dramatic and fan-friendly fashion, plenty of people will pay to watch him do it.

LAS VEGAS -- For Floyd Mayweather Jr., there is one opponent who matters on Saturday night, and that's Victor Ortiz. But there are others who follow him endlessly, however much he may wish otherwise. One of them is the insecurity and defensiveness that erupts at the slightest provocation, the need to defend the achievements of his career and the quality of opposition he has faced; and the other, increasingly inseparable from the first, is the specter of his only rival for boxing's pound-for-pound best -- the issue of whether he or Manny Pacquiao deserves the highest accolades, and the question of whether they will ever meet in the ring.

Asked this week about the assertion by Oscar De La Hoya -- nominally his promoter, but a man with whom Mayweather has a relationship that might best be described as prickly -- that Mayweather's opponents have either been on the way up or on the way out (a position that stands in contrast to the Golden Boy's promises at the time that Ricky Hatton or Juan Manuel Marquez or Shane Mosley or De La Hoya himself was the perfect person to defeat the "Pretty Boy"), Mayweather bristled, and began a 10-minute stream of consciousness in defense of his career.

"Diego [Corrales] was in his 20s -- may he rest in peace -- I was in my 20s. I beat him when he was undefeated. I was older than Ricky Hatton, but he was undefeated. When I fought Mosley, they said the best that Mosley had ever looked was against Antonio Margarito, but if you all go back, you'll see I was trying to fight Mosley after I fought Genaro Hernandez [to win the world title in 1998]. At that particular time, they said Genaro Hernandez had too much experience for me, I was moving [through the ranks] too quick. I beat him.

"My next fight, the next-best guy at 130 was Angel Manfredy at that particular time. I beat Manfredy. Then they say it's Diego. I beat him. Then I go to 135, I beat Castillo, they say the victory wasn't good enough, so I go back and beat him again. They say, 'You didn't knock him out,' but I still beat him. The list goes on and on. Mosley took a couple losses, but nobody had ever dominated him until I dominated him."

It is from here that Mayweather segued effortlessly to the subject of Pacquiao, although whether deliberately or subconsciously, he took pains not to name him.

"I beat Mosley; they say he never looked more impressive than when he beat Antonio Margarito. Margarito takes two years off after being beat by Mosley, then he fights the smaller guy [Pacquiao] and they say, 'Oh, that's so amazing.' OK, we say Miguel Cotto. Miguel Cotto got beat by Antonio Margarito. So then they say, 'He's a beaten fighter now, let's feed him the leftovers.' Beat him when he's undefeated! I beat these guys when they give them to me. I'm not ducking or dodging no one, I never have."

And then comes the inevitable insinuation:

"When you see Michael Jordan in college, you say, 'He's gonna be great. When you see LeBron James in college, you say, 'He's going to be great.' When you see Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, all these different fighters, even myself, you say, 'He's gonna be great.' A guy don't turn 24 or 25 and suddenly become great. This is what I do.

"Y'all specialty is writing, whupping a guy's a-- with a pen. I don't do that. I engage in physical combat, so I know what happens in this sport. A guy don't get to a certain age and suddenly become good. You go to the books in 1997 and ask, 'Where was this guy at?' He just all of a sudden just popped up and become good? He starts punching hard out of the blue? Out of the blue? C'mon man! Make this make sense, man. Y'all that desperate for a fight? If you're the best, take the test. And I'm not just picking on one guy. Everyone I'm facing has to do it. It's about being fair. Let's get entertainment, but let our athletes be healthy. Let's be fair and get everyone on the same playing field."

If the arguments are familiar, they now come with an oddly nationalistic twist.

"The other day was the 9/11 anniversary," Mayweather said. "I'm in my own country, where, if I do make it rain, I'm throwing money to American citizens, in a recession. So I sit back and I say, 'OK, a guy comes to our country, which is America, makes money in our country and takes it back to his country to feed his people.' And they say, 'This guy who's unbeaten and been dominating for 16 years is scared of a guy.' OK. The proof is in the pudding.

"The other day, I was watching 9/11 [ceremonies] and it brought tears to my eyes, seeing these football players, but then I see this is how I get treated in my own country. My own citizens treat me like this. I sit down and talk to the soldiers, but it's like this: I get more love from the U.K.! It's unbelievable. I get more love from the U.K.! But then they say this guy gets fighter of the decade, and he got a draw and got his a-- whupped in that decade. But you know what? I done it this long and this strong."

That Mayweather has been in the business, and has been so tremendously successful at it, for a long time is undeniable. And having gotten off his chest what he needed to, it is when casting his mind back to the days when first he began his love affair with boxing, before the pressures, the criticism and the crushing weight of expectations, that he relaxes and opens up.

"I didn't even live a block away from the boxing gym," he recalled. "I thought that was the best thing in the world. Every day, if my dad went to the gym and didn't take me, I'd cry. 'Please take me to the gym. Please.' Just to go to the gym to hit the speed bag, watch the guys spar. I loved it. Just like my gym. I like it dirty. I feel like you get your best work when it's dirty. I don't like that clean junk. I don't like that. When I go to the gym, they say, 'Floyd it stinks in the gym.' That's how I like it to be."

The prickly shell has been shed; the conversation begins to range more widely, to personal and business goals, to books he has read, to movies he has watched, and the softer side emerges.

Does he have a favorite movie?

"I liked 'The Notebook,'" he offered, unexpectedly. "Who don't want to die holding hands with the one they love? It's amazing. I feel like if I leave this earth and leave my better half, she's gonna be lonely. If she leaves me, then I'm going to be lonely. What's the use of making all this money if you can't enjoy it with anybody?"

And then, subtly, he shifts gears again. The interview is almost over. It is time to pitch Saturday's fight, in the way he knows best.

"What's Victor's trainer's name? I want the other side to get tickets to the fight."

So he wants Danny Garcia's estranged brother, Robert, to be there?

"Yeah. I want those guys to come. I want [lightweight contender and Ortiz nemesis] Brandon Rios to come."

Why?

"Why not? It's entertainment, baby."

He starts selling the undercard, and talk turns to Mexican junior middleweight Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. Told that the hugely popular Mexican has been dubbed "The Mayweather of Mexico," Floyd smiles and exclaims, "That's amazing." When Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer reveals that Canelo's people have said they would like to fight Mayweather next year, he smiles again.

"Everything takes time. Tell them to pump their brakes. You know, I take long breaks, so he may get me when I'm 38."

LAS VEGAS -- Much of what most observers see of the interactions between the members of the Mayweather family is almost cartoonishly over-the-top and Jerry Springer-esque. As Nigel Tufnel might say, it's dialed all the way up to 11.

It is easy at times to forget that the caricatures on "24/7" are real people who continue to have real interactions with each other when the cameras are turned off. And while the intensity and conflict of the relationship between Floyds Sr. and Jr. is well-known, the depth of feelings and the strength of the bond between Little Floyd and his uncle Roger are sometimes only hinted at.

Roger Mayweather, who has trained Floyd for the great majority of his professional career, has diabetes now, and as a result, sometimes it is the nephew who must cast an occasional avuncular eye.

On Monday night, Floyd recalled to some reporters on Tuesday, "Before we started training, I had to hurry up and get back from [taping] the Conan [O'Brien] show, we were on the jet and I said to my chef, 'Make sure you take the food up to the gym so my uncle can get a meal. Make sure he gets water with his meal.' He's got [high blood] sugar, so sometimes he may want to eat sweets and not eat correctly, or drink soda."

Asked to describe his relationship with his uncle, the frequently combative Floyd dropped his guard and said, simply and earnestly, "I love him. I mean, I just love him." It is a love born from a respect that developed when Floyd was but a child.

"I saw the way he used to wear his cowboy boots with the jeans fitted, pinkie ring, nice chains -- I was like, 'Man, he fly,'" Floyd said. "I was a kid, so you look up to him. He was champion, and people embraced him with open arms. When I was young, I went to the Top Rank Boxing Gym, you'd see Julian Jackson, Gerald McClellan, James Toney, Donald Curry ... I was in the ring with so many different champions, I said, 'Damn. Hopefully, one day.' I'd see all those nice cars and think, 'If I work hard enough, hopefully I can get one.'"

He has more than one nice car now, and more than one championship belt, and he has acquired them all, partly because of his brilliance as his own pitchman, but ultimately because of what he has been able to do in the ring with Roger at his side.

"You know, he's older now, so he's not as sharp as he was," Floyd said of his uncle. "But the other night, my better half, Miss [Shantel] Jackson, we were laying in bed and she said, 'Your uncle may have forgotten a lot of stuff, but he don't forget that boxing.'"

Floyd is, he said, keen that the love and respect are adequately conveyed:

"I want to make sure after the fight, I'm going to make sure I get a nice ballroom, put a big screen up, show all the behind-the-scenes stuff, chop up the tapes, show everything me and my uncle have been through, everything me and my family have been through. Everyone's going to give Roger a gift, a lifetime gift. Because to us, Roger is an all-time great, a hall of fame fighter and a hall of fame trainer. Everyone in camp loves him."

LAS VEGAS -- Danny Garcia isn't brash. He isn't loud. But the trainer of Victor Ortiz is supremely confident.

"I won't be surprised if we knock him down in the first round -- or knock him out in the first round," he told reporters at the MGM Grand on Thursday, ahead of his fighter's Saturday clash with Floyd Mayweather Jr. "Victor has power. He can do it any time, any second. But I think that this fight is going to go from 4-5 rounds."

Garcia professes to be unimpressed with Mayweather's assertion that he will stand toe to toe with the younger, bigger, presumably stronger Ortiz.

"I think Floyd's going to run," he said. "He says he isn't going to run. He says he's going to stay in front of Victor. How is he going to stay in front of Victor without getting hurt? He's going to get hit. He's going to get nailed. He's going to feel Victor's punches, he's going to have to run. He did [stand in front of Shane] Mosley, but look at Mosley. He was done, he was tired. He didn't do anything."

It is, of course, a trainer's job to convey confidence in his fighter's abilities and chances, although one Garcia claim -- "[Mayweather is] pretty quick, but so is Victor. Victor's quick. Don't be surprised if Victor's quicker" -- caused at least one journalist's eyebrow to rise involuntarily in incredulity. Less contentious was Garcia's follow-up assertion: "One thing I know for sure, we hit a lot harder than Mayweather." The undefeated Mayweather is, Garcia admits, "hard to hit because he's a smart fighter, a defensive fighter. But when we hit him, he's going to get hurt."

That said, he takes issue with the notion that power is not only the great equalizer but Ortiz's sole weapon in this fight. Ortiz can box perfectly well, Garcia insisted, and can change tactics in the middle of a fight depending on how things are developing.

"I will be there to tell him what to do in each round," Garcia said. "If he does a different thing in each round, it's because I tell him to.

"After the Maidana fight, he fought two fights boxing, moving around. People thought he was moving around because he was scared. He's not scared. He has a bigger heart than most fighters. I told him to do that, to box.

"When he fought Nate Campbell, I told him: 'If you do it like that, we're going to beat him easy.' When he fought Antonio Diaz, right after Maidana, I said, 'Box him a little bit, box him a little bit, you're going to get him.' In the sixth round, I told him, 'He's all done. He's cut, he's done, go for it.' Remember how he came out for the sixth round?" The sixth was the final round of the fight; Diaz was unable to answer the bell for the seventh.

Even so, it seems the strategy for Ortiz is to try to, for want of a better phrase, beat Mayweather up -- to crowd him, muscle him on the inside, rough him up against the ropes. That is clearly the rationale for both accepting Joe Cortez as the referee and then making a lot of noise that Cortez should allow the fighters to work on the inside.

And Garcia admitted that, should Mayweather retreat to the ropes as he is wont to do, "that's what we want. We'll keep him at the ropes. If he goes to the ropes and we keep him right there, we can go anywhere on his body. If he turns his back, we can hit him there, because that's his fault. The ref should know that if he turns his back, the punches are coming."

Even when it is put to Garcia that most observers feel that his fighter's chances are, as Don King would put it, "slim to none, and slim just left town," he is undeterred:

"Well, that's what everybody thinks because Floyd Mayweather has been a good champion, he's been a great fighter, a smart fighter, a fast fighter, a counterpuncher and all that. I really think we're ready for that. We're going to do our best to fight him in a different way. I've seen a lot of his fights, and most of the guys fought him almost the same way -- well, not the same way, but they show him too much respect. And we're not going to respect him. We're going in there to beat his a--."

LAS VEGAS -- Erik Morales may be 35 years old now and a little bit fleshier than he was during his pomp. But as he showed in an incredibly courageous losing effort against Marcos Maidana in April, he has lost none of the fire that made him such a feared and respected champion. Nor has age mellowed him outside the ring, or caused him to adapt to a more diplomatic approach to reporters' questions.

Asked whether he thought the similarly aged Floyd Mayweather Jr. had shown any signs of slippage, Morales shrugged.

"Mayweather? I really haven't given him much thought."

Prodded for his opinion of Saul Alvarez, whether he is impressed by the 21-year-old junior middleweight phenomenon, Morales offered: "No, not really. At 21 years old, I had already beaten the best in my division -- not just in Mexico, but in the world."

One man for whom he professed a surprising amount of respect was his opponent on Saturday night, undefeated but untested fellow Mexican Pablo Cesar Cano.

"He deserves all the respect in the world," the former three-weight world champion insisted. "He's 21 years old, 22-0, undefeated, he's hungry and we've got to respect him just like anybody else."

Cano, who was training for an undercard bout in San Jose when he suddenly and unexpectedly got the call to replace the ill Lucas Matthysse as Morales' opponent on Saturday's pay-per-view card, looks perpetually bemused at the surroundings in which he finds himself. If he is, it would hardly be surprising -- he was 3 years old when Morales made his professional debut, and just 7 when the Tijuana fighter won his first world title.

"I wanted to be like Erik Morales," he said. "I didn't even think about fighting against Erik Morales because I was very little, very young."

But he talks a good game.

"Every professional boxer wants this. I'm hungry for this," Cano said. "I was preparing myself [for another fight]. Then they told me about this fight and I said, 'OK, I'll go. This is going to be like the trampoline of my career."

Officially, the fight is for a junior welterweight world title -- a completely bogus belt, given that it was taken from its holder for no particularly good reason. But the dubious nature of the title designation doesn't bother Morales, who knows that victory would, officially at least, make him the only Mexican to claim a world championship in four weight classes.

"It's very important to me," Morales said. "It's something very special to me. We've worked very hard. I've fought the best in my career. It's always been top opponents. And to put that finishing touch on a career like mine, you need more titles and something that is special."

LAS VEGAS -- Opening up Saturday's Victor Ortiz-Floyd Mayweather Jr. pay-per-view telecast will be undefeated junior welterweight Jessie Vargas, 22, who takes on tough Josesito Lopez in what may wind up being the best fight on the card. Vargas, whose last two wins have been devastating knockouts of veterans Vivian Harris and Walter Estrada, fights under the banner of Mayweather Promotions, whose CEO, Leonard Ellerbe, on Wednesday described him as, "in our eyes, the best young fighter in the sport."

The good vibes appear to be mutual.

"I think it's very beneficial to have Floyd on my side," Vargas said this week. "He's a great promoter, he's promoted me the right way, I feel. Floyd, being the way he is, I think that got him to where he's at now, and I think that's going to help me."

Vargas says that Mayweather takes an active role in selecting his opponents and also, when his own commitments permit, helps oversee his training regimen.

"He's very hands-on," Vargas said. "When he's training, it's very difficult for him to come in and check me out because he's very dedicated to his own training. But when he's not training, he comes out to the gym and makes sure I'm doing everything right."

Mayweather smartly raised Vargas' name in connection with junior welterweight champ Amir Khan, insisting that Khan would have to get past Vargas in order to make a match with "Money May," a savvy way to increase his fighter's profile.

"I'm very thankful that he's speaking highly of me and that he's thinking of me,' Vargas said.

Vargas knows, of course, that long before he is ready for the likes of Khan, he has to deal with Lopez, in his pay-per-view debut, a task in which he is confident of success.

"I've been training with Robert Alcazar now," he said. "He's showed me a lot. Expect a great fighter: a smart fighter, who knows how to brawl, how to box, a little bit of everything. We're aiming to be the next big thing in boxing, as Floyd has said. We like to be called 'The New Generation.' We want to be the next Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather. And that's what we're working on."

As boxing's cognoscenti gather in Las Vegas for Friday's showdown between Victor Ortiz and Floyd Mayweather Jr., most are predicting an easy Mayweather victory -- one that would extend his unbeaten run to 42-0.

But there are calls from some corners that claim a younger, hungrier southpaw facing an older and relatively inactive Mayweather may prove to be a threat to that unblemished record.

Can any of this be justified? Well, here is ESPN's look at Floyd Mayweather Jr. by the numbers:

Mayweather versus southpaws

In the past three fights in which Mayweather has faced a southpaw, he threw and landed 45 percent of his total punches, with 50 percent accuracy on power shots. His opponents, meanwhile, landed only 19 percent of their overall punches -- a massive 26 percent difference.

Mayweather is slowing?

Some claim Mayweather's defensive reactions and instincts may have slowed. In fact, statistically speaking, they have grown better with age. Floyd's opponents at welterweight have landed only 15 percent of their total punches -- a full 18 percent lower than the weight-class average. When Mayweather began his career, at 126 pounds, he allowed his opponents to land 26 percent of their punches.

How good is that overall?

In his past five bouts, Mayweather landed 30 percent more punches than his opponents -- more than double that of his closest rivals in that department, fellow pound-for-pound contenders Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, Andre Ward and Nonito Donaire. Victor Ortiz, meanwhile, recorded a mere 7 percent differential.

Boxing's numerous intangibles -- such as heart, luck and judging -- can often sway observer's predictions away from statistics. And although stats don't tell the whole story of Ortiz-Mayweather, they do illuminate an impressive tale of the tape that puts Mayweather in a league of his own.

Sources: CompuBox and ESPN Stats & Information.

LAS VEGAS -- As often as Floyd Mayweather Jr. has taken on and beaten some big names in his career -- from Genaro Hernandez to Diego Corrales to Oscar De La Hoya -- critics have continued to point to the ones that got away: Kostya Tszyu, Antonio Margarito, Miguel Cotto. All of them are, it is argued, opponents Mayweather could have taken on but chose not to.

Speaking with reporters this week, Mayweather and adviser Leonard Ellerbe placed the blame for most of those fights not occurring on Mayweather's former promoter Bob Arum, and explained their side of why a clash with Cotto in particular never took place.

"I was trying to fight these guys," Mayweather said. "I was calling all these guys out. I was asking for these guys a long time ago. If I couldn't get 'em, I couldn't get 'em."

Cotto used to be at the Top Rank gym every day, according to Mayweather. ("He was a fan," said Ellerbe. "He was always very respectful.")

"The Cotto fight never happened," Mayweather said, "because Arum was like, 'De La Hoya has gone, Mayweather's done a couple fights with another promoter, I don't know if he's gonna be with me that much longer. So before I let him beat my fighter and leave, I'd rather not let that fight happen."

"We asked for that fight," Ellerbe added. "Me and Floyd both sat in Bob's office and asked for that fight when we were with him. They would never let us anywhere near him."

"No, it's not that," corrected Mayweather. "We asked for the fight and they said OK, but first they used [Henry] Bruseles -- he had the same style, from the same stable -- as a test." ("A crash dummy," in Ellerbe's description.)

"[They said] we'll see how this fight is gonna play out," Mayweather said. "They did, and they said, 'No' [after Mayweather dominated Bruseles and stopped him in the eighth round in January 2005]."

Mayweather has no beef with Cotto -- "I've got nothing but respect for what Cotto has done with his career," he said -- but bristles at the notion that he has ducked him, or any other fighter, for that matter.

Cotto has "always been Todd's personal pet project, coming up through the ranks," said Ellerbe, referring to Top Rank president Todd duBoef. "They would never, never put Cotto nowhere near Floyd. Then, after Floyd became his own boss and he's generating all these record revenues, then all of a sudden when he wins a fight, that's when they start saying, 'Oh, he was afraid of the bogeyman.'"

"When I was with Top Rank, I was the best fighter they ever had," Mayweather said. "That's the [nonsense] Arum feeds everybody. If Arum is paying you all, please let me know. So we got Bob Arum, when I'm with him, he says, 'Ain't nobody can ever beat this fighter. He's the best I ever had.' Right? But then when I left and I become my own boss, suddenly it's, 'He's scared of Antonio Margarito.' All the fighters they say I'm scared of are Arum fighters."

LAS VEGAS -- Well, that was more interesting than prefight news conferences normally are.

As always, there were the preliminaries: the statements from the sponsors, the commission, the casino, the broadcaster. There was, to make things slightly different, a live link from Los Angeles, where Alfonso Gomez, Saul Alvarez and Golden Boy's Eric Gomez spent a few endless, awkward moments unable to hear the connection at the other end, blissfully unaware a theater full of people in Las Vegas was staring at them on a big screen, waiting for them to speak.

The undercard fighters and their trainers had their say, including the resumption of a long-standing and bitter rivalry between Jose Morales, father and trainer of Erik Morales, and Rudy Perez, trainer of Morales conquerors Marco Antonio Barrera and Marcos Maidana -- and trainer of Saturday's Morales opponent, Pablo Cesar Cano.

But those at the event were largely well-behaved and platonic until, of all people, Danny Garcia stood at the podium. Mild-mannered, soft-spoken Danny Garcia, trainer of Victor Ortiz. Garcia spoke of Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the past tense: "He was one of the best fighters, he was a great champion, but now the time is ours. Victor did everything he needed to do, and he is going to be the No. 1 fighter, pound for pound."

That was enough to goad Mayweather into muttering into his microphone, and muttering turned to straight-up talking back when Garcia turned to address him directly.

"We all know how you fight," Garcia began.

"Yeah, I win," Mayweather said. "You don't have to fight. Let your fighter fight."

"Don't use your elbow," Garcia said. "Don't turn your back so much. It shows me that you're scared."

"Yeah, I'm a scared fighter that's been dominating. They're not here for your fighter; they're here for me. I do the pay-per-views; I do the numbers."

And then Garcia, aware that Mayweather, in an attempt at gamesmanship, had invited Garcia's estranged brother (and Ortiz's former trainer), Robert, as well as Robert Garcia's fighter Brandon Rios, to the fight, sought to turn the tables.

"I want to thank you for inviting my brother to the fight," Danny Garcia said. "It might be a good opportunity for him and me to start talking again. I'm happy for that. I want to tell my brother I love him."

Ortiz took the podium.

"I sense a little nervousness over here in this part of the room," he goaded. "I'm gonna teach you what it feels like to have that one [loss] on your record, bro. It's going to be very nice to do what others have tried and failed. What is [your record]? 41-0? Forty-one of those weren't me."

"Easy," Mayweather chided. "Conduct yourself with class."

"You want to talk about class?" Ortiz said, laughing.

"Somebody's scared. You know what? Saturday, I'm going to hold my hands up, I'm going to put you on your a--."

Mayweather shot straight up, not waiting to be introduced, stood at the podium and then, unexpectedly, said nothing but nice things about everybody:

"Golden Boy Promotions, you guys have done a hell of a job with Victor Ortiz's career. I don't have to sit up here and brag and boast about my accolades and what I've done in this sport. It speaks for itself. I don't have to knock him, discredit him for nothing that he's done. It's obvious he got here from doing something right. I've been here for 16 years for doing something right.



"I'm gonna go in there, I'm going to execute the game plan, I'm going to go in there with class and leave with class. Is Victor Ortiz a good fighter? Yes, he is. You guys don't have to worry about me backpedaling. I'm coming straight ahead. So hopefully he's coming straight ahead. He says the fight won't go the distance. I say the fight won't go the distance, and so hopefully it won't go the distance.

"This is my fifth time doing '24/7.' You guys were entertaining. You shocked me when I seen you surfing. You're an amazing athlete. Come Saturday, I know you're going to bring your best."

And then, subtly, he stuck in the knife and twisted it with some sharp allegations.

"Their trainer said I'm a dirty fighter," Mayweather began. "I've got to say, when have we ever known boxing to be a clean sport? It's a dirty sport. That's what it is. When you're trying to hurt an individual, how can it possibly be clean? You seen Victor's story. You know, about his mother leaving. I would never expose his hand and tell him I know the real truth, that his father didn't leave. But it's good for TV. No, his father didn't leave, and he went to high school in California. I've got to do my homework on individuals. I know he's got a problem making weight. I'm at weight right now. I feel good, feel strong, I walk around at 147.

"So come Saturday, it's gonna be the same Floyd Mayweather, and I'm pretty sure it's gonna be the same Victor Ortiz. But the difference between me and you is, I can adjust. I'm versatile. I get hit with a good shot, no problem, I shake it right off. I'm still coming at you. I'm a good finisher, too. So your trainer talked about being dirty -- so when I hurt you, don't grab me, don't hold on at all. I'm gonna finish you off. Easy.

"So if you're out there, bet that it won't go [the distance], and I bet Oscar De La Hoya $2.5 million, and I bet Ortiz his purse, $2.5 million, that I will be victorious. I believe in my skills. I believe in my talent. If no one believes in Floyd Mayweather, I believe in me."

As for his reaction to Mayweather's insinuations that the young champion's backstory has been doctored for the marketing purposes, Ortiz just shook his head.

"It's just one of his tactics, man," Ortiz said. "I live my life. My lifestyle speaks for itself. I don't have to lie to nobody. He has a loud mouth that has to put somebody down to make himself feel good. If that's how he is, then Saturday night, those 8 ounces in his mouth are going to feel pretty good."

LAS VEGAS -- As did Shane Mosley last year, Victor Ortiz had to agree to submit to random drug tests as a condition of being able to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. He says he has been tested "more times than I count," but claims adhering to the protocol has imposed only minor -- albeit sometimes uncomfortable -- inconveniences.

"The drug testing has been perfectly fine. It doesn't bother me. I have nothing to hide," Ortiz said. "The only thing that kind of conflicts sometimes is that I might be at the gym or something, or going to the movies, and they'll call and say, 'Hey, we're at your house,' and I'm like, 'Ohhh, that's right.' So then [I have to turn to my friends and say], 'Hey guys, I'll catch up with you in a while.' And then I can't go to the bathroom, so I [look at the testers and say] 'Hey, you want to go to the movies?' I bring them everywhere with me, man. I take them to lunch with me.

"There's also been a situation when I've got to use the bathroom and then I get a call. I'm like, 'Oh no. Where are you guys at?' 'We're at your house.' 'OK, OK. Here we go, here we go.' And I get home and rush into my house and I'm like, 'We gotta do this right now. I've gotta go, man.' It's probably a 10-minute drive from my gym to my house. Not very far at all. But when you've gotta go, you've gotta go, man."

LAS VEGAS -- As they should, Victor Ortiz and team have been watching tapes of Floyd Mayweather Jr. fights in preparation for taking on the future first-ballot Hall of Famer on Saturday. A clue to Ortiz's intentions can be found in the fact that two of the fights they have watched most extensively are Mayweather's first contest with Jose Luis Castillo and his 2007 win over Ricky Hatton -- two contests in which the opponent sought to pressure and smother Floyd. (Two contests, Mayweather would point out, that he also won.)

Neutral observers ascribe Hatton's defeat to the gulf in skill between the two men, notwithstanding the Briton's determined effort. Fans of "The Hitman," on the other hand, mutter darkly about referee Joe Cortez, whom they insist prevented Hatton from fighting "his way" -- i.e., holding and mauling on the inside. Given all that, how does Ortiz feel about the fact that Cortez will be the third man in the ring on Saturday night?

"You know, I'm the guy who wanted Joe Cortez," Ortiz told reporters on Tuesday. "They said, 'Why would you get Joe Cortez?' I've seen him along the years. Not because he's famous, but he's always seemed pretty fair. I didn't want any other referee because, with [Andre] Berto, the referee was all for Berto. With [Marcos] Maidana, the referee was all for Maidana."

(Asked for specifics, Ortiz pointed to Mike Ortega's failing to credit him with a knockdown in the opening seconds of his clash with Berto, ruling Berto had slipped despite being hit with a clean punch, and docking Ortiz a point for hitting behind the head.)

"I've never had the upper hand with a referee," Ortiz said. "In this case, I'm not going to have the upper hand against Floyd with any referee, so what more [can I do] than to get a referee who's fair? Fair but firm, there you go."

But Ortiz's manager, Rolando Arrelano, wasn't quite as sanguine.

"We, as a team, basically picked up some patterns with Joe Cortez that we're a little displeased with," Arrelano said, interjecting when questioned about the apparent contradiction between his position and his fighter's -- that Ortiz needed to focus on fighting, and his team needed to make sure he got a fair shake. "As a result of the patterns, we put the commission on notice. We're going to have a formal meeting with them. We're going to show fact-specific situations where, although the intent was a good one, he thwarted the fighter's ability to use his strength and inside capabilities, and we are bringing that to the commission's attention.

"The Hatton fight is an issue with me, and also the Maidana fight with [Amir] Khan. In light of the fact that there have been heavy controversies [recently] involving the referees, I think he will take it to a higher standard and try to do the right thing. I like Joe Cortez, but we're human beings. We make mistakes. We just want to make sure the mistakes are not made in our fight."

Ortiz professes no such concern.

"The fact is, Mayweather can have as much help as he wants," he said. "As a matter of fact, I'll even go buy him some steroids so he can get on them, and I'll let him fight me like that. That's how scared I am of him."