ESPN Boxing

On Saturday night in Munich, a game Dereck Chisora fought bravely against Vitali Klitschko.

Fact.

In fact, "brave" is the tag journalists so often use to describe the litany of outmatched, outpunched fighters who fail miserably in the Herculean task of even troubling a member of the dominant heavyweight Klitschko family.

Chisora was different. He was outclassed, sure, but he also marched relentlessly forward in the heat of a lost battle to emerge as one of the few fighters not to be rendered unconscious by a leatherbound Klitschko fist.

Still, to look at Saturday's fight in this vacuum and through such a narrow lens would be ignoring the fact that Chisora, alongside former heavyweight champion David Haye, are currently ranked in the upper echelons of moronic, classless fools who soil the good but increasingly tarnished name of boxing -- a sport that provides them with a lifestyle few could ever hope to enjoy.

During Friday's weigh-in, Chisora slapped Klitschko. Yes, you read that correctly: Dereck Chisora slapped Vitali Klitschko. The same Vitali Klitschko who, along with his brother, Wladimir, are two of the nicest, gentlemanly, philanthropic ambassadors a sport could wish for. The slap was an act of desperation from a man who knew he would lose like all the others. It was a slap, both literal and figurative, to the same Klitschko who gave Chisora his highest payday.

And what did Vitali Klitschko do?

Nothing. Class act.

Then, when both fighters had entered the ring on Saturday, Chisora decided to spit water in the face of Vitali's brother. In the confines of the hostile, jeer-filled partisan cauldron in Munich, Wladimir could be expected to retaliate. What did he do?

Nothing. Class act.

Then came the cherry on this most delicious of trifles. At the postfight news conference, Chisora, goaded by Haye, a fellow Brit, started a brawl in the middle of the media room. Haye, holding a bottle in his hand, threw the first punch, after Chisora had left his seat to confront him. A scuffle ensued that involved Haye throwing a photographer's tripod. Haye's manager and trainer, Adam Booth, emerged with blood trickling down his face, while Haye brawled with Chisora's trainer, to boot.

It was then that Chisora crossed the line of being a mere madcap "British eccentric." He left that tag as a dot on the horizon when, in front of hundreds of people, he threatened to track down Haye and shoot and burn him.

Class act.

Boxers aren't known for their intellect, often unfairly so. Beneath its widely preconceived brutish image, the pugilistic fraternity is awash with sharp, insightful and colorful characters more welcoming at times than any other sporting family.

But boxing is also a sport that owes its entire existence to a controlled and regulated form of violence that is more susceptible than most to the antics of rancid bad eggs like Chisora and Haye. They spoil what is otherwise a consistently good batch.

Haye is adamant in his desire for a fight with Vitali Klitschko. Of course he is: It's the biggest payday available to him in his weight class. But this is the same David Haye who spent two years goading Wladimir into a fight, including wearing T-shirts depicting Haye in the pose of a conqueror holding the decapitated heads of the Ukrainian heavyweight siblings. On fight night, Haye lost in embarrassing fashion, laying blame on a broken toe. His stock depreciated to a laughable level.

Meanwhile, his pride may hurt, but his wallet doesn't. And after Saturday's debacle, neither Haye nor Chisora deserves a fight with either of the Klitschkos. At this point, a Chisora-Haye fight would generate huge interest in their homeland. But their homeland is where they should remain -- far away from the global platform on which they so consistently sully the sport that rewards them so highly.

It's acts like these that make people believe such behavior is part and parcel of boxing. This is not true. It's part and parcel of degenerates like Haye and Chisora, not the sport with which they are unfortunately and inextricably linked.

Boxing is dead.

Apparently.

It's a sport populated by fighters who won't fight one another, promoters who fight more than their fighters and low ratings that ensure no one is watching anyway. "It's not like it used to be in the '70s and '80s!" come the calls.

Well, no need to heed the warnings of these doom-driven soothsayers, because the biggest fallacy in sports is that boxing is dead. Indeed, reports of the fight game's death have been greatly exaggerated.

Just take a look back on Delvin Rodriguez and Pawel Wolak's fight on ESPN's "Friday Night Fights." Their battle was fought to a grandiose stalemate. Wolak walked away with a welt the size of a pomegranate under his eye (and a draw, to boot), while no belt was won by either man.

Instead, the prize for both was universal respect among fans and peers alike in a fight of the year candidate. That evolutionary quirk allowing us to garner pleasure from watching two fellow homo sapiens brawl and spill as much blood as a medieval medical procedure clearly lives on.

But behind the pugilistic heroics lie stories that fuel the sport itself and will forever drive interest. Few were left unaffected when Miguel Cotto exacted revenge against the villainous Antonio Margarito -- a man widely suspected of having used illegal hand wraps in their first fight in 2008. It was a bout that inflicted on Miguel Cotto his first career defeat, not to mention a face like a salisbury steak.

In front of thousands at Madison Square Garden and as millions more watched enthralled, Cotto claimed redemption and enacted drama in equal measure.

Boxing this year has reaffirmed the enduring strength and vitality of the sport. Victor Ortiz vanquished Andre Berto in a fight that wildly seesawed in momentum and thrilled those in attendance. James Kirkland got up from a punch that would send most of us to intensive care, overcoming Mexican juggernaut Alfredo Angulo in the 2011 ESPN.com round of the year. Gary Russell Jr. put on full display the bright-lightning pace of his fledgling talent. Finally, Andre Ward overcame a smorgasbord of fine opponents to cement his place in the current pantheon of the sport's top stars.

Of course, boxing -- like everything in life -- is far from perfect. It's existence rests solely on our primal lust for carnage. But it's run by a cast of characters more devilish than Shakespeare could dream up, all capable of an assortment of Machiavellian machinations that tarnish boxing at every turn.

How else could the judges and the most ardent of Pacquiao apologists rule in the Pinoy idol's favor in his third bout with Juan Manuel Marquez? More egregiously, how did Paul Williams take a unanimous victory over Erislandy Lara when he clearly lost every round?

Gone are the days when fistic titans like Dempsey shared equal billing with slugging stars like Ruth, but boxing's eternal fixture on an increasingly diverse sporting landscape is secure. Stories such as Dewey Bozella's journey to the ring, after his having spent decades in prison, are still capable of transcending the sport and affecting those outside of boxing's realms.

If the death of a sport is measured in fiscal terms alone, then it's true boxing has been a terminal patient for decades, with no remission in sight. But its lifeblood is our hunger for regular sacrifice on that small, squared canvas altar. It's this that gives boxing eternal sustenance. Boxing isn't dead, but immortal.

Buried among the rigmarole surrounding Antonio Margarito's now finally licensed eye, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., the prodigal son of his Hall of Fame father, defeated the semi-retired (and now likely permanently retired) Peter Manfredo Jr. last Saturday night. The result was expected; less so was trainer Freddie Roach's assertion that Chavez, based on this performance, is capable of dispatching middleweight sultan Sergio Martinez.

"[Chavez] can kick [Martinez's] a-- right now, in my opinion," Roach told Boxing Scene's Chris LaBate. "I don't think he's a great fighter. He's a great athlete, I'll give him that. But he's not a great fighter."

Roach has recently developed a habit of making predictions that have gone awry (a Marquez knockout for one), but this one is downright outlandish. Chavez did look impressive in this latest performance, but against limited opposition. It was a credible win against a game but faded fighter.

Perhaps triumphs over more established middleweights such as Andy Lee and Matthew Macklin would add credence to the assertion that Chavez has what it takes to vanquish Martinez, widely regarded as the third-best fighter on the planet. But for now, Chavez remains one half of a duo of arguably overprotected middleweight Mexican fighters.

Froch desperate for vengeance

Carl Froch is a confident man. After the December Super Six Final concludes and the brash Englishman emerges victorious over favorite Andre Ward (as Froch is certain he will), he has only one opponent in mind: Mikkel Kessler, the one man who has beaten Froch.

"To fight Kessler means something, too, especially as I don't believe he beat me," Froch told The Daily Mail.

It's clearly an arrangement that Kessler's own promoter, Kalle Sauerland, is keen to set up.

"I believe that Kessler-Froch Part I was a classic, and that a second or even a third part would be justified,” Sauerland said.

"We would love that fight at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen and we will make the biggest offer ever to a super middleweight boxer to make that fight."

Quote of the week

Every time I fight, I put on a problem, man. You can always expect fireworks and that's what [I] bring. It's not even the Fourth of July yet, man. Every day is Independence Day in the gym for me. I'm a seasonal Fourth of July.” --
The demure, reserved Adrien Broner, who will fight Vicente Rodriguez on Saturday on HBO, told Fight Hype

Within the bowels of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, amid the furor regarding the unpopular decision to award Saturday's main event to Manny Pacquiao, fans and press alike have had a swath of issues to debate.

Let's get one thing out of the way: Pacquiao lost on Saturday. Yes, he lost. Although the record books will forever show a "W" on the ledger and his bank account is accordingly larger, in every other sense, this weekend was a humbling experience for boxing's one true transcendent star.

Pacquiao maintained that he took a third fight with Juan Manuel Marquez to definitively settle the issue of who won their previous two bouts, which had been ruled a draw and a split decision in Pacquiao's favor. On both occasions, large enough sections of the gladiatorial gallery had crowned Marquez the winner, making it an eternal niggling asterisk on the Filipino's Hall of Fame CV.

So how vehemently vexing it must have been for Pacquiao to be interviewed amid an ocean of jeering after the judges awarded him yet another victory against his most capable foe.

Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer, along with the majority of the press corps, claimed we would see a knockout. We didn't. Marquez's age and bloated size would be vanquished by the younger, lithe and mercurial Pacquiao, many asserted. Not the case.

But the real cherry on this not-so-trifling matter is that Pacquiao's camp now seems to be avoiding a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr., something the boxing world has lusted after for years. The two have been verbal sparring partners of late and have fought pitched battles in the courts, but it seems perhaps the war -- in the media at least -- may have been won by Mayweather.

Marquez showed us a glimpse of the solution to the Pacquiao algorithm, one that will likely be solved if Mayweather and Pacquiao ever square off in the ring. And although Pacquiao walked away on Saturday with at least $22 million, 28 stitches and the official win, some losses perhaps are harder to quantify.

Pacquiao Khan't beat Marquez

When your own sparring partner and training stablemate thinks you lost, it's probably a bad sign. With the rigmarole of Saturday's boxing circus unwinding, light welterweight supremo Amir Khan chose to pipe up.

"He's got away with it against Marquez," Khan told The Daily Mail. "Even I had him losing by two rounds. He's my friend and I'm happy for him that he won. But for his sake, we have to be honest. He would not beat Floyd Mayweather on this performance."

Rumors abound that the longtime sparring partners are now banned from sparring in case Khan becomes an option for Pacquiao further down the line. For Khan, he sees good reason for these drastic measures.

"Well, let me just say that in our sparring lately, he's not the one getting the better of it."

Trout has no doubts

For those wondering who might face the winner of the Dec. 3 battle between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito, look no further than Austin Trout.

Who? Yes, that's right. For the less hard core among you, Trout's waist is adorned with a rather meaningless WBA junior middleweight belt. But more meaningful is the fact that Trout is fast, hard-punching and willing to travel anywhere to seek out fights -- something he has done with little fanfare and that has ensured he remains one of boxing's best-kept secrets.

After Trout made his successful network debut last week, his manager, Greg Cohen, announced he expects his fighter to face the best in the division.

"If [Cotto or Margarito] choose not to fight us and vacate the belt, then we'll be the only ones with a rightful claim to be WBA champion," Cohen said. "In that case, we'll make our mandatory against [Anthony] Mundine in a fight that would have not only all the new fans Austin made over the weekend, but the entire continent of Australia also buzzing the day it was made."

Manfredo mans up
In a sport that oozes bravado, honesty and realism can sometimes be the most refreshing of tonics. Peter Manfredo Jr., a fighter who has always tried to maximize his self-confessed limited gifts, will take on Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on Saturday in a middleweight bout at the Reliant Arena in Houston.

Having often faced the best, including Joe Calzaghe, and having come up short, Manfredo knows that his shot against Chavez is his last shot at glory and looks at the opportunity in the most endearing of ways.

"I've been very satisfied with my boxing career," Manfredo said. "I was an unknown kid from Providence, R.I. I was not a great amateur boxer. If I lose, I hang it up and concentrate on being a good father to my kids."

Refreshing indeed.

Tweet of the week

@JRoche3MR: "Bradley wins the second, if we're lucky Casamayor will headbutt himself unconscious soon and end this"