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Heavyweight contender Johnathon Banks was getting ready to face Seth Mitchell in a rematch on Feb. 16 when he broke his right thumb in a sparring session two weeks before the fight.

Ultimately, Banks had to postpone the bout, but he had to be convinced to do so by none other than heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, whom Banks also trains, taking over that role following the death of his mentor Emanuel Steward last fall. Klitschko's K2 Promotions also serves as Banks' promoter.

Believe it or not, Banks was ready to go through with the fight despite a significant injury. That's his fighter's mentality.

"Actually, I was going to fight with a broken thumb because I wanted to fight," Banks said. "You're spending your money [for training camp], preparing for a fight and then you call the fight off. I don't like doing that, and I was going to go through with the fight. Wladimir Klitschko called me and asked me not to go through with the fight. He said, 'Dude, you broke your thumb. Why would you take the risk going to a fight handicapped?'

"I wasn't thinking with my mind. I'm thinking with my heart because I just wanted to fight. That's just me. I'm saying regardless, I want to fight. So, I sat down, thought about it and it was bandaged up, I couldn't use it."

The first time Banks and Mitchell met was in November. Banks was a prohibitive underdog but dropped Mitchell three times in the second round for the upset stoppage victory that sent Banks' stock soaring and the heavily-hyped Mitchell's plummeting.

But Mitchell had a rematch option and exercised it, setting up the sequel that was rescheduled and will take place Saturday night (Showtime, 9 ET/6 PT) on the undercard of welterweight titlist Paulie Malignaggi's defense against lightweight titleholder Adrien Broner at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Before Banks (29-1-1, 19 KOs) -- who said he had never broken a bone before -- came to his senses about his injured thumb, he said that he could finish training using only his left hand and still face Mitchell (25-1-1, 19 KOs) as scheduled.

"I listened to what [Klitschko] said and that's why I went on and called off the fight," Banks said. "I didn't want to do it because, I mean, no fighter likes to be hear about this a week or a week and a half, two weeks before the fight.

"I'm a fighter. I just want to fight. So, I figured if I could walk, if I could talk, if I could throw it. I said let's fight, but like I say, he talked to me. That's why you surround yourself with people that are knowledgeable about the game, so when you're not thinking knowledgeable, they can bring you back to reality."

Banks, who said his thumb is fine now, knows that he made the right decision.

"I definitely made the right decision because, as I said once that night, once I sat and thought about it and I said you know what, he's right, why will I go into fight handicap because I don't like to say, 'OK, Johnathon Banks, you lost the second fight, what happened?'" Banks said. "I said well, you know, I don't know. I want to be 100 percent. If I lose, let me lose at 100 percent. I can live with that, losing at 100 percent, but I can't live with being halfway ready and then I lose. I don't want anything like that to happen."

K2 Promoter Tom Loeffler was happy that Banks made the decision to postpone the fight.

"I naturally agreed with Wladimir," Loeffler said. "In a fight like this, at this caliber and with so much at stake, it just doesn't make sense to go into it [injured]. Every fighter is never really 100 percent after sparring and little nicks and bruises and things like that, but to have a broken thumb and to go into a fight like this just wouldn't really have made sense, although it did take a little while to convince Johnathon of that, I know that."

The Miami Heat’s epic win against the San Antonio Spurs in Game 6 of the NBA Finals in overtime on Tuesday night was as exciting as anything I’ve seen in sports in a long time. And it got me thinking -- what if the insanity that often prevails in the boxing business was extended to pro basketball?

If this Heat-Spurs series was boxing:

• There would be no deciding Game 7 because one team would refuse to take random drug tests and the other team would insist on taking most of the money.

• There would be no Game 7 because the Heat would be ordered face the last-place Orlando Magic instead.

• There would be no Game 7 because one team would sign with Top Rank and one team would go with Golden Boy.

• There would be no Game 7 because one team would want it on HBO and one would want to play on Showtime.

• It wouldn't matter who won Game 7 because some sanctioning organization would just give both teams titles, for a small sanctioning fee, of course.

• There would be a Game 7, but it would be on pay-per-view and cost fans $59.95 ($69.95 in HD).

• There would be a Game 7, but not until 2015, when the teams would make a deal to play it. Gotta let it marinate!

The light heavyweight division is one of boxing’s hotter divisions.

It boasts Adonis Stevenson, whose electrifying one-punch knockout of Chad Dawson on June 8 to become the champion sent shockwaves through the 175-pound weight class.

There’s the Canadian super fight on tap between former champ Jean Pascal and Lucian Bute.

Titleholder Bernard Hopkins, the 48-year-old legend, is still doing his thing.

Sergey Kovalev has emerged as one of the most exciting contenders in the division in years and is poised to challenge titlist Nathan Cleverly on Aug. 17.

And the division will get another boost with the eventual arrival of super middleweight champion Andre Ward.

But looking down the road we might someday include the name Marcus Browne of Staten Island, N.Y., when gauging the interest in the light heavyweight division. Browne (4-0, 4 KOs) is a good looking prospect. He’s young (22), skillful and, thus far, crowd pleasing.

He boasts a very likable and engaging personality and he comes to the pro ranks with vast amateur experience, which is usually the foundation for top pros. Besides being a 2012 U.S. Olympian, Browne won two National PAL titles, a U.S. national amateur championship and was a three-time New York Golden Gloves champion.

In his first scheduled six-round fight, Browne will face Ricardo Campillo (7-6-1, 5 KOs) on Saturday night (Showtime Extreme, 7 ET/PT) at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, N.Y., where the arena has become his home base.

When Browne fights on the undercard of the Paulie Malignaggi-Adrien Broner welterweight title fight (Showtime, 9 ET/6 PT), it will mark his third fight in a row at the Barclays Center, where Browne has drawn good fan support. Both times he has fought there, he had a nice cheering section. As Browne progresses, that support undoubtedly will grow.

“My gym is 30 minutes away, so it’s home,” Browne said. “My family and friends can come and see me. It’s perfect timing that the Barclays Center opened up and that [promoter] Golden Boy is working with them. I can continue fighting there, putting butts in seats, because that’s an important thing. You have to put people in the seats.”

Browne said he had fan support when he fought at Madison Square Garden in the Golden Gloves and as a pro “it’s a bigger stage. It’s more of a show and now I can show the people my personality and have a lot of fun. When it comes to promoting, social media is a blessing to all of us. It’s the biggest free promotion you can get. I use that to my advantage, and my personality. A lot of these fighters don’t know how to speak to people and be nice to people and that’s what it’s about. I want to let people know that I am a regular human being, that I come from a humble beginning and that I’m fighting my way through life like everyone else.”

Browne comes off as confident about his future prospects, but not at all cocky.

He got good experience last month when he went to Las Vegas to serve as a sparring partner for Pascal, who was getting ready for Bute, before the bout was postponed because of Bute’s injury.

Browne, who has the backing of powerful manager Al Haymon, said he and Pascal sparred eight rounds over two four-round sessions and that it was an excellent experience.

“I’m fighting every month or two and getting professional experience and I went to camp with Jean Pascal. That was a great experience,” Browne said. “It was great for my confidence and to let me know where I’m at.”

Where Browne is at is in position as one of boxing’s most interesting prospects. He has the right connections, the right attitude and a lot of potential. And he does not seem to be in a rush, knowing that what he needs is experience.

“I got time on my side,” Browne said.

A few notes from around the boxing world:

• Super middleweight champion Andre Ward is seeking to end his promotional contract with career-long promoter Dan Goossen for unspecified reasons. Ward (26-0, 14 KOs) recently asked the California State Athletic Commission for an arbitration hearing on the matter. Word through the boxing industry is that Ward, who has not fought since September and is out until the fall because of a shoulder injury and subsequent surgery, wants to sign with Top Rank to ensure a money fight with former middleweight titlist Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Goossen declined comment to ESPN.com and Ward did not respond to a message.

• Junior lightweight contender Diego Magdaleno of Las Vegas has hired trainer Joel Diaz, who also serves as the head trainer for welterweight titlist Timothy Bradley Jr. Magdaleno will train with Diaz in the Palm Springs, Calif., area. After losing a split decision challenging titleholder Rocky Martinez on April 6 in Macau, Magdaleno parted ways with career-long trainer and manager Pat Barry, who still trains and manages younger brother Jessie Magdaleno (14-0, 10 KOs), a top junior featherweight prospect. Diego Magdaleno (23-1, 9 KOs), 26, replaced Barry on the management end with Frank Espinoza last month before getting together with Diaz on the training end.

• Although welterweight contender Kell Brook (29-0, 19 KOs) of England made several remarks this week about how everything is going well in his preparation for a rematch against Oklahoma City’s Carson Jones (35-9-3, 25 KOs) on July 13 in Hull, England, Brook promoter Eddie Hearn acknowledged that he asked the Jones camp to amend the contract weight for the fight from 150 pounds to 152 because of weight issues. They are related to the fact Brook was limited in his workouts early in training camp because he was still recovering from a stress fracture in his right foot. The injury is what caused Brook to withdraw from a May 18 mandatory shot at welterweight titlist Devon Alexander. “I don't want to put too much pressure on him to make the weight and he was restricted early in camp because of [his] foot,” Hearn said. “Can see a move to 154 soon.” Jones manager Bobby Dobbs said their side rejected the push for the heavier weight.

• Light heavyweight titlist Bernard Hopkins, no longer training for his canceled July 13 mandatory defense against Karo Murat, will fill in some of his free time by serving as the guest commentator Saturday on Showtime’s telecast (9 p.m. ET) headlined by the Paulie Malignaggi-Adrien Broner welterweight title bout at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. Hopkins will be filling in for Malignaggi, the regular Showtime expert commentator.

• Mercito Gesta suffered a rib injury in a sparring session and withdrew from a July 19 ESPN2 “Friday Night Fights” main event against junior welterweight contender Olusegun Ajose (31-1, 14 KOs). Ajose will still headline, but promoter Lou DiBella said he and ESPN are still working on a replacement opponent. Gesta (21-1-1, 14 KOs) was moving up to junior welterweight in the wake of a lopsided loss to lightweight titlist Miguel Vazquez in December.

Light heavyweight contender Sergey Kovalev and promoter Main Events are in a great spot. They have two quality options in the wake of Kovalev’s third-round destruction of Cornelius White last week.

The knockout win made Kovalev the mandatory challenger for titleholder Bernard Hopkins and the fight is due, so they can opt for that intriguing fight. Or they can finalize a deal for Kovalev to face titleholder Nathan Cleverly. That’s a fight HBO is pressing very hard for and one that it already has made a deal for on the Cleverly side and a date to air it -- Aug. 17.

But what about Hopkins’ willingness to face Kovalev, a fighter many people view as extremely dangerous to anyone at 175 pounds?

He answered the question on Wednesday, telling ESPN.com, “That’s my mandatory and that’s my obligation and I would say yes to that fight.

“I know about [Kovalev] because of John David Jackson. John worked with me for a few fights [as an assistant trainer] and now he trains Kovalev, so I heard about him through John and I also keep my eye on the light heavyweight division.”

So while Hopkins is in, if that is the direction Kovalev pursues, it gets a little complicated because HBO won’t do business with Golden Boy, his promoter. Though Showtime was ready to televise Hopkins against then-mandatory Karo Murat on July 13 -- before Murat dropped out because of an inability to get a visa -- the network, from what Hopkins said, is not interested in putting him on against Kovalev.

Go figure, because Hopkins-Kovalev is a much, much more interesting fight than Hopkins-Murat ever was.

“[Kovalev] is a good puncher and some people are excited about him,” Hopkins said. “He’s a better quality name than Karo Murat is.”

The reason for Showtime’s possible reluctance to put on Hopkins-Kovalev is because it is not heavily invested in the division and doesn’t have any future rights on Kovalev, so it wouldn’t want to build him up only to see him beat Hopkins and then go to HBO, which is doing a ton of business at light heavyweight and super middleweight.

So while Hopkins waits to see what will happen, he made a suggestion -- that Kovalev go fight Cleverly, and he would be happy to face new champ Adonis Stevenson, who drilled Chad Dawson in the first round June 8 to win the lineal title Hopkins used to hold (as well as an alphabet belt Hopkins used to own before losing to Dawson). Stevenson said he was interested in fighting Hopkins after beating Dawson.

“For me, it’s a no-brainer,” the 48-year-old Hopkins said. “Kovalev can go get Cleverly, I can probably get Adonis and we go head-to-head and give the fans the old light heavyweight battles they had in the late '70 and '80s, and then the winners can fight. It doesn’t seem complicated. OK, maybe I’m being a little sarcastic.”

Again, Hopkins said he would travel, so if it means meeting Stevenson in Montreal, fine.

“I’ll be in Canada tomorrow. It’s a challenge,” he said. “I would do that because it’s the right thing and logical. Adonis is a big puncher and that’s fine. Let’s see what he can do. I’ll never turn down nothing because I didn’t want to fight a guy or I because I was scared of anything.

“If we can’t get that fight, Kovalev is my mandatory. My promoter, Richard Schaefer, and Kathy Duva [of Main Events] can start negotiating.”

Fighters carrying on past their primes is nothing new. It's a time-honored, albeit sad, tradition. It has happened with more fighters than I care to count.

Of recent vintage, Roy Jones Jr., Evander Holyfield and James Toney, to name just three, have stuck around too long. They were once among boxing's elite and rate as all-time great champions, but they didn't know when to hang up their gloves.

Still, as rough as it might be to watch them now, or any other older fighter trying to recapture past glory that is never coming back, what I saw over the weekend was about as bad as it gets. It was downright disturbing.

I watched a YouTube video of former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe in a Muay Thai fight in Thailand, where that kickboxing discipline is an immensely popular sport.

Bowe has to be one of the saddest cases in boxing history. He was once the undisputed heavyweight champion. He was charismatic, kicked butt and earned obscene sums of money. His famed trilogy with Holyfield will go down as one of the greatest rivalries the sport has known.

But that was a long, long time ago.

Bowe has been swamped with legal, personal and financial problems for years, and even did jail time for a domestic incident in which he held his family against their will. As far as boxing goes, he began showing signs of brain trauma, slurring his words, after his second brutal disqualification win against Andrew Golota in 1996. (His lawyer even used brain damage as part of the defense to fight the kidnapping charges.)

Injury or not, Bowe made a comeback and fought once in 2004 and once in 2005, both times against nobodies. He won the first bout by easy knockout and struggled to a 10-round decision in the second. Then he fought again in 2008, looking horrible in an eight-round decision win against another nobody.

All the while, Bowe would boast about how he was training seriously (although, obviously, he wasn't; his weights for his three most recent bouts were 263, 280 and 271) and wanted a shot at one of the Klitschko brothers, which would have been a laugh-out-loud-joke if he wasn't so delusionally serious.

Although Bowe hasn't boxed since that 2008 travesty, he took part in the Muay Thai fight over the weekend and got embarrassed in two rounds by 30-year-old Russian Levgen Golovin.

Bowe is now 45. He weighed 300 pounds against Golovin. He could barely move. He didn't throw a single legitimate punch or kick in the entire fight. And he got the stuffing kicked out him for a reported purse of $150,000 -- good money, I guess, for a guy who is in financial difficulty.

The entire thing was gross by every definition, from the fact that a promoter paid him to get into a ring at all, that it was sanctioned, that people actually showed up to watch and that Bowe would so demean himself.

I'll admit that I watched the fight in the same way somebody might look at the car wreck on the side of the road. Anyone who watched Bowe saw an old man with no remaining discernible skills -- one who looked like he hadn't trained for five minutes -- get dropped multiple times with kicks to the shins. Honestly, I lost count of how many times he went down, but the Associated Press report on the bout said it was five.

The report also said that the sweltering-hot venue had no dressing rooms, so Bowe and the other fighters changed in open-air tents beside the stage. That's a long way from the glitz and glamour of Caesars Palace.

When the fight was over, I felt like I needed to take a shower. Yet Bowe incredibly said he would try it again.

The whole thing was reminiscent of -- but worse than -- the movie "The Wrestler," in which Mickey Rourke played broken-down, past-his-prime pro wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson. Robinson would perform on small, out-of-the-way club shows, trading on his once-great name and nothing more.

Bowe is doing precisely the same thing, except this isn't a movie. This is real life, and that just makes it even sadder.

Welterweight contender Kell Brook believes his injury issues are behind him and he is looking forward to returning to action when he faces Carson Jones in a rematch on July 13 at the outdoor Craven Park rugby stadium in Hull, England.

England's Brook had been slated to face world titleholder Devon Alexander as the mandatory challenger in Atlantic City, N.J., on May 18, the third date the fight had been set for because of previous postponements. But the fight was canceled altogether when Brook (29-0, 19 KOs) suffered a stress fracture in his right foot during training and had to pull out.

Alexander wound up hammering replacement (and Brook's promotional teammate) Lee Purdy while Brook was sidelined. Brook was then lined up to face Jones (35-9-3, 25 KOs) of Oklahoma City in a rematch of their brutal fight from last July when, fighting in his hometown of Sheffield, Brook won a 12-round majority decision in a semifinal title elimination fight that got him one step away from what became the aborted title shot against Alexander.

"It has been very frustrating," Brook said. "I have never really had an injury in my whole career, and then just before the biggest fight of my life it happens to come along. It was horrible and I was absolutely gutted about it.

"Without a doubt, it was the hardest thing I have had to go through in my boxing career. I have always wanted to be a world champion and when I got a world title fight, it got taken away from me and it was out of my hands. It was so frustrating. I couldn't watch Alexander versus Lee Purdy, I couldn't do it. Knowing that I should have been in there that night, I couldn't sit down and watch it."

Brook said he is past the disappointment now and looking forward to facing Jones again.

"I am on to the next chapter in my boxing career now and I am looking forward to having fun on July 13," Brook said. "Step by step, we will get to where I have wanted to get all of my life and all of my career. I am looking forward to Hull, I am excited and I cannot wait. Big things will come from me. I am going to make a statement in this fight and I am going to carry on from there.

"I could have had an easier opponent, but the last fight was an exciting, mouth-watering fight, and I think the fans deserve it. It is going to be a tough fight and I am training hard for it, but I am going to go out there and have fun and take care of business."

Brook-Jones II is on the card (televised by Sky Sports in the United Kingdom) headlined by the pro debut of Hull native Luke Campbell, who became the first British boxer to win a bantamweight Olympic gold medal in more than 100 years when he did it in London last summer.

Former two-time welterweight titlist Andre Berto has hired a new trainer -- 2011 trainer of the year Virgil Hunter -- and has been working out with him at his Oakland, Calif.-area gym for the past few weeks.

"I know I have all the talent in world. Now it's time to fine-tune the skill set," Berto told ESPN.com. "Virg is someone I've known since I was a kid, along with a few other coaches I went to interview. I wanted stick with familiar faces that I've had that relationship with and that have watched me from the amateur system [until] now. We're testing things out with this fight and seeing where things go. As of right now, I've been having a great camp. I am excited."

Berto's first fight with Hunter will come July 27 in the main event of a Showtime-televised card at the AT&T Center in San Antonio. Berto (28-2, 22 KOs) will face battle-tested veteran Jesus Soto Karass (27-8-3, 17 KOs).

Berto will try to rebound from a clear decision loss in November in an interim title bout against Robert Guerrero, who dropped him twice in a fairly dominant performance. That fight came after Berto had been out of the ring for 14 months, largely because of a failed random prefight drug test in the lead-up to a rematch with Victor Ortiz.

The loss to Guerrero was Berto's second defeat in his past three fights, including a decision loss that cost him his world title against Ortiz in April 2011 (although he bounced back and won a belt against Jan Zaveck). After the loss to Guerrero, Berto parted ways with career-long trainer Tony Morgan. They had been together for nearly 20 years, including Berto's amateur career that culminated with a berth on the 2004 Haitian Olympic team.

There was chaos in Berto's corner during his losses, and it was obvious that a change had to be made -- not to mention the fact that Berto, 29, needs to improve defensively.

Berto hopes that Hunter will be the man to help him. The fighter said that before hiring Hunter he got the blessing from the trainer's main client, super middleweight champion Andre Ward.

"I had to give my good friend Dre Ward a call, and he also gave me a lot of input and direction," Berto said. "He's one that loves his privacy. But he also gave me his blessing with open arms. We've known each other since our teenage years, so it feels great joining the camp. I am in the Bay Area now training with Virg. Actually, I made the decision about a month ago."

The excitement of Adonis Stevenson's one-punch highlight-reel knockout of Chad Dawson on June 8 has yet to wear off, but Dan Rafael is ready to look forward at the immediate prospects for the new light heavyweight titlist. Watch the video above for more.

Denis Grachev has made a career out of being an underdog who performs better than expected.

In 2011, he knocked out then-undefeated Vladine Biosse of Providence, R.I., on Biosse’s New England turf. Two fights later, in 2012, Grachev was the relatively unknown opponent when he met red-hot, rising light heavyweight contender Ismayl Sillakh and guess what? Grachev took him out in the eighth round in a major upset.

Then came a fight in Montreal against former super middleweight titlist Lucian Bute, who was looking to rebound from his first defeat, a knockout loss to Carl Froch.

Although Bute outpointed Grachev, it was a life-and-death fight for Bute, who looked very shaky. It was not a loss that hurt Grachev at all. In fact, he parlayed it into a fight with former light heavyweight titlist Zsolt Erdei in the semifinals of the Million Dollar Super Four tournament in Monte Carlo in March.

The result? Grachev won a split decision, pulling another upset and handing Erdei his first professional defeat.

The victory propelled Grachev (13-1, 8 KOs), a native of Russia who lives in San Diego, into the final against Edwin Rodriguez (23-0, 15 KOs) of Worcester, Mass.

Although Grachev is a light heavyweight and Rodriguez a super middleweight, the tournament contracts call for the July 13 final, also in Monte Carlo, to take place at a catchweight of 171½ pounds (which is between super middleweight and light heavyweight). The winner gets $600,000 of the $1 million purse with the loser getting $400,000.

Grachev has been preparing for the fight with trainer Abel Sanchez in the high altitude of Big Bear Lake, Calif. The camp is loaded with talent, including middleweight titlist Gennady Golovkin, Sanchez’s prized pupil, and junior middleweight titlist Zaurbek Baysangurov. They are both preparing for title defenses.

“Prior to the Erdei fight, I was only here for 10 days,” Grachev said. “However, this time I’m up here for six weeks, which will put me in the best form ever. We are high in the mountains, eight of us fighters, just boxing and training. It is hard work, very intensive, with jogging in the morning and much training the rest of the day. I wasn’t in my best shape last time, but this will be different.”

When Grachev faces Rodriguez, he will once again be the underdog, as if that even matters anymore.

“With (Erdei’s) boxing style and experience, it was my most difficult fight. It was hard to find the key to beating him,” Grachev said. “I think it will be easier with Rodriguez. He is the favorite according to many boxing fans, but they are going to be disappointed. It will probably be his first loss.”

In camp, Grachev has been sparring with Golovkin, who is getting ready for his June 29 defense against Matthew Macklin.

“I’ve had very good sparring, especially Gennady,” Grachev said. “We are studying Rodriguez’s style and sparring accordingly. It’s been very inspiring to be up in Big Bear with world champions like Golovkin and Baysangurov and watch how they train and prepare for their world title defenses.”

Heavyweight prospect Bryant Jennings and light heavyweight contender Sergey Kovalev are two of the more interesting fighters around.

Jennings has been in some entertaining fights and his name has come up as a potential future challenger for champion Wladimir Klitschko, while Kovalev is a brawling beast with great power and is on the doorstep of a mandatory title fight against the winner of the July 13 fight between titleholder Bernard Hopkins and his present mandatory challenger, Karo Murat. There have also been whispers that Kovalev could wind up getting a shot against titleholder Nathan Cleverly on Aug. 17 in a fight that HBO would televise.

The point is that Jennings and Kovalev are both on the brink of major fights, which is what makes their bouts on Friday night on “Fight Night” (NBC Sports Net, 8 ET) at the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem in Bethlehem, Pa., so important.

Jennings (16-0, 8 KOs), 28, of Philadelphia, is in the main event and will take on Los Angeles-based Russian Andrey Fedosov (24-2, 19 KOs), 27. After a breakout 2012, in which Jennings won five fights, four of which were nationally televised on “Fight Night,” this will be his first bout of 2013.

Kovalev (20-0-1, 18 KOs), 30, is coming off a very impressive third-round knockout of former titlist Gabriel Campillo and faces Cornelius White (21-1, 16 KOs), 31, of Houston, in a title eliminator that will make the winner the mandatory challenger for the Hopkins-Murat winner.

The opener of the tripleheader is Bethlehem welterweight Ronald Cruz (17-1, 12 KOs), 26, against 34-year-old Ghana native Ray Narh (25-2, 21 KOs) of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Jennings, who works a day job as a mechanic, is looking forward to fighting after a long layoff.

"I haven't boxed since Dec. 8 and I'm anxious to get back into the ring," said Jennings, who is coming off a highlight-reel fifth-round knockout of Bowie Tupou.

Jennings is well-aware of the prospects that could await him if he keeps winning but said he tries not to pay attention to it.

“I never look ahead,” he said. “Yes, I'm on the fast track to the top but people can make mistakes when they forget to concentrate on the task at hand. My job is to beat Fedosov, then move on to bigger and better things.”

If Kovalev is everything some people think he is -- a surefire future titleholder -- then he should handle White, whose lone loss was by first-round knockout at super middleweight to Donovan George in 2011, although White has won five bouts in a row since.

“I will win because I am dedicated to this fight, I have a big desire to win, and I am hungry," said Kovalev, whose only blemish is a second-round technical draw with Grover Young in 2011. “I do not know much about White, but this is not unusual for me. My job is to train as hard as I can. I have every confidence that I have all the tools I need to beat White.”

Kovalev’s trainer, former junior middleweight titlist John David Jackson, likes what he sees in Kovalev, as do many others in boxing.

“He's a tremendous puncher, probably the most pure puncher in the division," Jackson said. "I don't try to change anything he does because his style is very unique. It's not conventional. He punches from different angles. One thing he does really nice is when he throws his shots, he sits on almost all his punches. I just try to add small things to his game.

“Cornelius White is a nice fighter, but I don't think he has enough ammunition to offset what Sergey is bringing to the table that night. I know it won't go the distance.”

One of the best national rivalries in boxing, of course, is Mexico versus Puerto Rico. Many trace the birth of the rivalry to a 1934 bantamweight championship bout in which Puerto Rico's Sixto Escobar became the first world champion from the Caribbean island when he knocked out Mexico’s Rodolfo Casanova. Since then, there have been numerous memorable clashes between fighters from each country.

Among the most memorable are these epic battles: Puerto Rican Wilfredo Gomez's fifth-round TKO of Carlos Zarate to defend the junior featherweight title (1978); Mexican Salvador Sanchez's eighth-round knockout of Gomez to retain the featherweight title (1981); Gomez stopping Lupe Pintor in the 14th round in defense of the junior featherweight title (1982); and Mexican legend Julio Cesar Chavez's 11th-round TKO of Edwin "Chapo" Rosario to win the lightweight title (1987), then a defense against Hector Camacho (1992).

If you add Mexican-Americans to the equation, you can’t leave out Puerto Rican Felix Trinidad outpointing Oscar De La Hoya in their controversial welterweight unification fight (1999) and Trinidad’s 12th-round knockout of Fernando Vargas to unify junior middleweight belts (2000).

Although I covered Trinidad-Vargas, the most significant fights in the rivalry in my time on the boxing beat are the memorable bouts between Puerto Rico’s Miguel Cotto and Mexico’s Antonio Margarito.

"It's one of the best rivalries, and it's great to be part of the rivalry," Cotto said before the first fight. “This is another chapter, and it's good for us. We want to make this fight at the level of those in the past. Everybody knows about the rivalry. Now it is me against Margarito. This fight will add another shot to the rivalry."

Boy, did they.

The Cotto-Margarito fights had an intensity like no others, and that was even before anybody suspected that Margarito may have cheated by wearing loaded hand wraps in their first violent fight, an 11th-round knockout win for Margarito in 2008 in which he won a welterweight title in Las Vegas.

"If you put a Puerto Rican boxer in with a Mexican boxer, you will have a good fight," Cotto said before meeting Margarito for the first time.

Usually, that’s exactly the case, and Cotto and Margarito waged a thrilling fight, which had appropriately been titled “The Battle” in the buildup to the pay-per-view.

Much of the discussion in the prefight hype was centered on the great Puerto Rico-Mexico rivalry -- a Mexican and Puerto Rican have fought for a world title more than 60 times -- and the fight more than lived up to it.

"I have people coming up to me all the time to talk about it,” said Margarito, speaking about the rivalry before the first fight. “It's a thing of pride, which I feel myself. But the important thing is the fight between us. We'll be up in the ring and, yes, we carry our countries behind us and, yes, people come up to me and say, 'Hey, do this for the country.' I feel it. I say I will take this belt back to my country."

It was only well after the fact that Cotto and many others suspected that Margarito had worn loaded wraps in the fight because it was before his next bout, against Shane Mosley, that he was caught trying to enter the ring wearing illegal wraps coated in a plaster-like substance.

The stage was set, obviously, for an eventual Cotto-Margarito rematch. After Margarito had his license revoked and didn’t fight for 16 months, he came back for a tune-up fight and then got destroyed by Manny Pacquiao, but the lure of a second fight with Cotto was still there.

The second meeting, in December 2011, only deepened the rivalry between the fighters and the countries, given the overwhelming bad blood between Cotto and Margarito. This time they fought on Cotto’s turf -- New York’s Madison Square Garden -- where his fans were out in force. And in one of the most bitter revenge fights in history, Cotto hammered Margarito’s surgically repaired right eye and stopped him in the 10th round for a deeply satisfying victory.

The passion that Cotto, Margarito and their fans brought to the two fights -- built largely on nationalism, which has always been important in boxing -- was as good as it gets.

A little of this and a little of that from the world of boxing:

• There’s been a big shake-up behind the scenes at Golden Boy as chief executive Richard Schaefer recently announced a major restructuring of the staff of the world’s No. 1 promotional company.

Chief operating officer David Itskowitch is leaving the company after six years, effective July 31, which set off a slew of changes. Bruce Binkow, the chief marketing officer, will also now be the COO, and longtime vice president of operations Armando Gaytan will also assume the newly created position of deputy COO and has been promoted to senior VP of operations. Chief of staff Robert Gasparri will take on the role of VP of operations. Schaefer also announced that attorney Arnold Joseph, who has done work for the company for years, is joining the staff full-time as general counsel. Longtime director of communications and events Monica Sears was promoted to VP of operations and digital marketing coordinator Nicole “The Spark” Sparks is moving up to director of marketing. Marylyn Aceves is returning to the company as VP of public relations.

“Given his contributions to Golden Boy Promotions over the past six years, David Itskowitch's departure from the company is significant and he will be missed, but with the restructuring we have implemented we will have a smooth transition that will ensure the continued success of Golden Boy Promotions,” Schaefer said.

• Golden Boy announced the full undercard for its June 22 Showtime tripleheader at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. In addition to the TV fights -- welterweight titlist Paulie Malignaggi defending against lightweight titleholder Adrien Broner, the heavyweight rematch between Johnathon Banks and Seth Mitchell and Sakio Bika-Marco Antonio Periban for a vacant super middleweight belt -- junior middleweight prospect Julian Williams (12-0-1, 7 KOs) will face chin-challenged former titleholder Joachim Alcine (33-4-1, 19 KOs) in the most notable other bout. Three of the other bouts will involve members of the 2012 U.S. Olympic team: Staten Island light heavyweight Marcus Browne (4-0, 4 KOs), who always has a fan section cheering for him at Barclays, bantamweight Rau'Shee Warren (4-0, 2 KOs) and lightweight Jamel Herring (3-0, 2 KOs).

• Promoters Lou DiBella and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson announced that they have acquired the rights to “Tapia,” a documentary on the late former five-time world champion Johnny Tapia, who died in May 2012 at age 45. The world premiere of the documentary will take place at the Los Angeles Film Festival on Saturday. The film, directed by Eddie Alcazar, chronicles Tapia’s tumultuous personal and professional life using first-person narration from Tapia himself, archival footage and personal photos. Alcazar spent many hours with Tapia filming, including in the weeks before Tapia’s death. Those last interviews are included in the film, as are interviews with Mike Tyson, trainer Freddie Roach (who trained Tapia at one point during his career) and Teresa Tapia, Johnny’s widow.

“I was drawn to the intensity of this project,” Jackson said. “His story resonated with me because like Tapia, I too lost my mother to violence and grew up with limited means. It’s a heartfelt story and it was important for me to get involved with bringing this to a broader audience.”

Said DiBella, who, when he programmed boxing at HBO, put Tapia on the network, “This is not a boxing film, but a film about tragedy, triumph, demons and redemption. Johnny gives us an honest assessment of his strengths and frailties; he reminds us of the power and resiliency of the human spirit.”

• European light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (40-2, 31 KOs), a former world titleholder, will make his second defense against Italy’s Stefano Abatangelo (17-2-1, 6 KOs) on Aug. 24 in Schwerin, Germany, Sauerland Event announced. Abatangelo is 11-0-1 in his past 12 fights. Braehmer is the mandatory challenger for world titleholder Nathan Cleverly, who he could meet later this year. Also on the card is supposed to be the return of former middleweight and super middleweight titlist Arthur Abraham (36-4, 28 KOs) against Willbeforce Shihepo (20-6, 15 KOs). In his last fight, Abraham was destroyed in four rounds and lost his super middleweight belt to Robert Stieglitz in their March 23 rematch.

• Some interesting stats from last Saturday’s head-to-head clash between the HBO and Showtime cards. According to Nielsen Media Research, HBO’s undercard fight of Yuriorkis Gamboa-Darleys Perez drew 947,000, which increased to 1,024,000 viewers for the Adonis Stevenson-Chad Dawson main event. Showtime, which had a tripleheader, drew a measly 207,000 viewers for the Jermell Charlo-Demetrius Hopkins opener, which grew to 471,000 for the Erislandy Lara-Alfredo Angulo co-feature and then 594,000 for the Marcos Maidana-Josesito Lopez main event. Although Showtime (which is in about 8 million fewer homes than HBO) had the better overall card for sure and has seen its boxing viewership on an overall upswing, the dreadful Gamboa-Perez undercard fight on HBO still drew 353,000 more than Showtime’s main event.

Promoter/rap star Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson started off slowly in the promotional game.

The first fight he was involved in was when he made a deal with Top Rank to put his top fighter, Yuriorkis Gamboa, on the HBO PPV undercard of Juan Manuel Marquez-Manny Pacquiao IV last December.

For his second foray, Fiddy's SMS Promotions teamed up with promoter Lou DiBella to put on an ESPN2 "Friday Night Fights" card on March 1. But it was really DiBella’s staff that did the heavy lifting for that event in which Billy Dib, one of Jackson’s fighters, lost a split decision and his featherweight world title to Evgeny Gradovich in the main event at the Foxwoods resort in Mashantucket, Conn.

And last Saturday, he had Gamboa on an HBO card in Montreal promoted by Yvon Michel and Gary Shaw.

Now with a little experience under his belt, Jackson is promoting his first card solo-style, another "FNF" show, which takes place July 5 at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Conn.
Jackson was in Hartford on Wednesday for a news conference to announce the card.

Dib originally was going to headline the card, but when a main event-worthy opponent could not be lined up, Jackson made a deal to bring in the fight between light heavyweight Eleider Alvarez (12-0, 8 KOs), a 2008 Colombian Olympian living in Montreal, and Tulsa, Okla., native Allan Green (32-4, 22 KOs), who participated in the Super Six World Boxing Classic super middleweight tournament.

Alvarez-Green was originally supposed to be on the May 25 Jean Pascal-Lucian Bute undercard in Montreal. When Bute got hurt and the show was postponed, promoter Yvon Michel shifted the fight to last Saturday’s Adonis Stevenson-Chad Dawson undercard. But it was pulled off that show for various reasons and ultimately, a deal was made with Jackson to have the fight headline the ESPN2 card.

Australia’s Dib (35-2, 21 KOs) will also be on the card in a non-title bout in the co-feature against Mike Oliver (25-3, 8 KOs) of Hartford. Dib has a rematch clause with Gradovich and if Dib beats Oliver and Gradovich retains his title against Mauricio Munoz on July 27 in Macau, the rematch is expected to follow.

"I'm excited because this is the first show put together by SMS Promotions,” Jackson said. “It's been a learning experience. We've been part of shows but never did the promotional job. I'm not far from home in Farmington [Conn.]. We've put together a real event with some of the best fighters in the world, good prospects and some local fighters. We're creating a platform for fighters to progress and I want to be part of it. Overall, it's a great opportunity to do things a little differently. I've associated myself with some big name fighters.

"The Hartford area has a long boxing history with Hall of Famer Willie Pep and other world champions and top contenders [and champions] like Battling Battalino, Marlon Starling [who was in attendance at the news conference], Kid Kaplan, Tyrone Booze and 'Iceman' John Scully.”

Jackson will also have three of his other fighters on the card, lightweight prospect Mark Davis (16-0, 5 KOs), a former two-time U.S. national amateur champion, junior welterweight Luis Olivares (3-0, 2 KOs) and junior welterweight Donte Strayhorn (1-0, 0 KOs).

Oliver hasn’t fought since being knocked out in the second round by former featherweight titlist Juan Manuel Lopez in October 2011 and is in a tough fight against Dib.

“I haven't fought in over a year, but I'm back,” Oliver said. “My last fight was against 'Juanma,' but that was in Puerto Rico and this fight is in my hometown, Hartford. I know you don't believe me 50, but I'm going to beat your guy.”

Junior middleweight Alfredo Angulo had a rough night Saturday in his 10th-round TKO loss to Erislandy Lara for a vacant interim title at the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif.

Although Angulo dropped Lara twice in the action-packed fight -- what other kind is Angulo involved in? -- he was trailing by a point on two scorecards, although up by three on the third, when the fight ended.

When Lara came on strong in the 10th round, nailing Angulo with a right and a left to the face, Angulo turned and walked away from the fight in a clear sign of resignation, giving referee Raul Caiz Jr. no choice but to stop the fight.

Angulo, the last fighter in the world you'd expect to see quit, did have huge swelling around his left eye. It is not possible for anyone other than Angulo to know what he was feeling when he abruptly retired, but it doesn't change the fact that the end was surprising.

The 30-year-old Angulo (22-3, 18 KOs) complained that Lara (18-1-2, 12 KOs), the skillful Cuban defector now living in Houston, had "thumbed" him in the eye. In reality, that is not possible. The gloves that are worn have attached thumbs. What Lara did is punch him in the eye, a perfectly legal shot.

The ringside doctor thought Angulo might have suffered a broken orbital bone. As it turns out, thankfully, Angulo did not have any fractures.

On Wednesday, Angulo, who is from Mexico and was the clear favorite of the fans, who chanted "Perro! Perro! Perro!" during the fight, released a statement in which he thanked his fans, gave an update on his condition and congratulated Lara.

"I want to thank all of my fans for their support in the wake of my eye injury this past weekend," Angulo said. "I have undergone various medical examinations, which I am glad to report revealed no broken bones. California State Athletic Commission physician Dr. Pearlman Hicks has informed me that I only suffered a contusion and my eye specialist thankfully sees no permanent injury to my eye.

"I want to thank all of you for the love and support you have given me the past few days. I would also like to congratulate Erislandy Lara on a great fight. I'm sad that I disappointed all my fans by not giving them an 'El Perro' victory as I truly believe I was on the verge of knocking Lara down for the third time and winning the fight. The sharp pain of his thumb in my eye caused me to turn my back out of reflex and I could not see out of my left eye. I accept the decision made by the referee to stop the fight and look forward to getting back in the ring in the future. I will be back to give you a better show in my next fight."