ESPN Boxing

As much as I look forward to covering Amir Khan's junior welterweight title defense against Lamont Peterson on Saturday night in Washington, D.C., -- only about a half-hour from my home -- I'm as excited to watch the HBO telecast (9:45 ET) later on my DVR.

Whatever happens in the fight -- the broadcast also will include heavyweight prospect Seth Mitchell against Timur Ibragimov, plus a replay of last week's Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito rematch -- the commentary should be tremendous to listen to.

That's because, for the first (and probably only) time, commentators Larry Merchant and Max Kellerman will be ringside together to call a fight alongside Jim Lampley -- unless you count the trio's scripted appearance together in the film "Rocky Balboa."

Saturday's show will be the real thing, and it should be a lot of fun to listen to Merchant and Kellerman, with vastly different opinions on many things in boxing and separated by 42 years in age, call a fight together.

The reason for the unusual pairing is because Emanuel Steward, a regular on the "World Championship Boxing" broadcast team, was supposed to be in Germany on Saturday training Wladimir Klitschko. Although Klitschko's fight was postponed because of Klitschko's kidney stones a few days ago, the HBO producers decided to keep Merchant and Kellerman together.

Roy Jones Jr., who handles commentary on "Boxing After Dark," was also unavailable because, sad as it is to say, he will fight Max Alexander in Atlanta on Saturday night.

The pairing of Merchant and Kellerman was Lampley's idea. Like I have done for years, he has advocated the pairing, just to see what it's like -- at least once.

"I'm very, very excited about it," Lampley said. "I'm thrilled that the network saw fit to go with it, because when I saw that Dec. 10 was what it was and Emanuel was supposed to be gone and Roy was fighting, I put two and two together. It occurred to me it was the only time we would have a chance to put Max and Larry on the air together."

Lampley views the broadcast as "a collectors item for sophisticated fans."

"It's the chance to listen to two guys who come at boxing from the academic perspective, as opposed to the Emanuel, Roy, Freddie Roach, Teddy Atlas perspective as fighters and trainers," Lampley said. "Larry and Max are both brilliant and both proven to be bona fide boxing experts. They both have unimpeachable credentials, and I can't wait to hear them discuss the fights. It's a night where I'll scale back the blow-by-blow to make room for them to really discuss things and make their voices heard."

Kellerman, 38, grew up listening to Merchant, 80, call fights on HBO, has modeled his style after him and been groomed to replace him full time when Merchant retires. For the past few years, they have shared "World Championship Boxing" and pay-per-view assignments. (Kellerman also appears on "Boxing After Dark.")

"As usual, Sylvester Stallone was ahead of the curve," Kellerman joked about his appearance with Merchant in the "Rocky" movie. "When it was mentioned to me about doing the show together, I thought that it would be really fun if it worked out. I'm stoked that it's happening at least one time. In terms of sports commentary, Larry had a bigger influence on me than anyone else. He articulated the thoughtful point of view, and what I really liked is that the points he made weren't always the first things on your mind even if it was floating around in the back of your mind. And when he said it, you'd think, 'Exactly!' And that is what I try to do.

"The feeling I have is this will be a lot of fun and interesting. It's a cool situation and I'm glad it's happening. I grew up watching him and he has influenced me. We had to do a fight."

Some, of course, will look for conflict in their viewpoints. That was something that made the old pairing of Merchant and George Foreman so much fun to watch. They'd bicker about the way a fight was going while Lampley would referee.

"I'm as curious as the fans are to see how it turns out," Merchant said. "When I was with George, people always were excited when we disagreed. From my perspective, I didn't want to make that sideshow bigger than the fight. So I deliberately laid back rather than make that kind of a shtick. This is a different dynamic, and maybe Max and I will be too respectful. We should be able to agree to disagree. It would be unnatural if we always agreed. But I'm game for it, and I'll bring my best game and he'll bring his."

Then Merchant played off his instantly famous clash with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the ring after the fighter beat Victor Ortiz in September.

"I think you're always up for something new and it pumps you up, but the fight still comes first," Merchant said. "And if I was 50 years younger, I'd be the young guy."

On Tuesday the 2012 International Boxing Hall of Fame class was announced, with the induction ceremony at the Canastota, N.Y., shrine set for June 10.

As a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, I've been voting in the "modern" fighter category (meaning, for eligible boxers whose last fight was no earlier than 1943) for about a decade. I don't vote in the categories for observers, nonparticipants, pioneers and old-timers. They are voted on by the Hall of Fame's board of directors and historians selected by the Hall.

There were 45 names on the ballot for modern fighters this year, and electors could vote for up to 10, with only three to be elected. (If there is a tie, there could be more.)

I voted for five candidates, including the three newcomers to the ballot: Thomas Hearns, Mark "Too Sharp" Johnson and Dariusz Michalczewski. I also voted for a pair of holdovers whom I have been voting for in recent years, former featherweight champion Naseem Hamed and former junior flyweight champion Myung Woo Yuh.

Detroit's Hearns (61-5-1, 48 KOs) -- known as the "Hitman" and "Motor City Cobra" -- was a no-brainer in his first year on the ballot. He fought from 1977 to 2006. He should have been elected years ago, but he'd go a few years without fighting and then take a fight, which started his eligibility clock over. He was a five-division champion and one of the most popular fighters of his generation, and he had one of the greatest right hands ever. He also was part of the legendary foursome that included Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Roberto Duran, whose round-robin of megafights from welterweight to super middleweight carried boxing in the 1980s. Hearns won titles at welterweight, junior middleweight, middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight (twice) and electrified fans with numerous action fights.

I'm not going to recite his résumé, but it's extensive and memorable. Even though Hearns lost arguably the two biggest fights of his career -- a 1981 welterweight unification fight with Leonard, who stopped Hearns in the 14th round in one of the biggest fights in boxing history, and his third-round knockout loss to Hagler challenging for the middleweight championship in 1985 in what some consider the greatest action fight ever -- the HOF shouldn't exist if he isn't in it.

Johnson (44-5, 28 KOs) was perhaps the finest pure boxer of his generation, maybe the best fighter to ever come out of Washington, D.C., and won titles at flyweight and junior bantamweight.

Unfortunately, Johnson, a southpaw with speed and power, never had big paydays or great television exposure because he was in a small weight class and couldn't lure the biggest names of his era in and around his division into the ring, meaning Johnny Tapia, Danny Romero, Michael Carbajal and Ricardo Lopez. For the record, I would have picked Johnson over each of them except Lopez. The insiders and hard-core fans know how great Johnson was, which is why he was a pound-for-pound list stalwart during the prime of his career, from 1990 to 2006.

Poland's Michalczewski (48-2, 38 KOs) -- "The Tiger" -- fought most of his career in Germany, won 48 consecutive fights to start his career and claimed titles in two weight classes (light heavyweight and cruiserweight). But he is best known for his historical run at light heavyweight, where he made 23 defenses during his 1994-to-2003 reign, several years of which were spent as the lineal champion. In 1997, he outpointed Virgil Hill (a reasonable bet to make the HOF when he becomes eligible) to add two alphabet belts to his one and claim the lineal championship.

Unfortunately, there are two marks against Michalczewski, which is why some won't vote for him. Admittedly, he doesn't have a lot of big names on his record. Besides Hill, his best wins were probably against Graciano Rocchigiani and Montell Griffin. Also, he was never considered the best fighter at 175 pounds because he was a contemporary of Roy Jones Jr., who was the No. 1 fighter in the division and in all of boxing during Michalczewski's reign. They never fought, and both sides are to blame. It will go down as one of the most significant fights in history that never happened. But I voted for him because he was an outstanding fighter and because being No. 2 for all those years at 175 shouldn't be held against him just because the No. 1 guy was also No. 1 in the whole sport by a mile.

England's Hamed (36-1, 31 KOs) was flashy and rubbed a lot of people the wrong way with his outlandish trash talk and arrogant attitude. Sometimes I think people let that get in the way of the fact that, yes, he could fight, even if his technique was flawed and he relied too much on his massive, one-punch power. He also fought for only 10 years (1992 to 2002) and lost his biggest fight, a clear decision in a showdown with future Hall of Famer Marco Antonio Barrera in 2001, after which he fought only once more. I also dock him points for blatantly ducking Juan Manuel Marquez. However, a fighter must be judged on whom he did fight, and Hamed fought everyone else. When he was active, he brought excitement like nobody else and should be respected for his many accomplishments.

Not only did Hamed have massive power and a strong résumé, he gets points from me for changing the economics of the smaller divisions. Before Hamed, featherweights -- and even smaller fighters -- making seven-figure purses was almost unheard of. After the Hamed era, it became the norm for the smaller superstars.

Hamed was for years considered the best featherweight in the world, ranked on the pound-for-pound list, and in an era of watered-down titles and four major belts, he should have held all four simultaneously but for boxing's politics, which actively work against that. He defeated alphabet titleholders Steve Robinson (TKO8), Tom Johnson (TKO8) and Cesar Soto (W12) to claim belts. He also beat Wilfredo Vazquez (TKO7), who had been stripped of his version of the title for facing Hamed. Other notable names Hamed beat: Kevin Kelley (their 1997 fight was one of the most exciting fights of the decade), Wayne McCullough, Paul Ingle, Vuyani Bungu and Manuel Medina. Overall, Hamed defended his WBO version of the title 15 times and held the lineal 126-pound championship for three years, all while bringing extraordinary excitement and showmanship to a small weight class that had never before seen the infusion of money it enjoyed during Hamed's heyday.

South Korea's Yuh (38-1, 14 KOs) seems destined to be lost forever among voters, but I will keep checking off his name each year. He fought from 1982 to 1993, twice held versions of the junior flyweight title, went 7-1 against other titleholders and retired at age 29. He made a division-record 17 defenses during his first reign, which lasted six years, before losing to Hiroki Ioka via split decision. But Yuh regained the title in the immediate rematch, made one defense and then retired. I previously had voted for Yuh's countryman Jung-Koo Chang, who also was a junior flyweight champion and was elected to the HOF in 2010. They arguably are the two best fighters to come out of South Korea. It makes no sense that Chang has been elected but not Yuh. They were contemporaries with incredibly similar résumés. You can't have one in without the other, even if they both deserve points docked for never having fought each other.

Unlike in Las Vegas, where the MGM Grand or Mandalay Bay routinely open up their arenas to the public for free for the weigh-ins ahead of big fights, that's not the case for major New York fights. Madison Square Garden fights are typically closed affairs that are limited to commission members, the promoters, fighters, their teams and media.

But the grudge rematch between junior middleweight titlist Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito -- the hottest New York fight in years -- is an exception.

The fighters meet Saturday night (HBO PPV, 9 ET, $54.95) at the Garden, and promoter Top Rank and Garden officials decided to open the Theater at Madison Square Garden for the weigh-in to the public.

The doors to the Theater will open at 4 p.m. ET, with the weigh-in beginning at 5 p.m. If you want to attend, you need a ticket, but they will be issued at no cost.

Fans can pick up tickets (which are limited to one pair per person) at the Madison Square Garden box office during normal business hours through noon ET on Friday. They are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

The open weigh-in is no ploy in an effort to move tickets, either. The fight will be a clean sellout of more than 20,000. As of Wednesday, according to Top Rank, there were just a couple of hundred scattered tickets remaining for a fight that will generate a gate of about $3.4 million.

We all know that Antonio Margarito was caught red-handed trying to enter his January 2009 welterweight title fight with Shane Mosley at the Staples Center in Los Angeles wearing illegal hand wraps -- whether he knew they were loaded or not.

He was caught in the dressing room because of Mosley's astute trainer, Naazim Richardson, who insisted that the gloves and wraps be checked.

Margarito, who got beaten down and knocked out by Mosley, later had his license revoked in California and didn't fight for 16 months because of the illegal wraps (which contained elements of plaster). He has stuck by his story ever since -- that his then trainer, Javier Capetillo, was responsible. Margarito has claimed repeatedly that he didn't know anything about the loaded wraps.

But with the discovery, it certainly cast doubts about the results of Margarito's other fights, especially the one before he faced Mosley. That was an 11th-round knockout of Miguel Cotto in July 2008. Because of the way Margarito disfigured Cotto's face late in a bout that Cotto had been dominating early on, many believe Margarito got away with wearing illegal wraps in that fight in Las Vegas.

Cotto has called out Margarito for it, referring to him as "a criminal" as they prepare for a hotly anticipated grudge rematch at New York's Madison Square Garden on Saturday night (HBO PPV, 9 ET, $54.95).

But because we know Margarito tried to wear illegal wraps against Mosley, and if you believe that Margarito wore illegal wraps for the Cotto fight, it's fair to ask: What about Margarito's previous fights?

In his last fight before facing Cotto, in April 2008, Margarito was way ahead of Kermit Cintron on the scorecards before knocking him out in the sixth round to win a slice of the welterweight title.

Margarito also knocked out Cintron in the fifth round in an April 2005 title defense. Those were the first two losses of Cintron's career.

So does Cintron, who was stopped by Saul "Canelo" Alvarez last Saturday night in a junior middleweight title challenge, believe Margarito wore illegal wraps in their fights?

"I honestly don't know," Cintron said. "I have no proof to show that he used plaster [in] my fights, but only he knows. I'm a clean fighter. You know I go in there as a clean fighter and I go in there to do my job, and that's to put up a performance and try to come out of there with victories. It sure made him look bad after he got caught.

"Was there a lot of questions in my mind about it? Yes, but I have no proof to prove that he did use plaster, and I believe that if you're caught once, what makes [anyone] think that you haven't done it before?"

Although Cintron wouldn't outright accuse Margarito of fighting dirty against him, he said he did notice that he and Cotto were both cut, and badly hurt in a fight for the first time in their careers, against Margarito.

"It's one of them things, like the only fighter that's ever hurt me and that's cut me has been Margarito," Cintron said. "Only fighter that I've seen hurt Cotto bad, where he gets cut bad, it was against Margarito. I mean, it's a weird situation that we both fought Margarito and we both ended up the same way -- busted up.

"And you just never know. I don't know what to say about it. Again, I just go in there as a clean fighter and I always prepare myself the right way, to be ready to fight and have a clean fight."

Your random thoughts ...

• The last-minute, circus-like way that the New York State Athletic Commission handled the Antonio Margarito licensing situation, including forcing him to break camp in Mexico for an exam of his surgically repaired right eye less than two weeks before his Dec. 3 rematch with Miguel Cotto, at least lent itself to some good humor. On Twitter, the Fight Freaks offered some impressive, witty lines, including:

-- Can't Margarito just use some of that plaster to protect his eye?
-- Is the fight being sanctioned by the WB See?
-- Who sanctioned the exam? The Eye BF?
-- Will Margarito's camp have the doctor's gloves examined prior to the exam?
-- So is this a diamond eye exam or an interim eye exam?
-- Do they charge a sanctioning fee per eye or one fee for both of them?

At least the NYSAC, which should never have allowed the licensing to be drawn out to the 11th hour, came to its senses and licensed Margarito. But it doesn't excuse the fact that it created the mess by waiting until less than two weeks before the fight to handle the situation instead of doing it months ago.

• Speaking of Cotto-Margarito II, how freaking good was the first episode last week of HBO's "24/7 Cotto/Margarito"? Perhaps the single best episode in the history of the series. If you missed it, make sure you watch a replay. The opening few minutes set the stage for an enthralling half-hour as Cotto, for the first time that I have heard, said plainly that he believed Margarito wore loaded hand wraps in their first fight and called him a "criminal."

• I get asked all the time about the best atmospheres of fights I've covered. There have been so many great ones, but a few jump to mind immediately: Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Ricky Hatton at the MGM in Las Vegas (hands down the best, so far), Arturo Gatti-Micky Ward III at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J., and Felix Trinidad-William Joppy and Cotto-Zab Judah, both of which were held at Madison Square Garden. I am quite certain I will have another to add to the list after next week because I fully expect that Cotto-Margarito II at the Garden promises an incredible atmosphere. There will be 20,000 (mostly Puerto Rican Cotto fans) rocking the joint. I cannot wait.

• With HBO losing the Victor Ortiz-Andre Berto rematch to Showtime, it looks HBO will aim to kick off its new season with a possible Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. fight in late January or February. One possible opponent for Chavez is Andy Lee, according to Lou DiBella, Lee's promoter. DiBella told me that Top Rank's Bob Arum, Chavez's promoter, has called him about possibly making that fight. DiBella said he and Arum are planning to meet in New York next week when Arum is in town promoting Cotto-Margarito II. As for my thoughts on Chavez-Lee? Thumbs up. I like that fight.

• If David Lemieux rebounds to defeat Joachim Alcine on Dec. 10, another fight I'd like to see is Lemieux eventually challenging Chavez Jr. for his middleweight belt.

• Although Showtime bought Ortiz-Berto II, it is highly unusual that it's the only fight on the 2012 calendar for HBO or Showtime thus far. I know both networks are going through major changes at the top, with Stephen Espinoza having just started running Showtime Sports and Ken Hershman not due to take over the vacant job at HBO Sports until Jan. 9, but it's still unusual.

• Reflecting on the Thanksgiving holiday, I'd like to mention a few things I'm thankful for in terms of boxing: Manny Pacquiao and Mayweather. I want to see them fight each other as much as the next guy, but even apart, they are the biggest boxing stars in a sport that needs as many as it can get. … YouTube.com. Unable to watch many of the fights that go untelevised in the United States? YouTube is your friend. Usually within 24 hours of the fight being over, somebody somewhere on the planet has posted the video. … Heavyweight champions Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko. Some say their dominance is bad for boxing. I couldn't disagree more. I enjoy domination. If you want them out of boxing, the solution is simple: Find someone to beat them. Besides, they're true professionals, always show up in shape and are class people, which is something boxing could use more of. … Guys who come to rumble, such as Cotto, Brandon Rios, Jorge Arce, Tavoris Cloud, James Kirkland, Alfredo Angulo, Marcos Maidana, Erik Morales, Michael Katsidis and Giovani Segura. … The fans in Montreal and throughout Quebec. They turn out to support their fighters like nobody else, which is why fighters such as Lucian Bute and Jean Pascal wield impressive economic clout and fill up arenas north of the border.

• Congrats to Kathy Duva and her crew at Main Events for landing a deal for NBC Sports Network to buy fights from the promoter next year. Hopefully, Main Events will put the approximately $100,000 per-show license fee toward legitimate fights that will provide action and are meaningful. She should be able to accomplish exactly that with a budget double that of Showtime's "ShoBox," which regularly gives us very good fights. It's important for boxing that Duva does not fail.

• This is one of the weakest years I can remember when it comes to legitimate candidates for fighter of the year. Usually, there's an obvious choice, or even two. Not this year.

• Although it hasn't been announced yet, HBO and broadcaster Jim Lampley, the network's voice of boxing and a future International Boxing Hall of Famer, are developing a boxing studio show that Lampley will host and is supposed to begin in the first half of 2012. You can count on news from around boxing and discussion about the latest issues in the sport. It's set to begin as a quarterly program but could expand. This has been a long time coming. Despite a massive involvement in boxing, it has always perplexed me why HBO didn't support its coverage with this sort of show. Considering HBO has skin in the game, it's about time it backs it up with -- knowing Lampley -- what I expect to be intelligent boxing discourse.

• In light of the fact that Joel Casamayor tested positive for marijuana after his one-sided drubbing at the hands of junior welterweight titlist Timothy Bradley Jr., I guess we now know why he needed two trips to the scale to make weight. Probably had the munchies.

• This is much cooler than going down to Target or hitting JCPenney for a new pair of shorts, but also a lot more expensive. At a recently concluded auction filled with numerous pieces of incredible sports memorabilia, an unidentified buyer bought the trunks that Muhammad Ali wore in his first fight with Joe Frazier for $173,102. Hey, at least they are signed in three places by Ali.

• DVD pick of the week: Last Tuesday, I recalled one of the most significant anniversaries in boxing history by breaking out my DVD of a fight from 25 years ago -- Nov. 22, 1986 -- at the Las Vegas Hilton. That was when Mike Tyson destroyed Trevor Berbick on an ultra-memorable second-round knockout to become the youngest heavyweight champion in history and fulfilled the prediction of his late trainer and mentor, Cus D'Amato. Tyson was just 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old when he steamrolled Berbick to advance to 28-0 with 26 knockouts. The knockout was sweet. Berbick survived a knockdown in the opening moments of the second round before Tyson landed the title-winning left hook. The shot resulted in essentially three knockdowns: Berbick dropped from the punch, beat the count but fell again because he was disoriented; he then tried to get up again before falling across the ring, completely out of it, as referee Mills Lane called it off. That prompted then HBO announcer Barry Tompkins to rightfully proclaim, "And we have a new era in boxing!"

The saga of where the Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito fight will take place has now reached the level of surreal, with Cotto saying on a media teleconference Tuesday that if the fight isn't in New York, he won't fight.

Whoa.

Poor promoter Bob Arum sounded like he was about to have a heart attack when Cotto said that.

"I signed for this for New York," Cotto said when asked for his opinion about the possibility that the fight could be moved because of Margarito's licensing problem in New York. "I didn't sign this fight for somewhere else. I'm going to fight in New York. I'm not going to fight in another place. I'm not going to present myself in any other state. New York State. If New York says and the medical people from the commission say that Margarito is not able to fight because of his eye, any commission has to respect that."

Arum seemed at a loss for words, which is rare. He said he didn't know why we were even having the call before the New York State Athletic Commission took a vote Tuesday afternoon on Margarito's license.

Perhaps Arum forgot that it was his company that scheduled the call.
Anyway, later on the call a writer from Puerto Rico asked Cotto about the venue again. Cotto this time answered in Spanish, which was translated by Top Rank publicist Ricardo Jimenez.

Cotto, who would have massive backing from what will be a sellout crowd filled mostly with his Puerto Rican fans, reiterated his stance:

"When I signed for this fight with the company [Top Rank] and Margarito, the fight was to be in New York City and that's where the fight should be. It's not a question of giving [Margarito] an advantage [if it is somewhere else]. I signed to fight in New York City and that's where it should be."

At that point, Arum was clearly agitated and immediately ordered publicist Fred Sternburg to end the call. Then the line went dead.

Whether Cotto -- due to make a minimum of $5 million for the fight to Margarito's $2.5 million -- actually backs out if New York doesn't grant the license, remains to be seen. But for bombshells, it was about as big and bizarre as anything I have heard on any of the many hundreds of such calls I have participated in.

Cotto, of course, is scheduled to defend his junior middleweight title in a rematch against Margarito on Dec. 3 at Madison Square Garden in New York. If only it were that simple.

If you've followed this at all, you know that the NYSAC has not given Margarito a license yet because he suffered a serious eye injury in his one-sided loss to Manny Pacquiao last November.

Margarito suffered a broken orbital bone and developed a cataract. He eventually had cataract surgery and an artificial lens implant, two procedures that normally disqualify a fighter from being licensed in New York.

Top Rank was making plans to move the fight in the event New York denies Margarito's license, likely to the Pepsi Center in Denver -- although other venues have also been discussed, including Phoenix, Fort Worth and Arlington, Texas, and Biloxi and Southaven, Miss.

In last Wednesday's hearing to discuss the license, Margarito and Top Rank presented their experts, including the renowned doctor who operated on Margarito, who said Margarito should be licensed. On Friday, rather than voting, the commission ordered Margarito to see an expert it selected. So he broke camp in the mountains outside of Mexico City and flew to New York on Sunday night.

He spent Monday undergoing two exams. One was conducted by an expert selected by Top Rank, Dr. Kenneth Rosenthal, who is the president of the New York Intraocular Lens Implant Society. According to Top Rank's Carl Moretti, who was with Margarito at the appointment, Rosenthal's opinion was that Margarito was "fit to fight and it was like a travesty if he wouldn't be cleared to fight."

Top Rank made the appointment with Rosenthal just to have yet another opinion available for the commission.

After that exam, Margarito saw the expert the commission selected, Dr. Michael Goldstein, who was supposed to write a report on his findings and present them to the commission, which will vote Tuesday afternoon.

The three-member commission -- chairwoman Melvina Lathan, Edwin Torres and Thomas Santino -- will need to vote in favor of granting Margarito a license or, apparently, Cotto won't fight.

And the saga continues.

Under the cover of night Sunday, Antonio Margarito flew on a Top Rank-chartered private plane from his training camp in Mexico to New York for the purpose of having his surgically repaired right eye examined Monday by a New York State Athletic Commission-appointed ophthalmologist to decide whether Margarito is medically fit to be licensed for his scheduled Dec. 3 rematch with junior middleweight titlist Miguel Cotto at Madison Square Garden.

Margarito will be on a flight back to Mexico on Monday night, and the NYSAC is scheduled to decide the issue once and for all at a 3 p.m. ET hearing Tuesday. Nothing like waiting until the last minute.

The NYSAC -- chairwoman Melvina Lathan, Edwin Torres and Thomas Santino -- has handled this whole sorry episode like a bunch of amateurs who have no idea what they are doing.

Margarito, as we all know by now, suffered a serious eye injury in his one-sided destruction at the hands of Manny Pacquiao last November. Margarito hasn't fought since and has had surgery to remove a cataract and get an artificial lens put into his eye. Normally, these procedures would disqualify any fighter from getting a license not only in New York, but several other states, including boxing leader Nevada.

However, nothing in the rules says that New York can't license Margarito, so Top Rank decided to put the fight on at the Garden and the commission subsequently asked for medical paperwork regarding Margarito's health, including his eye. That's normal boxing business.

What is wrong, and what stinks here, is that the NYSAC waited until the 11th hour to make a decision that should have been made months ago. Now thousands of people -- including ticket-buying fans and everyone else associated with the fight -- are in limbo and tens of millions of dollars are at stake when it never should have come to this.

Lathan claimed during Friday's hearing on the matter that Top Rank failed to supply the necessary paperwork in time.

She ripped Margarito's attorney, David Moroso, saying, "For the record, we wouldn't be here where we are today if we had papers that were asked to be submitted way before we got them this time. We asked for these exam papers, we asked that we get this process started back in September, I believe. … We asked that all the paperwork be given to us so that we would not be here today at this point right now. It did not happen that way. I suggested that [Margarito] get his medicals, suggested that he get his paperwork in so that he can get his license before anything happened, so that if for some reason he were not deemed qualified or fit to be licensed, then you could have alternatives available. But that didn't happen, and so here we are today in a position where we don't wish to be, where it's totally unfair for my commission to be put in this position. I'm just as pissed off as anybody else, to be honest with you."

Moroso countered, saying Margarito's paperwork was submitted to the commission in September and that there had been quite a few "informal discussions between your doctors and ours."

Whichever version you believe, it was up to the commission to give Top Rank a firm deadline by which any paperwork or exams were due so that it would leave enough time to make a decision, not risk forcing the fight out of town less than two weeks before -- and with the Garden already nearly sold out.

At Friday's hearing, Top Rank offered to fly a commission-appointed specialist to a midway point to meet Margarito so that he wouldn't have to disrupt his camp during the most important week of training -- the last week in which he will spar -- to fly all the way to New York. The commission said it would consider the option and then informed Top Rank that Margarito had to come to New York, which he did Sunday night.

Still, the fight might not happen in New York, in which case Top Rank is ready to move it to another venue on less than two weeks' notice. According to the promoter, Denver's Pepsi Center is the most likely alternative, and company officials were there Sunday. A venue in Phoenix and multiple venues in Texas and Mississippi are also being considered. These are all places where buildings are available and Margarito would be licensed without issue.

"At least with the NBA lockout, there are buildings available," Top Rank's Bob Arum told me by phone over the weekend.

This whole thing is a mess and it's because of how irresponsibly the NYSAC has behaved.

The fight was agreed to in July. The site was selected not long after that. And then there was a news conference in New York to formally announce the fight in late September -- a news conference that Lathan attended, where she had her free lunch and was one of the speakers. She lauded the fighters and Top Rank. At that point, there wasn't a hint of a licensing issue, either with regard to Margarito's eye or the high-profile illegal hand wrap scandal he was at the center of that caused his suspension in California.

Lathan's presence at the news conference amounted to the commission's tacit endorsement of the fight, even if Margarito was not officially licensed at the time. (By the way, it's normal for a license to be handed out the week of the fight, often just before the weigh-in.)

"I don't understand her," Arum said of Lathan. "She knew he had eye surgery before we even had a first press conference."

Do you think for one second that Arum, a brilliant businessman, would have spent so significantly on the promotion and made a deal with the Garden and HBO PPV if he hadn't been given assurances from New York that Margarito's license was in the bag? And it's not as though Margarito's eye injury and surgery were a secret.

So tickets went on sale and the Garden was quickly headed for a sellout and an approximate $3.4 million gate. And now New York is threatening to not give Margarito a license two weeks before the fight? The NYSAC is making the WBC look good.

I have no quarrel with the NYSAC wanting to make sure Margarito is healthy enough to fight -- which his doctors (including highly regarded ophthalmologist Dr. Alan Crandall, who performed Margarito's surgery, and Dr. Rolando Toyo, who has worked as an eye doctor for multiple pro sports teams) swear he is, even if some of the commission doctors have reservations. But if the commission was so concerned, why didn't it have Margarito submit to an eye exam when he was in New York in September rather than wait until the last minute for this dog and pony show?

The fight is going to happen whether it's in New York or somewhere else, so it might as well be New York. I understand the NYSAC is supposedly trying to protect Margarito, but part of a commission's job is also to protect the consumer. How do you tell thousands of people who have bought tickets, booked flights and hotel rooms and planned their lives around the week of the fight that it's being kicked out of town on less than two weeks' notice? It's like the NFL moving the Super Bowl at the last minute. Do you think this mess is going to make any promoter want to bring a big fight to New York in the future?

I have received hundreds of tweets from people who have made travel plans for the fight and are now being held hostage by an inept commission. Those people aren't happy and I don't blame them.

Pawel Wolak, a junior middleweight contender on the undercard, has sold almost $50,000 in tickets, according to manager Cameron Dunkin. Yet Wolak, who should be solely focused on training, is being hounded by folks asking about the ticket situation and possible refunds. British lightweight contender John Murray, who will challenge titlist Brandon Rios, has fans flying from England to New York. The commission needs to think about all of the factors involved -- medical, financial and consumer -- before it makes a decision that should have been addressed at least two months ago.

All along, it has sounded to me like the NYSAC was just hoping Top Rank would replace Margarito with another opponent. Vanes Martirosyan, another Top Rank fighter, was discussed as a possibility and even signed a contract to fill in if Top Rank wanted to make a change. However, this isn't some two-bit show. This is a major HBO PPV event and one of the biggest fights in boxing. You don't alter the main event on two weeks' notice, especially for a fight where the Garden is so significant because of Cotto's enormous Puerto Rican fan base.

So now the commission is faced with a choice: It can either do the right thing and license Margarito, who will fight somewhere else if necessary, or it can stamp itself as an all-time joke by allowing the fight to go to another venue, blow a massive economic windfall for New York and cause unnecessary problems for all of those who incurred expenses and made travel plans.

"In all the years I've been in boxing, this is the most incredible experience I've had,” said a frustrated Arum.

He's probably telling the truth.

When the updated ESPN.com pound-for-pound rankings were published on Wednesday, I knew a firestorm was coming. That's because I dropped Manny Pacquiao, the longtime No. 1, to No. 2 and elevated Floyd Mayweather Jr. from No. 2 to No. 1.

Based on the massive feedback I have received, mainly on Twitter, half the people -- the Mayweather fans -- want to saint me, send me money and gifts and come over to mow my lawn. The other half -- the Pacquiao fans -- think I should perform impossible and painful acts on myself and hope I meet an untimely death sooner rather than later. All over a list that is entirely opinion based? Some people need to get their priorities in order.

Anyway, for however long it was that I had Pacquiao ranked at No. 1, I apparently was nothing more than a "Pactard," the common derisive name Mayweather fans have dubbed Pacquiao fans on the Internet. And now that I have moved Mayweather to No. 1, the Pacquiao fans believe I am nothing more than a "Flomo." What grade are we in?

The reality is, I am not in either camp. I simply call it like I see it, which is the job I'm paid to do. So it was in my estimation that Pacquiao's massive struggles against Juan Manuel Marquez, a great fighter in his own right, this past Saturday night warranted a demotion. After all, Mayweather very easily outpointed Marquez in late 2009 in an utterly one-sided fight, while Pacquiao had to fight tooth and nail for a debatable decision. Maybe Marquez's style will give Pacquiao problems every time they fight. Even if that's the case, it doesn't change the fact Pacquiao struggled.

Meanwhile, Mayweather is coming off a dominant (albeit controversial) fourth-round knockout of young Victor Ortiz on Sept. 17. Even though Mayweather hasn't been very active, it's quite clear that he remains at the top of his game and warrants the No. 1 spot based on his performance inside the ring.

Bottom line: Mayweather looked terrific in his fight, even if you were unsatisfied with the knockout because Ortiz wasn't looking (his fault, not Mayweather's), while Pacquiao looked very human against a smaller man that Mayweather had decisively beaten not long ago.

I scored Pacquiao-Marquez III a draw, 114-114. It would have been completely legitimate had Marquez gotten the victory. Although Pacquiao has been on a great run in recent years and has been more active than Mayweather, my honest belief is that based on how each man looks right now -- not last year or two years ago -- Mayweather deserves to be ranked slightly ahead of Pacquiao.

It doesn't mean I'm suddenly a Mayweather sycophant who will blindly believe whatever he and his team say or that he can do no wrong. And it doesn't mean I'm a Pacquiao "hater" (what a childish term). I respect both fighters' games. Immensely.

Pound-for-pound rankings -- which, frankly, are meant to be fun -- are generally "What have you done for me lately?" measures. It's a snapshot of the here and now. And in the here and now, Mayweather looked a lot better than Pacquiao. Even Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's great trainer, admitted that Pacquiao "just had a bad night."

Pound-for-pound status must be earned every time out. Nobody is entitled to remain in their position just because they achieved it.

So for the time being, in my opinion, Mayweather is No. 1 and Pacquiao is No. 2. If you think otherwise, fine. No problem. Make your own list. And I promise not to curse at you or threaten your family like some of the morons on Twitter do to me daily.

There is, however, one way to settle the issue:

Mayweather and Pacquiao must fight inside the ring. Only then will we have our true answer about who is No. 1.

Joe Frazier, who died Monday night at age 67 after a short battle with liver cancer, is inextricably linked to Muhammad Ali because of their three epic fights. But there was also George Foreman, the other heavyweight among the era's big three.

Foreman lost the heavyweight title to Ali in the October 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" in Zaire, but 1½ years earlier, on Jan. 22, 1973 at National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica, Foreman won the heavyweight championship from Frazier.

The bigger Foreman knocked down Frazier three times in the first round, and three more times in the second round -- prompting Howard Cosell's famous "Down goes Frazier!" cry -- to win the title for the first time.

As former champions, the fighters met again 3½ years later at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, with Foreman scoring a pair of knockdowns in the fifth round to stop Frazier. Foreman and Ali are the only men who ever defeated Frazier.

Over the years, Foreman and Frazier developed a friendship, and Foreman was understandably saddened by his friend's passing. Here is what Foreman had to say about Frazier on Tuesday:

"The term 'one and only' has been widely used to introduce many a celebrity, athlete and politician. Generally, they've appeared in print, TV or movies. With most of these folks, 'one and only' is the last definition they deserve.

"But this is not the case with 'Smokin'' Joe Frazier. Truly the one and only.

"Joe Frazier, for me, was the first champion I followed and studied. I wanted to fight him one day.

"With Joe, the first time we met, I extended my hand for a handshake. He held back his hand and said, 'George, meet my wife.' After I greeted his misses, he then said, 'Hello and nice to meet you, George,' with a firm handshake. Nothing weak in his game.

"Joe Frazier had journeyed from the southern part of the U.S.A. [South Carolina to Philadelphia], worked hard to provide for his wife and children, making sure they'd have a better life than the one he found so hard. They would get a good education and a chance to take part in the American dream, which meant no bowing down to any man, woman or child.

"Church and service to almighty God would be first in the family's life. Preaching to your kids is one thing, but example was another. Even his fighting style was his way of life. When the bell rings, he would not back up from King Kong! I know. I knocked Joe down six times in our first fight. When our fight was over, Joe was on his feet looking for me.

"If you were a man, you got a handshake. All women would get a personal 'yes, ma'am' from Joe. It didn't matter the color of your skin. If you wanted to be friends, you could. If you preferred not, Joe was willing to slam down anywhere, then a handshake after.
When his fellow man had mean a hurtful names for him, Joe got his band together and toured the world singing and dancing the Joe Frazier story. The world knows Joe Frazier did it his way.

"Talk about Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, even me. But the fact is, there is only one common, ordinary, everyday Joe, and he is 'The One and Only Joe Frazier.'"

I've heard a lot of crazy rumors and stories in my years on the boxing beat, but Monday I heard one of the craziest ever: that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is looking to make Erik Morales his opponent on May 5, the date Mayweather announced last week that he would return to fight an undetermined opponent at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Let's get this out of the way quickly: It's not true.
I ignored it at first because I get tons of tweets that are nonsensical. But throughout the day, I received a steady and overwhelming stream of them from Fight Freaks asking me if it was true. Others, without a shred of actual information, simply believed the rumor and slammed Mayweather for trying to make a fight that would be viewed as an utter mismatch of the highest order.

About a decade ago, when Mayweather was junior lightweight champ and Morales, in his prime, was taking care of business at featherweight, it might have been an interesting fight. Now, with Mayweather still going strong as an elite welterweight and with Morales far past his prime as a junior welterweight, it would be a massacre.

The rumor apparently began with an interview that Golden Boy matchmaker Eric Gomez gave to a Mexican reporter this past week in Cancun, where he was working on the James Kirkland-Alfredo Angulo fight.

Golden Boy promotes Morales, and although it doesn't have Mayweather under contract, it has promoted his bouts on a fight-by-fight basis for the past several years.

When I called Gomez on Monday afternoon to ask if there is any truth to the rumor, he explained that a reporter had asked him if a Mayweather-Morales fight was possible. It was a silly question to begin with, but Gomez said his answer was that, sure, Morales would like to fight Mayweather because he always wants to fight the best, but Mayweather was the one in position to pick and choose his opponents.

That's a long, long way from "they are working on a fight," as some apparently took it to mean.

According to Gomez, nobody from Mayweather's camp has ever remotely suggested that Mayweather would (or wants to) face Morales. Gomez said there has been no talk at the company about such a fight.

The fact that Morales wants to fight Mayweather is no surprise. Probably every single fighter on the planet would like to fight Mayweather, because it would translate to a career-high payday. So that Morales is one of the many who wants to fight Floyd isn't exactly news. Equating his desire to a plan for the fight is a monstrous reach.

"It's not true," Golden Boy promoter Richard Schaefer told me Monday night. "It is absolutely not true."

If Mayweather was looking to fight Morales, believe me, I'd be the first to slam him. But it doesn't seem that he is -- despite what many are tweeting.

Six years into his professional career, middleweight Peter "Kid Chocolate" Quillin is ready to bust out. He has talent, a fan-friendly style, a great nickname and an outgoing personality.

But it hasn't been the easiest of rides despite his perfect record and great potential. Just as Quillin (25-0, 19 KOs) was beginning to gain traction and was on the verge of gaining significant television exposure in 2008, he was forced to the sideline with a variety of injuries, one after another.

All told, Quillin was out for 17 months, finally returning to action in February 2010. Then he was out for another 10 months.

"I had a hand injury with my right thumb. That took me out," Quillin said. "Then I had appendicitis, and then I had a fracture all over the bone [in my thumb]. I was sparring [with cruiserweight titlist Guillermo Jones, who is much bigger] and a lot of people asked why you were in there with a guy like that. You just need a guy that can stand in there with me, and I get the good work that I need. So by all means, [Jones] was a nice fighter and everything like that, so it happened the way it happened.

"I don't have any regrets about it or any doubts about it. I've moved on from there and I put that behind me. I know 2012 is going to be one of my biggest years yet."

It won't be if Quillin loses to Craig McEwan on Saturday night (HBO, 10:15 ET/PT) in Cancun. Their fight opens the broadcast headlined by the junior middleweight match between Alfredo Angulo and James Kirkland.

At the end of 2010, and when he was finally healthy, Quillin signed with Golden Boy and has gotten on a roll. Golden Boy has kept him busy, and Quillin has responded with four consecutive knockouts in the four fights he has had since December. Granted, Quillin hasn't faced the most difficult opposition, although he did look good against the best of those opponents, former super middleweight title challenger Jesse Brinkley, whom he knocked out in the third round in April on a Telefutura card.

Despite the injuries and time off, the 28-year-old Quillin, who trains at Freddie Roach's Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, Calif. (where McEwan used to train), said he remained positive about his situation. Judging by his engaging personality, I can't say I'm surprised.

"I can never rush anything, and I never can be negative about any situation," Quillin said. "I took me having the layoffs as a sign of what God was trying to give me. He was trying to give me experience. He was trying to give me a humble mind. He was trying to give me focus. So with those injuries, it kind of helped me -- sitting out, being able to watch other boxers and being able to gain the experience of being a professional boxer.

"So with that being said, I knew exactly where I was headed at. I couldn't have more to ask for than coming back with all those injuries and still fighting and being on one of the biggest platforms out there, HBO Boxing."

McEwan (19-1, 10 KOs), who is from Scotland and was a standout amateur, is coming off his first loss. Andy Lee knocked him out in the 10th round on HBO in an excellent March fight for which McEwan led on one scorecard and was even on the other two at the time of the stoppage.

Quillin said he isn't paying attention to McEwan's loss.

"I respect any fighter that I step in the ring with," Quillin said. "Craig McEwan is that other step for me to step in the ring with, and I'm looking across the ring and Craig is going to look at me, and I'm going to look at Craig, and this is the type of fight that fight fans love to see. Craig will put everything on the line, I'll put everything on the line, and this is a fight to be made.

"I'm glad to have this opportunity. I never took anybody lightly, so I took Craig like he's a world champion, and with this fight you're going to see what hard work is all made of."

Whether you bought a ticket to the Madison Square Garden Theater in New York or just sacked out on the couch to watch Nonito Donaire's bantamweight title defense against Omar Narvaez on HBO -- or on any of the numerous overseas networks that showed the Oct. 22 fight around the world -- the end result must have been disgust.

While Donaire fought like a professional, Narvaez, a two-division titleholder who moved up to challenge for two 118-pound belts, did not. All Narvaez seemed interested in doing was surviving 12 rounds, taking his check and going home.

It was a miserable display, a stinker of a fight and a huge disappointment for all -- except maybe Narvaez, who despite taking his first loss, survived without taking much punishment and had the audacity to raise his arms in victory after the pathetic performance. He left New York knowing he could simply return to junior bantamweight, where he still holds a title.

Other than maybe Donaire, who apologized profusely after the fight even though the wretchedness of it all wasn't his fault, nobody was more upset than Top Rank president Todd duBoef, whose company promoted the fight.

"I felt like I was robbed, like the guy took my money and didn't fight, and it was infuriating," duBoef told me recently. "And the worst thing was that after the 12th round, he jumped on the ropes and raised his arms like he won the fight, and he did it right in front of me. I wanted to pull him off the damn ropes, I was so mad. It was incredibly frustrating."

DuBoef and his staff did a tremendous job promoting Donaire's East Coast debut. The Theater was only about 300 tickets short of a sellout. The energy in the arena throughout the undercard was terrific and the crowd was psyched for a good main event.

I was there covering the fight, and duBoef was not exaggerating when he said, "It was electric. The crowd was great and they wanted to root for something. Then Narvaez didn't fight. It was a total energy deflator. You invest in a product, in bringing action to the fans, and one of the participants lays an egg, doesn't even try. It was just so disappointing."

Narvaez's side was paid, according to duBoef, in excess of $250,000 for the non-effort.

All duBoef said he could do on his flight home to Las Vegas was think about what he could do to ensure it doesn't happen again.

He came up with an idea that just might work -- if he can persuade the fighters and their managers to buy into it.

What duBoef would like to do is guarantee each fighter his purse, which might be a little smaller than it has been. But to make up the difference he wants to leave a big pot of bonus money for the winner of the fight. He is toying with the idea of an extra $100,000 to go to the winner, which would, theoretically, incentivize both fighters to not just show up, but to try to win.

He wants to get back to prizefighting and wants to start it with Donaire's next fight, which could take place as a pay-per-view headliner in February. (The reason for a possible pay-per-view is because duBoef wants to begin planning for Donaire's move up to junior featherweight in the coming weeks, but neither HBO nor Showtime has scheduled any 2012 events while they deal with the massive changes to their boxing departments brought on by Ken Hershman's departure from Showtime to take over HBO Sports beginning Jan. 9.)

"I want to get back to the principle of prizefighting," duBoef said. "This is trying to correct our business model. We got dysfunctional, and I want to fix it in some way. The way the dynamics work now is to guarantee a lot of money for the fighters to show up -- basically an appearance fee -- but not necessarily more money if they win.

"I felt terrible about the fight and it's hit a nerve with me. I paid for Narvaez's best effort, but he didn't give that. You pay for a prizefight, you want to see a prizefight. You don't want to see a waltz."

DuBoef made a great analogy when he compared the way boxing is structured to other sports.

"If you participate in a golf tournament and you win, you get a pot of gold," he said. "If you win the U.S. Open, you get more money than if you finish second. If you win the Daytona 500 or Wimbledon, you get more money. You get the pot of gold, not just an appearance fee.

"The pot of gold in our business, for the athletes, is usually related to the success of the promotion, not the success of their actions in the ring. I think it's always been something I've thought about, but after that [Donaire-Narvaez] fight, I just think I have to do something.

"It's easy for everybody to blame us for terrible matchmaking or getting the wrong guy for Nonito to fight, but if Narvaez shows up the way he has shown up for his entire career, it's a hell of an entertaining fight."

DuBoef, who said Donaire's team was warm to the idea, wants to implement the bonus idea in other fights and wants to start with Donaire's next bout.

"On Nonito's next fight, my intention is to structure the deal so there's maybe a $100,000 pot for the winner on top of the guarantee," duBoef said. "Let's see if it invigorates the opponent to try to win, and then maybe we implement it across the board."

Here's hoping duBoef sets his plan in motion. I think it could create more interest in some fights for fans knowing that the fighters were fighting for an extra prize. It certainly would be a significant carrot for fighters to chase if they know they can add an extra $100,000 to their purse.

I'm with duBoef on this one. Anything to put the "prize" back in "prizefighting" is worth a shot.

Your random thoughts ...

• Game 6 of the World Series on Thursday night -- when the Cardinals made an amazing comeback against the Rangers to win on David Freese's walk-off homer in the 11th inning, after twice being down to their final strike in the ninth and 10th innings -- was so good that I almost feel like sending somebody a $54.95 pay-per-view fee. The game was baseball's equivalent to Diego Corrales getting off the deck twice in the 10th round to knock out Jose Luis Castillo for a jaw-dropping, dramatic finish in the best fight I have ever covered.

• Congratulations to Floyd Mayweather Jr. for being acquitted this week of misdemeanor harassment charges alleging that he threatened the lives of two security guards in his gated community. That's one case down and something like five to go.

• I love Top Rank's idea of matching Brandon Rios and Yuriorkis Gamboa by next summer. That's an action fight, for sure. Just don't let Bob Arum get any ideas about "marinating" anything. We saw how well that worked out for Gamboa and Juan Manuel Lopez, who got drilled before they could meet. Rios will fight Dec. 3, Gamboa in early 2012 and then let's get it on.

• I am looking forward to Dec. 3 about as much as I have ever looked forward to a boxing day. I'll start off by being part of the broadcast team that will call a heavyweight doubleheader on Epix featuring fights involving Alexander Povetkin and Robert Helenius in the late afternoon from a studio in New York and then walk across the street to Madison Square Garden to cover the Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito II card. Now that is a fun day.

• When I was talking to trainer Emanuel Steward the other day, he agreed that Wladimir Klitschko, whom he trains, should dispose of Jean-Marc Mormeck early when they fight Dec. 10. He also mentioned that Klitschko would like to come back to the United States to fight next year, and mentioned two possible opponents who intrigue him: Cristobal Arreola, a legitimate heavyweight contender who lost his only title fight to Vitali Klitschko, and former light heavyweight champ Antonio Tarver, who is now fighting at cruiserweight but has had one unimpressive win at heavyweight against a journeyman opponent. No disrespect to Tarver, who has been a tremendous fighter, but the fact he is viewed as a viable opponent for Klitschko shows just how bad the division is. Tarver is 42, has fought only three times in three years and is way, way smaller than Klitschko. Tarver has zero chance against Klitschko. Zip. None. Nada. I'd rather see him fight Roy Jones Jr. for a fourth time. Well, OK, just kidding about that.

• Occasionally, I wake up from a nightmare in which somebody tries to make a Bernard Hopkins-Chad Dawson rematch.

• Former light heavyweight champ Jean Pascal may not have a title anymore and may not have the skills of Dawson or the chin and guile of Hopkins, but because he can fill up an arena in Montreal with passionate ticket buyers, he's the most important 175-pounder in the world. Put it this way: Hopkins-Dawson generated a hair less than $286,000 in ticket sales. Pascal's fight in May against Hopkins generated about $2.5 million. That's economic muscle. A fight between Pascal and super middleweight titlist Lucian Bute, Montreal's other boxing star, would probably cause the city to shut down if it ever happened.

• Glen Johnson and Bute, who fight Nov. 5 on Showtime, estimated on a teleconference call this week that when they were in training camp together a couple of years ago they sparred nearly 100 rounds together. I think it's safe to say that when they fight each other for real, neither is going to be showing the other guy much he hasn't seen.

• No disrespect to Timothy Bradley Jr., who I like personally and happen to think is one helluva fighter, but it annoys the heck out of me to continually hear him say that he didn't think beating Amir Khan would have done anything for his career had they met in a July unification fight as had been expected. This coming from a guy who will instead face the faded Joel Casamayor in nothing more than an appearance fight on the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez III undercard Nov. 12. Bradley needs to remember that he was the one who called out Khan and then ducked him after Khan called his bluff and offered him a 50-50 deal -- unheard of when one guy (Khan) brings way more economic muscle to a promotion. If Bradley was so confident about the fight, he could have beaten Khan for a career-high payday (at least $1.4 million), avoided a breach of contract lawsuit from promoters Gary Shaw and Ken Thompson and still signed with Top Rank in time to fight Casamayor as a warm up for a potential fight with Pacquiao.

• Paging Sakio Bika.

• Unfortunately, Matthew Macklin (who got ripped off challenging middleweight titlist Felix Sturm) won't fight again before the end of the year. So let's just make a prediction now: His next fight will be St. Patrick's Day weekend in New York challenging middleweight champ Sergio Martinez, with Andy Lee on the undercard in a solid fight.

• I liked the idea of the proposed middleweight unification bout between Daniel Geale and Dmitry Pirog as the headliner for Showtime's Dec. 31 card. Showtime wound up deciding to do a different fight, but I hope the network will revisit making that match in early 2012.

• How can junior middleweights Carlos Molina and Erislandy Lara, who fought to a draw earlier in the year and who are both coming off impressive recent performances, not have a single thing remotely lined up for the rest of the year?

• Write it down: Featherweight Mikey Garcia will win a world title. Probably more than one.

• I'm looking forward to seeing British welterweight contender Kell Brook fight in person on the Andre Ward-Carl Froch undercard in Atlantic City on Dec. 17. And here's hoping I never have to see Omar Narvaez impersonate a fighter in person ever again after his shameful performance against Nonito Donaire last week. No truth to the nasty rumor that Narvaez came into the fight with an injured little toe. Narvaez's performance made David "The Flopper" Haye look like a true warrior against Wlad Klitschko.

• I think flyweight titlist Pongsaklek Wonjongkam probably clinched a spot in the International Boxing Hall of Fame with his convincing win against Edgar Sosa last week.

• A trio of birthday wishes this week to Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer (who hit the big 5-0!), Golden Boy COO Dave "The Itsk" Itskowitch, and former welterweight and junior welterweight champ Zab Judah.

• Schaefer mentioned his desire to put on a card in early 2012 featuring Marcos Maidana-Erik Morales II and Antonio DeMarco-Jorge Linares II. To that, I say, on behalf of Fight Freaks everywhere, yes, please.

Imagine being junior middleweight Carlos Molina right about now and trying to understand something that often simply makes no sense: the business side of boxing.

First, a little background to understand why Molina has every right to be disgusted.

After sitting idle for almost two years during the prime of his career while working through a nasty promotional dispute with Don King, Molina finally returned with a vengeance in March.

As a big underdog, the 28-year-old Molina fought to a majority draw with Erislandy Lara in an ESPN fight. A draw was a big enough accomplishment for Molina, considering how hot Lara was, but many believed Molina had clearly won. The draw looks even better when you consider that in Lara's next fight, he faced Paul Williams on HBO in July and was on the wrong end of one of the worst decisions of the year (for which the judges, in an unprecedented move, were suspended by New Jersey officials for their horrible scoring).

Just a month after drawing with Lara, Molina jumped at the chance to fill in on short notice to fight Allen Conyers in another "Friday Night Fights" main event. Molina looked great as he knocked out Conyers in the seventh round.

Those two strong outings led to the biggest opportunity of Molina's career, a fight on Showtime in July against former welterweight titlist Kermit Cintron on the Brandon Rios-Urbano Antillon undercard.

Cintron was the clear favorite, but Molina (19-4-2, 6 KOs) pulled another surprise. He took the listless Cintron apart. Schooled him. Left no doubt. Basically beat him like a drum for a lopsided unanimous decision, 98-92 on all three scorecards. It was Cintron's second consecutive loss. A year earlier, he had fallen -- some say jumped -- out of the ring against Williams and showed no effort to continue in what became a fourth-round technical decision loss.

Molina's strong three-fight run following the layoff helped launch him into the 154-pound division's top 10. Nobody handed him the status. He earned it.

In a fair world, Molina would be one of the top candidates to land a title shot, based on his recent r&#233sum&#233. At the very least, he would rank ahead of Cintron, who came off the loss to Molina to record a lackluster decision against Antwone Smith in a forgettable August fight.

Yet instead of Molina getting the call for a title shot, incredibly it is the wholly undeserving Cintron who will lace 'em up for a shot at titleholder Saul "Canelo" Alvarez in an HBO main event on Nov. 26.

"That sums it up right there, the way boxing is," a dejected Molina said. "I won the fight and they give the shot to the guy I beat. They didn't even offer me the fight. Why?"

Leon Margules, who co-promotes Molina with Luis DeCubas Sr., is also ticked off -- and I don't blame him, or Molina.

"I understand that fighters don't want to lose. That's understandable," Margules said. "But what about HBO letting Alvarez take the easier road by fighting a guy my guy just beat? He destroyed Cintron and, despite that somehow they are putting Cintron in while Carlos' phone doesn't ring. What happened to serving the paying customers by putting on the best fights between the best fighters? Carlos will fight anyone in the world at 154 or 147 pounds."

Margules told ESPN.com he has let HBO and Showtime know that Molina will literally fight any junior middleweight or welterweight they want him to fight.

With "Friday Night Fights" off the air from August until January and the premium networks booked up with no room at the inn for Molina, he has had no luck securing a fight, despite discussions for a whole slew of them that went nowhere.

Margules listed the fights that were discussed but not made.

He said there were "preliminary discussions" with Top Rank's Bob Arum about matching Molina with welterweight contender Mike Jones on the Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito HBO PPV card on Dec. 3, but ultimately that fight went to Sebastian Lujan.

Margules said he had similar talks with Arum about matching Molina with junior middleweight contender Vanes Martirosyan and with co-promoters Artie Pelullo and Gary Shaw about a fight with former junior middleweight titlist Sergiy Dzinziruk.

Margules also said there was a discussion with promoter Dan Goossen about a fight with Williams, but he isn't fighting for the rest of the year. Margules said he also proposed a rematch with Lara to Golden Boy and had a conversation with Showtime about matching Molina with junior middleweight titlist Cornelius "K9" Bundrage on the network's Dec. 31 card, which remains unsettled.

"Carlos was ready to fight anybody," Margules said. "But nobody would fight him. You've got a fighter who comes back from two years off and scores [a huge win and a draw against] two top guys and knocks out another well-thought-of fighter on ESPN in impressive fashion. It's a Cinderella story. Carlos is an exciting fighter who comes forward and throws a lot of punches.

"He outboxes these guys with old-school techniques. So why is he getting stepped over for a shot at Canelo?

"It's not like HBO tried to make the better fight and Carlos wasn't available. His phone never rang. Situations like this are a problem for our sport. It's disgraceful. Maybe with the new regime beginning over at HBO, these kinds of things will no longer happen."

To make ends meet, Molina has taken work as a sparring partner. He helped middleweight Andy Lee prepare for his Oct. 1 victory against Brian Vera.

So while Cintron was at a media conference in Mexico City on Wednesday announcing his six-figure title shot against Alvarez, Molina was left wondering why it wasn't him.

"Hopefully, one of these other guys on top will have what it takes to fight me," he said. "I'll just stay in shape and wait it out."

Life isn't fair. Boxing is even less so.

I remember the first time I saw junior lightweight contender Adrien Broner fight. It was November 2008 and he took apart Terrance Jett en route to a sixth-round knockout in his fourth professional fight on the Ricky Hatton-Paulie Malignaggi undercard at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Shelly Finkel, Broner's manager at the time, told me a bit about him and I was interested in seeing him for myself. Broner looked like a can't-miss prospect that night -- and has most nights since then.

Two weeks later, I was back at the MGM Grand for Manny Pacquiao's demolition of Oscar De La Hoya and Broner was again on the undercard. I had just finished making an ESPN appearance to preview the main event and was still in the media center when Broner's fight began airing on the big screen. I stood and watched the bout with former HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg, who asked what I knew about Broner. I gave him the lowdown and we watched as Broner destroyed Scott Furney in the first round to move to 5-0 with five knockouts.

It was hard not to be impressed with Broner's speed, power and poise. I said to Greenburg that I was quite sure in a couple of years Broner would be on HBO. So it's no surprise that the fighter's last two bouts were aired by the network -- a close decision in a dreadful fight with former junior featherweight titlist Daniel Ponce De Leon in March and a sensational first-round knockout of Jason Litzau in June.

Now Broner (21-0, 17 KOs), who turned 22 in July, will be back on HBO for a third consecutive appearance -- some say that is due to manager Al Haymon's massive influence at HBO -- when he faces obscure Vicente Rodriguez (34-2-1, 19 KOs) of Argentina for a vacant 130-pound title on Nov. 26.

"My first world title fight, it surprisingly came so fast, but we knew it would come sooner or later," Broner told me Tuesday as he was on his way to the U.S. Bank Arena for the formal news conference to announce the Rodriguez bout. "I'm definitely pumped for it and ready to rise to the occasion."

We can debate all we want about the merits of Broner facing an unknown fighter on HBO, or even the fact that he was invited back by the network for the Litzau bout after the abominable fight with Ponce De Leon. But one thing is quite certain: Broner is a tremendous talent in the Floyd Mayweather Jr. mold and might already be the best fighter in the world in the weak 130-pound weight division. He is nicknamed "The Problem," presumably because he is going to be a problem for opponents for many years to come.

He is also another in a long line of fighters to come out of Cincinnati, where the fight with Rodriguez will take place as part of a split-site tripleheader that will also feature 2008 U.S. Olympian Gary Russell Jr. (18-0, 10 KOs) against an opponent to be determined, with the televised main event being Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (38-0-1, 28 KOs) in a junior middleweight title defense against Kermit Cintron (33-4-1, 28 KOs) from Mexico.

Broner is young and excitable. He says some dopey things -- just watch his YouTube videos -- and can talk trash with the best of them. He's a very confident kid, to put it mildly, but a playful one, too.

He is also quite aware of the great lineage of Cincinnati boxing and the fact that he is next in line.

It's rare to hear a young fighter invoke the name of all-time great Ezzard Charles, the former heavyweight champion, but Broner knows all about the Hall of Famer -- probably because Charles' nickname was "The Cincinnati Cobra."

Broner is also friends with Cincinnatians Ricardo Williams Jr., a 2000 Olympic silver medalist who never came close to living up to his potential, and Rau'shee Warren, a three-time U.S. Olympian who will go for gold next year in London.

"I grew up with Ricardo and I've known Rau'shee since I was 6," Broner said. "He's like a big brother to me."

There is also former longtime heavyweight contender Larry Donald, whom Broner said "still comes around and trains a little bit." And former heavyweight titleholder Tony Tubbs, whom Broner also sees from time to time.

He also knows former bantamweight champ Tim Austin, who carried the nickname "The Cincinnati Kid" and headlined the last HBO card in the city all the way back in 2001.

"He used to come to the gym and spar when I was like 12," Broner said, "and some of the kids would get some rounds in with him, but I didn't spar with him because I saw that he hit too hard."

And then there is the most famous of all Cincinnati fighters: Hall of Fame former junior welterweight champion Aaron Pryor.

"I see him all the time," Broner said.

Pryor is a regular at Broner's fights. He has walked him into the ring, and Broner said he will do so again when he fights Rodriguez for the belt.

"It lifts me because he was so great in the sport, and having him behind me, it makes me go out there and try to accomplish what he did or even better," Broner said. "That is what I am pushing to do, and I am on the right path -- 21-0, 17 knockouts. I will just keep working hard and let's try to make the best of it. I don't see nobody who's going to be beat me in this weight class or will be a challenge. But whoever they bring me, we will see what they will do. I am just here to get the victory and look good."

And do it at home.

"My name is buzzin' through the city now," Broner said. "And I think people want to come out and see me fight and take this title."