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Your weekly random thoughts ...

• Zab Judah is a like a cat with nine lives, but he's using them up quickly. The temperamental former undisputed welterweight champion cost himself a minimum $800,000 payday against Shane Mosley when he sliced up his right arm and needed 50 stitches to close the wounds, forcing their fight, which was supposed be on Saturday night, to be canceled. The official story put out by Judah's team was that he had accidentally put his arm through a glass shower door. However, the real story, from what I am told by multiple people on the inside who didn't want to be quoted, is that Judah actually got into a serious beef with his father and trainer, Yoel Judah, and he threw a temper tantrum, which resulted in Judah angrily putting his arm through the steam room shower door at the Top Rank gym in Las Vegas. Although Judah won't get the payday to fight Mosley, he did land an Aug. 2 HBO fight against Joshua Clottey for a vacant belt. Won't Judah ever learn to control himself? He's already had two suspensions and hefty fines in Nevada for bad behavior during fights. I view this latest episode as Judah receiving a de facto fine of about $400,000 -- the approximate difference between what he would have made to fight Mosley and what he will make against Clottey.

• Although neither Ricky Hatton's victory against Juan Lazcano nor Paulie Malignaggi's win against Lovemore N'Dou last week were classic fights, wasn't it great to watch a live championship card on a Saturday afternoon? One thing I find myself wondering, however, is this: Why do cards like that one cost HBO millions of dollars, yet Versus was able to buy this doubleheader for low six figures?

• After watching the way Hatton fought Lazcano in his first fight since being knocked silly by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in December, one thing is very clear: Hatton is still very good, but he is not the fighter he once was. The Hatton who was at his best against Kostya Tszyu in mid-2005 would have knocked Lazcano stiff. Although Hatton dominated on the scorecards against Lazcano, it was not an easy fight. And for at least a brief moment in the 10th round, Lazcano actually lived up to his nickname -- "The Hispanic Causing Panic"-- when he came oh-so-close to at least knocking down Hatton.

• Speaking of Lazcano's big moment in the 10th round, all of the British fans who were so upset (wrongly, in my opinion) with the way referee Joe Cortez officiated Hatton's fight against Mayweather, you're all even now after referee Howard Foster's ridiculous hometown move of calling a timeout at the exact moment when Lazcano was on the verge of knocking Hatton down, or maybe even out, in order to have his shoelace tied. I don't ever want to hear Hatton fans whine about a referee ever again after that travesty.

• OK, so what was the deal with Malignaggi's hair anyway? In one of the more bizarre things I've ever seen in a boxing ring, cutman Danny Milano had to cut off strands of Malignaggi's horrible extensions during the fight because they continually were getting in his face. I think Malignaggi, at the very least, owes Milano an extra $20 for giving him a haircut.

• I guess it's all's well that ends well now that HBO has relented and will go forward with a countdown show to preview Miguel Cotto's July 26 showdown with Antonio Margarito. But why on earth wasn't this an automatic call in the first place? That HBO didn't just pencil one in from the start was preposterous. How could a network that produced a countdown show for Oscar De La Hoya's sparring session with Steve Forbes, a mismatch from the start, not want to produce one for one of the best matchups of the year? It seemed awfully hypocritical. But HBO, which has paper-thin skin when it comes to criticism, ultimately relented on a Cotto-Margarito show after getting an early dose of criticism from fans and press. We can make a difference.

• So, Anthony Mundine defeated Sam Soliman for the third time on Wednesday to retain his crappy WBA "regular" super middleweight title. Mundine is now expected to vacate the title and Mikkel Kessler is slated to face undeserving Dimitri Sartison for the strap June 21 in Copenhagen. No problem with that really other than this shameful note: Kessler promoter Mogens Palle has been advertising Kessler-Sartison on his Web site as being for the vacant title for weeks -- before it was vacant and ignoring the possibility that Soliman might have won. This entire situation remains thoroughly disgusting. Shame on Kessler and his team and shame on the WBA.

• Now that cruiserweight world champion David Haye has signed with Golden Boy Promotions and is making his jump to heavyweight official, here's a reminder of what he is capable of: In April 2007, one fight before he knocked out Jean-Marc Mormeck to win the cruiserweight title, Haye tested the heavyweight waters by facing the credible Tomasz Bonin, who was 37-1 entering the fight and whose only loss was via ninth-round TKO to Audley Harrison. The result: Haye knocked out Bonin in the first round. Having Haye at heavyweight is going to be fun.

• I watched "Wednesday Night Fights" last week, you know that card that featured former titleholders Stevie Johnston, Freddie Norwood and Arthur Williams? I kept thinking to myself, "Boy, this is a pretty good show -- if it was 1999."

• If you've seen Winky Wright, please let me know.

• DVD pick of the week: With the cancellation of Mosley-Judah, a fight I had been looking forward to being at on Saturday night, I selected an old-school Mosley fight from back in the day when he was emerging as a dominant lightweight force. On Nov. 25, 1997, Mosley made his first title defense against rugged Manuel Gomez in the main event of the old USA Network series "Tuesday Night Fights," which I still miss. It wasn't a classic fight, but it was Mosley entering his prime, which was a beautiful thing to watch. He was 24-0 with 22 knockouts heading into the fight and in tremendous form. He dominated Gomez, knocking him down in the fourth round and then pulverizing him with a right hand to the chin in the 11th round for a big knockout. If your familiarity with Mosley is confined to his career as a welterweight and up, do yourself a favor and go track down some of his lightweight championship performances.

I understand part of boxing is spin and hype, but sometimes the effort makes a fighter and his promoter look foolish. Case in point: Sycuan Ringside Promotions and former junior lightweight titlist Joan Guzman, who have launched a pathetic assault on unified lightweight titleholder Nate Campbell, who got married last weekend (congrats, by the way).

Sycuan sent out a release this week in which Guzman slammed Campbell for supposedly ducking him. Nothing could be more absurd.

Guzman is quoted as saying: "Everyone has seen the picture of Nate and his wife in their cute, white, wedding outfits. I hope they're enjoying their honeymoon because Nate's honeymoon at the top of the lightweight division is going to end once he finds the courage to fight me. I guess I can understand why Nate doesn't want to fight me. Twenty-eight boxers have tried to beat me and none of them came close to succeeding. I honestly thought Nate was a serious fighter, but I'm starting to question that. If Nate wants a real challenge, he knows where to find me."

What utter garbage.

Courage to fight Guzman? Campbell has never ducked anyone. Ever. Go look at his record. And for Guzman to say Campbell is not a serious fighter is not only disrespectful, it is stupid. Campbell takes his boxing career about as seriously as anyone I know in the sport. He's fought for short money. He's fought all comers. He even went to Mexico in March and won his titles against Juan Diaz, the clear crowd favorite.

Campbell never got the big signing bonuses like Guzman has either, and he was never pampered by a promoter like Guzman has been for years.

Guzman has a lot of nerve to make his statements, especially because he has done absolutely nothing to earn a lightweight title shot. Sure, Guzman is an immensely talented fighter, but his résumé at 135 pounds consists of ... nothing.

He only relinquished his junior lightweight title earlier this month to move up to lightweight, where the WBO promised to install him at the top of its 135-pound rankings, even though he does not deserve it one iota.

So for him to have the audacity to accuse Campbell of ducking him after only announcing his arrival in the weight division this month is asinine. Don't you think Campbell, only a couple of months removed from his title victory, might have had more important things on his mind? Like his wedding?

Although Guzman will have a top WBO ranking, he isn't even the mandatory challenger. There are fighters in front of him. There is interim titlist Joel Casamayor (the real champion of the division, but that's a diatribe for another day), who is the actual mandatory and the most logical and attractive opponent for Campbell. No. 2 is Amir Khan, the British star who won a title eliminator on April 5.

Guzman and his handlers are trolling for a payday, which is fine, but they are going about it the wrong way.

Guzman ought to earn a lightweight title shot the way Campbell did -- by fighting, not talking out of his rear end.

Your weekly random thoughts ...

• Although his style of fighting has never been the most crowd pleasing, I admit it: I've always been a Chris Byrd fan. Besides the fact that he and his wife, Tracy Byrd, are two of the nicest people I have met during my boxing writing career, I always admired his fearlessness. Here was a guy who, when he said he would fight anyone, any time, anywhere, I believed him. And that was even though he was an undersized heavyweight, who routinely gave up 20-plus pounds to his opponents. He knew going into every fight that he would probably need to go the distance to win because he lacked knockout power.

I will never forget standing with Byrd at the weigh-in for Lennox Lewis' heavyweight championship defense against David Tua in November 2000. Byrd was an interested bystander because he was going to be the mandatory challenger for the winner. I asked Byrd which of them he wanted to fight. I assumed he would say Tua, who was a much more one-dimensional fighter and also much, much smaller than Lewis. So when Byrd answered that he preferred Lewis, I was surprised and asked why. His answer has stayed with me since, and it is why you have to respect Byrd, even if you didn't like watching him fight. "Because I love big guys. I love fighting big guys because nobody ever gives me a chance to win and I do," Byrd said. He beat a lot of big guys in his time and won two versions of the heavyweight title, which isn't so bad for a guy who won a silver medal in the 1992 Olympics -- as a middleweight. So it was sad to see Byrd, shedding 40 pounds and moving down to light heavyweight, get dominated before being knocked out in the ninth round by unheralded Shaun George last week. Here's hoping that Byrd realizes his career as a fighter should be over and that he moves on to something else. I've always felt that if Byrd wanted to, he could be one of the game's elite trainers.

• I found the whole boxing angle to Tuesday night's "American Idol" so cliche with guest stars Michael Buffer and Jim Lampley used to play up the David Cook vs. David Archuleta finale as though it were a prize fight. It did turn out a little like some big fights, however: lots of hype and a blowout as Cook beat Archuleta by more than 12 million votes when results were revealed Wednesday. For the record, my favorite contestant this season was Brooke White, but I voted for Archuleta in the finale. My mom has been a die-hard Cook fan all season. She has a crush on him. I think she voted for him 50 times after Tuesday's show.

• Some bad news folks: HBO has no plans to produce one of its outstanding half-hour countdown shows previewing the Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito pay-per-view fight on July 26. When Top Rank president Todd duBoef told me that, I was shocked. How does what might be the best fight of the year on paper not warrant a preview show when so many far lesser fights have gotten the royal treatment from HBO? This one is a compelling match rich with storylines. To blow this one off is a bizarre move and one of the most incredibly poor decisions the HBO brass has ever made with regard to boxing programming this side of signing off on all of those terrible Roy Jones mandatory fights back in the day along with the creation of the stinkbomb series "KO Nation." And keep this in mind -- HBO doesn't even have to pay the roughly $125,000 production cost of the countdown shows. The promoters pay for them out of the marketing budget for the pay-per-view. Something just doesn't feel right about this decision. It makes me wonder about a hidden agenda at HBO.

• Is it just me or does junior middleweight Alfredo Angulo, so impressive in his recent TKO of Richard Gutierrez, look and fight like Margarito?

• Memo to boxing TV executives everywhere: More James Kirkland, please. A lot more.

• In case you missed it, our good buddy Jose Sulaiman of the WBC announced the other day that if Vitali Klitschko wins the May 25 mayoral election in Kiev, Ukraine, he and a committee of WBC officials would attend the inauguration. I wonder if our buddy will still make the trip when he realizes that Klitschko won't pay a sanctioning fee for winning the title of mayor?

• Gotta give Don King props for putting Monday's Jose Alfaro-Yosuke Kobori bout from Tokyo on his Web site, www.donking.tv, for free. It was a good fight with Kobori scoring the mild upset via third-round TKO to win the WBA's nonsensical "regular" lightweight title. Putting that shameful designation aside, any time American fight fans can have good-quality access to overseas fights for free, that is a good thing. The Web site is worth checking out, as DK has made available for free a handful of other bouts from his vast library, including Felix Trinidad's exciting welterweight title defense against Yory Boy Campas from 1994.

• After watching Jorge Arce struggle to a debatable majority decision win against obscure opponent Devid Lookmahanak last week, and having watched Arce get the crap beat out of him by Cristian Mijares a year ago, here's a note to Arce's handlers, Top Rank and Fernando Beltran: No more southpaws.

• Opened my fridge and saw a picture of Winky Wright on the milk carton.

• DVD pick of the week: It's a lost classic, but that, of course, is the purpose a DVD and tape collection -- so you can watch these kinds of fights whenever you feel like it. I was in the mood for an old-fashioned shootout. Few fights fit the description any better than the Oct. 8, 1998, Fox Sports Net-televised heavyweight bout between Alex Stewart and Ezra Sellers. Nothing really happened in the first round, but then the heavy hitters put on a wild display until Stewart scored the third-round TKO in the short but sweet brawl. There were an incredible seven knockdowns in all. In the second round, Sellers was down once and Stewart hit the deck twice. In the third, Stewart went down early and then he rallied to drop Sellers three more times to end the fight. This fight is a little gem and worth hunting down.

Since virtually the moment that the great July 26 match between welterweight titleholder Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito was signed last week, I have been asked over and over the same question: How do I get tickets?

This is a big, important fight and I'm like the every other boxing fan: I can't wait for it. For many, buying the HBO PPV card won't be enough. Fans want to be there live inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, which is going to rock with fans from all over, especially Puerto Rico (Cotto's home) and Mexico (Margarito's).

So, for those who want to travel, here's the information you've been seeking: Top Rank has announced that tickets will go on sale Thursday at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT.

They are priced in six categories: $700, $500, $400, $300, $200 and $100. In my opinion, those are very reasonable prices for a fight of this magnitude. Sure beats the ridiculous $15,000 for a ringside seat to the January Roy Jones-Felix Trinidad fight at Madison Square Garden.

Tickets can be purchased at the MGM Grand Garden Arena box office and at Las Vegas Ticketmaster locations (select Smith's Food and Drug Centers, Macy's West at the Fashion Show Mall and Ritmo Latino). There is a limit of eight tickets per person. You can also buy via telephone (with a credit card) by calling Ticketmaster at 702-474-4000 or MGM Grand at 800-929-1111. If that doesn't work, hit up www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

We've got ourselves a very nice boxing weekend, don't we? Start off with ESPN2's "Friday Night Fights" with former heavyweight titleholder Chris Byrd unveiling his new light heavyweight body as he attempts to reshape his career at 175 pounds against Shaun George.

Make sure to set the DVR for Telefutura's "Solo Boxeo," which features a nice little junior featherweight scrap between former titleholders Jhonny Gonzalez and Mauricio Pastrana.

And then comes Saturday, where the main show of the weekend is HBO's very interesting "Boxing After Dark" card featuring a trio of exciting prospects in step-up fights: ultra-exciting 2004 Olympic gold medalist Yuriorkis Gamboa against Darling Jimenez in a junior lightweight fight; all-action brawling junior middleweight Alfredo Angulo against Richard Gutierrez and pure puncher James Kirkland in a junior middleweight fight against tough Eromosele Albert. This is a true throwback "BAD" card where all three fights could be entertaining and all three prospects are in harm's way.

But for the truly hardcore fight fans, Saturday also features competing Hispanic-themed pay-per-view cards.

To me, it is utter nonsense for there to be two PPV cards on the same night that are both after the exact same audience: Hispanics and the most dedicated Fight Freaks.

Maybe some nut jobs, like me, will order both PPVs. But what if you can only afford one? Which one to buy? I am here to offer guidance.

First, a look at what you get on each show, both of which begin at 9 p.m. ET:

Mexican promoter Nacho Huizar's KO Entertainment, along with distributor Integrated Sports, has a card from Gomez Palacio, Mexico. This one costs $29.95 and the main event features Cristian Mijares against Alexander Munoz in a junior bantamweight unification fight.

The rest of the scheduled TV lineup includes a flyweight title eliminator between Omar Salado and Julio Cesar Miranda and a middleweight fight between Martin Avila and Alberto Hernandez. If the fights are short, it is likely that swing bouts will be added to the broadcast.

The other show emanates from Aguascalientes, Mexico, and is the latest installment of Top Rank's "Latin Fury" series. This baby costs $34.95 and is headlined by a junior bantamweight title eliminator between Jorge Arce and Thailand's Devid Lookmahanak, who, ironically, will fight for the right to face the winner of Mijares-Munoz. And don't forget, on a "Latin Fury" PPV last spring, Mijares schooled Arce in a lopsided, although entertaining, fight.

Also scheduled for TV: lightweight prospect Humberto Gutierrez vs. Guadalupe Rosales; featherweight contender Jorge Solis vs. Miguel Roman and junior featherweight prospect Brandon Rios vs. Ricardo Dominguez. Time permitting, we'll also see lightweight Omar Chavez (yes, Julio Cesar Chavez's other fighting son) take out some hobo.

Neither card blows me away, but the Mijares-Munoz main event blows away the other one. This is an excellent match of styles with Mijares being the classy boxer and Munoz a big puncher. I think it has potential to be a really good fight. It's also a historically significant fight in that it is the first 115-pound unification bout since Johnny Tapia outpointed Albuquerque, N.M., rival Danny Romero on July 18, 1997.

There's nothing wrong with Arce-Lookmahanak, but this is simply not worth 35 bones. As closely as I follow boxing, I'm not even all that familiar with Lookmahanak, an obscure fighter from Thailand who has never fought a notable opponent and never fought outside of his country. There's almost no way to handicap the fight. Maybe Lookmahanak will be a really tough guy who makes an exciting fight with Arce. And maybe Lookmahanak will be just like Medgoen Singsurat, the Thai boxer whom Arce fought in his last fight and blew away in 47 seconds.

The Mijares-Munoz undercard does nothing for me at all. Salado and Miranda will fight for the right to challenge flyweight titlist Daisuke Naito. Avila-Hernandez has no significance and neither fighter is a known commodity.

The Top Rank undercard is little better, even if the main event is weak. First, you get an extra scheduled bout compared to the other card. But the show is also $5 more. In any event, Gutierrez is an excellent prospect and Rosales is solid veteran. This one could be interesting. Solis was a late addition to the show, taking the slot of his brother, ill junior flyweight titlist Ulises "Archie" Solis, who withdrew from his defense against Glenn Donaire earlier in the week. Roman is a fringe contender. Maybe there could be some fireworks. Rios is an exciting kid stepping into his first 10-rounder. Dominguez could be fodder. Two fights ago, Zahir Raheem blew him away in one round on ESPN2. I don't expect much from this fight.

What we really have here are two cards that ought to be one. Take Mijares-Munoz as the main event, Arce's fight as the co-feature and throw in some of the other matches to round out a nice card.

As separate shows, these are tough to swallow for the price. But if you can't live without your PPV fix, here's the pick: for $5 less and a superior main event, take the Mijares-Munoz card.

Your weekly random thoughts ...

• With junior welterweight champ Ricky Hatton scheduled to return to the ring May 24 against Juan Lazcano, I've been thinking about the 140-pound division. A few years ago it was teeming with stars Kostya Tszyu, Arturo Gatti, Floyd Mayweather Jr. , Miguel Cotto and Hatton. But that was then, this is now. Tszyu hasn't fought since 2005, Gatti is retired and Mayweather and Cotto are the stars at welterweight. Only Hatton, now the recognized champion after stopping Tszyu, remains at 140 pounds. But you know what? Although the division is bereft of stars other than Hatton, it's actually one of the deepest divisions in boxing. It is one of the few weight classes where you can legitimately come up with a solid top 10 and keep on going. I've been doing regular division rankings for ESPN.com for three-plus years and I did them for five years at USA Today. Trust me, it is not as easy as it looks. It's often hard to sort out the bottom part of the top 10 in many divisions because the field is so shallow. But that's not the case at junior welterweight, where there is quality talent despite the lack of big names. Besides the ESPN.com top 10 of Hatton, Paulie Malignaggi, Timothy Bradley Jr. , Ricardo Torres, Junior Witter, Kendall Holt, Andreas Kotelnik, Vivian Harris, Gavin Rees and Souleymane M'Baye, there are least six other worthy contenders: Juan Urango, Steve Forbes, Herman Ngoudjo, Lazcano, Demetrius Hopkins and Mike Arnaoutis. It's tough to have to leave those last few guys out of the top 10, especially when you look at a division like the featherweights, where the talent falls off considerably after five or six guys.


• Forbes might not be much of a knockout puncher, but I guess he can inflict some damage. Just ask Oscar De La Hoya. Even though De La Hoya beat him easily on the scorecards, Forbes literally broke De La Hoya's face, fracturing one his facial bones in their fight two weeks ago.

• I heard Golden Boy is looking to sign Zab Judah's shower door. And I heard the WBC is going to rank it in the top 10, hoping, of course, to extract a sanctioning fee for the rematch.

• Speaking of Judah, it seems like it was fortuitous for the promotion that he injured his arm, which forced the cancellation of the May 31 HBO PPV fight against Sugar Shane Mosley. Had the fight gone on, I think the pay-per-view numbers would have been awful and an embarrassment to both fighters, to HBO and to Golden Boy. The fight was never meant to be a $50 PPV and the undercard was weak. I'd still love to see Mosley-Judah, but on regular HBO, where it belongs.

• Now that David Haye has started the ball rolling for his move to heavyweight by giving up one of his alphabet cruiserweight belts, can he save the division? I don't know, but I can't wait to find out.

• Whatever prompted the move, good for Felix Sturm for giving Randy Griffin a July rematch of their excellent draw last fall.

• How's that promotional business working out for Winky Wright? Apparently, not very well. He can't even get himself a fight.

• I'd love to see Joel "Love Child" Julio, fresh from a strong win against Ishe Smith a couple of weeks ago, get another opportunity for a meaningful fight on HBO. Yes, he lost a lopsided fight to future welterweight titleholder Carlos Quintana on HBO in June 2006, but Julio is only 23 and has won six fights in a row against decent competition.

• Ivan "Iron Boy" Calderon doesn't get enough credit or respect from a lot of fans or media, but I'm telling you that he will be in the Hall of Fame someday. He had a long strawweight championship run and now is the real deal junior flyweight champ. On top of that, he's 31-0 (most of his fights haven't even been close) and arguably the best pure boxer in the sport. And, yes, that includes Mayweather. Calderon isn't flashy and can't punch a lick, but he knows his way around a ring as well as Mike Tyson knows his way around a strip club.

• Just how long do you think Paul Spadafora can stay out of jail this time?

• So, middleweight John Duddy has dumped trainer Don Turner in favor of Pat Burns. You know what? Turner and Burns are both excellent trainers with long track records, but it's not going to make a difference until Duddy remembers to hold his hands up once in a while.

• I didn't believe it at first when I heard about it, but, yes, Hall of Famers Jeff Fenech, who turns 44 on May 28, and Azumah Nelson, 49, are going to fight for a third time in Fenech's native Australia on June 24. Fenech has been retired since 1996, Nelson since 1998. What's next? Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Hector Camacho II?

• DVD pick of the week: People always ask me about the best atmospheres I have ever been in for a fight, and this one always is near the top of the list, if not at the top. So during this week's seventh anniversary of that amazing night at Madison Square Garden on May 12, 2001, I broke out the DVD of Felix Trinidad's punishing fifth-round destruction of William Joppy. Even though the atmosphere doesn't come across well on the HBO telecast, I can still hear the cow bells and air horns that rang from the rafters in my mind's eye. We didn't know it then, but Trinidad, who won a middleweight belt in the semifinals of Don King's middleweight unification series, was at the apex of his career that electric night. Since then, he is 2-3, including two retirements.

When Top Rank's Bob Arum held a breakfast news conference on Feb. 16 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas to announce a pair of "Latin Fury" pay-per-view cards, the exciting and charismatic Jorge Arce was in the house.

One of the fights Arum announced was Arce's junior bantamweight eliminator against Thailand's Devid Lookmahanak, which will headline Top Rank's May 17 PPV card from Mexico.

At that breakfast, Arce spent more time throwing down a challenge to junior featherweight champ Israel Vazquez than he did talking about his immediate opponent.

"I'd love to challenge Israel Vazquez at 122 pounds at the end of the year," said the smiling Arce, who has fought some of his recent matches in the 118-pound bantamweight division. "I'm willing to move up and fight him in November. It would be a big fight, well promoted and we could draw a big crowd to the Staples Center [in Los Angeles]."

Two weeks after that breakfast, Vazquez retained the championship with a split decision against rival Rafael Marquez in their fierce rubber match, the leading fight-of-the-year candidate.

Since Vazquez's stirring victory against Marquez, there has been much written and discussed about a possible fourth fight between them. That's a fight I'd love to see at some point. I think most boxing fans would also love to see it again.

But Vazquez isn't necessarily going to just jump back into another fight with Marquez right away, nor should he. They've waged three consecutive wars against each other. Vazquez -- and Marquez, for that matter -- deserve a break from each other for at least one fight.

Arce obviously is interested in the fight. And his handlers, Top Rank and Mexican promoter Fernando Beltran, have also told me they are open to the fight, which would make for a prime "Boxing After Dark" main event on HBO, a Showtime main event or even a "Latin Fury" pay-per-view headliner.

The other night when I called Frank Espinoza to get some quotes for a story I was writing about the retirement of Martin Castillo, one of Espinoza's fighters, I asked him about Vazquez, whom he also manages.

He was certainly interested in an Arce fight.

"It's very intriguing," Espinoza said. "He's popular. It's a money fight. It could be an interesting fight for us to look at. Israel is in a good position. Let's see what happens. If the money is right, why not?"

Espinoza's perspective is that a fourth fight with Marquez will always be there, so why rush into it after three consecutive brutal battles?

"The Marquez fight is always going to be there," he said. "Fans want to see that fight again, but you don't have to go right back into it. These guys have been in three very tough fights in a row. I want to do the right thing for Israel."

Espinoza said although the fourth fight has been mentioned, there has been no serious discussion other than Vazquez's promoter, Sycuan Ringside Promotions, telling him it was just one possibility for Vazquez's fall return.

Another fight that has been mentioned was for Vazquez to move up to 130 pounds and face former champ Marco Antonio Barrera, who wants to continue fighting after having a change of heart about retirement following his loss last fall to Manny Pacquiao.

Espinoza, however, told me that is not a fight they are interested in.

"Barrera is too heavy," he said. "We have no plans to do a fight like that. We'll think about a fourth fight with Marquez but we'd also like to talk more about fighting Arce."

Sanctioning organization madness strikes again with exhibit 46,087 on why the alphabet bodies that have been suffocating boxing for years are evil.

Let's take a look today at the WBA for the most recent example of vomit-inducing behavior, not that what I am about to describe should necessarily surprise anybody because, after all, this is the down and dirty organization that loves to crown two so-called champions in a single division -- your "regular champion" and "super champion" -- when a fighter unifies alphabet trinkets.

The WBA says it does that to give the "super champion" additional time to make a mandatory defense when the reality is that it is strictly about collecting another sanctioning fee.

In any case, the latest insanity centers on the super middleweight division, where Joe Calzaghe is the recognized division champion and, because he owns the WBO, WBC and WBA titles, he is recognized as the WBA's "super champion."

The WBA's "regular champion" is Australia's Anthony Mundine, which is a joke to begin with, but it is what it is, especially when you consider that his three defenses have come against horrid competition.

Still, Mundine is due to defend his belt against countryman Sam Soliman (the former participant on "The Contender" and the guy who gave Winky Wright all he could handle a few years ago) on May 28 in Melbourne. In Australia, it's a big fight, so I am told, even though Mundine is already 2-0 against Soliman.

Enter Mikkel Kessler, the former WBA titleholder who once routed Mundine in a 2005 defense before Calzaghe dominated Kessler last fall to unify the various belts.

Now, Kessler, who seems to believe it his right to fight for a championship, is eyeing a return to the ring.

He was supposed to return in June against Edison Miranda but chickened out after accepting the fight and then bailing with no explanation a month or so ago. Kessler's promoter, Mogens Palle, has instead lined Kessler up to face obscure German Dimitri Sartison, who has fashioned a 22-0 record against a collection of stiffs and has done nothing to warrant a title bout.

Kessler and Sartison are due to meet on June 21 in Kessler's native Denmark. And get this: The bout was announced as for the vacant WBA title.

Did I miss something?

Watered down or not, that belt still belongs to Mundine. Remember? He defends it against Soliman this month.

This being boxing, the backroom deal cut goes something like this: The WBA will allow Mundine to put the belt on the line against Soliman, thereby ensuring it will collect its fee, and afterward, Mundine must relinquish the title.

That will pave the way for Kessler, absurdly appointed the WBA's mandatory challenger even though he was routed in his last fight by Calzaghe, to face Sartison for the vacated strap.

By the way, before Kessler-Sartison was made, the WBA and Kessler's camp tried to force Mundine into fighting Kessler or get him stripped even though Mundine-Soliman was already scheduled when he was abruptly named the mandatory challenger.

But there's one thing the WBA and Kessler's handlers forgot about in their haste to squeeze out Mundine and find a way to crown Kessler once again in a worthless fight with Sartison: What happens if Soliman beats Mundine?

Stop the madness.

• Having Oscar De La Hoya back in the ring instead of in a business suit (and on HBO instead of pay-per-view) last week for his fight against Steve Forbes in front of a sold-out crowd of 27,000 at the Home Depot's gorgeous soccer stadium was a great thing for boxing. Anytime the sport's biggest star fights it's good for business -- even if it was merely a tune-up fight for bigger business this fall. But I have to say that the undercard was appalling. And this was the second consecutive big Golden Boy Promotions card that was woeful. When Joe Calzaghe defeated Golden Boy partner Bernard Hopkins for the light heavyweight championship two weeks earlier, the undercard was just as lackluster. It's all well and good to see fine young prospects such as Danny Garcia and Daniel Jacobs on these shows, but how about something competitive? How about something a tad more important? Where's the beef? Golden Boy has dozens of fighters under contract and several titleholders. How about putting on a competitive match? How about a title bout? How about something other than a card where I know the results before the show starts? When there's a De La Hoya fight or a match the caliber of Calzaghe-Hopkins, it's a waste not to use that spotlight to help turn on fringe fans who might be tuning in or attending for the name value of the main event.

• It was nice that HBO aired clips of Garcia and Jacobs at the end of the telecast, but what would be even better would be to show the full fights on HBO2 or another of its outlets so the hardcore fans get more than a 30-second clip of these prospects.

• Considering how much he likes to talk and how much credit he likes to take for De La Hoya's successes, I was pretty surprised that trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. did not attend the postfight press conference last week, especially when one of the big topics of discussion was De La Hoya's September fight against his son, Floyd Mayweather Jr.

• As good as De La Hoya looked dismantling tough-as-nails Forbes, let's be clear about one thing: If the Golden Boy ever fights Miguel Cotto, like he has mentioned as a possibility for his farewell fight in December, it means that De La Hoya will end his career like so many other great champions: On his back, knocked out.

• I don't know about you, but Nicole Scherzinger, who sang the national anthem at De La Hoya-Forbes, should sing it at every single boxing card, at least the ones I attend.

• The Home Depot Center was crawling with movie stars, other Hollywood types and athletes, but one guy I was surprised to see at De La Hoya-Forbes was former welterweight champ Zab Judah, who seemed to be having a very nice time. Seems to me he ought to have been in training camp preparing for his May 31 fight with Shane Mosley, a Golden Boy partner who skipped the boss' fight and didn't break camp.

• When England's Junior Witter defends his junior welterweight belt against American Timothy Bradley Jr. Saturday night on "ShoBox," it will be Witter's third U.S. television appearance. I sure hope it isn't as sleep-inducing as his first appearance, a lopsided 2000 points loss to then-junior welterweight titlist Judah. I have a feeling it won't be. Witter is vastly improved since then.

• With Top Rank beating out Golden Boy to sign Lamont Peterson and Anthony Peterson and Golden Boy putting Victor Ortiz on last week's De La Hoya-Forbes show over the objections of Top Rank's Bob Arum after Ortiz gained a preliminary injunction against Top Rank, I sense cracks in the uneasy truce between boxing's two most powerful promoters. Let's hope these skirmishes don't turn into another full-scale battle. Their peace over the past year is one of the key reasons for boxing's tremendous recent run.

• Was anyone all that surprised that Johnny Tapia's ill-advised comeback fight last week was called off at the last minute? Let's hope it's not rescheduled.

• Joel "Love Child" Julio made his daddy proud last week.

• Main Events, the once-powerful promoter that has hit rough times, caught a bit of good luck in recent weeks. Cruiserweight Tomasz Adamek, with a TKO of former undisputed champ O'Neil Bell, and junior middleweight contender Julio, with a close but clear decision against Ishe Smith, pulled out critical victories that will keep Main Events fighting for another day in a tough business.

• Still paging Winky Wright.

• So, Ruslan Chagaev is sick and pulled out of his May 31 heavyweight title defense/rematch against Nikolai Valuev. The division is just one piece of bad news after another. All I can say is that cruiserweight champ David Haye can't pack on the pounds fast enough.

• My mom, Michelle Rafael, doesn't like boxing, doesn't know anything about boxing and still finds it somewhat bizarre that I make my living covering boxing. That said, today is her birthday. She didn't introduce me to boxing, but she did to journalism. Happy birthday, Mom.

• DVD pick of the week: How could I pick anything else this week? Three years ago today, May 7, 2005, Diego "Chico" Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo waged the greatest fight of my lifetime and maybe the best fight of all time at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. It was ferocious battle from start to epic finish, ending in the 10th round with Corrales impossibly getting off the floor twice to stop Castillo in dramatic fashion and unify lightweight titles. I was ringside for the fight and saw a scene afterward that I had never seen before or since: Media members standing and applauding out of respect for what we had just seen. It was a thrilling and incredible fight for the ages. I will probably watch it every May for the rest of my life. Corrales would lose his next three fights and, sadly, two years later to the day of their classic, Corrales was legally drunk when he was killed in a motorcycle accident just a few miles from the casino where he scored his greatest, and final, victory.

LOS ANGELES -- Golden Boy Promotions became a powerhouse on the strength of its veteran roster of fighters: company boss Oscar De La Hoya, partners Bernard Hopkins and Shane Mosley and other older stars such as Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez. They've all been involved in major fights that have generated tremendous revenue for the company.

But each of them is far closer to the end of their career than the beginning and the company knows if it is to remain at the top of the business along with rival Top Rank, it needs to replenish the talent pool.

In its few years in business, the one glaring negative about Golden Boy is that it has yet to nurture a young prospect from 0-0 to a world title and stardom, something Top Rank, with matchmakers Bruce Trampler and Brad Goodman, does with such regularity, few seem to realize it.

Golden Boy is hoping to improve dramatically in that area, and based on the new crop of youngsters it has signed, it could be on its way.

The pressure, of course, is on matchmakers Eric Gomez and Robert Diaz to handle the youngsters with care and not get anxious to move them too quickly.

It was a pretty cool scene on Thursday inside the media center at the posh Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown where it was all about the future of boxing as Golden Boy assembled its vast stable of young talent to introduce the fighters to the media in town covering Saturday's De La Hoya-Steve Forbes fight.

"Boxing has never been in better shape and these young men we've signed prove it," De La Hoya said in a statement, understandably opting not to attend because of his impending fight. "These fighters are talented, hard working, charismatic and determined to win world titles and if you haven't seen them yet, you will see plenty of them in 2008 and beyond."

Ten of the fighters were present -- heavyweight Seth Mitchell could not attend because he fights this weekend on the East Coast -- and each spoke about their dreams of becoming a world champion. It's always a pleasure to see the youthful exuberance of young fighters so genuinely excited about their future. I love following prospects, so it's hard for me not to also get excited.

The two I am most familiar with are junior welterweight Danny Garcia (5-0, 5 KOs), 20, and middleweight Danny Jacobs (5-0, 5 KOs), 21. Golden Boy has been putting them on all of its major shows so I have met both kids several times and been ringside for most of their fights. Both of them were star amateurs who fell just shy of the 2008 Olympic team. Both fight Saturday night on the De La Hoya-Forbes undercard.

I have been impressed by both, but particularly with Garcia, whose pure aggression and enthusiasm have been captivating to watch. I think he has star potential.

Here are the other fighters, all of whom have good amateur backgrounds and many of whom are with all-star manager Shelly Finkel, that Golden Boy is investing time and money into:

• Super middleweight Ricardo Tristan, a 19-year-old Houston native, due to turn pro next month.

• Lightweight Hylon Williams, who is only 17 but won his pro debut two weeks ago on the Joe Calzaghe-Hopkins undercard.

• Welterweight Jermell Charlo, another 17-year-old who moved to 2-0 on the Calzaghe-Hopkins card.

• Junior welterweight Michael Faragon, 20, who is 2-0.

• Heavyweight Ashanti Jordan is 3-0 with 3 KOs, but he's already 31, so he could be a bit of a crapshoot. But he sure looks imposing.

• Puerto Rican junior lightweight Carlos Velasquez (7-0, 6 KOs) and twin brother Juan Velasquez (7-0, 4 KOs) , a featherweight.

• Junior welterweight Hector Sanchez (12-0, 5 KOs), also of Puerto Rico. He's 6-foot-2 and 140 pounds!

Your weekly random thoughts ...

• How goofy is this: Here we have Floyd Mayweather Jr. , the No. 1 boxer in the sport in his prime, refusing to entertain the notion of a match with Miguel Cotto. Mayweather won't even speak the name of the Puerto Rican star, much less consider fighting him. If you bring Cotto up to Mayweather, all you get is a lot of excuses. Yet, Oscar De La Hoya, who is 35 and says he is fighting three more times before retiring (Saturday against Steve Forbes, on Sept. 20 in a rematch with Mayweather and then a finale in December) said recently that he will strongly consider Cotto as his farewell opponent. De La Hoya won't go down as the best fighter ever, but one thing you can never take away from him is that he fought everybody and he seems willing to do that right to the end, even when he doesn't have to.

Mayweather, who says he is already the best fighter ever, can't be serious. Yes, he faced De La Hoya at junior middleweight and junior welterweight champ Ricky Hatton moved up to welterweight to fight him, but Mayweather has not fought the best guys in his own welterweight division, which happens to be the deepest in boxing. Take a look at the ESPN.com divisional rankings that I update each week. Of today's top 10 welterweights (Mayweather is No. 1), he has only faced one of the other nine guys, a win against Zab Judah. No. 2 Cotto, on the other hand, arrived at welterweight a full year after Mayweather but has already beaten three of today's top 10: Shane Mosley, Carlos Quintana and Judah, and he is scheduled to face a fourth, Antonio Margarito, in July.

• Now that the Nevada State Athletic Commission has amended the glove rule to allow welterweights to pick between wearing 8-ounce or 10-ounce gloves (if the fighters can't agree, they must wear 10-ounce gloves), it will be interesting to see what size Mosley and Judah elect to wear for their May 31 showdown. In the past, Mosley has said he prefers 8-ounce gloves.

• So now that Joe Calzaghe has defeated Bernard Hopkins and won the light heavyweight championship, it looks like his first defense will come in November against former champ Roy Jones Jr. , which undoubtedly will do some serious pay-per-view business. I have heard from a lot of people about their thoughts on the fight and it amazes me how much difference of opinion there is. Some have told me or written me saying Calzaghe will win easily. Others believe Jones will reclaim the title. And yet others believe it's a toss-up. At this point, I like Calzaghe in the fight but I do give Jones a serious chance.

• Congratulations to the HBO Sports team for the Sports Emmy Awards it won at this week's 29th annual ceremony. HBO's production values for boxing have always been the gold standard and the network deservedly scored three Emmys for its superb "24/7" series. "De La Hoya/Mayweather 24/7," which followed the massive buildup to last spring's mega-fight, won for outstanding edited sports series. The fall sequel, "Mayweather/Hatton 24/7," won two statues for outstanding sports writing and outstanding camera work. I don't know about you, but I can't wait for the next batch of "24/7" shows.

• The notion of the American heavyweight contender has become a joke in recent years. Part of the reason is because of how poor the amateur system in this country has become at producing big men. It took another massive hit, maybe even hitting rock bottom, on Tuesday night when the United States officially failed to qualify a super heavyweight for this summer's Beijing Olympic Games. At the Americas Qualifier in Guatemala City, Guatemala, the final chance for the U.S. to qualify boxers for the Olympics, super heavyweight Michael Hunter of Las Vegas lost 10-3 in the semifinals to Venezuela's Jose Payares and was eliminated. Once again, the U.S. will take an incomplete squad of nine boxers to China, but it is almost unfathomable that we will not have a super heavyweight in the tournament.

• I have attended 26 heavyweight title fights since my first one in 2000, Lennox Lewis vs. Michael Grant. But I was wondering: Since I attended the WWE Backlash pay-per-view card last Sunday night in Baltimore (and, may I say, had a great time) and the Undertaker retained the world heavyweight title in a rematch with Edge and Triple H won the WWE title after surviving the fatal four-way with deposed champ Randy Orton, John Cena and JBL, do I get to add those two fights to my list? They sure were a lot more entertaining than heavyweight title duds such as John Ruiz-Hasim Rahman and Wladimir Klitschko-Sultan Ibragimov.

• I've read media reports out of Australia that say former undisputed junior welterweight champ Kostya Tszyu, who has not fought since being stopped by Hatton in June 2005 but also has not announced his retirement, is in talks with movie star/martial arts legend Jackie Chan to stage an exhibition bout (the exact type hasn't been determined) as part of the Beijing Olympic Games in August. As crazy as it sounds, it could be more exciting than the slapfest the Olympic boxing tournament has become.

• It's all well and good if Top Rank and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. can make money by having him fight nobodies on small pay-per-view cards like he did last week. If people want to pay for it, so be it. But if Chavez wants to be taken seriously as a fighter and if he's ever going to appeal to more than just the hardcore Hispanic fans, he needs to fight away from pay-per-view once in a while.

• Condolences to Top Rank's Lee Samuels, the company's good-hearted public relations chief whose mother, Irene Rose Samuels, died after a long illness last weekend at age 83. I never met her, but she sure raised a good son.

• DVD pick of the week: To the archive of action fights we go! I was in the mood for little guys, so what better fight to select than one of the more underrated brawls of the past few years, the first fight between Jorge Arce and Hussein Hussein. They met March 19, 2005, in a flyweight elimination bout that was absolutely sensational and sure set the stage nicely for the main event that night, the first all-action Erik Morales-Manny Pacquiao fight. Arce-Hussein nearly stole the show. They battled toe-to-toe as Arce bled badly from a cut on the bridge of his nose and Hussein showed immense heart until he was finally stopped in the 10th round.

In a blog last week, I expressed my aggravation at HBO because it refused to call the Joe Calzaghe-Bernard Hopkins match a light heavyweight championship fight, even though it was for the recognized title, the lineal title, the people's title, the Ring magazine title, whatever you want to call it. Instead, because there was no sanctioning organization belt at stake (the very belts HBO has railed against and dismissed in the past), HBO simply labeled it a "light heavyweight fight," which was disingenuous and a slap in the face to boxing fans and the fighters.

It is now clear to me that the network's specific agenda was to make sure the fight would not be referred to as a championship fight under any circumstances, even though it obviously was. Why HBO would do that, I wish I knew.

HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg has spoken in the past with pride about giving his broadcasters the freedom to call fights as they see them, which I have always appreciated and respected. In fact, one of the key reasons HBO and UFC were unable to finalize a deal last year was because of HBO's insistence that it hire the announcers instead of having UFC-hired shills in the role. But last week, Greenburg muzzled Jim Lampley, the network's star blow-by-blow man and the anchor of its team.

A few hours before Calzaghe-Hopkins, I took my seat at ringside, which was directly behind the spot at the ring mat where HBO's announcers would call the fight and next to the camera position where the broadcasters would do their stand-up discussions before and after the fight. What I witnessed from a few feet away was an obviously exasperated Lampley, who was taping promotional spots that were going to air on HBO later in the evening to advertise the telecast. In one take, Lampley properly referred to the bout as a "light heavyweight championship fight" but was cut off by a producer in the truck, presumably Jonathan Crystal, who was the producer of that night's broadcast. Lampley was made to do a second take. In the next take, Lampley identified Hopkins as the "light heavyweight champion" and was once again cut off. The edict from on high (that means Greenburg) was that the fight would not be called a championship fight and the producer was carrying out the boss' orders.

Lampley was clearly annoyed by the situation but eventually followed through and finished the voiceovers minus the title tag.

What makes this so frustrating is that HBO shoulders much of the responsibility for the events that led to only the Ring belt being at stake in the fight, and now HBO absurdly won't recognize it.

In 2006, Hopkins battered Antonio Tarver to gain recognition as the legit 175-pound champion. It was a fight, may I add, that HBO PPV marketed as being for the "light heavyweight championship" even though it lacked the backing of a major sanctioning organization title the same way Calzaghe-Hopkins did.

Tarver had knocked out Roy Jones in two rounds in May 2004, a win that gave him a pair of alphabet titles and, more important, recognition as the real champion of the division, which is all that the Ring belt signifies.

In September 2004, Glen Johnson knocked out Jones to defend an alphabet belt and cement his No. 2 position at light heavyweight.

Tarver and Johnson then both had mandatory defenses due but at HBO's strong urging (arm twisting, some would say), both men gave up their alphabet titles to fight each other in as true a championship fight as there can be.

Johnson edged Tarver in December 2004 to claim the real title and then lost to Tarver in the rematch six months later. Hopkins then smoked Tarver and the lineage has remained intact since.

Yet that doesn't seem to matter to HBO. It has conveniently forgotten that it paid millions to Tarver and Johnson to relinquish the alphabet belts that the network supposedly didn't care about. It was that move that was directly responsible for the lack of an alphabet title being on the line in Calzaghe-Hopkins. But that doesn't change the reality, no matter how much HBO tries to hide it.

Calzaghe-Hopkins was a genuine world championship fight despite HBO's militant machinations to make sure that you never heard the truth.

Your weekly random thoughts ...

• The Joe Calzaghe-Bernard Hopkins fight marked the first boxing event hosted by Robert Earl's Planet Hollywood casino, the latest player on the Las Vegas fight scene. Earl seems serious about being in boxing for the long haul, despite obviously losing money on Calzaghe-Hopkins, for which he dramatically overpaid by putting up $9 million (he'll learn how to evaluate site fees better in the future, I hope). Despite the lackluster ticket sales for Calzaghe-Hopkins, Planet Hollywood has two other events already scheduled, Chris Byrd's light heavyweight debut against Shaun George May 16 on ESPN2 and the July 5 Ricardo Torres-Kendall Holt junior welterweight title rematch on Showtime. I hope Earl and Planet Hollywood stick in boxing for years to come. The casino did a marvelous job hosting last week's event and, at least from my perspective as a media member, the entire staff went out of its way to be helpful and make the press feel welcome with whatever we needed. Besides, it's always good to have more than one casino competing for big fights. Las Vegas has been more or less a one-company show since the MGM Mirage bought out Mandalay Bay a couple of years ago. Planet Hollywood has a terrific 7,000-seat theater, which hosted the Calzaghe-Hopkins weigh-in and is perfect for boxing. It will serve as the arena where rising British lightweight star Amir Khan will make his U.S. debut later this year thanks to a deal made between Earl and promoter Frank Warren.



• Calzaghe's big win against Hopkins sure gave his father and trainer, Enzo Calzaghe, a big boost. It had been a rough several weeks for Enzo, whose two other world titleholders lost their belts and undefeated records in March as cruiserweight Enzo Maccarinelli was starched in two rounds by David Haye on March 8 and junior welterweight Gavin Rees was stopped in the 12th round by Andreas Kotelnik on March 22.



• After his recent cancer scare, it was nice to hear Michael Buffer return to the mic last week for Calzaghe-Hopkins. Here's to many more years of getting ready to rumble.



• The Calzaghe-Hopkins undercard was absolutely pathetic, one of the worst I have ever seen. It's a shame that the fans who turned out to the arena were treated to one blatant mismatch after another. When Audley Harrison is facing Jason Barnett in the co-feature, you know there is a problem. Sure, it's nice to see young prospects such as Danny Garcia and Daniel Jacobs in the early stages of their pro careers, but this undercard offered absolutely nothing in the way of a serious fight. That was especially disappointing because the tickets were so overpriced.



• The folks from Wales clearly have more manners than the folks from England. When Ricky Hatton came to the United States for his fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in December, the rowdy English fans relentlessly booed the American national anthem in a disgraceful scene. But I have to give credit to the fans Calzaghe brought across the pond. They showed a lot of class by behaving themselves and showing the utmost respect during our anthem.



• Roy Jones vs. Calzaghe? Bring it on. It's the biggest fight that can be made in the light heavyweight division, and I give Jones a legitimate chance of winning despite the advanced stage of his career that he is at. Any chance of a rematch between Jones and Hopkins ever being made seemingly went down the drain with BHop's loss.



• I was very impressed with Tomasz Adamek, who took former undisputed cruiserweight champion O'Neil Bell apart and made him quit after seven rounds last Saturday. The win earned him a mandatory shot at titleholder Steve Cunningham and, if you ask me, I think Cunningham-Adamek will be a really good, competitive fight. It would make an excellent fight for Showtime, which has televised a number of recent cruiserweight fights. It would also make an excellent "Boxing After Dark" match on HBO.



• Paging Winky Wright.



• How many days until Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito? While we're at it, how many days until Arthur Abraham-Edison Miranda II?



• If you like knockouts hit up youtube.com and check out European middleweight champion Sebastian Sylvester's 12th-round drillage of Javier Castillejo from a couple of weeks ago. It was spectacular.



• People always ask me about which division I think is the worst. At the moment, I have to say that it is, without question, junior middleweight. There are four titleholders with no star power in Vernon Forrest, Joachim Alcine, Verno Phillips and Sergei Dzindziruk. None of the possible unification bouts between them is even all that interesting.



• DVD pick of the week: This is not a classic fight but it has special meaning to me, so I broke out Lennox Lewis' heavyweight championship defense against Michael Grant from April 29, 2000. Lewis destroyed the overhyped Grant in two rounds at Madison Square Garden. So, what's the big deal? It was a special night for me because it was the first heavyweight championship fight I ever covered and the first fight I covered as the full-time boxing writer for USA Today. It was eight years ago next week. Seems like yesterday.

LAS VEGAS -- Your weekly random thoughts ...

• In the past, I've gotten on Showtime's case for its virtual worship of the alphabet sanctioning organizations. Seems they can't get enough of initials over there. On the flip side, HBO has downplayed the organizations for years, which I applaud. However, HBO is missing the boat big time on Saturday's Bernard Hopkins-Joe Calzaghe fight. Make no mistake, the fight is for the legitimate light heavyweight championship of the world and the Ring magazine belt that goes along with it. Yet HBO refuses to call it a light heavyweight championship fight for whatever ridiculous reason. Instead, it labels the fight as simply a "light heavyweight fight." That's a disservice to boxing fans and disingenuous. If HBO is labeling the fight the way it is because editorially it believes it should only recognize sanctioning body belts, that's one thing. But that can't be the case because in 2006 when Hopkins beat down Antonio Tarver to claim the Ring belt and earn recognition as the true 175-pound champ, HBO marketed that fight as being for the light heavyweight championship. So what's changed? Hopkins won that fight and has remained champion. Now, all of a sudden, he is no longer champ? I don't get it. Let's hope the situation is rectified on Saturday night.

• Got to give huge props to Showtime for nailing down the Arthur Abraham-Edison Miranda rematch for June 21 against long odds. Their first fight, for a middleweight belt, was great, but it took place in Germany, so few Americans saw it. The rematch, at 166 pounds, should be another excellent fight. It's even a better matchup than Miranda-Mikkel Kessler, which Miranda's handlers thought they had made until Kessler pulled out after a deal had been struck.


• For the record, I would much rather spend $50 on a pay-per-view headlined by Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito than one featuring the Floyd Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya rematch.

• Outspoken promoter Jeff Wald of "The Contender" has never been one to hold his tongue. In the wake of seeing his man, Alfonso Gomez, get destroyed by Cotto, I asked Wald what he thought of a Mayweather-Cotto fight. His answer: "I don't blame Mayweather for not fighting Cotto. The guy is a heavy-handed, fast, good boxer. He'll kill Mayweather. I think he'll destroy him. And I'm not trying to make Gomez look better. It's just what I see." So, Jeff, tell me what you really think.


• Many people place the blame solely on Mayweather for not fighting Cotto, but I wish that once, just once, Cotto would step to the microphone or address the press and simply say, "I want Mayweather and I want him now." When Ricky Hatton called out Mayweather, it worked. Cotto needs to do the same thing, not just let the rest of us call for the fight.


• Mayweather is pretty smart. By refusing to entertain a Cotto fight at the moment, he's pushed him into Margarito's hands. Now, this way, the loser of Cotto-Margarito is out of the picture for Mayweather and he only has to deal with one of them instead of both.


• Funniest line from last week's Showtime card had to be Glen Johnson, during his post-fight interview after losing a debatable decision to Chad Dawson. Johnson, upset by the decision, had this to say: "Everybody here in the audience saw it. Everybody that's watching HBO -- I mean Showtime. I'm sorry, Showtime -- saw it." That had to give Showtime boxing boss Ken Hershman a warm, fuzzy feeling.


• While I'm on the topic of Dawson-Johnson, I scored it a draw watching it off TV the day after the fight. Either guy could have shaded the fight 7-5, but I didn't think it could be an 8-4 fight for either man. I was somewhat shocked that a judge actually gave Dawson the 10th round, during which Johnson almost knocked him out. To give Dawson that round is ludicrous.


• With Margarito drilling Kermit Cintron, it was another nail in the coffin of promoter Main Events, the once-mighty giant. Here's what is left in the stable a company that does not seem to be making an effort to replenish its talent and has fallen on brutally hard times: Cintron, who is damaged badly by the loss; Tomasz Adamek, who is in a tough cruiserweight eliminator on Saturday against former champ O'Neil Bell; heavyweight Calvin Brock, who has a serious eye injury; Joel "Love Child" Julio, who I think is in a very tough fight with Ishe Smith April 30 on ESPN2; featherweight Jason Litzau, who has shown he can't handle it when he steps up in class; middleweight Giovanni Lorenzo, who is undefeated but grossly protected; and Henry Crawford and Wayne Johnsen, neither of whom appear destined for the top tier. It's a long way from Main Events' salad days of prime Evander Holyfield, Pernell Whitaker, Meldrick Taylor, Michael Moorer, Lennox Lewis, Ike Quartey, Fernando Vargas and Arturo Gatti.


• As tough as times are for Main Events, Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward has also hit a rough patch. First, Jermain Taylor got knocked out and fired him. Then came recent stoppage losses for Cintron and heralded middleweight prospect Andy Lee. Pardon the pun, but for Steward's sake, hopefully, heavyweight titleholder Wladimir Klitschko, with a July 12 defense coming against Tony Thompson, can stop the bleeding.


• Should we all second guess Cintron? He could have made about a $1 million to fight Paul Williams, although it would have been delayed by a couple of months from the original February date. Instead, the Cintron team elected to fight Margarito for less than $400,000 and a possible shot at Cotto that now won't happen.

It's so easy to get on Floyd Mayweather's case, especially after last weekend.

While Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito decimated opponents in welterweight title fights and happily look forward to throwing down with each other on July 26 in what could be a fight of the year candidate, Mayweather has shown no desire to fight either of them, especially Cotto.

For his careful selection of opponents, Mayweather is suffering the wrath of many fans and media who want to see the pound-for-pound king defend his throne by taking on the best challengers.

Instead, Mayweather is involved with all sorts of activities that do not include boxing such as pro wrestling and concert promoting, all while proclaiming himself the best fighter ever and continually flashing his wealth and fast lifestyle. It does get old and it sure drives a lot of us crazy.

And when "Money" finally does get back in the ring it will presumably be on Sept. 20 in a rematch against Oscar De La Hoya. It's a fight that will do huge business but won't prove a thing. A second victory over De La Hoya is merely about business and won't add to Mayweather's legacy. (De La Hoya, of course, must beat Steve Forbes on May 3, but most view that as a foregone conclusion.)

So Mayweather deserves to be taken to task for his careful selection of opponents -- did anyone besides British fans actually think Ricky Hatton had a real chance against him? -- and his obvious refusal to even entertain a fight with Cotto.

But there is also a softer, less public side to Mayweather that also deserves some attention.

Instead of showering night club patrons with cash, Mayweather has found a much better use for some of his money by giving back to his sport, something not nearly enough wealthy fighters do.

He recently wrote a check for $140,000 and gave it to organizers of the National Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions, which will take place in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Mich., from May 5 to May 10.

Mayweather's gift will cover the entire cost of operating this year's event, meaning all the revenue it generates will be able to go toward future events, which will give the organization a nice nest egg. The tournament is being hosted by the Michigan Golden Gloves, the non-profit organization that Mayweather was a part of as an amateur. It was instrumental in his development into a 1996 U.S. Olympic bronze medalist and great professional fighter.

Mayweather remembers where he came from and is in a position to give back.

"This is an opportunity to recognize the organization that got my career started," said Mayweather, who plans to attend the tournament's opening ceremonies on May 4. "If there is anything worth putting my money towards it is the Michigan Golden Gloves, who have been helping kids excel in the sport of boxing for years. I truly believe and hope there is a kid out there that can be as good, if not better than, me."

Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather's adviser and close friend, presented the Mayweather Promotions check to the West Michigan Sports Commission and was happy to do it.

"Floyd wanted to financially support the program he started his amateur boxing career with and acknowledge their long-standing and deep commitment to young fighters throughout the state looking to find a career in the sport," he said. "He feels he is in the position he is in today because of the Golden Gloves Tournament and his amateur success in the Michigan boxing program."

Organizers of the event certainly appreciate Mayweather's generosity.

"Floyd is our Oprah Winfrey, our 'Big Give,' and we are in awe of his financial commitment to the tournament," said Dave Packer, the executive director of Michigan Golden Gloves. "Not only can we give some deserving kids tickets to attend, but his generosity will enable us to take the proceeds from the tournament and continue our work with amateur fighters in the state who could end up having a career path similar to his."

During his standout amateur career, Mayweather won three national Golden Gloves tournaments in three weight classes in each of the three years he competed (1993, 1994 and 1996).

The donation does not change the fact that Mayweather won't fight the fights we want to see the most, but it should at least remind us that there is more to him than the cartoonish villain he has come off as during recent fight promotions.

So next time you hear, see or read some outlandish comment from Mayweather, see him brag about his wealth, or get frustrated because you think he's ducking Cotto or anybody else, just remember that it is only one side to the man.