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Your random thoughts ...

• A tip of the hat to super middleweight titlist Lucian Bute for his willingness, almost eagerness, to leave his comfort zone of Quebec -- when he didn't have to -- to defend his title in Carl Froch's hometown of Nottingham, England, on May 26. You can be sure that Bute, who draws sellout crowds in Montreal and Quebec City, is leaving money on the table by going to England. But he's doing it because that's what real fighters do.

• I'm as bummed as any boxing fan by the apparent implosion of the Brandon Rios-Yuriorkis Gamboa lightweight title bout scheduled for April 14 on HBO. Gamboa apparently is pulling out after skipping both kickoff news conferences this week and complaining about the deal that Top Rank says he agreed to. When that fight first came up, the styles of the fighters and the matchup immediately reminded me of the all-time classic bout between Julio Cesar Chavez and Meldrick Taylor.

• One fight I would like to see in the future would match Gamboa with hair-brushing expert and junior lightweight titlist Adrien Broner. That would be explosive, and the speed matchup would be ridiculous. Of course, it's unlikely to happen anytime soon because Gamboa is with Top Rank and Broner is with Golden Boy. But I can dream.

• I can't wait to see the junior welterweight bout between Lucas Matthysse and Humberto Soto, which is due to take place on Showtime on the undercard of the Victor Ortiz-Andre Berto rematch on June 23. To me, it's a can't-miss fight. Matthysse-Soto has action written all over it.

• I've thoroughly enjoyed HBO's new 15-minute "2 Days" features, which follows fighters during the two days prior to an upcoming bout. So far, two fighters have been profiled, Rios and James Kirkland. Both shows have been outstanding, but the piece on Rios, which followed him in the two agonizing days before his December fight with John Murray, was mesmerizing. HBO's David Roofthooft, who oversees "2 Days" and the network's "Face Off with Max Kellerman," did a masterful job of making viewers feel like they were with Rios as he severely struggled, and ultimately failed, to make weight and was stripped of his lightweight title. It is 15 of the most riveting minutes of television I've ever seen.

• I was disappointed that the IBF didn't order a rematch between light heavyweight titlist Tavoris Cloud and Gabriel Campillo, who got robbed Feb. 18. Other than the two judges who scored it for Cloud, I have yet to encounter anyone else -- other than Cloud and his own team -- who thought he won.

• After watching Alexander Povetkin struggle badly to keep his paper heavyweight belt against cruiserweight titlist Marco Huck -- like many, I thought Huck clearly won -- we all know why Teddy Atlas, Povetkin's former trainer, kept him far away from Wladimir Klitschko, the real champion, even with a career-high $2 million-plus payday at stake for the mandatory fight. Povetkin couldn't handle a decent right hand from Huck. Klitschko, with the best right hand in boxing, would knock Povetkin's head off his shoulders.

• If Mikey Garcia defeats Bernabe Concepcion on Saturday's Showtime undercard, he'll be 28-0. It'll be time for a title shot, already.

• I found it amusing that David Haye seemed to throw more punches at Dereck Chisora during their recent brawl at the news conference following Chisora's lopsided loss to Vitali Klitschko than Haye threw in his actual fight with Wladimir Klitschko last summer. Speaking of Chisora, I found it typical of the wretched WBC that it banned him indefinitely for the brawl with Haye, but when it came to Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s guilty plea on a domestic battery charge against his ex-girlfriend, WBC president for life Jose Sulaiman not only didn't suspend Mayweather, he endorsed violence against women by initially commenting on Mayweather's case that "beating a lady is highly critical, [but] it is not a major sin or crime." How sweet. I'm sure the women in his family are so proud.

• I'm still a bit shocked that Sonny Boy Jaro knocked out Pongsaklek Wonjongkam to win a flyweight title last week. It'll take something crazy to happen in the coming months for that fight to be unseated as upset of the year.

• I am mildly intrigued by Showtime's May 26 cruiserweight fight between Antonio Tarver and Lateef Kayode. I'm not at all for Showtime's April 21 fight between Abner Mares and Eric Morel. Love Mares, but Morel makes bad fights. Always has.

• Good luck to former middleweight titlist Sebastian Sylvester, 31, of Germany, who has announced his retirement. Sylvester (34-5-1, 16 KOs) was never the No. 1 middleweight, but he was a top-10 guy for several years, fought a number of quality opponents and won a world title in 2009. He made three defenses, before going out having lost his last two fights. However, he got knocked out in the first round of his pro debut in 2002 and regrouped to become one of the rare fighters to lose his debut and go on to win a title.

• Happy birthday to all-time great trainer Freddie Roach, who turned 52 on Monday.

• DVD pick of the week: It's one of the most significant fights in history -- they called it the "Fight of the Century" -- and it never gets old. It's the first epic battle between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali, both undefeated at the time and both with a claim to the heavyweight championship. Frazier had the belt, but he had won it only after Ali had been stripped and banned from boxing for refusing induction into the Army. Ali returned in late 1970 and fought twice before he faced Frazier on March 8, 1971 -- exactly 41 years ago -- at Madison Square Garden in New York in one of the most anticipated fights ever. Ali controlled the early action, but Frazier came back to even it up in the middle rounds before taking over in the late rounds. Early in the 15th round, Frazier landed his classic left hook to Ali's jaw and dropped him to punctuate a unanimous decision victory in the first fight of their historic trilogy.

Picking on the heavyweight division these days is pretty easy. In an era when champion brothers Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko stand head and shoulders above the rest of the field, the popular refrain is that there's no competition in the weight class for them and that the division is a waste of time.

Between them, the brothers Klitschko have, in their current title reigns, combined to make 18 defenses since 2006. They have dominated every single one of the fights, without exception, and won 13 of them by knockout.

It doesn't help matters, at least on this side of the pond, that there is such a dearth of American contenders, especially when Americans used to own the division.

And because, as we all know, the Klitschkos have said since Day 1 that they will never fight each other, many have just written off the division. HBO and Showtime, the leaders in American televised boxing, have all but given up on it. Even when HBO dipped its toe back into the heavyweight business last year, making a deal with the Klitschkos to televise Wladimir's defense against David Haye and Vitali's against Tomasz Adamek, it didn't get one competitive round out of the 22 combined in the two fights. Maybe the most compelling drama in both bouts was watching Haye embarrass himself by blaming his loss on a sore toe and then whipping out the digit to show HBO analyst Larry Merchant in his postfight interview.

But you know what? A funny thing happened on the way to the heavyweight black hole: The division is actually starting to perk up. There are reasons to watch, fighters to be interested in and, lately, some pretty good bouts.

Two weeks ago, Vitali rolled to a lopsided unanimous decision against British crazy man Dereck Chisora, essentially as a one-armed fighter because he suffered a left shoulder ligament tear early in the fight. It was the first of three heavyweight title bouts in three weeks on American premium network Epix, which has picked up the slack for HBO and Showtime. But although it was a one-sided fight on the scorecards, it was an absolutely entertaining scrap (watched by more than 13 million people on German network RTL), probably Vitali's most exciting bout since his 2004 brawl with Corrie Sanders. And Chisora certainly spiced things up with his loose cannon behavior before the fight (when he slapped Vitali at the weigh-in and then spit water in Wladimir's face in the ring before the bout began) and after the fight, when Chisora instigated a brawl with Haye at the press conference. Chisora behaved like a buffoon, but for better or worse, he brought a lot of attention and excitement to the division.

It wasn't Chisora's first entertaining fight, either. His loss (a robbery!) to Robert Helenius (another young contender to keep an eye on) in December was an entertaining fight, as was his collision last summer with England's up-and-coming Tyson Fury, who also has been in some entertaining bouts.

Just last week, Alexander Povetkin defended his version of the title against Marco Huck, a cruiserweight titleholder who moved up in weight. It was a terrific fight -- one of the best in the heavyweight division in a long time -- even if the majority decision awarding the decision to Povetkin wasn't so good.

But Povetkin is a normal-sized heavyweight, not a giant like the Klitschkos, so Huck wasn't overmatched despite his moving up to heavyweight for the first time. Povetkin has been in other good fights as well.

If you can put the Klitschkos to the side for just a minute, there are good fights that can be made involving Chisora (assuming he keeps his license following his latest antics), Adamek (who returns from his loss to Vitali on March 24) and the always-entertaining Cristobal Arreola (who two weeks ago won a fight that lasted only one round but was quite exciting).

Hopefully, Huck will stick around at heavyweight, too, because a pressure fighter with a big right hand and a big heart is always welcome.

Even though it wasn't the most significant heavyweight fight, Americans Bryant Jennings and Maurice Byarm, who were pressed into action at the last minute on Jan. 21 when the original main event fell out, produced a fun heavyweight fight in the first main event of the new "Fight Night" series on NBC Sports Net.

There are other heavyweights to watch who could develop, including Seth Mitchell (America's current best hope); younger and rawer American Deontay Wilder (a 2008 Olympic medalist who is 21-0 with 21 KOs and has a massive right hand but who hasn't fought anyone with a pulse); British giant David Price (a 2008 Olympic medalist who is 12-0 with 10 KOs); Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev (15-0 with 7 KOs, who goes for the vacant European title March 31); and Ireland-based Cuban Mike Perez (18-0, 12 KOs), who has looked good in recent fights.

So even though Wladimir is expected to roll through yet another title defense, this time against former cruiserweight champion Jean-Marc Mormeck, on Saturday, just as he and his brother have made routine, it doesn't mean the heavyweight division is dead.

You just have to respect the historic dominance of the Klitschko brothers and then take a minute to look beyond them for satisfaction. If you do, you'll find that the heavyweight division isn't so bad after all.

Heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko has a fight right in front of him, but a possible defense against former titleholder David Haye -- who embarrassed himself in a lopsided loss to Klitschko's brother, fellow champ Wladimir Klitschko, this past summer -- is still a regular topic of conversation.

One of the reasons Klitschko's eighth title defense is scheduled against Dereck Chisora, Haye's British countryman, on Saturday (Epix and EpixHD.com, 4:30 p.m. ET) in Munich, Germany, is because negotiations for a fight with Haye bogged down due to Haye's indecision.

Even with Chisora in front of their fighter, Klitschko's team continues to try to make a deal for him to take on Haye next. Klitschko, however, said it doesn't look very promising.

"David Haye is so unpredictable and we tried to make a deal and I hope the fight comes through, but right now we are miles apart from making the contract," Klitschko said on a teleconference on Wednesday. "Right now, I don't want to talk about it. I am focused totally for the Chisora fight and I hope that after Dereck Chisora, David Haye changes his mind and I can give a chance to David Haye to fight for a world title.

"Everyone, every fighter, has a dream to fight for a world title, and I tell every time to David Haye: 'Please fight me. Please fight for the world title.' It's the most prestigious title in the world. And then, if he doesn't want to do that, it's OK. David Haye always tries to find excuses why fights do not happen. I hope David Haye one day makes a decision to fight me."

A few months after Wladimir Klitschko made Haye look like a fool after all of the challenger's trash-talking, Haye announced a retirement nobody believed would stick. Not long after, he began talking about a fight with Vitali, who would be a massive favorite over Haye in a fight that I don't have much interest in. Had Haye lost to Wladimir but at least turned in a top effort, that would be a different story. Instead, Haye took the money and ran. He flopped to the canvas time and again, and then blamed his miserable performance on a sore pinkie toe. In my view, he doesn't deserve another title shot or a big payday until he earns it.

Vitali Klitschko (43-2, 40 KOs) said he expects Chisora (15-2, 9 KOs) to put up a better fight against him than Haye did against his brother. (Is it possible to put up a worse fight?)

"David Haye didn't want to fight. He just kept running away from my brother," Vitali said. "He didn't come in to fight. I expect a better fight from Dereck Chisora. He's actually a fighter. He wants to go in and fight and to go the distance. He tries to challenge his opponent, and I didn't see that in the last fight between David Haye against Wladimir Klitschko. And that's why they both have totally different styles. Dereck Chisora is more aggressive than David Haye."