ESPN Boxing

For months, Top Rank talked about putting on a July 14 pay-per-view card at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, but now it looks like the talk is over and there won't be a show.

Originally, Top Rank's Bob Arum said the card would be headlined by Mexican star Juan Manuel Marquez, who won an interim junior welterweight belt in April, and that junior featherweight titlist Nonito Donaire would fight in the co-feature.

Then Arum said Donaire wouldn't be on the card because the company would give him his own date (probably June 30 on HBO). Even without Donaire, Marquez would still headline, Arum said. But no deal had been finalized with a television company to distribute the event and Marquez had no opponent.

Top Rank was talking to HBO about working on the show, and Top Rank certainly could have done it on its own, but time is running short to mount a legitimate pay-per-view promotion.

Then came the usual steady stream of discussion about whom Marquez would fight. Junior welterweight titlist Lamont Peterson was originally mentioned, but he instead accepted a rematch with Amir Khan (which was supposed to have taken place last Saturday but was canceled when Peterson tested positive for a synthetic testosterone).

Other names were mentioned for Marquez: fellow Mexican star and future Hall of Famer Erik Morales (a fight I've wanted to see for about a decade), former titlist Zab Judah, former lightweight titlist Brandon Rios (coming off a gift decision against Richard Abril that most sane people thought was a very obvious Abril victory) and the utterly unknown Mercito Gesta, a talented Filipino lightweight who is, alas, nowhere near ready to face a fighter of Marquez's caliber.

In the end, after all the talk, Top Rank pulled the plug on the event Monday because Marquez elected not to fight on the pay-per-view. From what I hear from those around Marquez, the financial package wasn't to Marquez's liking. Plus, he didn't want to fight Rios, the opponent Top Rank wanted him to face.

Marquez had previously said he preferred a southpaw opponent (Judah and Gesta would have fit) in anticipation of a possible fourth fight with Manny Pacquiao, a left-hander, in the fall.

Now Marquez might instead wait to see what happens in the June 9 Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley Jr. fight. If Pacquiao wins, Marquez figures to be at the top of the list for Pacquiao's November opponent.

Arum had been in talks with Main Events' Kathy Duva about a Marquez-Judah fight, but according to Duva, Arum told her Monday that "Marquez has decided not to fight at all in July."

Zanfer Promotions, which has a promotional contract with Marquez but works closely with Top Rank, said it is possible Marquez could still fight this summer -- but in Mexico on July 21 or July 28, likely against a lesser opponent.

A trio of televised boxing-related notes:

• If you missed last week's pay-per-view card that included Juan Manuel Marquez's lopsided decision victory against Sergey Fedchenko to win a vacant interim junior welterweight belt in Mexico City and the robbery of the year that saw lightweight Richard Abril get hosed against Brandon Rios (who failed to make weight) in a title bout in Las Vegas, you're in luck.

HBO Latino will replay both bouts on Saturday night (11 ET/PT). The commentary is in Spanish, as called by Mario Solis and Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. There will also be replays on HBO Latino on Sunday (10:45 a.m., 5:10 p.m.), Monday (12:45 a.m.) and Tuesday (12:30 a.m.).

As it relates to Rios-Abril, Keith Kizer, the executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, said Friday that Rios and Abril both passed their steroid and drug tests. Also, according to the commission, Rios-Abril generated a gate of $257,950 from 2,728 tickets sold at Mandalay Bay, with an additional 531 complimentary tickets handed out.

• There has been a little bit of a change in the lineup for the preliminary bouts that will air on Showtime Extreme on Saturday night (7 ET/PT) from the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas, prior to Showtime's world title doubleheader at 9:30 ET/PT featuring Abner Mares versus Eric Morel for a vacant junior featherweight belt and bantamweight titlist Anselmo Moreno defending against David De La Mora. Longtime super middleweight contender Librado Andrade (30-4, 23 KOs) still will face Rowland Bryant (15-1, 10 KOs) in a scheduled 10-round bout on Showtime Extreme. But added to the undercard broadcast is lightweight prospect Luis Ramos (21-0, 9 KOs), who will face veteran former title challenger Daniel Attah (26-9-1, 9 KOs) in a 10-round bout.

Time permitting, we may also see junior lightweight Antonio Escalante (25-4, 17 KOs) against Francisco Camacho (10-1, 3 KOs) in a scheduled eight-rounder and 2008 Mexican Olympian Francisco Vargas (9-0-1, 7 KOs) against Rafael Lora (11-7, 5 KOs) in a six- or eight-round junior lightweight fight.

• Thanks to Golden Boy's evolving output deal with Fox Deportes, American fight fans will be able to watch live coverage of the world title doubleheader from Cancun, Mexico on April 28, according to Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer. The card, which also will air on major network Televisa in Mexico, includes featherweight titlist Jhonny Gonzalez (51-7, 45 KOs) defending against former titlist Elio Rojas (23-1, 14 KOs) in the main event, with junior lightweight titlist Juan Carlos Salgado (24-1-1, 16 KOs) making a mandatory defense against Martin Honorio (32-6-1, 16 KOs) in the co-feature.

Your random thoughts ...

• I like the fact that Juan Manuel Marquez, one of today's best fighters, isn't just sitting around waiting for another big fight. He desperately wants a fourth fight with Manny Pacquiao, which could come near the end of the year, but there is certainly no guarantee. So Marquez will stay busy by facing Sergey Fedchenko on Saturday night in Mexico City in the main event of the Top Rank split-site pay-per-view card (9 ET, $44.95). More fighters should do what Marquez is doing, which is stay active and sharp (even if not for a mega-payday) for when the big fight does come. Sure, it's a risk. But boxing is all about risks.

• You think Yuriorkis Gamboa will be ordering the Marquez-Fedchenko/Brandon Rios-Richard Abril pay-per-view on Saturday night? Maybe he'll order it then just cancel at the last minute? Gamboa, of course, should have been fighting Rios for a seven-figure payday, but he bailed on the day of the announcement news conference because he is obviously listening to very poor advice from somebody. All Gamboa has now is a lot of free time, a breach of contract lawsuit on his hands from Top Rank (which costs money to defend), the ire of boxing fans and HBO and no fight scheduled.

• I don't love the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Miguel Cotto HBO PPV undercard that was announced this week. From what I have heard from readers and tweeters, it has generated a big shrug. In other words, it's OK -- but certainly nothing to get excited about. Canelo Alvarez-Shane Mosley, the co-feature, was announced ages ago. That's a showcase for Alvarez against a once-great fighter. Does anyone seriously think Mosley has a chance after his terrible (and very boring) recent performances? The other two TV bouts were announced this week -- welterweight prospect Jessie Vargas against Alfonso Gomez and junior middleweights Denadre Latimore and Carlos Quintana squaring off -- and are decent. I don't know who will win either fight, but then again I don't find either bout to be all that intriguing because I don't consider any of the four to be top-tier fighters. So the undercard is decent, but shouldn't it be better when the PPV costs $59.95 (and more in HD)? By the way, I don't blame promoter of record Golden Boy, either. This is Mayweather's call, as he controls what goes on the card and he wanted Vargas and Latimore -- his fighters -- on the PPV.

• So Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.'s middleweight defense against Andy Lee on June 16 will take place at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. Two requests for the Texas boxing regulators: Don't "forget" the drug-testing kits as you did in February for Chavez's most recent fight in your state, and please, please, please, don't let Gale Van Hoy anywhere near a judging stool or assign Jon Schorle to referee.

• I was happy to hear Lee got the shot against Chavez. He has worked hard to get it and deserves it. And I think it will be an entertaining fight. Ideally, the winner will face Sergio Martinez, the real middleweight champion, in September. Of course, I'll believe that when I see it.

• Junior lightweight titlist Adrien Broner is scheduled to fight on an HBO undercard May 19 and still doesn't have an opponent. He never had an opponent, but HBO gave him a slot, anyway. That's one of the many problems with boxing. I like Broner as much as anyone, but why should he blindly be handed a slot? Making matters worse is that Broner fights in one of boxing's worst divisions, and the one interesting and doable fight -- a match with fellow Golden Boy fighter Vicente Escobedo -- wasn't really considered for May 19 because that match is being planned for Broner's HBO headliner date later in the summer. So when I hear that Monty Meza Clay is being considered for Broner's May bout, it's a real downer. That's maybe a two-round fight -- and a non-competitive two rounds at that.

• For all the talent Jorge Linares has, I think it's pretty clear that he's never going to be the star champion many (although not I) predicted he would become. His recent second-round TKO loss to Sergio Thompson was an utter disaster, as he blew a lightweight title rematch with Antonio DeMarco that was set for July 7 on Showtime by losing in bad fashion to an obscure opponent with a puffed-up record. I just don't think Linares, now a loser of two in a row by knockout, is ever going to hack it at the very top of the sport. He simply can't take a punch and he cuts sooooo easily. I wish him luck and hope he proves me wrong.

• Vic Darchinyan had a helluva run as a two-division champ at flyweight and junior bantamweight. He made some terrific fights, scored a lot of great knockouts, talked a lot of trash and got way more U.S. television exposure on Showtime than most little guys (and even many bigger guys) could ever dream of. But Darchinyan is 36 now, still extraordinarily one-dimensional and coming off yet another loss in a bantamweight title bout. He dropped to 0-3 in 118-pound title fights with his loss to Shinsuke Yamanaka in Japan last weekend. Darchinyan, at this point, looks just about done.

• I have no idea what Michael Katsidis has left after so many brutal fights, but he's moving up to junior welterweight for his "Friday Night Fights" main event this week against Albert Mensah, and I'm curious to see what he does have left.

• Isn't it about time cruiserweight contender Denis Lebedev fights an opponent with a pulse? In his past three fights, he has faced two 40-something has-beens (James Toney and Roy Jones Jr.) and one never-was/never-will-be (Shawn Cox).

• Just three weeks until light heavyweight champ Bernard Hopkins faces Chad Dawson in a rematch. I don't ever recall Hopkins being this quiet before a fight.

• Paging Beibut Shumenov.

• Gross title fight of the spring: Dmitry Pirog defending his middleweight belt against Nobuhiro Ishida on May 1. That would be the same Ishida who lost every minute of every round to Paul Williams a few weeks ago. So Ishida lost a complete route and landed a title shot? Pathetic.

• I hope new junior welterweight titlist Danny Garcia and Golden Boy don't try to weasel out of the mandatory defense against Ajose Olusegun. The fight is due, and Olusegun is a legit opponent who deserves his chance.

• DVD pick of the week: One of the most iconic fights in boxing history was back in the news because of its recent 25th anniversary. So it made sense to break out that all-time classic: Sugar Ray Leonard's remarkable decision victory against Marvelous Marvin Hagler to shockingly win the middleweight title on April 6, 1987, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Leonard, the former welterweight champ, was coming out of a three-year retirement to face Hagler in a fight for which fans (and Hagler) had been pining for years. Many thought Leonard, the smaller man and coming off a very long layoff, would be destroyed. Instead, Leonard scored an upset for the ages by fighting an incredibly disciplined bout and, to be honest, breaking Hagler mentally. The split decision for Leonard -- 118-110, 115-113, with one judge going 115-113 for Hagler -- still stirs debate. Personally, I thought Leonard deserved the decision. He won the first four rounds and stole at least three more to properly win.

Lineal lightweight champ Juan Manuel Marquez, who is coming off a controversial majority decision loss to welterweight titleholder Manny Pacquiao in November, will return to headline Top Rank's split-site pay-per-view card on Saturday night (9 ET, $44.95) from Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and the new Mexico City Arena in Mexico City, Marquez's hometown.

But Marquez, one of boxing's best, isn't facing another star fighter such as Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather Jr., or even Juan Diaz or Michael Katsidis, past opponents with well-known names. Instead, he is returning home to fight for a vacant interim junior welterweight belt against a fighter who is an unknown to most of the world: Sergey Fedchenko of Ukraine.

So what do we know about Mr. Fedchenko? For one, he has a terrific record (30-1, 13 KOs), albeit one built against nondescript competition. He is also 31 -- seven years younger than Marquez -- and has been a junior welterweight for his entire 10-year pro career. The fighters are just about the same height. And because Marquez is a popular, well-known star and Fedchenko is as obscure as they come, obviously Marquez is the (big) favorite.

Fedchenko's most notable fight came in 2009, when he faced South African contender Kaizer Mabuza, who scored a TKO win against former junior welterweight titlist Kendall Holt in a title eliminator before being knocked out by Zab Judah in a fight for a vacant title. Mabuza handed Fedchenko his only loss -- by majority decision (in Ukraine).

As for Fedchenko's notable wins? There aren't many to pick from, but here's the best I can come up with: He outpointed former titlist (and now ultimate journeyman opponent) DeMarcus "Chop Chop" Corley in November 2010. This past November, Fedchenko outpointed France's Willy Blain, a 2004 Olympian probably best known in the U.S. for a seventh-round knockout loss to future titleholder Lamont Peterson on HBO in an undercard bout.

Other than that, Fedchenko's résumé is a wasteland.

I did watch some footage of him on YouTube (there are a few fights on there, if you're interested). Fedchenko looks like your typical European stand-up boxer. He doesn't have a lot of power and he isn't particularly fast. He does have a good jab. He seems to have heart, as well as fundamental boxing skills. He also swells and has been cut.

One thing I'm confident in saying: He won't be hard for Marquez to find. Marquez is a great counterpuncher, and if Fedchenko does come to him, or even stays in decent range, he'll probably get tattooed. Most likely, Fedchenko will try to work off the jab to control Marquez, which is a lot easier said than done against a future Hall of Famer.

I asked Sean Gibbons, a boxing lifer and a matchmaker for Marquez's promoter, Fernando Beltran, for his scouting report on Fedchenko, whom he has seen.

"Like a lot of European fighters, he boxes tall and likes to stay on the outside, working behind his gloves that are held high in front of his face," Gibbons said.

Gibbons concurred that if Fedchenko is to have any prayer of winning, he would be best served by working behind his jab.

"He is not overly aggressive, and when pushed back looks to cover when you're punching and waits for you to stop so he can get off," Gibbons said. "He's not much on countering. I do not see an inside game."

All of that, of course, bodes well for Marquez --although at his age and with so many rough fights in his past, you never know when time will catch up to him.

Gibbons' assessment of the fight: "Marquez should systematically break him down, round by round, to the body and head. Sergey has never faced the likes of Marquez. I do not see the power to hurt Marquez. As the fight wears on, he will try to move away from Marquez. But as Marquez steps it up, he will have to stand and fight at some point. I see Marquez breaking him down, and possibly a middle- to late-round stoppage or clear decision."

Juan Manuel Marquez is going to the International Boxing Hall of Fame someday. The Mexican star has won titles in three divisions, been in numerous action-packed fights and faced the best of his era, including Manny Pacquiao in their famed trilogy. Even though Marquez officially is 0-2-1 against Pacquiao, he deserved a much better fate. In my view (and I covered all three fights), he should be 2-0-1. (I had Marquez winning the first two fights and drawing with Pacquiao in No. 3).

But here is Marquez, coming off an excellent performance against Pacquiao in a November majority decision loss, unable to land another major fight. It's as though the top fighters played a game of musical chairs and, when the music stopped, Marquez was the one left without a seat.

Right after the loss to Pacquiao, Top Rank's Bob Arum talked about an immediate fourth fight. But that ultimately went nowhere, and now Pacquiao is set to defend his welterweight title against junior welterweight titleholder Timothy Bradley Jr. on June 9.

The other fighter Marquez had been closely linked to for a potential bout was Lamont Peterson, who owns two junior welterweight belts. Arum talked about trying to make that fight and holding it at Cowboys Stadium outside of Dallas.

Alas, that big opportunity also fell by the wayside, because Peterson elected to give Amir Khan, from whom he won the belts in December, a rematch on May 19.

With both fights failing to materialize for Marquez -- who would fight at junior welterweight or welterweight -- it has left him looking for an alternative.

If he's only going to work with Mexican promoter Fernando Beltran and Top Rank, his options are a bit limited in terms of notable fights. Probably the most interesting match would be for him to face former lightweight titlist Brandon Rios, if Rios' proposed bout with Yuriorkis Gamboa doesn't come off. (It's being negotiated for April 14 on HBO and, from what I'm told, Rios is in, but there are still issues on the Gamboa side.)

Rios struggles to make lightweight -- he missed that weight for a December fight and was stripped of his belt -- and could certainly fight Marquez at 140 pounds. Marquez-Rios would be a matchup of the ultimate star veteran against a young, hungry, rising star.

If Marquez could work with Golden Boy -- his former promoter, whom he left in order to get the third Pacquiao fight -- he has more options. A summer fight with the winner of the Feb. 25 fight between Marcos Maidana and Devon Alexander would be an interesting option, especially if it turns out to be the all-action Maidana. A similarly interesting option might be to face the winner of the May 19 fight between Lucas Matthysse and Humberto Soto, although that would mean a much longer wait for Marquez.

If I had my way, Marquez would fight the winner of the March 24 bout between junior welterweight titlist Erik Morales and youngster Danny Garcia, especially if it's Morales.

I have wanted to see Morales-Marquez for about a decade, as have many. It would pit all-time great Mexican boxers and would undoubtedly be an exciting fight (one that would also probably do well on pay-per-view). But I also want to see it because it would complete a historic round-robin, as it's the only bout that has never happened among the great foursome of Marquez, Morales, Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera, who have met 12 times between them. And if Garcia beats Morales, well, Garcia-Marquez would be another fine fight matching a star veteran against a young, exciting fighter.

Yes, 2011 is in the books, but as is usually the case, the Fight Freaks have been tweeting me for more boxing award winners than just those I handed out last week. I'm here to serve. Now that I've borrowed Adrien Broner's brush and styled my hair, here are a few more, with Part 2 coming tomorrow:

Trainer of the year: There were several good candidates, including Robert Garcia (who trains, among others, Nonito Donaire and Brandon Rios); Freddie Roach (Manny Pacquiao, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Amir Khan), who has made the running for this award his personal playground in recent years; Barry Hunter (whose charge, Lamont Peterson, upended Khan); and Ann Wolfe, who deserves a ton of credit for the rebound of James Kirkland. But I'm going with Virgil Hunter, who led Andre Ward to unifying two super middleweight titles, the Super Six championship and fighter of the year honors. Hunter has trained Ward since he first picked up gloves as a kid, and they have climbed the mountain together. Now they can celebrate together.

Comeback of the year: You could certainly go with Kirkland, who returned to Wolfe and eventually outslugged Alfredo Angulo to rebound from a shocking first-round knockout loss to Nobuhiro Ishida. But I'm going with Erik Morales, whose return in 2010 from a 2½-year retirement looked like it would be spent fighting low-level opponents. But in 2011, Morales begged Golden Boy for a fight with Marcos Maidana, which everyone but Morales thought was a very bad, unhealthy idea. Many believed the Nevada commission shouldn't have approved the fight, calling it a death match. Instead, although Morales lost a majority decision, it was a massive upset that he was even still standing after a few rounds, much less that he made it an exceptionally competitive fight. Morales had turned back the clock. For good measure, he claimed a vacant junior welterweight belt (albeit a paper one, because it had been disgustingly stripped from Timothy Bradley Jr.) in his next fight.

Three Blind Mice robbery of the year: Three stand out -- junior middleweight Erislandy Lara getting ripped off against Paul Williams, Matthew Macklin being shafted in a middleweight title bout in Germany against hometown fighter Felix Sturm and heavyweight Dereck Chisora getting similar treatment against Robert Helenius in his native Finland. But Lara-Williams was the worst. While Williams was getting hammered so badly that HBO's announcers discussed the notion that he should retire, judges Hilton Whitaker (115-114), Don Givens (116-114) and Al Bennett (114-114) were tallying scorecards that were so abominable that the New Jersey commission suspended them indefinitely. They still haven't been reinstated.

Non-event of the year: Same as 2010. No Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight. And the soap opera continues.

TruTV court story of the year: Mayweather dealt with multiple court cases -- none more serious than the eight charges (four felonies and four misdemeanors) related to a domestic violence incident with his ex-girlfriend, the mother of three of his children. Mayweather eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge and no contest on two harassment charges. He was sentenced to six months in county jail in Nevada, three of which were suspended. Instead of arranging the monster fight with Pacquiao, Mayweather, one of boxing's two most famous fighters, will spend the early part of 2012 in the can. He's due to report to jail Friday. He could be out by mid-March, but surely he won't fight in May as originally planned.

TMZ scandal of the year: Oscar De La Hoya went to rehab for drug and alcohol abuse. Then he admitted to multiple affairs, suicidal thoughts and came clean about those bizarre photos of him that wound up on the Internet a couple of years ago -- the ones supposedly taken by a stripper he was partying with in a hotel room showing him in sexually suggestive positions while wearing fishnet stockings, a woman's wig, panties and high heels -- admitting that they were indeed authentic.

All bark, no bite award: David Haye, obviously. After a couple of years of ducking heavyweight champ Wladimir Klitschko and trash-talking him to no end, Haye finally manned up and got into the ring. Instead of actually fighting and trying to back up his stream of venom, Haye spent more time flopping to the mat looking for penalty points than fighting as Klitschko kicked his butt in a virtual shutout. Then Haye made himself the laughingstock of boxing when he complained that he lost because of a sore pinky toe, even taking off his boot to show off the digit after his shameful performance. Haye showed himself to be a classless buffoon. The only bigger joke than Haye was his toe-tally pitiful excuse.

Video of the year: After all the trash-talking Haye did, Klitschko responded with this brilliant Internet video shortly after his July victory.

Boxing body parts of the year: 1. Haye's toe; 2. Antonio Margarito's right eye; 3. Pawel Wolak's hematoma; 4. Bernard Hopkins' left shoulder.

Non-effort of the year (after Haye's): It's a tie. Shane Mosley spent 12 rounds trying to touch gloves with Pacquiao instead of fighting, and Omar Narvaez ran from Donaire for 12 rounds -- and hopefully had his visa revoked when he returned to Argentina so that we never have to see him fight on U.S. soil again.

Non-sanctioned fight of the year: Junior middleweight titlist Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, with his 46-pound weight advantage, allegedly beating up junior flyweight titlist Ulises Solis in a street fight over a girl in Mexico.

Interview of the year: So upset by the decision after his fight with Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez didn't stick around in the ring to do an interview with HBO's Max Kellerman. So the cameras went to his dressing room, where Marquez agreed to talk. Having already stripped out of his ring gear, Marquez gave Kellerman an interview seated with a sombrero strategically positioned over his junk.

Faker of the year: Likar Ramos turned in an award-winning performance in his supposed first-round knockout loss to Marquez, who was using the fight as a tune-up for his third meeting with Pacquiao. Marquez landed a nice right hand, but you'd have thought Ramos got hit by Mike Tyson given the ridiculously exaggerated manner in which he went down. It looked like a tank job. I've seen better acting in the WWE.

Ducker of the year: Bradley. After repeatedly calling out Amir Khan for a junior welterweight unification fight, Khan accepted and HBO made deals with their promoters for a July fight. But Bradley, using the excuse of a feud with promoter Gary Shaw, refused. After Khan called his bluff and offered to do a 50-50 deal, including giving Bradley half of his British television money, which is unheard of, Bradley still balked. Then Bradley had the audacity to say that fighting Khan would do nothing for his career. Instead, he left Shaw, signed with Top Rank and beat the totally shot Joel Casamayor in a terrible fight. So what did that do for his career?

Most inspiring: Hands down, Dewey Bozella, who spent 26 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit and, at age 52, finally lived out his dream by making his pro debut in October. He won on the Hopkins-Chad Dawson undercard at the Staples Center. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Biggest miracle: The Super Six World Boxing Classic actually reached its conclusion as Ward painted a masterpiece to unify super middleweight titles by easily outpointing Carl Froch.

Biggest bummer: Kelly Pavlik, who simply cannot get his life together as what little is left of his career circles the bowl.

In memoriam: Among those we lost in 2011 were Joe Frazier, Nick Charles, Genaro Hernandez, Gil Clancy, Bouie Fisher, George Benton, Bill Gallo, Ron Lyle, Henry Cooper, Gary Mason, Billy Costello, Butch Lewis and Scott LeDoux. Rest in peace.