ESPN

Sadam Ali gave and received some punishment, and put together an entertaining main event with Jay Krupp at Barclays Center on Monday night. The Brooklyn boxer, a 2008 Olympian just signed to the Golden Boy roster, had some iffy moments with the fiery and awkward Jay Krupp, who'd studied under Cus D'Amato disciple Kevin Rooney. But Ali, after hitting the deck in Round 1 off a left, found his legs. An overhand right from Ali in the third, plus a knockdown in the eighth cemented the win for the victor.

The judges saw it 79-72, 78-71, and 77-72, for the welterweight Ali, who pronounced himself rusty. "I dropped Krupp two times, I don't know how he thought he won," Ali said of the Louisiana-born Catskills resident. "I wasn't hurt when he knocked me down, it just proves I need to focus," he said.

When Ali got into a rhythm with his jab, he kept Krupp from launching himself with abandon. Ali did get hit with counters, and Krupp's loony left hook, more than he might have liked. But all in all, the 3,059 fans in attendance seemed to enjoy the dramatics and defensive lapses.

Marcus Browne of Staten Island improved to 7-0 (6 KOs) with a unanimous victory over Lamont Williams at Barclays Center on Monday.

The judges scored it 79-72, 79-72, 76-72 for Browne, in what was an immensely chippy contest.

Afterwards, Browne said it was a “good learning experience.” The 22-year-old said he was OK with not knocking out Williams, as “you can’t knock out everybody.” He said the fight was “dirtier” than his others, and he expects to be stronger in his next eight-rounder.

Browne, the 2012 Olympian, was aggressive in the first. Williams was cautious, maybe too cautious for a shortened-duration bout.

Williams got nastier in Round 2, in a chippy round which saw Williams land a few clean shots on Browne.

In the third, Williams’ hand speed was impressive. With lead rights and lead hooks, he touched Browne a few times. Browne seemed slightly frustrated, as evidenced when he did a smush face on a break, and got warned by the ref. Williams’ feints kept Browne from getting into a rhythm.

The fourth was tight. Williams’ straight right was maybe the best punch of the round. Browne had a point taken for an intentional headbutt to start the fifth. The round was better for him because he came forward and wasn’t backing up so much.

In the sixth, it was another chippy round, with clinches, headbutting and elbows. Browne’s best punch was straight left, but he took a right counter in return. The judges could have gone either way.

In the seventh, Browne had a solid round, landing the cleaner, harder shots.

In the eighth, Williams ran and didn’t throw, giving Browne the round. We went to the cards.

Williams, from California, fell to 5-2-1 with the loss.

Junior welterweight Mike Perez from Newark delighted the crowd with a flurry plus some of left hooks on foe Miguel Zuniga in the main undercard attraction. Perez, an accurate hitter who takes enough punishment to make it interesting, won a UD, by scores of 99-91, 99-91, 96-94 over game Zuniga, who followed him, but couldn't match the hand speed of the victor. After the bout, Perez said, "I've been through a lot, and tonight I found out who I really am. I'm back on my own bandwagon."

Two men met up, with gleaming records, with boundless expectations, with title shots and belts and nest-egg money to come bouncing around their heads like pinballs. Michael Perez, from Newark, took on Omar Figueroa, a Texan, on Jan. 6, 2012 in Indio, Calif. Perez entered at 15-0-1, Figueroa at 13-0-1.

They scrapped, hard, with Figueroa stepping up a bit more, forcing a stoppage at the end of round six. The Perez corner requested the halting.

Perez (18-1-2 with 10 KOs; lives in Bloomfield, N.J.) has fought four more times since then, with his last scrap a draw against Lonnie Smith on March 9. The former 2008 National Golden Gloves champ Perez gets another shot at restarting positive career momentum Monday, at Barclays Center, when he fights 12-2 Miguel Zuniga, in a junior welterweight fight on a Golden Boy card topped by Sadam Ali. That will be his first foray at 140, and father-manager Jesus Perez told NYFightblog the weight leap will make a world of difference.

He said his son, now 23, had trouble maintaining energy from draining too much weight, and expects that he will show his best tonight. "He's growing up," he said. "He's a thick kid."

California's 17-1 Carlos Molina was supposed to be the foe, but he pulled out, complaining of a flu. Jesus thinks he was getting cold feet because he feared Perez. The father said the near-term plan is to win tonight, grab the vacant WBA Fedalatin 140 pound title, and by next year, look to get a shot against Danny Garcia, who holds WBA crown.

Sometime after he steps out of the ring at Barclays Center on Monday night, Claude Staten Jr. is going to take stock of the prize money from his second professional fight.

Staten Jr. might set aside some money to buy clothes, shoes and other accessories befitting a 25-year-old from Brooklyn.

But he also has bigger plans for his paycheck.

"I want to give back," he said.

For Staten Jr., giving back means spending his own money to help feed the homeless.

"No matter how many mistakes they've made or how many wrong things they've done, everyone deserves to eat a meal," Staten Jr. said.

The Brooklyn-born Staten Jr. was living in Los Angeles in 2012 when he funded a "Knockout Hunger Day" there, feeding hundreds of homeless people in L.A.'s Skid Row neighborhood. He and his friends dispensed sandwiches, bottles of water and shoes.

Staten Jr. plans to do the same in New York after this fight and, eventually, to expand his "Knockout Hunger" program to other cities.

"That day in L.A. really motivated me, it really drove me," Staten Jr. said. "I want to help these people."

Staten Jr. has come a long way in boxing in a short time. He had only a handful of amateur fights before his pro debut last March (a four-round unanimous decision over Mike Hill at Barclays Center). Most fighters gain experience by fighting dozens if not hundreds of amateur fights, but Staten Jr. is different.

"It seems to just come naturally to him," said his Atlanta-based trainer, Kennie Johnson. "He's still learning a lot, but there's so much that he knows without the experience. ... It's pretty rare to see."

There was a time not long ago when boxing wasn't on Staten Jr.'s radar. As a teen in Brooklyn, he was raised mostly by his grandmother. His grandfather died when he was 12 and his mother was just 14 when Claude was born. He fell in with the wrong crowd while attending Lafayette High School in his sophomore year.

"He got into some trouble," his uncle, Francisco Valdez said. "It was tough for a while."

Staten Jr. said he got caught selling drugs with his friends when he was 17. He was charged with drug possession and sentenced to six months probation after spending more than a month at the Riker's Island Correctional Facility.

"I grew up where there are a lot of negative things that you can do -- it's easy to do that," he said. "But that's when I realized, 'Look man, I don't want to be separated from my grandmother.'"

Upon his release, Staten Jr. knew he couldn't go back to selling drugs ("I wasn't Pablo Escobar. I was making $1,000 to $1,500 a week"), so he took up boxing.

"I started going to Gleason's [gym in Brooklyn] and I got obsessed with it," Staten Jr. said. "I was reading everything, watching everything. I just gravitated towards the sport."

After a handful of amateur fights, Staten Jr. turned pro. His trainers and the members of Golden Boy Promotions who handle his fights rave about Staten Jr.'s hand speed and power at super bantam weight.

"He's special," Johnson said. "I've seen a lot of fighters and he's the real deal."

One July afternoon, Staten was sitting in an office on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building, reflecting on his journey from Riker's Island inmate to up-and-coming fighter.

"It's just amazing," he said, growing emotional, "that I've come this far. I'm finally here."

For Staten Jr., though, the best might be yet to come.

Attention Brooklynites, and fight fans beyond the five boroughs: Pugilists Paul Malignaggi, the former junior welter and welterweight titlist, and current Showtime analyst, and contender-on-the-cusp of a title shot, Danny Jacobs of Park Slope, will be shaking hands and greeting the common folk at the street fair "Atlantic Antic" at 2:30 p.m.

You can see the Golden Boy promotions crew, which also will include Brooklyn's Sadam Ali, who headlines at Barclays tomorrow night against Jay Krupp, as well as Newark's Michael Perez, Brooklyner Emmanuel Gonzalez and Claude Staten of Staten Island, at the Barclays Center Mobile Unit, on the corner of 625 Atlantic Ave. and 4th Ave., in front of Dunkin' Donuts.

Paul Malignaggi and I played the what-if game Thursday at Gleason's, and I asked what he thought about a matchup between a man he fought, Amir Khan, and Floyd "Money" Mayweather.

Team Mayweather announced at a Wednesday media lunch in New York that it would be making a popularity and relevance push for Mayweather in the U.K. to widen the scope of his brand. That would correlate with a faceoff against the Brit Khan, who is a transcendent celebrity in his nation.

Malignaggi said he's hearing that the powers that be like the idea of a Mayweather-Khan scrap in May.

"And what about me in the co-feature in England? I'm big in England," Malignaggi said, harkening to his 2008 appearance on a Ricky Hatton undercard in Manchester and a fight with Hatton in Vegas six months later. "I'd need a win to get into that."

He wouldn't go there, and call Khan chinny, but Malignaggi didn't disagree that punishment absorbed in a December 2010 bout against Marcos Maidana didn't do Khan's chin a bit of good. "He does get hit with left hooks," Malignaggi allowed.

We also talked about his recent assertion that Mayweather is the best ever -- the top of the pugilistic pyramid, bar none. I wondered what he thought of the blowback on social media, with a majority of those weighing in labeling that call absurd.

"That kind of talk makes boxing fun," he said. "But let's remember, I do this for a living. I feel I know more than 99.9 percent of the people out there. I see what Floyd does in there. I see how he adapts."

And sorry Angelenos, Malignaggi is preparing to move back to New York. He purchased a home and will be here full-time within a few months. Back to Brooklyn?

"Nah," he said, grinning, "I like my privacy."

Follow Michael Woods on Twitter @Woodsy1069.

Paul Malignaggi, the Bensonhurst-bred former junior welter and welterweight champion who doubles as a Showtime analyst, is between fights. He seems to be enjoying the downtime; the boxer relished bites of a cupcake at Gleason's in Brooklyn on Thursday, during a workout session to hype the Monday Golden Boy card at Barclays.

The frosted treat had been purchased by publicist Kelly Swanson for the Monday headliner, Sadam Ali, a birthday boy on Thursday, as he makes his Golden Boy debut against Jay Krupp.

As Malignaggi licked the last bit of frosting from his fingers, he got NYFightblog up to speed with his current status as a boxer. We'd heard that a fight with Zab Judah was imminent and asked him where that all-Brooklyn mash-up stood.

"You get one shot to make me and Zab," he said, explaining that he sees that scrap as a main event in Barclays, not as a support bout with other principals topping a Dec. 7 Barclays card. "It's not a co-main event with Zab."

Common sense says the budget for the main support bout isn't in the same ballpark as a main event, and, he implied, he's not keen at this stage of his career to accept lesser-light status and the paycheck haircut that would result.

Malignaggi said that a match with Shawn Porter, an ascending welter, had been brought up to him, but he didn't seem enthused. He also had gotten wind of a theoretical scrap against interim WBA welter champ Keith Thurman, but Thurman is locked in with a date against Mexican rumbler Jesus Soto Karass on Dec. 14 in Vegas. An Adrien Broner-Marcos Maidana tussle tops that Vegas promotion, and Malignaggi would be pumped to face the winner. He acquitted himself more than adequately against Broner, losing a split decision to the cocky Cinci stylist on June 22 in Brooklyn. But he's pretty pragmatic, and knows he'll likely not be handed that honor. "I've got to come back with something," he said. "I do feel I shouldn't have to tap-dance for a shot but I think I will have to stay busy."

A local grudge match is close to being finalized for Nov. 9 at the Aviation Complex in Brooklyn, pitting Brooklyners Gabriel Bracero and Dmitriy Salita against each other, a source tells NYFightBlog.

The card, which will feature the pro debut of Junior Younan, will be promoted by Lou DiBella.

Final monetary terms and max allowable weight are being finalized, the source said.

Sunset Park's Bracero (age 32), at 22-1, has been fighting at 140 pounds, while Flatbush resident Salita (age 31), with a 35-1 mark, fights at 147 pounds.

Barclays Center will stage its fifth fight night on Monday, with a card unfolding in the Cushman & Wakefield Theater, topped by a Sadam Ali-Jay Krupp main event.

Ali and others on the bill, including Staten Island's Marcus Browne, showed up at Gleason's in DUMBO on Thursday to hype the Golden Boy event.

Ali, a Brooklyn resident who had a place on the 2008 U.S. Olympic squad, has taken his time to get to this place. He staged his own cards and stayed independent until he and his father/manager, Mahmoud, who stood next to the 25-year-old hitter while he chatted with NYFightblog, found the right terms. I asked Sadam if he had ever gotten impatient, to the point of severe frustration, since turning pro in March 2010 and seeing some other folks who arguably might not be as skilled as he is get signed to promotional deals.

"No," he said, "not at all. I knew this day would come."

And what about the father?

"Of course I did," the father admitted with a tiny grin. "I'm just always wanting what's best for my son."

The 16-0 welterweight takes on the 17-5 Krupp, who features a Mike Tyson-style peek-a-boo look he honed under ex-Tyson trainer Kevin Rooney. Ali didn't seem phased by the Tyson talk. "He can't peek-a-boo me if he can't see me," Ali said.

The 22-year-old Browne finished skipping rope, and I approached him for a quick chat. What if, I said, you upstage your pal Sadam, I asked. Will you feel bad?

"Of course not," the 6-0 light heavy said. "That's what you're supposed to do! Boxing isn't a team sport." Browne takes on 5-1-1 Lamont Williams, who is a half-step up from anyone he has tangled with before as a pro.

All the fighters seemed to be on message, and Ali, for one, was tested. Thursday was his birthday, and publicist Kelly Swanson presented him with a cupcake.

"I can't eat it," Ali said. "I'll eat it after the fight."

On surface glance, a casual sports fan might think that being Mike Tyson mostly consists of upside, him being the former heavyweight champion of the world, a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, and the focal point of a new docu-series called "Being: Mike Tyson."

But the 47-year-old man once tabbed "Kid Dynamite" has remained relevant partly because of his travails, which have included well-documented battles within the legal system, and substance abuse. In a Tuesday chat with the former fighter, who has entered the promotional fray with Iron Mike Productions, it's clear that he is a work in progress, a soul who must be vigilant not to stray from the merely discontented to full-on tortured.

Full disclosure: I informed Tyson that I am not unfamiliar with some of what he struggles with, having ditched liquid and chemical self-medication somewhere around the time he was taking on Peter McNeeley. I shared that not to insert myself into the story, or seek to establish a bond beyond the tenuous, but rather to let him know that I root for him to succeed with sobriety, if for no other reason than I understand he functions as a role model for others who have sought to fill a hole in the soul through inappropriate methods.

Tyson told me that his Aug. 24 admission that he had slipped, given in front of media after his inaugural promotional event in Verona, N.Y., was an impromptu situation. "Was it spur of the moment? I did not know at all I was going to do that, but I felt the love in the room," he said. "I felt I was lying to people, and I had to come clean for myself. I felt so happy I did that."

Something that perhaps can best (or maybe only) be understood by those who have struggled with substance abuse, Tyson explained that he is a sensitive person, too sensitive, and sometimes feels ill-equipped to deal with the regular slings and arrows of life. "I'm 40 days sober now," he told me. He said that he isn't finding it easy to lay down and fall asleep at night, but insists he won't reach for the lure of the temporary oblivion. "I'm not going to use anymore," he said.

We compared notes on what makes someone a good candidate to be a substance abuser, and I had to chuckle, darkly, when Tyson told me, "Only bright people get high. We're always analyzing. And the unexamined life is not worth living. The dope dealer, the dope smuggler usually doesn't get high." I offered that it could be argued that it might be easier to not be so analytical, and he shot that down, saying that he needs to take stock of himself, examine himself and his motivations rigorously, to stay on the straight line.

Another Hall of Fame boxer, Oscar De La Hoya, recently suffered a sobriety slip, and Tyson said he maybe has an inkling why Oscar couldn't stay away from substances that are alluring but lead to self destruction. "It's not about being in boxing, it's about coming from poverty, dealing with your beginning," Tyson said. "Maybe he hasn't mourned that, maybe he hasn't mourned the death of his mother. It comes from not dealing with your childhood."

Viewers can see Tyson grappling with his past misdeeds on his show, which runs on Tuesdays. Two parts of the six-part series have run thus far. The ex-fighter is looking forward to an autobiography coming out, as well as an HBO special about his one-man stage show. But what I find refreshing about the man is that he doesn't hew to the typical "I have fallen, now I have gotten up and feel better than ever" narrative you hear from so many celebs. In the show, he visits places and situations that shred old psychic scabs, and he sounds like a regular Joe, or Mike, when he says, "It's hell dealing with this stuff sober."

Follow Woods on Twitter.

Floyd Mayweather sat in a chair at the Vanderbilt Suites in Manhattan, watching himself do his thing on a screen showing Round 10 of his master-class showing against Canelo Alvarez on Sept. 14 at the MGM in Las Vegas.

Mayweather landed a wicked right on the Mexican, a 23-year-old of considerable talent whom Mayweather reduced to a hesitant shell of himself, and beamed slightly at his handiwork.

"When you watch yourself do that," I asked, "what are you thinking?"

He paused, and I leaned in to see if I could lock in on his pupils through his sunglasses. "It's just artwork," he said.

Indeed it was. And Mayweather is getting paid for it. His adviser, Leonard Ellerbe, who was present at the media gathering held Wednesday, said Floyd could end up with a cool $100 million for downing Alvarez.

Mayweather said this was the second time he's watched a portion of the bout. Everyone else who watched it, save inept judge CJ Ross, deemed the fight a Mayweather domination exercise.

The boxer, who turns 37 in February, said he watches his fights not to luxuriate in his superiority, but rather to learn.

"Touch him," he murmured to himself as he landed a snappy jab on Alvarez, who wasn't able to so much as slip a stitch because Floyd's hand speed is unlike anything Alvarez had dealt with previously.

Mayweather had fun getting grilled by Howard Stern on Wednesday morning, and was off to chat with the Bloomberg TV and print people after the media gathering. On Tuesday, he was on MSNBC's "The Cycle," and on Friday, publicist Kelly Swanson told me, he'll be on ABC's "LIVE with Kelly and Michael."

Mayweather wouldn't offer any hints on who will get the next lotto ticket/beating, but said he will next glove up on May 3, and then again in September 2014. He talked legacy, saying that he thinks he will be the boxer they talk about in 20 to 30 years, as they talk about Muhammad Ali now, and gave a none-too-subtle hint on where he rates himself all time: He noted that when Ali was Mayweather's age (36), he lost to a fighter who'd had seven pro bouts (Leon Spinks). Contrast that with Mayweather's dismantling of an A-grade Alvarez and 17-year stretch as a stellar craftsman.

"It's not my fault I make A-minus and B-level fighters look like D-minus and D-plus fighters," Mayweather said. "I'm the happiest I've ever been in my life. My dad is getting along, my mom is happy." And he said his kids are getting a good education.

Considering how stellar he's looked in his past two scraps, something Ellerbe attributed mostly to being active and not being a "part-time fighter," I wondered if Mayweather had decided to add a few years to his arc as an active fighter. He has four more fights on his six-fight Showtime deal, and said he'd thought about four more, or maybe six more. No, he joked, he hadn't talked about a contract extension or more favorable terms with Showtime boxing boss Stephen Espinoza, who drew repeated compliments from Mayweather and Ellerbe for believing in the boxer and letting Floyd be Floyd.

And that includes a heavy emphasis on the main reason all of us work: compensation. When asked if he'd cashed that $40 million dollar check we've all seen on social media, "Money" grinned and offered, simply, "I'm comfortable."

Follow Woods on Twitter.

NEW YORK -- Perhaps the most striking thing, for me, about boxer Orlando Cruz's immensely courageous decision last October to tell the world that he is gay was the relatively mellow response to the news.

Sure, we in the media covered it, analyzed it, and some sensationalized it. But by and large, the Cruz message to the masses was met with acceptance.

"I've been fighting for more than 24 years and as I continue my ascendant career, I want to be true to myself," he said on Oct. 4, 2012. "I have always been and always will be a proud gay man."

I was left feeling a sense of satisfaction in our populace, or the majority of it, anyway, as the Cruz disclosure played out without hysteria or recrimination. Sure, you had the lone knucklehead taking to Twitter talking about what an abomination it is for one man to kiss another, or what have you, but I took solace in the notion that those types of judgmental broadsides came from people older than the 32-year-old Cruz. The kids today, it feels like, are more likely to see a person for who they are without factoring in his or her sexual orientation. Bravo, America.

But the fact that Cruz, a Puerto Rico resident, is the first openly gay boxer is still newsworthy. It is newsworthy if for no other reason that the 20-2-1 fighter, who meets leather-tough vet Orlando Salido on Oct. 12 in Las Vegas, is a role model to other gay males who still fear emerging from the closet. I chatted with Cruz before a Top Rank-sponsored workout at the Mendez Gym in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, and asked him about how he's handling his status as an out presence in the supposedly conservative, old-school sport of pugilism.

I first asked Cruz how he will defeat Salido, the former featherweight champ with a 39-12-2 mark, because after all, it won't matter to the Mexican Salido that Cruz is gay as they vie for the WBO featherweight title. "I will win because of my experience, I am very, very hungry," he said. "My main edge is I am very intelligent in the ring."

He told the world that he is a "proud gay man" almost a year ago, and said that today he is comfortable. He was worried how Puerto Rico would treat him, how the boxing world would treat him. But, he said, today he is content that the burden of his secret is lifted. "I am yes, a role model, and I want to be for the kids, and other athletes," he said.

Cruz lost a TKO5 and a KO3 back to back in 2009 and 2010, to Cornelius Lock and Daniel Ponce De Leon; he explained that was because he felt so much anxiety about his sexuality. "The people of Puerto Rico, the Latin people, support me one hundred percent [now]," he said.

Cruz, who lived in New Jersey and moved back to P.R. a year ago, said he will address a wedding date with his fiancee -- to whom he proposed on Facebook five weeks ago -- after the Salido bout. He also told me that he will likely make New York his home base in 2014.

I firmly believe that our society will continue to make strides in acceptance, and if Cruz keeps winning, and maybe snags this world crown and defends it a few times, within a year or two, the story I write on Cruz won't even mention that he is gay.

That, my friends, will be further progress.

The "boxing is dead" bunch got a kick in the groin on Sept. 14, when Floyd Mayweather took on Canelo Alvarez at the MGM Grand and more than 2.2 million households ponied up to watch the 12-round Mayweather master class unfold on pay-per-view.

If we're measuring the vitality of a business with a dollars and sense metric, and we usually do, the Mayweather-Canelo tussle was a Powerball home run, as it set a new mark as the highest-grossing PPV ever, generating $150 million plus.

The naysayers will counter that Mayweather is the "last star" and the sport will fall off a cliff and turn to a skeleton in a graveyard next to horse racing when he exits the scene. They'll stick to their rigid stance of negatavism, showing their ignorance of the time-honored tradition of the birthing of new megastars to replace the old ones. I semi-respectfully disagree with their reasoning, which is myopic at best. Sounds to me like the CEO of Barclays Center and the Nets, Brett Yormark, is in my camp. Yormark chatted with NYFightblog on Monday morning, and sounded beyond upbeat about the state of the sport, especially within the sphere of the five boroughs.

You'll recall that Yormark flew to Vegas to begin setting the table for a pitch to bring the next Floyd Mayweather fight to Barclays, so I asked him for an update on that junket.

"I'm a big-event guy," Yormark told me. "Do I want to do the Super Bowl of boxing here? Darn right I do. And I will work tirelessly to convince promoter Golden Boy and any other partner that a Mayweather fight could be that much bigger, in the biggest city, New York. In Vegas, I made it known my interest. His nickname is "Money," well, "Money" needs to come to the money city. Mayweather transcends boxing, everywhere I went in Vegas and on the way, people were talking about the fight, and I think people who attended will look back at the event, and say, 'I was there.' "

Yormark said he will be putting together a pitch within a month for Team Mayweather and Golden Boy which will play up the success Barclays has enjoyed, like the buzz pop (including a 66% year-over-year ratings jump) the Video Music Awards received when they unfurled at Barclays on Aug. 25.

"It's about building the story," the Barclays boss said, when asked about the critics who say that the revenue derived from the gaming upsurge a Mayweather-in-Vegas bout spurs means Floyd will never fight outside Nevada. "The money will work itself out. The overall package will excite people. We have Madison Avenue, we have the talk shows, we have the media, things Vegas doesn't have. And I love Vegas. I was there for the fight, and I want to bring the next Mayweather fight here to New York, to Brooklyn, and have it be an 'I was there' event."

Follow Woods on Twitter.

On Sept. 13, Rafael Vazquez got tagged with a shot that buzzed him badly: Doctors told his wife, Sandra, that she has cervical cancer. That was actually the second shot that landed on the Vazquez family; Rafael's six-year-old daughter, Ayleae, was diagnosed as autistic.

The health worries came at an inopportune time: Eight days later Vazquez was scheduled to fight Leon Moore, a 30-2 fighter from Guyana, at Resorts World Casino in Jamaica, Queens, for the New York State super bantamweight title.

The Puerto Rico-born boxer, who grew up in Bushwick and has lived in Howard Beach for the past nine years, admitted to NYFightblog that he contemplated pulling out of the fight. Nobody would have blinked and all involved would have understood if Vazquez did what he had to do to support his family. "But then I remembered, I'm a professional, a fighter, and I said, 'I'm going to fight to take care of my family,'" said Vazquez, the father of four.

In Round 8, Moore had Vazquez hurt. His corner told him that Moore would be looking to finish and that he might get overaggressive, and that could leave an opening. It did: A left hook and two rights from Vazquez sent Moore on his back, hard, and gave Vazquez (9-1), who deserves some good news, a ninth-round TKO win. It was the fight of the night in front of about 2,000 fans at Resorts.

Promoter Felipe Gomez was still buzzing on Monday morning. "Oh my God, it was an epic ending," he said. "Vazquez was down on all three cards, but I could see how determined he was still to win. Going into the fight, he wasn't in the right state of mind and instead of quitting, he said, 'I'm not going to.'"

Vazquez is fortunate in that he has a full-time job, at the UFC gym in Manhattan, and has a decent health insurance plan. He said doctors are optimistic that they can eradicate Sandra's cancer, and results have come in that show Ayleae's recent health scare was a false alarm.

"Yes, some days it gets to you, but I pray to a higher power, and I'm focused on taking care of my family," Vazquez said.

Come one, come all, step right up and test yourself against the greatest boxer of his generation, and perhaps, of all time.

The search is on for someone, anyone, who can test Floyd Mayweather (45-0 with 26 KOs), the superlative ring technician who made a very good boxer named Canelo Alvarez look very average on Saturday night.

I asked Al Bernstein, the Hall of Fame broadcaster who helped call on Showtime pay-per-view the Mayweather win in Las Vegas to chime in and offer some clarity on what direction Floyd goes next.

"Right now I don't see a welterweight who can give him a genuine challenge," Bernstein told me. "I think in a year Keith Thurman (current interim WBA welter champ; 21-0 record) would be my choice as a 147-pound challenger. For now, the path would probably be another foray into the 154-pound division to create a match that would be difficult for him. Clearly either Sergio Martinez or Gennady Golovkin coming down to 154 would be quite interesting."

In the scrap right before Mayweather again showed his thorough dominance of the form, Danny Garcia (27-0; current WBC and WBA 140-pound champ), the 25-year-old Philadelphia-based boxer, impressed even those who had held out labeling him the real deal and insisted he'd elevated himself to a certain level on the backs of faded foes. Garcia showed poise and strategic superiority of an ultra-vet in figuring out power-punching Argentine Lucas Matthysse, and earning a unanimous decision. Perhaps he could be slotted against Mayweather next May, when Floyd gloves up again?

"Danny Garcia could move up to 147, but I don't know if that is marketable enough or if Garcia can make that move up and be a threat to Floyd," Bernstein said. "I do know three fighters who would make great matches for Floyd, but unfortunately Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns and Sugar Ray Robinson are not available."

Follow Woods on Twitter.