ESPN Dan Rafael Blog

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- The reach of Michael Jackson, who died Thursday at age 50, was worldwide. All the way to the African country of Cameroon.

That's where Olivier Lontchi grew up before moving to Montreal, where he relocated to as an adult to pursue his professional boxing career.

Lontchi (18-0-2, 8 KOs) will challenge Puerto Rico's Juan Manuel Lopez (25-0, 23 KOs) for a junior featherweight title Saturday night in the main event of Top Rank's "Latin Fury 9" pay-per-view, and Jackson's music will be part of Lontchi's motivation.

Lontchi grew up as a huge fan of Jackson and his music. So devastated by the passing of the King of Pop was Lontchi that he made a special request to the Top Rank technical crew producing the show.

"Lontchi came up to me [Friday] morning and specifically asked Top Rank's technical crew to download as many of Michael Jackson's songs as possible to play in his locker room [Saturday] night for inspiration," Top Rank publicist Lee Samuels said. "Michael Jackson is his all-time favorite artist, and Olivier is making his ring entrance to Jackson's 'Thriller' music video. I wouldn't be surprised if he moonwalked into the ring."

Samuels said the video will be projected on screens inside the Boardwalk Hall ballroom where the fight will take place.

Samuels added that the DJ Top Rank hired to keep the fans entertained between rounds and bouts will rely on a heavy dose of Jackson's music in tribute.

Hopefully, the card itself is a "Thriller," and not "Bad."

On the other side of the country, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where Jackson lived and had been rehearsing at the arena this week for his upcoming soldout concerts in England, there is an HBO boxing card on Saturday night.

Junior welterweights Victor Ortiz and Marcos Maidana meet for a vacant junior welterweight belt in the main event. Golden Boy will honor Jackson with a traditional 10-bell count. Also, Golden Boy's David Itskowitch said that the company will request that all of the fighters on the card walk out to Jackson songs.

One very brief press release sent to media across the boxing world by German promoter Wilfried Sauerland and a couple of quotes in the Russian media on Wednesday set off a near frenzy with the supposed news that heavyweight titlist Nikolai Valuev, who is co-promoted by Sauerland, and fellow titleholder Vitali Klitschko had agreed to fight.

A few days earlier, Klitschko was freed from a nonsensical mandatory defense against Oleg Maskaev when he won a binding arbitration case against the WBC and Maskaev that allowed Klitschko to make an optional defense.

Valuev, meantime, had seen his May 30 defense against Ruslan Chagaev implode 24 hours before the fight because Chagaev had tested positive for hepatitis B and was ruled ineligible to fight by the Finnish commission, although he was allowed to fight three weeks later in Germany. Klitschko's baby brother, Wladimir Klitschko, smashed Chagaev to smithereens over 10 lopsided rounds in their heavyweight championship fight.

On the surface, the possibility of a Vitali Klitschko-Valuev unification fight made some sense. Then came the release that stoked the fire. "Please find attached two quotes regarding a potential fight between WBA heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev and WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko," the release read.

And then there were the quotes.

One was attributed to Valuev: "It is true. We want to make it happen."

The other, to Sauerland: "I know of a phone conversation between Niko and Vitali. That is why I spoke to Vitali about a potential fight when I met him last weekend at Boris Becker's wedding. I will get in touch with Vitali in the next days."

Then came the reports out of Moscow, which fanned the flames. Russian media outlets quoted Valuev as saying, "I've talked to Vitali on the phone recently and we agreed to meet each other in a ring. As far as the dates, we're talking about the end of September or early October."

There's only one problem: It's not true.

Incensed by the Sauerland press release and Russian media reports, Klitschko manager Bernd Boente called me Wednesday from Germany to express his outrage and set the record straight.

"It's nonsense," Boente told me. "Sauerland is always doing the same thing, negotiating through the media. We have not talked to them. Valuev has called Vitali and asked him if he was interested in the fight, but he said there was no reason to negotiate with him because behind him it is Sauerland and Don King who make the decisions. Valuev can't make decisions.

"Anyway, we are at this moment not interested in Valuev because it is not financially interesting. The WBA title is of no interest to us because Wladimir beat the WBA champion [in recess, Chagaev], who beat Valuev. And because of that, there is no interest. And to deal with Sauerland and King is horrible. We are interested in other fights and names who would be more interesting to boxing fans and the media. We think fights with David Haye and Chris Arreola are way more interesting fights. We do not appreciate that Sauerland is trying to negotiate through the media. We are not interested. Vitali is not interested."

Boente said Valuev had his chance at a Klitschko. After Valuev-Chagaev II fell apart and then Haye backed out of his fight with Wladimir on three weeks' notice, Valuev was offered a chance to face Wladimir on June 20 and turned it down.

"He had his chance to fight Wladimir for the title and he showed he had no heart," Boente said.

Boente suggested that Valuev ought to make his mandatory defense against John Ruiz and "then we will see what is next."

Boente said he has been in touch with Haye trainer and manager Adam Booth about a possible fight with Vitali in the fall. Boente also said that Shelly Finkel, the American adviser to the Klitschko brothers, has talked to Arreola adviser Al Haymon.

Valuev attorney Pat English backed up Boente's claim that there is no deal for the fight.

"My understanding is that shortly after the Chagaev fiasco, Nicolai and Vitali spoke, originally on an entirely different topic. During the conversation, one said to the other that they would like to fight and the second agreed that it would be a good idea," English said. "As of now that is the extent of it. There is no deal."

English added that Valuev would like to fight Vitali in a unification match at some point, but "interest in a fight is far from a done deal."

Hope we're clear.

Your weekly random thoughts. …

• I was thinking of pulling out of this blog because I have a sore hand from so much typing. But in light of all the fight postponements and cacellations this summer, I thought I'd just suck it up for the Fight Freaks.

It's been a rough few weeks in boxing with so many fights getting called off or delayed, mainly because of injuries. I've never seen a spate quite like it in almost a decade on the beat.

The biggest bummer, of course, was Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s rib injury, which spoiled his July 18 return against Juan Manuel Marquez and left a gaping hole in the summer schedule: not to mention the postponement of another four episodes of HBO's terrific "24/7." The fight is off until at least Sept. 19.

The other summer bummer was a back injury to David Haye, who bailed on his June 20 heavyweight championship fight with Wladimir Klitschko on three weeks' notice. The conspiracy theorists among us don't buy Haye's injury. They believe he pulled out because Setanta, the subscription television network in England that he had a contract with and the only source of his purse for the fight, was teetering on bankruptcy, and Haye was worried he wouldn't get paid. Sure enough, the network failed this week. Whatever the real reason Haye pulled out, he didn't fight and that was a downer.

Three weeks earlier was the Nikolai Valuev-Ruslan Chagaev heavyweight title-fight debacle that forced the bout to be called off on 24 hours notice. Fortunately, Klitschko and Chagaev, both in need of a dance partner, found each other. But fight fans still lost a good one.

There were other bummers as well. Andreas Kotelnik's infected tooth forced his junior welterweight title defense against Amir Khan to be delayed three weeks (from June 27 to July 18). Saturday's Top Rank "Latin Fury 9" pay-per-view card lost its top two fights when the Kelly Pavlik-Sergio Mora middleweight title fight went down the tubes (either because of a Pavlik staph infection or a contract dispute with Top Rank, depending on who you believe) and the co-feature of bantamweight titlist Fernando Montiel and Eric Morel was called off because of a Montiel hand injury.

Then, a few days ago came the news that featherweight titlist Chris John was suffering from a blood disorder, which forced him out of a rematch with Rocky Juarez on Saturday, reducing the HBO card to a single fight.

All of that, and it's still only June.

• I was a bit disappointed that Juarez, not his manager, trainer, promoter or HBO, turned down the opportunity to fight Saturday against willing late substitute Mario Santiago, after John bowed out. According to Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, Juarez elected to sit out the high-profile card because he didn't want to fight a southpaw on short notice. That's Juarez's prerogative, but it's a poor excuse, especially when you consider that Santiago would have entered the ring having not fought for one day shy of a calendar year and surely would have been a bit rusty. With TV dates in short supply for the rest of 2009, I don't see a slot left in which Juarez can fight, certainly not on HBO, whom you can be sure isn't too thrilled with him right now. He has disappointed too many times in big spots, and convincing HBO to do the John rematch in the first place was a bit of a reach. Juarez's cautious approach to Santiago is much like his approach has always been in the ring: playing it a bit too safe and a bit too passive to get over the hump, going 0-4-1 in world-title bouts.

• OK, so maybe Klitschko's flawless destruction of Chagaev wasn't overly exciting, even if it was ruthlessly effective. Hey, at least it was a lot better than Klitschko's fight with Sultan Ibragimov.

• I'm not sure what the future holds for cruiserweight contender B.J. Flores in the ring, but I thought he did a very solid job as the analyst for ESPN Classic's coverage of Klitschko-Chagaev.

• Our buddies over at the World Boxing Association are at it again. As if one "champion in recess" weren't enough -- Chagaev holds that joke title, even after being smashed to bits by Klitschko -- the WBA boys have quietly elevated interim junior flyweight titlist Giovani Segura to full titleholder and demoted Brahim Asloum to recess status. The madness will never end because, apparently, you can never have enough champions in recess.

• We all owe the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport a huge debt. Sanity prevailed when it sided with Vitali Klitschko over the WBC and Oleg Maskaev in binding arbitration, and refused to order Klitschko to make a worthless mandatory defense against the wholly undeserving Maskaev. Instead, Klitschko is free to take an optional defense. That means we'll likely get to see him fight Cris Arreola or Haye. I don't give either much of a shot against Klitschko, but at least neither fight is a retread. Either fight would be more interesting than seeing Klitschko face Maskaev.

• I have an idea that I think might help Shane Mosley land the fight with Manny Pacquiao he so desperately wants. Instead of allowing Oscar De La Hoya, Mosley's promotional partner and biggest advocate, to build a case with the media, why doesn't De La Hoya just fill up another briefcase full of cash and give it to Pacquiao to get him to sign? It worked once before, didn't it?

• I kinda miss Fernando Vargas.

• I really enjoyed last week's Jean Pascal-Adrian Diaconu fight and love the fact that Versus picked it up to broadcast to the American TV audience. I hope Versus does more fights like that. It could fill a real void. Pascal has been in some exciting fights in the past couple of years. If Chad Dawson defeats Glen Johnson in their fall rematch, I'd be very interested to see Dawson against Pascal in a unification fight.

• Paging Sakio Bika. …

• When Top Rank's Bob Arum told me the other day that he wants to eventually match Yuriorkis Gamboa, his latest signing, with Juan Manuel Lopez, it made me happy.

• Here's something you don't see too often: I think the undercard fight on the July 10 "Friday Night Fights," which features a match between light heavyweight contenders Shaun George and Chris Henry, is better than the main event of cruiserweight sMatt Godfrey and Shawn Hawk.

• Junior flyweight titlist Edgar Sosa is on a terrific run. His fifth-round, body-shot knockout of Carlos Melo last week was a thing of beauty. Sosa is the epitome of a late bloomer. I'd like to see him in a unification fight with Ivan Calderon.

• I wish Showtime was televising the Steve Cunningham-Wayne Braithwaite cruiserweight eliminator that's on the undercard of its July 11 show.

• How's this for a blast from the past? Former light heavyweight contender David Telesco is making a comeback July 16.

• DVD pick of the week: We all know about the famous great fights of the past decade. Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo might be the best fight of all time. We also saw epic trilogy of Arturo Gatti-Micky Ward, Marco Antonio Barrera-Erik Morales and Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez. I've watched all of those fights over and over, and I was in the mood for a lesser-known but still-sensational slugfest that I hadn't viewed in awhile. So into the archive I went for the first battle between South Korea's Injin Chi and England's Michael Brodie, who met in Manchester, England, on Oct. 18, 2003. They waged a thrilling, grueling and bloody battle for a vacant featherweight title in which neither man would take a backward step. In the end, it was rulled a majority draw, with two judges having it 113-113 and the third having it 114-112 for Chi. Six months later, they met again in the same ring and Chi got his title, stopping Brodie in the seventh round of a fight that had a more definitive result but not nearly the memorable action of the first encounter.

While Top Rank promoter Bob Arum spent part of Thursday in Los Angeles trumpeting his July 25 "Latin Fury 10" pay-per-view -- which is headlined by Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and will include the Top Rank debut of electrifying interim featherweight titleholder Yuriorkis Gamboa -- he was also at work on two other fronts.

Arum, of course, promotes three of boxing's most significant fighters in pound-for-pound king and junior welterweight champ Manny Pacquiao, welterweight titlist Miguel Cotto, and middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik.

I talked with Arum the other day, and he provided updates on all three of them.

As you should all know by now, if you are even a remote boxing fan, Arum is trying to tidy up a deal for Pacquiao and Cotto to fight Nov. 14 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on HBO PPV.

The deal is moving forward, Arum said.

"I'm negotiating with both camps. It's the usual process," Arum said.

Arum said he has been in regular touch with Cotto's lawyer since Cotto's hard-fought decision win against Joshua Clottey on Saturday at New York's Madison Square Garden, where Pacquiao sat next to Arum and indicated midfight that he wanted Cotto next.

"We have a number of points we are talking through, but nothing that's deal-breaking," Arum said. "Everything looks great."

As for the Pacquiao side, Arum said Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz is flying in from the Philippines to meet with him Sunday in Las Vegas. Arum said he plans to present a deal to Koncz, who will take it back to Pacquiao.

"I'm moving forward in an attempt to have this fight happen," Arum said.

One of the key points -- besides the financial breakdown, of course -- is the weight. Arum said that Cotto is willing to come below 147 pounds and that the contract maximum would wind up at 144 or 145. Stay tuned on that.

There is some minor concern that the brutal cut Cotto suffered over his left eye against Clottey could delay the fight, but Arum said it would be OK. Cotto needed 20 stitches in two cuts but said that the doctor said he should be good to spar around the end of September.

When Arum co-promoted Pacquiao's May 2 victory against Ricky Hatton, the pay-per-view fight was shopped to Showtime before Arum and Golden Boy settled on HBO. In the case of Cotto-Pacquiao, which Arum would control by himself, he said HBO PPV has dibs based on the deal he made with the network to carry Cotto-Clottey.

Arum said part of the discussion with HBO was the production of a "24/7" series for Cotto-Pacquiao. "That would be part of our deal," Arum said.

On the Pavlik front, Arum and the champ have agreed to a contract extension, which appears to have made everyone happy. Contract issues are what forced a planned June 27 fight against Sergio Mora to be called off. Pavlik did have a staph infection in his hand, which was cited as the reason for the cancellation, but it wasn't serious enough to call off the fight. It did, however, provide Top Rank with a good cover story.

Nonetheless, Arum and HBO are now talking about a two- or three-fight deal for Pavlik, which would start in October, with a possible unification fight against Felix Sturm, who would first have to win a July 11 fight in Germany against Khoren Gevor. Top Rank and Universum are in talks.

"I'm waiting to hear from HBO on the money," Arum said, noting that the target date for the fight is Oct. 3 in Atlantic City, N.J.

A second fight on the Top Rank/HBO radar would come in early 2010. The opponents HBO would take -- and fights Arum said he'd like to make -- include middleweight titleholder Arthur Abraham (the fight I want to see) or a move up in weight to face super middleweight titlist Carl Froch. Top Rank and Abraham promoter Sauerland Event have already talked quite a bit about getting to a Pavlik-Abraham showdown. Before a Pavlik fight can materialize, Abraham has a June 27 defense against Mahir Oral and then has a mandatory due against Giovanni Lorenzo, which would take place in the fall.

For all of Arum's plans for Pavlik, he may have an issue with Mora and promoter Jeff Wald of Tournament of Contenders. Their side claims to have a contract for the fight with Pavlik. Don't expect them just to walk away without some considerations.

Your weekly random thoughts …

You can say what you want about the decision in last week's Miguel Cotto-Joshua Clottey fight. Some folks thought Clottey won; more people I have encountered since the fight thought Cotto won. I had it 116-111 (like one of the official judges) for Cotto, and have no doubt in my mind that he was the rightful winner of the fight, which I watched closely from the middle of Row 1, just a few feet from the ring apron.

When I got home, I rewatched the fight twice on my DVR, and there was one round in the middle of the fight that I scored for Cotto that I might consider changing to a Clottey round. But whatever you think of the decision, one thing I think we can all agree on is that Cotto showed immense heart in a fight against an excellent opponent.

That was a bad, bad cut over Cotto's left eye, incurred from an accidental head butt in the third round. We've seen it happen too often in recent fights: A guy suffers a cut and finds a way out in order to walk away with a technical decision or a no-contest. Yeah, I'm talking to you, Robert Guerrero and Hasim Rahman. But not Cotto. He easily could have said he wasn't able to see after the fourth round, when it became an official fight, and gone to scorecards for a technical decision. He led 39-36 on all three cards after four rounds. Had Cotto waited until after the fifth, he still would have been ahead 48-46 on all three cards. After the sixth, it was 58-55 across the board. But Cotto, despite blood flowing freely throughout, toughed it out like a fighter is supposed to -- and deserves everyone's respect for it.

I've covered 17 of Cotto's 35 fights from ringside and seen the rest on video. He never has given anything less than 100 percent or done anything but fight like a professional is supposed to, no matter what adversity he has faced. People seem to forget that sometimes.

• I thought referee Arthur Mercante Jr. did an excellent job for Cotto-Clottey. There were some touch-and-go moments when the fight could have gotten out of hand, but he kept control and got it right when he ruled that the cut over Cotto's left eye was caused by an accidental head butt instead of a punch. Good job.

• The fans at Cotto-Clottey -- almost all of them rooting for Cotto -- showed a lot of class by giving Manny Pacquiao, who was ringside for the fight, a rousing ovation when he was introduced to the crowd. I liked that, especially because many of them knew that Pacquiao very likely would be Cotto's next opponent if he beat Clottey. If Bob Arum finalizes Cotto-Pacquiao, it's going to be sensational. As for Clottey, even though he lost, he gained a lot of exposure and respect. That one loss did more for him than any other fight in his career, win or loss.

• Which do you think gave HBO more bang for its buck: the May rematch between Chad Dawson and Antonio Tarver, which cost about $3.2 million, or last week's tremendous battle between Cotto and Clottey, which cost HBO about $2.65 million and tied for the network's best boxing rating of the year? Hey, at least HBO bought the fight. Showtime didn't even bother to make an offer. I'm just sayin'.

• Hmmmm. Maybe it's just a coincidence that Floyd Mayweather Jr. suffered a rib injury, causing his July 18 fight with Juan Manuel Marquez to be postponed, when the fight was dead at the box office. I'm not surprised the fight died at the MGM Grand ticket window because, right or wrong, it was perceived as a mismatch by most -- not to mention that fights in Las Vegas in the brutal heat of the dead of summer usually are a disaster. So Mayweather can heal up and watch from the sideline as Cotto and Pacquiao make their deal to deliver a fight that fans will be truly excited about. I doubt they're going to have any trouble selling pay-per-view subscriptions or MGM Grand tickets for that one.

• Middleweight Daniel Jacobs is 16-0 -- soon to be 17-0 when he beats George Walton on ESPN2 on next week's "Friday Night Fights" -- and one of the best prospects in boxing. He has a crowd-pleasing style, a friendly demeanor outside the ring and maturity beyond his 22 years. He's also from the same Brooklyn neighborhood that produced Mike Tyson and Riddick Bowe. In other words, Jacobs is very promotable. So for the life of me, I wish I knew why Golden Boy hasn't made any effort whatsoever to promote him in his hometown. Other than an untelevised spot on the Joe Calzaghe-Roy Jones undercard at Madison Square Garden on a card Golden Boy was only peripherally involved in, Jacobs has fought almost exclusively on the West Coast (including six fights in Las Vegas and four in California). His fight with Walton is the main event in, of all places, Tucson, Ariz. It's fine to expose a young fighter to different audiences, but at some point you need to build a fighter's hometown fan base. So far, Jacobs has no hometown fan base because he doesn't fight at home.

• I was schmoozing with newly inducted International Boxing Hall of Famer Larry Merchant the other day. Impressed with what he has seen so far from Russian middleweight prospect and 2008 Olympian Matvey Korobov, Merchant said he could envision a significant fight between Korobov and Paul Williams in a few years. Later in the day I talked to Arum, Korobov's promoter -- the same man who fell in love with Merchant's idea for the Pacquiao-Oscar De La Hoya fight. So I mentioned it to him, and Arum liked it. "It could be," Arum said.

• It may not be the biggest fight in the world, but I am looking forward to seeing junior featherweight titlist Juan Manuel Lopez back in action next week against Olivier Lontchi. It's not because I think so highly of the match, it's because I think Lopez is exciting and could the next superstar Puerto Rican fighter.

• We all know Top Rank is one of the most powerful promoters in boxing. Literally. Does it have an impressive lineup of big punchers or what? It promotes Pacquiao (37 KOs in 49 wins), Cotto (27 KOs in 34 wins), Lopez (23 KOs in 25 wins), Kelly Pavlik (31 KOs in 35 wins), Edwin Valero (25 KOs in 25 fights), and it just added Yuriorkis Gamboa (13 KOs in 15 fights) to its roster. That's a Murderers' Row of big hitters.

• Just how many fights are going to be canceled or postponed? In just the past three weeks we've seen four major fights either canceled or delayed because of an injury or illness: Nikolai Valuev-Ruslan Chagaev, Wladimir Klitschko-David Haye, Andreas Kotelnik-Amir Khan and Mayweather-Marquez. At least Klitschko and Chagaev found each other and will fight for the heavyweight championship on Saturday. And don't forget: It's live at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN Classic. (Shameless plug.)

• Nice of promoter Don King to finally put tickets on sale Thursday for the July 11 fight between bantamweight titlist Joseph "King Kong" Agbeko and junior bantamweight champ Vic Darchinyan. Nothing like giving yourself only 24 days to sell seats for a big arena like the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla., which isn't exactly a boxing haven. At least King did one thing that makes sense: For a change, he priced tickets extremely well. Tickets are priced at $75, $40, $25 and $10 with a few "golden circle" seats for $200. It's an excellent card, and at that those prices it's definitely worth attending if you're in the area. I think this is the sleeper fight of the summer.

• If Bernard Hopkins, the No. 1 contender in the Ring Magazine light heavyweight rankings, is going to retire, I wish he would announce it so that the fall rematch between No. 2 Chad Dawson and No. 3 Glen Johnson can be for the vacant Ring Magazine belt.

• Don't forget: Versus has live coverage of what should be an excellent fight Friday night, when light heavyweight titlist Adrian Diaconu defends against fellow Montreal resident Jean Pascal. There will be 20,000 at the Bell Centre for the first title match in history between Montreal fighters. It should be quite a scene.

• I got a press release this week in which former junior welterweight titlist Vivian Harris announced that he is a free agent now that promoter Gary Shaw has given him the release he'd been asking for. My initial reaction: Who cares?

• I don't really have much interest in a rematch between junior flyweight champ Ivan "Iron Boy" Calderon and Rodel Mayol, who fought to a six-round technical draw last week on the Cotto-Clottey undercard. I'd much rather see Calderon face somebody like Edgar Sosa in a unification bout. They are clearly the two best in the division and the fight would have the additional intrigue of being another chapter in the storied rivalry between Puerto Rican and Mexican fighters.

• DVD pick of the week: When I got the news this week that Top Rank was moving Jorge Arce's fight with Fernando Lumacad from its card on Saturday in Mexico to next Saturday's pay-per-view show in Atlantic City, N.J., it got me thinking about Arce, one of the most exciting fighters of the past several years. So into the archive I delved for the one Arce fight that stands out above all others. It was March 19, 2005, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, where Arce and Hussein Hussein waged a memorable battle on the HBO PPV undercard of the first Erik Morales-Pacquiao fight. Arce showed huge heart as he fought with a deep gash on the bridge of his nose. Hussein also took incredible punishment in the bloody, toe-to-toe battle until he could take no more as Arce won the flyweight title eliminator via 10th-round TKO. Often this great fight is overshadowed by the classic main event.

In any campaign, it always helps to have the big gun ready to fire. When Barack Obama was going head-to-head with John McCain last fall in the fight for the White House, Obama brought out some heavy ammunition when he needed a boost on the campaign trail. That's when he pulled the ace out of his sleeve, and dispatched former president Bill Clinton to make some key appearances for him.

That's sort of how it is right now for Sugar Shane Mosley, who needs all the help he can get in his own rough battle to land a big fight and has been surprisingly elusive since his masterful knockout performance of disgraced Antonio Margarito in January. It was a victory that gave Mosley a title, pushed him back to the top of the welterweight division and gave him a big lift on the various pound-for-pound lists.

Mosley desperately wants to fight pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao in the fall. He wants it so badly that he said he is willing to drop down into the low 140s to make the fight with the junior welterweight champ. He also said he'll ask for only 40 percent of the fight purse.

But Pacquiao and his promoter, Top Rank's Bob Arum, still haven't bitten. They seem much more interested in making a November fight with Miguel Cotto, Arum's other star fighter. Cotto won a bloody and highly competitive split decision against Joshua Clottey on Saturday to retain his version of the welterweight crown. Pacquiao sat ringside with Arum and told him during the fight, in which Cotto struggled at times, that he wanted to fight Cotto next.

Arum has been making plans to put that match together.

So, Mosley is pulling out the biggest gun of all: Oscar De La Hoya, his former ring rival (Mosley beat him twice), promoter and partner at Golden Boy Promotions.

De La Hoya called me from his home in Puerto Rico on Tuesday to make his case that Mosley should get a fight with Pacquiao ahead of Cotto, but he made it clear his goal was not in any way to disrespect Cotto. He watched Cotto's fight and had nothing but good things to say about him.

"It was an excellent fight, and I thought Miguel Cotto showed a lot of guts," De La Hoya said. "He showed he is really one of those warriors that never gives up."

But De La Hoya also wants to see Mosley get Pacquiao first.

"We don't want to take anything away from Cotto because he's a great fighter," De La Hoya said. "But Shane Mosley is now heading into that place as that most feared fighter on the planet. People don't want to fight him, especially Pacquiao. Shane is the top guy at welterweight, and I don't see why or how Cotto can come down in weight. He struggles to make 147. You have Shane wanting to come down a few pounds to accommodate Pacquiao and Cotto not really wanting to do that. Everybody is avoiding Shane. I don't care who you are -- Manny, Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather -- if you want to be the best welterweight, you have to fight Mosley. The biggest fights out there for Pacquiao are Mosley and Floyd Mayweather. There's no doubt."

Mayweather is out for now because of an injury, and plans to reschedule his postponed July 18 fight with Juan Manuel Marquez for Sept. 19, at the earliest. That leaves Mosley as the next most lucrative option for Pacquiao, according to De La Hoya.

"Manny wants a huge event and he wants most of the pie, so to make all the money you are asking for, then fight that fight with Shane," he said.

De La Hoya questioned whether a Cotto-Pacquiao fight could satisfy both fighters financially.

"Pacquiao wants to make the big dollars, and if Cotto decides to take the fight, he'll have to make big dollars," De La Hoya said. "I just don't see the numbers being there. Pacquiao can fight the best welterweight, Shane Mosley, and make the most money doing it. Shane has been in big pay-per-view fights. He knocked out Margarito. It's a way bigger fight."

I can certainly appreciate De La Hoya's dogged defense of his guy. Mosley is the No. 1 welterweight right now because he destroyed Margarito, who last summer knocked out Cotto (albeit in a tainted victory because many believe Margarito cheated by using loaded hand wraps).

Cotto owns a decision victory over Mosley in their November 2007 title fight, so there is certainly merit in him facing Pacquiao.

One thing I am sure of is that a Pacquiao fight against either guy would be an exciting fight that would score big on pay-per-view.

So, I can see why Arum wants to make Cotto-Pacquiao. He would control the entire promotion (rather than having to clear anything with Golden Boy), and he will satisfy the thirst of his top two fighters for a big fight.

If Cotto-Pacquiao is indeed made, De La Hoya said Mosley will move on.

"He's not going to sit for the rest of the year. Shane has his options," De La Hoya said. "You have the young ones coming up, like (titlist) Andre Berto and Paul Williams. That's the character Shane has. We all know he fights the best fighters out there. If the big-name fighters don't want to fight him, what else are you going to do? Shane is always willing to fight anybody, so we would fight one of those other guys."

Remember, before Mosley-Margarito was finalized, Mosley was very close to fighting Berto in January. Williams is another guy few top fighters want to fight. If Mosley can't get Pacman to dance with him in the fall, Berto would make sense. So, too, would Williams, whose promoter, Dan Goossen, has been calling on Mosley to face "The Punisher."

After being routed by Paul Williams on April 11 in the most one-sided loss of his career -- by far -- middleweight Winky Wright said what many fighters would have said at that moment.

With a stiff upper lip, Wright said he would brush off the loss and return.

"This is definitely not my last fight. I'm definitely coming back," Wright said that night after the fight at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. "I had a long layoff, and I am not waiting that long again."

Of course, it sounded reasonable, but you never know in the heat of the moment whether it's true. After all, at age 37, Wright is no spring chicken in this sport. The former undisputed junior middleweight champ had entered the fight coming off a loss to Bernard Hopkins and an ensuing 21-month layoff.

If Wright had faded away for another 21 months or longer, few would have been surprised. He had a terrific career and is a probable Hall of Famer. He won multiple belts, beat Shane Mosley twice, battered Felix Trinidad, earned a draw with a prime Jermain Taylor for the middleweight championship in a controversial result and spent years near the top of the pound-for-pound list.

But Wright, with the loss to Williams a couple of months in the rearview mirror, still has every intention of coming back -- and doing it quickly.

I talked to Wright (51-5-1, 25 KOs) the other day, and he said he is working with Golden Boy Promotions to finalize a spot on the big July 18 HBO pay-per-view card headlined by Floyd Mayweather Jr. against Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The opponent being discussed by Golden Boy matchmaker Eric Gomez is Enrique Ornelas (28-5, 18 KOs), certainly a reasonable opponent for Wright to face.

In his past fight in October, Ornelas gave a good account of himself in a split-decision loss to Marco Antonio Rubio in a middleweight title eliminator on the Hopkins-Kelly Pavlik undercard.

"It's a definite possibility," said Wright, who was in Orlando, Fla., with his family at the NBA Finals. "I'll be glad to fight that guy and hope to do that fight, but we don't have nothing signed in ink. But I'll be glad to get right back and show everybody it's not over. I fought a real good opponent in Paul, and he did what he had to do to win it. I'll get a few fights and show the world I am back.

"We just gotta wait for Golden Boy to come back, and we can get it done. I'm ready to get back in the ring. I'll just be glad to get back and show the fans I'm still here."

Wright knows of the reputation he has earned for pricing himself out of fights during the past few years, so he made it a point to tell me repeatedly, "If this fight doesn't happen, trust me, it is not going to be because of the money."

He added that besides continuing to fight, he is serious about his fledgling Winky Promotions. Damian Ramirez, Wright's buddy, is overseeing work for a small show in New York on Aug. 19 at an upscale nightclub. Ramirez said they were working with promoter Cedric Kushner and that his fighter, middleweight prospect "Kid Chocolate" Peter Quillin (20-0, 15 KOs), out of action because of a hand injury, would fight in the main event.

NEW YORK -- Joe Calzaghe was back at Madison Square Garden on Friday, but he wasn't back to fight.

In November, Calzaghe took center stage at the Garden for the first time in his career by easily outpointing Roy Jones Jr. to retain the legitimate light heavyweight world championship. A few months later, Calzaghe (46-0, 32 KOs) retired, walking away undefeated and having won world titles in two divisions. He was also the dominant super middleweight champion from 1997 to 2007 before moving up in weight and outpointing Bernard Hopkins on a close split decision to win the light heavyweight title. In all, Calzaghe was 24-0 in world title fights and arguably the greatest fighter in the history of Wales.

But Calzaghe's visit to MSG was strictly for pleasure as he, along with his longtime girlfriend, the lovely Jo-Emma Lavin, made the trip from Wales and attended the Miguel Cotto-Joshua Clottey weigh-in.

Their appearance at the weigh-in was just a side trip. Calzaghe's real reason for being in town was to accept the Boxing Writers Association manager of the year award later on Friday night, which he did with class at the annual soiree.

For the last two years of his career, Calzaghe took over his own management from longtime manager and promoter Frank Warren (it's OK in the UK to serve as both manager and promoter, but it's not allowed in the United States), with whom he eventually had a bad falling out. In fact, they are in court now fighting over millions that Calzaghe claims Warren owes him.

Calzaghe reminded the audience during his acceptance speech that the biggest fights of his career -- Mikkel Kessler in November 2007 and his 2008 fights with Hopkins and Jones -- happened to be the ones that were made when he was his own manager.

Good point, actually.

Calzaghe plans to stick around for the Cotto-Clottey fight, which, surprisingly, will be the first fight he will attend since his own against Jones.

Calzaghe looked happy and fit in retirement and not at all restless to return to the ring after fighting since he was a child and having a 15-year pro career.

"Maybe the atmosphere will kick in, you never know," Calzaghe said, joking with me that maybe he'd get the bug to fight again.

But then he looked over at the scale Cotto and Clottey were about to step on to and said, "Then I look at that and I say, 'no thanks.' I'm through making weight."

Calzaghe, 37, did look in good shape and he said he still works out regularly. He trained some with Jo-Emma, who ran the London Marathon in April. He even hits the mitts about once a week with his father and lifelong trainer, Enzo Calzaghe, at the gym where Enzo trains his stable of fighters. But Calzaghe assured me he was not doing it with the thought of a comeback in the back of his mind.

"I like to stay in shape and I still love the sport," he said. "It's in my makeup to work out. I have been doing it since I was 9, so I still hit the pads."

Calzaghe said there have been a few times he did think, at least in passing, about another fight.

"But who would I fight? I have nothing to prove," he said. "I am undefeated, I was champion for 11 years and champion in two weight classes. That is my legacy. Besides, my kids don't want me to fight. [Jo-Emma] doesn't want me to fight. I'm proud of what I achieved. I'm glad I fought Roy Jones and Bernard Hopkins and finished how I wanted to. I am completely satisfied with what I accomplished and I didn't get smashed up. I'm still lookin' good."

Although he said he isn't going to fight, Calzaghe did say he will always remain involved in boxing. His fledgling Calzaghe Promotions has put on one show and has plans for others. Maybe if he finds the right fighter, Calzaghe will be back in the Garden ring some day -- as the promoter, not the fighter.

Your weekly random thoughts …

• So let me get this straight: Just two weeks after the horrible accidental death of his 4-year-old daughter, Exodus Tyson, Mike Tyson got married? Tyson got hitched for the third time -- to Lakiha Spicer, who is not the mother of the toddler -- in Las Vegas last Saturday night. I know people mourn in different ways, but doesn't the timing strike you as extremely odd? How do you go from the death of a child, the saddest of all days, to marriage, which is supposed to be the happiest of days, in just two weeks?

I'll be the first guy to wish Tyson nothing but the best in his new marriage. I really do hope things work out for him. But it just seems that for the former heavyweight champ to get married so quickly after the worst tragedy a parent can suffer means this union appears doomed before it has really even started. I hope I'm wrong, but Tyson's marital track record is poor. He has admitted to cheating regularly, and his first wife, actress Robin Givens, accused him of physical abuse. Old dogs generally don't learn new tricks.

In 2005, over the course of a few days before his fight in Washington against Kevin McBride, which turned out to be Tyson's final bout, I conducted two lengthy interviews with him in which we covered numerous subjects.

One of the topics we covered was marriage. Tyson was divorced from Givens and Monica Turner, and said he had no plans to marry again, admitting that he was a bad husband. Here's what he told me in 2005:

"Robin and me, we were two young kids who never should have been married in the first place. Deep down inside, [Turner] is still a little angry about the whole situation. I respect that. She divorced me. I give up. I lost. They beat me. They won. They got me good. I know I was a dog and I wasn't behaving well. I got myself together now, and it's too late. [Divorce makes] you feel like you are a failure. What's wrong with me? No one can get along with me. I can't get along with anyone."

• Although I don't have a strong opinion one way or another, I understand HBO's decision not to pick up the June 20 Wladimir Klitschko-Ruslan Chagaev fight. It comes down to money, and HBO is in no mood to spend a lot of it for a fight in Germany (meaning no live U.S. prime-time telecast) that few have high expectations for in the ring, even if the bout is significant. If HBO spends its cash on this fight, there won't be anything left for a better Klitschko fight in the fall, or some other big fight. I don't love the decision, but I get it and respect it after Klitschko's intended opponent, David Haye, pulled out because of an injury. At least we'll get to see the fight here in America. It will broadcast live on ESPN Classic.

• Remember that grand announcement in May 2008, when Haye signed with Golden Boy Promotions and his company, Hayemaker Productions, signed a lucrative exclusive deal with Setanta Sports in the United Kingdom? How's that working out? Haye has fought exactly once (against the faded Monte Barrett), got injured last week and pulled out of the championship fight with Klitschko, and Setanta is headed for bankruptcy any minute now. So much for the best-laid plans. So much for a heavyweight savior.

• Here are three rematches I'd like to see: Tomasz Adamek-Steve Cunningham, Chad Dawson-Glen Johnson (which is all but a done deal for the fall) and Andre Berto-Luis Collazo.

• It will be a pleasure to see junior flyweight champ Ivan "Iron Boy" Calderon back in the ring Saturday night when he defends his title against Rodel Mayol on the Miguel Cotto-Joshua Clottey undercard.

• It seems unlikely to me that Bernard Hopkins will fight this year.

• Doesn't it seem like Shane Mosley has basically resorted to begging for a fight? It's kind of sad.

• There was a bit of excitement in some quarters with the announcement that the WBC had ordered an elimination match between hot super middleweight contenders Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell, medal-winning U.S. teammates at the 2004 Olympics. However, while it's a fight to look forward to in the future, it isn't going to happen now just because some alphabet organization mandated it. Economically, it makes no sense for either guy at this point. Maybe in a year or two. I hope it does happen eventually -- just not when one of them is past his prime, like the last showdown between U.S. Olympic teammates, when Jermain Taylor easily beat a fading Jeff Lacy last fall.

• Daniel Santos. What a waste of talent.

• I don't care how many times he loses in a big fight, there's still only one Ricky Hatton.

• Typical Don King. He has a July 11 Showtime card featuring an excellent main event between bantamweight titlist Joseph "King Kong" Agbeko and junior bantamweight champ Vic Darchinyan, but with a month to go before the fight, he still hasn't officially announced the venue or ticket availability. Great way to promote.

• I watched the video from the pro debut of George Foreman III, one of the sons of the great former champion. Foreman scored a first-round knockout against the utterly pathetic Clyde Weaver, who was easily one of the worst fighters I have ever seen. That said, how great would it be if Foreman actually developed into a top heavyweight? It's a long shot considering he's already 26, but it would be fun.

• If Gerry Penalosa got hit in the face with a cinder block, I'm still not sure he would go down.

• Condolences to lightweight contender Joan Guzman, who lost his mother to brain cancer.

• Now that Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez are moving out of the junior featherweight division, the fight I want to see to crown a new champion is Juan Manuel Lopez versus Celestino Caballero.

• I'm not sure how far he's going to go, but Mexican welterweight Saul Alvarez is as crowd-pleasing as any young fighter I've seen in a long time. Alvarez (27-0-1, 20 KOs), is only 18 and already drawing considerable attention in Mexico. He has fought only twice in the United States, but I think it's only a matter of time until he comes stateside more regularly. If you like aggressive fighters who aren't afraid to get hit and also have some skill, you'll like Alvarez. His ninth-round knockout of Jefferson Goncalo last weekend was a thing of beauty.

• I was very impressed with undefeated Russian heavyweight prospect Denis Boytsov, who destroyed Taras Bidenko in Germany last week.

• DVD pick of the week: I still remember it like it was yesterday, but seven years have passed since I spent a wild week in Memphis that culminated on June 8, 2002, with a fight few ever thought would actually come to fruition. After years of buildup, the signing of a complex deal between HBO and Showtime to match their stars, and one news conference featuring a brawl and a leg bite that nearly killed the fight, Lennox Lewis and Tyson finally -- finally! -- met for the heavyweight championship. Even though the fight wasn't at all competitive, I still pull out the DVD from time to time because it was such a huge fight, one I will never forget. When I watch it, I can still feel how hot it was inside the Pyramid that night. Lewis, who, fairly or unfairly, needed to face Tyson to validate his career, delivered a crushing beating to the former champion, finally authoring a bloody eighth-round knockout. It was appropriate to watch Lewis' legacy-sealing victory this week, given that he'll be inducted into the International Hall of Fame on Sunday (along with my good buddy Larry Merchant, among others). Lewis would have made it even without beating Tyson, but there would have been a gaping hole on his résumé.

Former lightweight titlist Paul Spadafora has certainly had enough drama to last him a lifetime. His legal problems have been well-documented, most of them stemming from an incident in which he shot the mother of his child (she lived and they reconciled for a short time) and served prison time.

And Spadafora has admitted to a drinking problem that has undoubtedly taken its toll. There also have been injuries.

The legal issues prompted a two-year layoff from mid-2004 to mid-2006. And after Spadafora (41-0-1, 16 KOs) finally returned, he fought just once each in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

The amazing part is that the Pittsburgh Kid is still undefeated. The lone blemish on his record was the draw in a 135-pound unification fight with Leonard Dorin, a terrific and bloody battle on HBO that took its toll on both men.

Now a junior welterweight, Spadafora has had a number of bouts scheduled over the past year or so that were eventually called off because of injuries. He's scheduled to fight again on June 24 in his hometown of Pittsburgh against Ivan Bustos (27-12-3), a journeyman from Argentina.

What will be new for Spadafora is that he has hired 2008 Hall of Fame inductee Pernell Whitaker to train him.

"I'm looking forward to working with Paul, and I know I can add to his game," Whitaker said.

Whitaker, a former four-division champion (135, 140, 147 and 154) now trying to launch a second career as a chief second, surely will understand Spadafora's style. When he fought, Whitaker also was a guy with little power who relied on defense and smarts to get the job done.

"Pernell was one of my idols growing up, and I know we are going to make a good team," Spadafora said.

Like Spadafora, Whitaker has also had enough drama in his life to last forever. He also knows the difficulties of trying to stay sober, having struggled with a drug problem for years. Besides working on boxing together, maybe Whitaker and Spadafora can help each other continue to stay clean. Now wouldn't that be a great story if Whitaker could help lead Spadafora back to a title?

Random thoughts for your reading pleasure …

• I always figured if David Haye pulled out of his June 20 fight with Wladimir Klitschko it would be because he blew out his jaw from talking so much smack, not because of a different injury.

Haye had already annoyed Klitschko more than any of his other opponents because of his disrespectful rhetoric and over-the-line T-shirt that showed him holding the severed heads of Wladimir and his heavyweight title-holding brother Vitali Klitschko. This pullout surely won't dampen Wladimir's desire to pummel Haye.

The Haye camp hopes to reschedule the fight for July 11, although Klitschko, who has already been out of the ring since December and only waited until June in the first place because of Haye, would like to fight someone on June 20.

There's nothing like an injury to send the heavyweights scrambling like roaches when the lights come on. Numerous heavyweights inquired about the possibility of filling in for Haye. They ranged from the logical (Ruslan Chagaev, whose own heavyweight title bout with Nikolai Valuev has been called off) to the laughable (Roy Jones) to the horrific (John Ruiz) to the shot in the dark (Odlanier Solis, Chazz Witherspoon, Brian Minto and Kevin Johnson).

• Try as he might, we all know Shane Mosley isn't going to get a fight with Manny Pacquiao. Trainer Freddie Roach isn't going to allow it unless he can force Mosley to suck all the way down to 142 pounds, which would make Mosley a walking dead man.

• Who knows if mandatory light heavyweight challenger Tavoris Cloud will ever win a world title. But Cloud can rest assured that he and his team have won something even more prestigious already: A full scholarship to the Winky Wright School of Boxing Business. Their decision to press their mandatory status and pass on a spot on the HBO-televised undercard of Chad Dawson-Glen Johnson II in the fall (a fight that would have paid Cloud more than $100,000) was absurd. The fight guaranteed Cloud would get the next title shot on HBO (probably for at least $500,000) as long he and Dawson both won. Instead, when Cloud and Co. declined the offer, Dawson vacated his belt and will fight Johnson anyway. Cloud will wind up fighting for chump change, likely against Clinton Woods, for the vacant belt. If Cloud wins, there is no defense for him worth nearly what a Dawson fight would have paid him and no guaranteed spot on HBO. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

• Can we get some more episodes of "Legendary Nights" from HBO already? It's time.

• If welterweight titlist Andre Berto was going to get a shot at one of the big three -- Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto or Mosley -- he'd have to take it. But since I don't see any of those fights realistically happening in his next fight, I'd like to see him give Luis Collazo a rematch.

• What happened to boxing on Showtime? There was no "Showtime Championship Boxing" in May or June. There is no "ShoBox" scheduled in June or July at this point. Doesn't that make Showtime calling itself "America's No. 1 Boxing Network" look pretty dumb?

• I'm really disappointed that there is no American television outlet for the June 27 Andreas Kotelnik-Amir Khan card in London, not even on pay-per-view.

• I really like the idea of the Juan Diaz-Paulie Malignaggi fight that is in the works for HBO on Aug. 22. That is a true crossroads fight if there ever has been one. Both guys desperately need the victory and I think it will be a good fight.

• If anyone thinks Victor Ortiz is in easy when he faces Marcos Maidana on June 27 on HBO they are sadly mistaken.

• How can you not be happy for Israel Vazquez after he was medically cleared to fight?

•  It was a terrible call by Ring Magazine to drop undefeated junior flyweight champion Ivan "Iron Boy" Calderon from its pound-for-pound rankings, especially when someone as undeserving as Celestino Caballero is in the top 10. Calderon has been off since August 2008 because of an injury, and he has a title defense scheduled against Rodel Mayol next week on the Cotto-Joshua Clottey undercard. Typically, fighters on my ESPN.com rankings and Ring's are allowed a year of inactivity before they are removed, longer if the layoff has been caused by an injury. Shouldn't Ring have waited to see how Calderon fares next week? Vazquez and Rafael Marquez both retained their pound-for-pound positions on Ring's list despite more than a year of inactivity. Vazquez is idle because of a specific injury, but Marquez did not have an injury that kept him out. It's inexcusable for Calderon to have been dropped.

• Felix Trinidad, who still has delusions of a $15 million payday for a rematch with Bernard Hopkins, suffered a fracture in his right wrist during a basketball game in Puerto Rico recently. When Trinidad is better, I hope he keeps playing hoops instead of thinking about boxing.

• Three months ago, one of the most exciting potential fights on the horizon was a match between junior middleweight sluggers James Kirkland and Alfredo Angulo, rising contenders moving up the rankings at the speed of light. How times have changed. Kirkland, already a convicted felon, now sits in jail on gun charges that threaten to keep him behind bars for a long time. Angulo suffered his first loss in a disappointing performance against Kermit Cintron last week.

• Memo to Jermain Taylor, who was arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest Memorial Day weekend while partying in Miami: Next time a cop tells you to move your car, just keep your mouth shut and do it.

• This is not a misprint: promoter Lou DiBella has signed Isiah Thomas. I did a double take when I saw the news release. No, the New York promoter didn't sign the man who helped drive my beloved New York Knicks into the ground as one of the all-time worst coaches and general managers in NBA history. Not that I would have minded seeing him take a few punches to make up for all the heartache he caused Knicks fans. Actually, DiBella was touting that he had signed a Detroit light heavyweight with the same name but no relation to the former Pistons star. The fighter Thomas (3-0, 3 KOs) is only 20, had a solid amateur career and has won all of his fights in the first round.

• There was a boxing card in Baltimore last week. One of the fights scheduled on the club show was a welterweight fight between Tim Coleman and Jason Thompson. The fight was canceled at the weigh-in because Thompson was 165 pounds, 18 over the contractual weight. Now I don't know about you, but don't you think Thompson knew at least a couple of weeks before the fight that he had no prayer of making weight? Don't you think maybe he should have let someone know he was going to be a super middleweight? We're not talking a pound or two over the limit in a close call. We're talking about 18 pounds! Sort of makes Jose Luis Castillo look good.

• DVD pick of the week: I was in the mood for this one, so I dipped into the archive and went back to Dec. 2, 1992, to Tortoli, Italy, where Kennedy McKinney and Welcome Ncita put on one hell of a fight. When they met, McKinney, a 1988 U.S. Olympic gold medalist, was one of the more exciting smaller fighters of his day, and Ncita was a fine champion from South Africa making the seventh defense of his junior featherweight belt. It was a rousing battle, but McKinney was trailing on all three scorecards entering the 11th round. Ncita had him pinned along the ropes when, out of nowhere, McKinney unloaded a short right hand that caught Ncita dead on the chin for a spectacular knockout. McKinney scored an improbable comeback as Ncita went down flat on his back, spread eagle in the center of the ring. Sixteen months later they met in a rematch. It was another excellent fight that McKinney won, this time via majority decision.

Can the Nikolai Valuev-Ruslan Chagaev heavyweight title saga get any worse? Well, of course it can. This is the WBA we're talking about.

Besides the back-and-forth news releases from each camp blaming the other side for the cancellation of last week's title rematch, and the inevitable lawsuits that will follow, how about this to depress you even more: If the WBA strips Chagaev of his laughable "champion in recess" title, which it should considering he tests positive for hepatitis B about every other day, like he did last week the day before his rematch with Valuev, guess who probably will get the next mandatory shot at Valuev?

It hurts to even write this, but, yes, it's John Ruiz, our old hug-loving friend who must have some compromising photos of WBA officials with the special treatment the organization has given him for more than a decade.

In the latest of the many Ruiz news releases that infect my in-box on a regular basis, I found this quote from him extraordinary:

"The WBA has to stand by its rules and order a purse bid for Valuev to fight me for the WBA heavyweight title and strip Chagaev. This is the third time he hasn't been able to fight for one reason or another. In baseball he'd be out. How many chances is the WBA going to give this guy?"

How many chances is the WBA going to give Chagaev? Excuse me? What about Ruiz? In Ruiz's past 18 fights since September 1998, 16 of them have involved the WBA, be it in world title fights, eliminators or regional title fights. And even though Ruiz lost five of them (it really should be six losses, but the result of his title bout with James Toney became a no contest when Toney tested positive for steroids after the fight) and received a draw in another, the WBA stupidly kept Ruiz propped high enough in its horrendous rankings to be in position to get another title opportunity he didn't deserve.

Forget about Chagaev. How many chances should Ruiz, who is 2-3 with that no contest in his past six fights, get? Now, he's demanding an immediate purse bid for a mandatory against Valuev, who beat him last summer. Oh, boy. The world is waiting for that one isn't it? And it just might get it because of a WBA ruling in February that said of the champion in recess: "If Chagaev should incur another injury or other impediment that would prevent him from defending against the champion, he will vacate whatever title he may hold and will be correspondingly lowered in his ranking."

That would open the door for Ruiz, whose fights stink so bad he's all but been banned by HBO and Showtime. It's impossible to take the WBA seriously anymore between the toxic disaster its heavyweight title has become and the avalanche of silly interim champions, regular champions, super champions and champions in recess it names seemingly almost every day. The next nail in the coffin is when it mandates Ruiz to fight for its heavyweight title yet again, which you know is coming. Isn't enough enough already?

By the way, it doesn't get better after that. The next guy in line for a shot? The not-so-legendary Kali Meehan, who has zero merit as a title challenger. Since the day Lennox Lewis discarded the WBA heavyweight title like the piece of garbage it has become so he wouldn't be forced into a fight with Ruiz, who was totally undeserving at the time, it has been an utter mess. The lone exception was when then-pound-for-pound king and light heavyweight champion Roy Jones moved up in weight and whipped Ruiz to win the title before quickly giving it up.

After Jones vacated, guess who got to fight for it? Ruiz, coming off that lopsided defeat, of course.

What did you expect?

If you think there will be a clean resolution to the heavyweight mess involving titleholder Nikolai Valuev and so-called "champion in recess" Ruslan Chagaev in the wake of the cancellation of Saturday's rematch, guess again.

Chagaev's team is threatening a lawsuit, so it could get awfully ugly.

In case you haven't been following the situation -- and I wouldn't blame you if you weren't, because it's so utterly maddening -- Valuev and Chagaev were supposed to meet in Helsinki, Finland in a rematch of Chagaev's title victory in April 2007.

It was the third time the rematch had been scheduled. On two other occasions, Chagaev had fallen out -- once with an Achilles injury and once because of Hepatitis B. Chagaev has battled issues with his bloodwork for years, but because he had pulled out twice and was facing another long layoff, the WBA handed him the nonsensical title of "champion in recess" and Valuev beat John Ruiz for the vacant belt in August 2008.

Finally, it appeared as though Valuev and Chagaev would meet again Saturday night to bring some closure to their rivalry from hell, once and for all. The fighters had even weighed in, and when a weigh-in takes place and the guys are on weight -- and this one was a formality because they are heavyweights -- fights are rarely called off. But not in this case. Finnish authorities claimed that Chagaev, who did make it to the ring for a tune-up fight in February against Carl Davis Drummond, had a problem with his blood test. Valuev, who is promoted by Germany-based Sauerland Event, was offered the option of going through with the fight if he was inoculated. However, according to Chagaev promoter Universum, Valuev never got back to the officials with a decision, so the fight was called off.

(Can you really blame Valuev for not wanting to take a chance by fighting a guy who tests positive for hepatitis? Obviously it was a serious situation, because by calling off the fight Valuev gave up a $1,547,928 purse; Chagaev lost out on $1,266,486).

Now, the WBA has said it will make a decision within a week on what happens next. But that didn't stop Universum from releasing a statement detailing its position, which included the threat of litigation, a prospect that might be more interesting in this case than the fight itself.

As far as Chagaev is concerned, he was fit and ready to fight.

"I'm healthy," he said in a statement. "I have no doctor attesting to any danger of infection. So I would box Valuev today, tomorrow or whenever. I'm very disappointed and can't understand this decision. I'm fit and ready."

Here is Universum's statement:

"Universum Box-Promotion has presented the WBA with medical proof that Ruslan Chagaev does not have the infectious disease hepatitis, but only a hepatitis antigen [a substance that prompts the generation of antibodies and can cause an immune response]. Ruslan Chagaev's blood values have been examined for many years regularly -- by measuring methods which are substantially more sensitive than that of the Finnish lab which carried out the blood test that the organizers used to support the refusal to fight.

"Universum also provided the WBA with evidence that Ruslan Chagaev's blood values are unchanged for many years and are safe. They are invariably below the international standard from which the hepatitis disease is considered infectious. Ruslan Chagaev's current blood values also correspond to those which he had in the first fight against Nikolai Valuev in April 2007. The fight at that time was promoted by Sauerland Event under the supervision of the Austrian Federation in Stuttgart and if there was any doubt about these blood values, it would have been mentioned then. Therefore, like the first time, there is no reason to call off the fight.

"The Finnish Federation explained in [Saturday's] hearing that they have not prohibited the fight, but wanted Nikolai Valuev to agree to a passive protective inoculation [immunglobuline] within 24 hours of the fight. A decision from Valuev was not communicated. Against this background, Universum Box-Promotion reserves the right to take legal steps."

Universum also offered a statement from Chagaev's physician, Dr. Michael Ehnert. I'll save you the scientific mumbo jumbo. Here's the important part: "It's clearly demonstrated that the Hepatitis B that Ruslan Chagaev recovered from in 2006 is currently not identified as infectious. There is definitely no danger for him or his opponents."