LAS VEGAS – Evidence of Juan Manuel Marquez’ new found power is circulating like an ominous preview in video of his brutal stoppage of a sparring partner. But Manny Pacquiao hasn’t seen it. Won’t lose any sleep thinking about it.

“I’m not worried about it,’’ Pacquiao said Friday after the formal weigh-in for his fourth fight Saturday night with Marquez at the MGM Grand. “I took Antonio Margarito’s best punch.’’

In the sixth round of a 2010 victory over Margarito at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Tex., Pacquiao was rocked by left hook to the body. It was one of the punches Margarito had used with devastating efficiency throughout his career as a brawler.

“I was lucky to survive that round,’’ Pacquiao said then.

In a lesson delivered by Margarito’s left hand, Pacquiao might have experience and confidence to go along with the luck he’ll need against Marquez.

Sellout equals heavyweight standard
Top Rank announced Friday that it had sold out the MGM’s Grand Garden Arena’s 16,000-plus seats for Marquez-Pacquiao. Promoter Bob Arum said the gate would generate more than $10.6 million. More than $10 million in tickets were sold for the third Marquez-Pacquiao fight, also at the MGM Grand.

It’s the first time rematches have done more than $10 million at the gate for each bout since Evander Holyfield beat Mike Tyson in 1996 and beat him again in 1997 at the cost of an ear lobe, also at the MGM Grand.

Notes, quotes
· Tyson was introduced to a noisy, cheering crowd at the weigh-in. The former heavyweight champ asked fans to support his charitable foundation, Mike Tyson Cares. Meanwhile, he’s getting ready to take his Broadway show on a national tour of 36 cities. “I’m like Frankenstein,’’ Tyson said. “A lot of people have put me together.’’

· After stepping off the scale, Pacquiao, a Filipino Congressman and Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserve, dedicated Saturday night’s fight on HBO’s pay-per-view television to fellow Filipinos hit by Typhoon Bopha. There were reports Friday of than 500 dead and 400 missing. There 310,000 left homeless.

· Former welterweight rivals Tommy Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard are in Las Vegas for Chapter IV in the Pacquiao-Marquez rivalry. Hearns picks Pacquiao to win. Leonard played it safe. He didn’t pick anybody.

LAS VEGAS – Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns sat at ringside. Manny Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach worked a corner. It was a good night to get an autograph for everybody but Raymundo Beltran.

Beltran (27-6, 17 KOs) had a job to do Thursday night and he did it in workman-like fashion for a unanimous decision over Ji-Hoon Kim ( 24-8, 18 KOs) at the Mirage on an ESPN2-televised card.

But Beltran, one of Pacquiao’s sparring partners for many years, had to overcome a rocky first round to complete the assignment. Beltran was knocked to the canvas midway through the first by a left from Kim. Before the round ended, Beltran returned the favor, unleashing a short left that dropped Kim.

In the second, Kim, a South Korean, was warned for a low blow that a ringside wise guy said was below the 38th Parallel. Beltran rested, recovered, suffered a cut near his left eye and stole the round with a furious rally in the closing seconds.

Those late moments seemed to sum up Beltran’s strategy. He would fight sporadically, yet effectively when he did. Kim appeared to tire late in the third. He began to drop his hands and Beltran began to capitalize with head-rocking blows. But Kim was as stubborn as he was awkward. Beltran could not finish him in a fight that was dramatic in the beginning, yet deadly dull in the end.

Best of the undercard: Las Vegas super-bantamweight Jessie Magdaleno (13-0, 9 KOs) scored two knockdowns and learned at least a couple of lessons in a bruising, unanimous decision over Jonathan Arellano (13-2-1, 3 KOs) of Ontario, Calif.

“He caught me a few times, but I wanted to go eight rounds,’’ said Magdaleno, who knocked down Arellano in the second round and again in the sixth.

It looked as if Arellano was finished in the sixth. He slumped along the ropes as Magdaleno swarmed him with a cascade of blows. But Arellano would not surrender. In the end, Magdaleno was glad that he didn’t.

“The work was good,’’ he said.

The rest: Super-featherweight Felix Verdejo (1-0), a Puerto Rican Olympian, won his pro debut, winning a four-round, unanimous decisionLeonard Chavez ((1-1, 1 KOs) of Los Angeles; featherweight Evgeny Gradovich (15-0, 8 KOs) of Oxnard, Calif., scored a seventh-round TKO of William Villanueva (10-5-1, 2 KOs) of Albuquerque; and Las Vegas lightweight Robert Osiobe (14-5-4, 6 KOs) survived and eight-round knockdown for a split decision over Jose Roman (14-1-1, 11 KOs) of Garden Grove, Calif.

LAS VEGAS – Distractions and Manny Pacquiao have been inseparable for at least a year. But it’s beginning to look as if he has discarded that piece of troublesome baggage.

The distracted Pacquiao was gone Thursday. In his place, there was the engaging personality remembered for entering the ring with the smile of a kid headed to a few rounds on the playground.

“He’s having fun,’’ Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach said before a formal news conference at the MGM Grand. “When he’s having fun, he’s hard to beat.’’

Little about a rivalry just a few days from a fourth fight, also at the MGM Grand, looks like much fun. Through 36 rounds, Pacquiao has the edge with two controversial decisions and a draw. But instead of celebration, there’s been controversy. Marquez argues the ledger should read 3-0 in his favor.

“He claims he won,’’ Pacquiao said. “He needs to prove something. I wanted to give him that chance. Maybe he can prove something.’’

The momentum, at least, seems to be on Marquez’ side, especially if the rivalry stretches to 48 rounds in an HBO pay-per-view bout. Much of the public agrees with Marquez, enough perhaps to finally swing the scorecards in his favor.

“My motivation is that I want them to raise my hand in the ring,’’ said Marquez, who showed up at the interview session in a crowded lounge off the casino floor looking edgy in a down jacket that was zipped all the way up to his scarred chin. “I don’t want people to just say, ‘You really beat him.’

“I want them to know that I beat him.’’

For Pacquiao, there might be only one way to do that:

By knockout.

But can he? In 2004, Pacquiao knocked Marquez down three times in the first round. Yet, Marquez managed to recover, rally and fight to a draw. Both have moved up the scale, from featherweight to lightweight for the first rematch and 144 pounds for the third fight. Along the way, there’s speculation that Pacquiao lost some power, or at least enough of it to cut his chances at stopping Marquez from good to negligible.

But Roach says Pacquiao was still an evolving fighter in 2004, meaning he didn’t possess the right hand he developed against David Diaz in 2008. Before their third fight in November, 2011, there were Pacquiao’s well-documented distractions, including marital problems and political campaigns.

“I still say Marquez hasn’t seen the best Manny,’’ Roach said. “This time he will.’’

Evidence of that, Roach said, came in training at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Calif. Pacquiao knocked down sparring partners four times. There were zero knockdowns in training for Pacquaio’s controversial loss to Tim Bradley. There were none in camp for his majority decision over Pacquiao about 13 months ago. Pacquiao hasn’t knocked down a sparring partner since training for his 12th-round stoppage of Miguel Cotto in 2009.

“Manny said he wanted to go back to the Manny of 2004,’’ Roach said. “I wasn’t sure that was possible. But he’s had four knockdowns in training. He’s on fire right now.’’

But Marquez has found a way to cool that fire with counter-punching that interrupts pace and prevents the instinctive Pacquiao from getting into a rhythm, an unstoppable roll. There’s also the simple issue of Marquez’ muscle-bound upper-body, thanks to controversial strength coach Angel Heredia.

Heredia, who joined Marquez for the third fight, testified in the Balco case that he provided performance-enhancers to Olympic track-and-field medalists. Heredia’s presence raises inevitable questions. They were there in 2011 and they are back a year later. Marquez, annoyed at all of the questioning, has told the media he is prepared to undergo testing. In the PED swamp, however, there are always rumors and suspicions. Ask Lance Armstrong.

Mexican promoter Fernando Beltran introduced Marquez in a way that only makes you wonder about the relationship with Heredia.

“Built like Hulk,’’ Beltran said.

It might be hard to knock down Hulk. It’ll be harder to knock him out.

But Roach has his own theory.

“You put on a lot of muscle for a reason,’’ Roach said. “If he wants to exchange, that’ll be better for us.’’

LAS VEGAS — Jose Benavidez Jr., unbeaten at junior-welterweight, withdrew from a scheduled bout Thursday night at The Mirage, because of concerns about further injury to his right hand, according to Jose Benavidez Sr., his father and trainer.

“When we come back, I just want us to be back at 100 percent,’’ his dad said.

Benavidez (17-0, 13 KOs) was nearly knocked out in the final seconds of an eight-round bout by Pavel Miranda (17-8-1, 5 KOs) on Oct. 13 at Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., on a card featuring Brandon Rios’ dramatic stoppage of Mike Alvarado in the likely Fight of the Year.

Benavidez, a Phoenix prospect, escaped with a unanimous decision, scoring almost exclusively with his accurate jab. He also appeared to tire in the seventh round, perhaps because he struggled to make weight, 140 pounds.

“Then, I think we were looking ahead to the next fight,’’ Jose Sr. said. “We didn’t work the right hand in that one, because I think we were thinking about that fight in December. Things have happened so fast since that last fight.’’

Initially, the 20-year-old Benavidez had hoped to fight on the undercard Saturday of the fourth bout between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez in an HBO pay-per-view event at the MGM Grand. Instead, Top Rank announced a few weeks ago that Benavidez would face Jesus Selig (15-1-1, 9 KOs) on a Dec. 6 card televised by ESPN2. Top Rank was surprised by Benavidez’s withdrawal.

Benavidez, who signed with Top Rank as a 17-year-old, underwent surgery in January on his right hand and wrist after aggravating an injury during a victory over Sammy Santana in November, 2011 on the undercard of Pacquiao’s controversial decision over Marquez in their third fight.

An MRI revealed an extra bone in the wrist, according to physicians. It was causing Benavidez pain. According to reports, a laser procedure removed the source of that pain. A damaged tendon also was repaired.

After a five-month layoff, Benavidez returned to the ring, fighting three times — a six-round unanimous decision over Josh Sosa (10-4, 5 KOs) in May, a fourth-round stoppage of Javier Loya (7-1, 6 KOs) in August and then Miranda.

Plans are now for him to fight again early next year, perhaps in February, his dad and manager Steven Feder said.

“I just told him to enjoy the Holidays, rest and get ready for next year,’’ Jose Sr. said.

Mike Tyson talked Monday about life in the ring, life on the stage and about how surprised he is to be alive at all.

“Hey, I didn’t think I’d make it to 25,’’ Tyson, now 46, said during a conference call for a national tour of his Broadway show, “Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth.”

It will stop in 36 cities, starting on Feb. 12 in Indianapolis where Tyson was convicted on a rape charge and including Feb. 24 in Phoenix where his daughter died.

In a wide-ranging interview with fight writers and the entertainment press, Tyson was relaxed and philosophical. The Spike-Lee directed show, he said, allows him to talk about circumstances and pressures that led to crazy headlines generated throughout his heavyweight reign. Through the years, he said, he has matured, finding fulfillment through acting and charity work that he never had in boxing.

“I really learned a lot about myself,’’ he said. “I learned I’m an interesting guy. I’m a guy who wants to fit in. I’m not sure where that came from.’’

Boxing is like acting in one way.

“The doubt and the fear of being a failure is there,’’ Tyson said.

But there is a difference.

“You don’t have to go to the hospital afterwards,’’ he said.

True to the show’s title, Tyson says little is out-of-bounds. The 80-minute script includes the pain of losing 4-year-old Exodus, who died in 2009 after a freak accident on a tread mill in Phoenix where Tyson had lived and trained for a few years following his release from prison in 1995.

“I talk about my daughter at the end of the show,’’ said Tyson, whose stop in Phoenix is scheduled for Comerica Theatre, just a few blocks of roadwork from where he trained at Central Boxing. “That’s not a pretty sight.’’

Tyson’s time in Arizona was a snapshot of who he was and how he is remembered.

In 1999, he was handcuffed by law enforcement authorities at Central and returned to jail for a road-rage incident in Maryland.

In 2001, he underwent a polygraph in Phoenix. He has always said he was not guilty of rape in Indianapolis. According to results acquired by The Arizona Republic, Tyson was truthful when he said he did not rape Desiree Washington.

A few years later, he was questioned about his relationship with Dale Hausner, who is currently sitting on death row for a series of murders committed between 2005 and 2006. Tyson said law enforcement came into the gym. They said they asked about Hausner, who had worked as a ringside photographer at Phoenix bouts.

“I was in a picture on his website,’’ Tyson said. “Turns out, the guy was going out and sniping people.’’

Today, Tyson says, he thinks of himself when he hears about the deaths of Hector Camacho, Johnny Tapia and Arturo Gatti.

“All the time, my friend, all the time,’’ he said. “They weren’t as reckless as I was. Reckless out in the open, if you know what I mean. I thought it could be me if I hadn’t made these changes in my life.’’

Just when there seems to be no solution for the Top Rank-Golden Boy feud that has sent boxing past the fistic cliff and into an abyss with no bottom in sight, I think about Miguel Cotto.

He’s not a talker, at least not in the noisy way things are done from the promotional stage. He’s been criticized for that in his dual role as a promoter for his Showtime-televised bout Saturday night against Austin Trout at Madison Square Garden.

But verbiage at high volume has never been what Cotto is all about. Blame him only if you like all the screaming. I applaud him. The Puerto Rican’s quiet, thoughtful nature stands alone, an island amid all the chaos.

It’s anybody’s guess as to whether that will work for him in his evolving role as a promoter.

“There is a balance of being a fighter and a promoter,’’ Cotto said during the final news conference for a bout his company is promoting in association with Golden Boy. “This was an idea my father had and I am happy we are doing a good job of making the company as successful as it is. My father picked three excellent people to run the company. I don’t have to occupy too much of my time to help them with the day to day.’’

With the right people in place, Cotto only has to be the person he has always been.

In a business fractured by petty rivalries and grudges, everybody respects Cotto. Who else can say that? He’s been called tough. But it’s more than just that. Antonio Margarito was tough, but not respected because of suspicions he beat Cotto in 2008 with altered hand-wraps discovered in early 2009 before a loss to Shane Mosley. Cotto’s response to the Margarito loss and subsequent controversy revealed a personal trait everybody admires. He’s accountable.

When questions were raised about whether Margarito wore the disputed wraps on the night of Cotto’s first loss, Cotto said he couldn’t complain. He blamed his camp’s lack of vigilance. He said his corner failed to have anybody in the opposing dressing room when Margarito’s hands were wrapped. There has since been an argument about that. Margarito’s management has said there was a Cotto representative there.

Whoever was or wasn’t there, it is Cotto’s character that stands the test of time. He didn’t whine. Instead, he got the rematch he long sought and resolved his own doubts a year ago by beating Margarito with a stoppage as old-school as the first testament.

Not long after Margarito, Cotto’s contract with Top Rank ended. In May, he fought and lost a unanimous decision to Floyd Mayweather Jr., at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand on a card promoted by Mayweather in association with Golden Boy. Cotto trained during the week before opening bell in Vegas at Top Rank’s gym. He fought on HBO then. He fights on Showtime Saturday night. He has maintained a working relationship with all of the feuding parties in boxing’s great divide.

Why? Because they respect him.

In Cotto, they trust.

I don’t know if that trust is a way to mend fences. I don’t know if it could lead to, say, Nonito Donaire-versus-Abner Mares.

But if Top Rank and Golden Boy are looking for an example, Cotto is a pretty good beginning.

AZ Notes
Top Rank prospect Jose Benavidez Jr. (17-0, 13 KOs) of Phoenix is scheduled to fight Mexican Jesus Selig (15-1-1, 9 KOs) next Thursday night on an ESPN2-televised card at The Mirage in Las Vegas. Benavidez will be fighting as a welterweight, seven pounds heavier than his usual 140. He appeared to tire in his last fight on Oct. 13 when he was nearly knocked out by Pavel Miranda in a junior-welterweight bout in Carson, Calif. He might have struggled to make weight.

Iron Boy Promotions of Scottsdale stages another card Friday night at Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix. Opening bell is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Eight bouts are scheduled, including a six-round main event between bantamweights Alexis “Beaver” Santiago (11-3-1, 5 KOs) of Phoenix and Jensen Ramirez (2-1-2) of Tucson.

One loss, perhaps a single punch, might be all that separates Manny Pacquiao from a full-time political career.

If – and it’s a very big if – he prevails for a fourth time against Juan Manuel Marquez on Dec. 8, however, the Filipino Congressman figures to fight two more times.

“Yes, I will continue to fight through next year,’’ Pacquiao said during a conference call a couple days before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Without any unforeseen changes in a schedule that has included one bout in spring and another in autumn, Pacquiao might be retired a year from now on a day when he can say thanks for no more questions about Floyd Mayweather Jr.

The Mayweather question was there, as it always is, during the international call. There’s not much more that Pacquiao can say. His quick response about his plans for 2013 with or without Mayweather, however, left little doubt. If victory continues to elude Marquez in a third rematch, chances at Mayweather-Pacquiao are down to two. The blueprint for boxing’s version of a fiscal cliff is there.

It looks as if Pacquiao, who already offered to take the lesser share of a 45-55 split, has two options if Mayweather finds another reason to say no. Amend that. Mayweather hasn’t said much of anything lately.

Miguel Cotto and Brandon Rios look to be the leading candidates for Pacquiao’s farewell year. Like Pacquiao, Cotto also has to win. He faces a problematic fight with Austin Trout, who could derail hopes for a rematch of his TKO loss to Pacquiao.

“Yes, there is a chance,’’ Pacquiao said of the rematch possibility with Cotto, whom he picks to beat Trout on Dec. 1 at New York’s Madison Square Garden. “I think Cotto will win the fight. Not sure if by decision or knockout. Better chance for knockout, but not sure.’’

Then, there’s Rios, whose energy and go-for-broke style in his victory over Mike Alvarado in the likely Fight of the Year moved him to the front of the line. It also would be an easy one to make. Bob Arum promotes both Rios and Pacquiao.

Another option might be there if Pacquiao-Marquez IV at Las Vegas MGM Grand ends in more controversy, which might be the best bet of all. Anybody ready for a fifth? Arum called it unlikely, yet did recall that Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta fought six times.

“I don’t know,’’ Pacquiao said. “It’s hard to imagine a fourth one.’’

But not as hard to imagine as Pacquiao-Mayweather.

Two little guys, who could step on a scale together and weigh nearly 25 pounds less than Wladimir Klitschko, are getting some heavyweight attention for a bid to win a couple of pieces of the flyweight title. The unification label has been attached to the Brian Viloria-Tyson Marquez bout Saturday at the Los Angeles Sports Arena (WealthTV & wealthtv.com at 9pm est)

In a fractured business full of more acronyms than the federal government, however, unification and boxing are an odd couple. A little bit like jumbo shrimp. From I to W with a B in between, titles are as irrelevant they’ve ever been. But there is something significant about Viloria-Marquez. It’s about a legend and tying it to a fight that could revive the fortunes of the best among the little big men. If there is link between yesterday and today, it’s a piece of unity worth fighting for.

For nearly two decades, Michael Carbajal-Humberto Gonzalez has been the standard for what the smallest divisions have hoped to become, yet never have. In the first of their three fights at junior-flyweight, Carbajal and Gonzalez put the Lord into the Flies in March 1993 at the Las Vegas Hilton. Carbajal, down twice and seemingly finished in the fifth round, stormed back in the seventh with a paralyzing uppercut followed by a left that dropped Gonzalez onto his back like a piece of discarded plywood.

It was a fight that led to million-dollar purses for Carbajal and Gonzalez. Then, it seemed to herald a rich new age for fighters who campaigned at weights between 106 and 112 pounds. But it didn’t happen. Carbajal and Gonzalez couldn’t pull off an encore in two rematches, both won in 1994 by Gonzalez in decisions as narrow as they were forgettable.

In subsequent years, there was never anything that could quite live up to that one dynamic fight. Many of today’s greats started at the low end of the weight and pay scale. There’s Manny Pacquiao and Nonito Donaire and Jorge Arce. Arce is a constant reminder of just how good Carbajal was. In 1999 and years past his prime, a bloodied and seemingly-beaten Carbajal knocked out a young Arce with a lightning bolt of a right hand in a stunning 11th-round in Tijuana.

But Pacquiao, Donaire and Arce have moved up and on in pursuit of bigger checks. They won’t be remembered as flyweights. But Viloria and perhaps Marquez will be. That gives them a chance at a re-enactment of the 1993 classic, which has stood alone for so long the memory of it has begun to fade. It’s good history only if there’s a reason to remember it. Maybe, Viloria-Marquez on Wealth TV is that reason to hope history repeats itself.

Viloria, a 2000 Olympian, began his career more than a decade. For a while, he and Arce appeared to be moving toward a bout that Bob Arum thought might be a Carbajal-Gonzalez encore. But Viloria’s career got sidetracked by inconsistency so troublesome that it might be a problem against Marquez.

Meanwhile, Marquez is powerful and not as inexperienced as some might argue. His resume includes a loss to Donaire, a pound-for-pound contender. In a close bout and potential Fight of the Year, the decisive factor might be age. At 24, Marquez is seven year younger than Viloria. Flyweights have a shorter lifespan than fighter in the heavier divisions. At 31, Viloria looks to be a lot closer to the end than he is to his prime. But he’s won five straight fights, including an impressive stoppage of Giovani Sequra, whose looks and style remind some of Carbajal. Maybe, Viloria is a late bloomer.

Carbajal, now 45 and living in Phoenix, doesn’t know who to pick. He’s watched Viloria throughout his erratic career. He knows about Marquez, yet hasn’t had a chance to see him often enough to really judge him.

“But they’ve both got power,’’ Carbajal said. “I’m not sure about Viloria’s age. That could be trouble. We’ll see. But whoever takes a shot better, will win.’’

Sounds like it could be classic. That’s exactly what determined the 1993 fight. Carbajal absorbed and endured Gonzalez’ power. Then, he delivered some of his own in an epic still searching for an encore.

LOS ANGELES – It was one fight full of many styles. From slick to awkward and lots of good, bad and unlikely in between, there was not much that Abner Mares and Anselmo Moreno didn’t try.

In the end, however, Mares found the best fit.

Mares did so with the smarts and patience of a man dangerous and clever enough to pick a lock. The combination to unlocking Moreno was simple enough, although elusive long enough to even rattle Mares. But Mares recovered and remembered what he had practiced and how the twelve rounds had started.

Body shots and the right hand were always the key. One after the other Saturday night added up to Mares’ unanimous decision over Moreno for the World Boxing Council’s super-bantamweight title at Staples Center. The judge’s scores were 116-110 on two cards and an out-of-whack 120-106 on a third.

“There was a moment when I Iost my composure in the middle rounds,’’ Mares ( 25-0-1, 13 KOs) said.

His corner’s advice and an ability to think through adversity, however, saved him from a loss that would have eroded his hopes of battle for supremacy of the 122-pound division.

“I want to fight Nonito Donaire,’’ said Mares, a Golden Boy fighter who is caught in limbo in the feud between his promoter and Top Rank, Donaire’s representative.

Only a Golden Boy-Top Rank alliance can make that happen. World peace might happen before then. But the fearless Mares will continue to lobby for what he wants and continues to earn. Against Moreno (33-1-1, 12 KOs), he encountered an elusive Panamanian who moved one, then another and always out of range. But Mares pursued, often running straight at Moreno. The early body punches were designed to slow him down. For a while, they did. But Moreno began to stand his ground and exchange with Mares. That was a surprise.

But in the fifth, Moreno paid for the move. Mares knocked him with a beautiful.

“It’s the first time anybody has ever knocked him down,’’ Mares said. “I couldn’t let him get comfortable with his style, because he’s too good at it.

“I made it my fight.’’

The card also included Los Angeles bantamweight Leo Santa Cruz (22-0-1, 13 KOs) in an impressive ninth round knockout of Victor Zaleta (20-3-1, 10 KOs) for the International Boxing Federation’s 188-pound title. Santa Cruz looms as potential Mares’ opponent. He’s a Golden Boy fighter. Give the current state of the game, no other explanation is necessary But don’t tell that to Mares.

“I want Nonito Donaire,’’ Mares said once, twice, three times. “Santa Cruz is a good fighter. But I want to fight the best.’’

Enough said.

Free and Still Powerful: Angulo back with quick KO
They took away his freedom, but none of his power.

It took Alfredo Angulo less than a minute to reclaim a future that had been in doubt throughout a seven-month stretch in a California detention center for a reported immigration violation. Fifty-six seconds after the opening bell, Angulo (21-2, 18 KOs) unleashed a sweeping left hand that knocked out Raul Casarez (19-3, 9 KOs) while exorcising long hours of waiting, wondering and never knowing.

Angulo knows now.

“Perro is back,’’ said Angulo, a Mexican junior-middleweight nicknamed Dog.

Exactly when wasn’t certain Saturday night.

“I could fight again in 20 minutes,’’ said the bearded Angulo, whose biggest victory was in just knowing that there would be a chance at another one.

Cleverly stays in Hopkins hunt with TKO win
Talk about a Nathan Cleverly-Bernard Hopkins fight only figures to get a lot louder after his eight-round TKO of Shawn Hawk.

Cleverly (25-0, 11 KOs), a Welshmen and the World Boxing Organization’s light-heavyweight champion, dropped Hawk (22-3-1, 16 KOs) twice in the seventh round and again in the eighth. Cleverly was stronger than Hawk. More important, Cleverly’s work rate simply overwhelmed the fighter from Sioux Falls, Iowa. That’s not much of a surprise. Cleverly’s trainer is Enzo Calzaghe, who trained son Joe to beat Hopkins.

Cleverly is one of three-to-four possibilities for Hopkins in a bout projected for March 9 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. The UK also has been mentioned.

On The Undercard
The Best: Garden City, Kan., has given keys to the city to Brandon Rios and Victor Ortiz. City fathers might need to make a third one. Junior-welterweight Antonio Orozco is beginning to look like the third world-class fighter to emerge from an unlikely boxing town in southwest Kansas.

Orozco (16-0, 12 KOs), born in Mexico and raised in Garden City, was brilliant in scoring a sixth-round stoppage of Danny Escobar (8-2, 5 KOs) of Riverside, Calif. Orozco stunned Escobar midway through the sixth, then swarmed him and dropped him along the ropes at 2:06 of the round. Escobar had to be helped off the canvas and onto a stool before he could leave the ring.

The Rest: Ohio middleweight Chris Pearson (6-0, 5 KOs) won a TKO, but there was nothing technical about his crushing stoppage of Jeremy Marts (8-13, 6 KOs) of Iowa at 44 seconds of the first round; welterweight Alonso Loeza (3-7-1, 3 KOs) of Gilroy, Calif., scored a fourth-round TKO of Zachary Wohlman (5-0-1, 1 KO) of Hollywood, Calif.; Texas bantamweight Isaac Torres (3-0, 2 KOs) won a majority decision over David Reyes (2-3) of Montebello, Calif.; and Cincinnati junior-welter Robert Easter (1-0, 1 KO) enjoyed a knockout debut with a second-round stoppage of Eddie Corona (0-2) of Omaha.

A sure sign of Abner Mares’ emerging stardom is a mixed blessing. Mares is one of those fighters mentioned in a bout that hasn’t happened because of the tired feud between Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank.

For the Golden Boy-promoted Mares, that means talk about Top Rank’s Nonito Donaire. On a growing list, Mares-Donaire is there, another never-never possibility, right behind Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. Donaire-Mares is one of those fights everybody wants to see, but few believe they ever will because of the Golden Boy-Top Rank stand-off.

For Mares, the Donaire speculation also looms as a potential distraction for what might his toughest task to date Saturday night in a Showtime-televised super-bantamweight bout at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Both made weight Friday, also at Staples. Mares was at 121.8 pounds. Moreno, fighting for the first time in the 122-pound division, was a pound lighter, at 120.8.

Mares (24-0-1, 13 KOs) promises he won’t be distracted. Against the slick Moreno (33-1-1, 12 KOs), he can’t be.

Moreno, of Panama City, has been compared to Pernell Whitaker. He’s hard to beat, because he’s hard to hit. A distraction of any kind could make it more difficult for Mares to keep a vigilant eye on an elusive target that will never be in front of him for long.

“Yeah, without a doubt, it’s frustrating,’’ Mares said when asked about Donaire during a conference call. “Again, I know my time will come. I’ve just got be patient. I have to keep pushing. We’ll see after this.’’

Only a loss could quiet the talk about a fight that, for now, is waged only in the public imagination. Mares, who grew up in Southern California and is Golden Boy’s first fighter to win a major title, understands the stakes.

“He’s really technical,’’ Mares said of Moreno. “But he hasn’t fought any one like me. Okay, he hasn’t fought any one like I’m going to be. I’m going to go in and figure him out. That’s what this beautiful sport is all about – figuring out your opponent. You’re going to see a different Abner, as you always do.”

Mares’ versatility includes an innate ability to adjust on the fly. He’ll probably have to against Moreno, who has no illusions about the challenge he faces in Mares’ hometown.

“This is going to be a very, very tough fight for me,’’ Moreno said. “I understand that.’’

On the undercard
· International Boxing Federation bantamweight champ Leo Santa Cruz weighed in at 117.8 pounds, just under the 188-pound limit. Opponent Victor Zaleta was at 117.

· In his first formal weigh-in since a seven-month detention for an immigration violation, Mexican junior-middleweight Alfredo Angulo was at the mandatory 154 pounds. Opponent Raul Casarez was at 153.8.

Wladimir Klitschko’s best friend won’t be there. Emanuel Steward is gone. But Steward’s genius is still around. It never dies.

In a bout dedicated to the trainer he calls a genius, Klitschko hopes for a performance Saturday against Mariuz Wach in an Epix/EpixHD.com bout that will represent all that Steward meant to him and a sport still mourning his death.

It’s easy to call somebody a genius these days. It’s not so easy, however, to know what it is. Genius is hard to find, harder to define. But Klitschko saw it in Steward and knows what it has done for him in a heavyweight career that was in peril nearly nine years ago.

“He was not a conservative person.’’ said Klitschko, who has won 16 straight in his stranglehold on the heavyweight division since a 2004 loss to Lamon Brewster in his first bout with Steward. “In his 68 years, he has been around young people all of the time. His spirit was young. He was always learning. He never stopped.

“He said one line: ‘You know, Wladimir, fighters are smarter than trainers.’ ‘’

If there’s genius in simplicity, there it is, distilled in a few words. The last five should be etched in stone above the door whenever they re-locate Steward’s Kronk Gym in or around Detroit. Fighters are smarter than trainers. It’s a bit of wisdom that means vigilance from a trainer looking out for the best interests of a fighter, whose only teammate is that guy in the corner armed only with a bucket, advice and encouragement. For any of it to work, he must know how to listen.

“He’s right about that,’’ Klitschko (58-3, 51 KOs) said in a conference call from Hamburg, Germany where he faces Wach (27-0, 15 KOs) at the O2 Arena. “You have to be flexible. As a trainer you tell a boxer: ‘This is the way you do it, and you do it.’

“I would express my point of view and he would express his point of view and we’d try to work it out to get to one solution. He was incredibly flexible in his way of understanding things.’’

For the philosopher and academic in Klitschko, Steward represents a role model for anybody in any pursuit.

“In life you have to be flexible also,’’ said Klitschko, who will have Steward student Jonathan Banks in his corner just one week before a Banks bout against Seth Mitchell in Atlantic City, N.J. “Every person has certain qualities: See it, use it and don’t kill it. That is a description of Emanuel. Exactly what he was.’’

What’s unknown, however, is exactly how much Steward’s voice will be missed between rounds. The 6-foot-6 Wladimir Klitschko will have to deal with something new. Wach, another unknown in a division known only for Wladimir and brother Vitali, is big. At 6-7 ½, Wach, of Poland, is taller than any fighter Wladimir Klitschko has ever faced.

If there’s potential trouble lurking in Wach’s advantage on the tale of the tape, however, it wasn’t evident during Klitschko’s hour-long session with the media.

“We had an open workout with Maruisz Wach and his coach made a little fun by putting my face on the pads and hitting my face many times.’’ He said. “It was something that was entertaining to watch. However, in the ring on Saturday, he will face the real Wladimir Klitschko. Not just images on the pads.’’

That’s part of the genius, too. If you’re worried, never do or say anything that might let them know that you are. Never let them see you sweat. Steward never did. He was way too cool for that.

There are all kinds of symbols on the road to freedom. Some are as grand as the Statue of Liberty. Some are as simple as a pair of shoes.

“Tennis shoes,’’ Alfredo Angulo said.

For a while, they were as elusive as Angulo’s release from a detention center in El Centro, Calif., where the Mexican junior-middleweight sat, waited and worried during a seven-month stretch for what was reported to be an expired visa.

Angulo couldn’t train. It was hard enough to jog.

“No, the reality is that they didn’t let me train in there,’’ Angulo said Thursday in a conference call for his Nov. 10 appearance on the undercard of the Abner Mares-Anselmo Moreno super-bantamweight clash at Los Angeles’ Staples Center in his first fight since his release in mid-August. “It was a simple thing. They didn’t let me have tennis shoes.

“For some reason, they didn’t let me have the shoes for two months.’’

When he finally got them, tennis wasn’t on the agenda. There are no clay courts in the detention center’s yard. Then again, there isn’t a ring, either. But there was handball, Angulo’s only physical outlet while waiting for his case to be resolved and his hopes restored.

“I’m here legally,’’ said Angulo (20-2, 17 KOs), a former 154-pound champion who faces unknown Raul Casarez (19-2, 9 KOs) of Edinburg, Tex. “Everything is fine. I’m ready to move forward.’’

After a nightmarish year, that’s a victory in its own right. A year ago, Angulo lost a wild sixth-round TKO to James Kirkland in Cancun. About five months later, he says he turned himself into immigration authorities in an effort to clear up questions about his legal right to live and work in the U.S. Angulo, who grew up in the border town of Mexicali, says he wanted to pursue his boxing career in America. More important, he wanted to spend time with his daughter, wherever and whenever he wanted to. She was born in the U.S.

There are unanswered questions as to why Angulo was held for so long. He has no reported criminal record.

“I had no idea when I was going to get out,’’ said Angulo, who held an interim version of the World Boxing Organization’s junior-middleweight title. “I was told it was going to be a short time. Obviously, that didn’t happen.’’

The best guess is that he got caught in delays inevitable throughout the web of immigration politics and bureaucracy. Like so many, he was just another face among the many with lives by a border. Unlike many, however, Angulo was lucky. He had Golden Boy Promotions. He had Oscar De La Hoya, who visited him in El Centro, just 14 miles north of the Mexican border.

Golden Boy’s resources and Angulo’s potential were factors that finally led to his release. It’s another question as to whether that will lead to a realization of the early promise he displayed. Incarceration of any kind has proven to be hazardous to a ring career. Maybe, it’s the idle time. Maybe, it’s the diet. Maybe, it’s the handball instead of sparring. Maybe, it’s all three and much more.

For Angulo, that lesson was in front of him in his last fight. Kirkland, who overcame a first-round knockdown before stopping Angulo last November, spent 18 months in a Texas prison on a 2009 weapons charge. After his release, Kirkland easily won two tune-ups before suffering a stunning first-round stoppage against unknown Nobuhiro Ishida.

Angulo re-enters the ring for the first time in a year predictably confident. He has new trainer in Andre Ward’s corner man, Virgil Hunter, who moves into a job once occupied by Nacho Beristain.

“I’m still Alfredo ‘El Perro’ Angulo,’’ he said in a reference to his nickname, Dog. “There’s no change in style. It’s just that Virgil Hunter has added things.’’

But no addition is quite as valuable as what Angulo re-acquired. Hopefully, he’s also kept those tennis shoes. They are a well-worn symbol of what freedom means.

There’s an empty corner in boxing’s battered soul today. There’s always a couple. But none looks quite so large and profoundly sad as the one left by Emanuel Steward’s death Thursday. Gone is his dignity. Gone is his poise. Gone is a gentleman.

I want to say the void will never be filled. But I can’t. Steward won’t let me. Wladimir Klitschko said Wednesday, a day before Steward’s death was confirmed, that his trainer’s “spirit” is always there.

“I can always hear his voice,’’ Klitschko said when asked how he would react without Steward in his corner against Mariusz Wach in Hamburg, Germany for a November 10 bout televised by EPIX.

It’s a voice still heard, because it was without the histrionics associated with a business so noisy that it often sounds as if it includes only extremes and screamers. Steward was never one of those. In his optimistic eyes, you could see calm in the storm. Throw chaos at Steward, and he’d give you that wry smile and a way to conquer it.

I first met him in Phoenix, where his daughter was a student at Arizona State University. He brought Thomas Hearns and Lennox Lewis to train there. He promoted there. For a while, he operated Kronk West, an extension of his fabled Detroit gym, in Tucson.

One of his longtime friends, Steve Eisner, lived in Phoenix. Eisner, a promoter, was one of those storybook characters that only boxing can produce and Damon Runyon could portray. Steward was forever loyal to Eisner, who died in 2003. He was living in Detroit when Steward won a national Golden Gloves title as an 18-year-old bantamweight in 1963. Eisner urged him to go pro. Eisner wanted to manage him. But Steward resisted. Instead, he paid his bills with work as an electrical lineman and followed his voice by coaching, first at Joe Louis’ old gym – Brewster Recreational Center — and then at his own, Kronk.

Eisner was always convinced that Steward would have been a world champion in his own right. As a trainer, however, Steward left a more significant legacy with a list of 41 world champions, starting with Hilmer Kenty in 1980 and one which continues with Klitschko.

Throughout his 68 years, Steward did much more. There was ringside commentary for HBO. He was solid in the role, but that tuxedo never seemed to fit. He belonged in a fighter’s colors with a towel over a shoulder and a bucket in one hand. His familiar presence in a corner was comforting. Despite cliched criticism and tired calls for boxing to be abolished, it always said to me that that the game was in good shape.

That corner, I believe, captures how he wants to be remembered. He was a natural trainer, and there are never enough of them. Had he grown up in a different place or another time, he might have been a great military man. He understood how to wage combat without emotions that lead to panic. He was in the fight business, yet he was able to stay above the dust-ups – the fray — that always comes with it. That’s not easy to do.

I last saw him during the week before Tim Bradley’s controversial victory over Manny Pacquiao on June 9 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. I was writing in the press tent. He came up behind me, grabbed me and gave me a hug. He talked about Eisner. Talked about Bradley and Pacquiao. Talked about boxing. I don’t know if he knew then that he was ill. Speculation about his health began to circulate before Sergio Martinez beat Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on Sept. 15, also in Vegas. He wasn’t there. The talk was ominous. He was in the hospital then and had told those close to him not to reveal his dire condition.

It’s outrageous that some media ghouls chose to pursue the story without regard for his family, which wasn’t allowed to mourn in the peace provided by privacy. The pain was evident early Thursday in denials to death reports that included no confirmation from anybody in the Steward family. It would have been nice if that segment of the media had respected Steward the way he had respected them. But my anger at that crowd is tempered by Steward’s voice. Media are just part of the fray. Stay above it and the media’s pathetic rivalries.

Only the fight matters. Remember that. And remember Steward’s instinctive optimism. It’ll tell you that voids are meant to be filled and fights are there to be won. Thanks, Emanuel.

Happy Birthday, Evander Holyfield.

A couple of lifetimes have been jammed into your half-century of heavyweight titles, improbable comebacks, surprises and disappointments. You lost your money and even a piece of your ear, but never your defiant pride.

You lost in a classic to Riddick Bowe and you were there as an eye witness on the night that the Fan Man dropped into the ring like the 82nd Airborne Division on the night of the rematch at Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace.

You saw Mike Tyson for the bully he was and then slayed the beast when few thought anybody could. Tyson’s only counter was to tear off a piece of your ear in a rematch that spawned chaos throughout the MGM Grand and the streets surrounding the Vegas casino.

You were fearless, yet flawed.

Within the ropes, your mix of tactical skill and instinctive poise was often brilliant.

Outside of the ropes, your contradictions as a preacher with many wives and children were exasperating.

The critics gathered, calling you a hypocrite and then demanding that you retire. But you stood up to all of it, just as you stood up to Tyson, in your characteristically quiet manner. That’s why I say Happy Birthday. Few live life on their own terms, but at 50 you have, no matter how terrible the cost.

I’m not sure you’ll stay retired. Every time you have to pay alimony — $3,000 a month — and a reported $500,000 in child support, there will be the temptation to step through ropes one more time for a bout that will allow some shameless promoter to cash in on your name. My wish is that you stay retired. I hope it is yours as well. But that’s your business.

In retirement, it will be left to history to decide where you belong among the great heavyweights. About that, I have no doubts. As a four-time heavyweight champ and – for now – America’s last great heavyweight, you belong in the all-time top 10.

Here’s an informal list that will always be subject to debate and revision. Over the years, however, I suspect Holyfield will be always be there for the tenacity, technical proficiency and resiliency that have yet to be fully appreciated.

1. – Joe Louis. Great speed, power and furious combinations created the heavyweight who has been transformed into a historical figure for his rematch victory over Germany’s Max Schmeling in a 1938 bout symbolic of an imminent world war.

2. – Muhammad Ali. Few have ever possessed better foot work, which was matched by fast hands and a mouth that has roared down through decades since he changed his name and a lot minds during the 1960s and early 70s.

3. – Jack Johnson. The early 1900s were a very different time, but Johnson’s defense and some modern training would have made him the equal of anyone in any time. He went unbeaten for a decade. His place in history is secure. Without him, there would have been no “Great White Hope.’’

4. – George Foreman. He won a heavyweight title in 1994 when he was 45, in part because of the skills and sheer power he possessed as a younger man. He lost to Ali in the famed “Rumble in the Jungle.’’ But there were very few who could withstand the concussive force he had in both hands.

5. – Joe Frazier. His relentless pressure made him dangerous for anybody who dared stand in front of him, including Ali, who lost the first fight in a series that has become the standard for any great rivalry.

6. — Lennox Lewis. Size, speed and power made him virtually unbeatable and when he was on top of his game throughout the 1990s and during the first few years in the new millennium. Sometimes, however, his focus seemed to wander. When it did, he left his vulnerable chin open to a knockout shot.

7. – Evander Holyfield.

8. – Jack Dempsey. He would relentlessly attack and was quick to capitalize on any weakness he exposed during the 1920s. In a modern parallel, Dempsey has been compared to Roberto Duran, who was inexhaustible and unstoppable during his days as perhaps the greatest lightweight of all time.

9. – Larry Holmes. He was as great a tactician in the 1970s as there has ever been in the heavyweight division. His jab serves as a model.

10.– Rocky Marciano. He swarmed opponents in the 1950s with a brawling style hard to beat. Or in his case, impossible to beat. There’s a debate about whether his unbeaten record (49-0) was compiled against fighters past their prime. It also eliminates a key yardstick: How would he have responded to a loss? In a sport built on adversity, that’s a key. It helps us judge Holyfield, who came back from defeat more than once. Still, it keeps Marciano on this list.

CARSON, Calif. – Surgery isn’t pretty. But sometimes it’s necessary.

It was Saturday night for Nonito Donaire in a well-crafted, yet careful ninth-round stoppage of Toshiaki Nishioka in a super-bantamweight bout booed by a Home Depot Center crowd that had just witnessed some Fight of the Year drama in Brandon Rios’ victory over Mike Alvarado.

There was no way Donaire and Nishioka could put together a satisfying encore. Who could?

Then again, there also aren’t many times when a fighter with world-class credentials lands only 49 punches. That was Nishioka’s total, according to Compubox, which broke it down to 23 jabs and 26 power punches. Rios and Alvarado landed more punches in their walk from the dressing room for opening bell.

Nishioka, a 122-pound fighter from Japan with an accomplished resume, looked listless and perhaps a little surprised. From the beginning, he looked confused. He tried to avoid instead of engage Donaire. Fewer punches magnified the ones that did land, especially from Donaire.

“Nonito is a surgeon,’’ Donaire (30-1, 19 KOs) said.

In the sixth, the Doctor was in.

Donaire delivered a left- uppercut that dropped Nishioka (39-5-3, 24 KOs). Donaire said he hurt his left hand sometime in the middle of the fight. After the sixth, he said he had to rely on his right.

No problem. In the ninth, he dropped Nishioka and the curtain with a straight right. Referee Raul Caiz called it at 1:54 of the round.

“I’ve never seen a fighter with that kind of speed,’’ Nishioka said.

For Donaire, it’s hard to know what’s next. He wants to fight Abner Mares. But Donaire is a Top Rank fighter and Mares is promoted by Golden Boy. Peace on earth has a better chance than a Golden Boy-Top Rank alliance.

Then again, maybe a good surgeon can mend the promotional rift that stands in the way of the only 122-pound fight anybody wants to see. Dr. Donaire can hope.

Rios wins TKO on a night when he and Alvarado deliver

They hoped for Arturo Gatti-Micky Ward. They talked about Jose Luis Castillo-Diego Corrales. They promised a lot.

Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado delivered.

In their own way.

First, there were punches. Then, there were counters. Then, there were chants. Then, there was astonishment. Never was there an interruption, until Rios suddenly found energy where everybody else had begun to see signs of potential fatigue. They weren’t looking in the right place.

But it was there, somewhere inside Rios (31-0-1, 22 KOs), who marshaled his energies Saturday night for a dramatic seventh-round TKO of Alvarado (33-1, 23 KOs) in what might be the Fight of this Year and few other years.

Rios, of Oxnard, Calif., caught Alvarado with an overhand right. The punch seemed to land on Alvarado’s left temple. He appeared dazed. He slumped against the ropes. That was an invitation the instinctively aggressive Rios could not resist. He swarmed Alvarado at a rate that the Compubox computer at ringside must have had a hard time counting. The punches were hard to see. Alavardo surely couldn’t

Appearing defenseless, referee Pat Russell called it at 1:57 of the round, awarding Rios a TKO and perhaps a shot at the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez rematch on Dec. 8.

“I knew the overhand right would do it,’’ Rios said, who had a slight bruise under his right eye.

Rios, fighting for the first time at junior-welterweight, waited for his chance to land it while enduring one cracking uppercut after another from Alvarado. After six rounds, the bout was tied, 57-57, on each of the cards held by judges Max Deluca and Zach Young. On James Je Kin’s card, Rios led, 58-57.

Alvarado, of Denver, was showing Rios a shoulder and rolling it in a defensive tactic. Amid a relentless body attack, Alvarado finally abandoned the tactic. That was the beginning of the end to a drama that had a capacity crowd of more than 7,000 at the Home Depot Center on its collective feet and roaring its approval.

Rios listened and broke into a smile that said:

“I told you so.’’

Never, he said, was there a moment when he thought Alvarado might have gained the momentum and begun to do enough to win.

“Hell, no,’’ he said to a question thrown at him by HBO Max Kellerman moments after he was declared the victory.

Hell, yes, was the response from an audience that knew Rios and Alvarado had been to hell and back. And, hell yes, everybody was happy to have been along for the ride.

Benavidez rocked, yet survives to win unanimous decision

There’s always been one question about Jose Benavidez Jr.

Could he take a punch?

That punch landed Saturday.

For one fight, at least, Benavidez had an answer. He could take one. He could endure, at least long enough to remain unbeaten in his brief career.

Benavidez (17-0, 13 KOs), a junior-welterweight from Phoenix, was rocked by a left hook from Pavel Miranda (19-8-1, 10 KOs) of Tijuana with about 45 seconds left in an eight-round fight. Dazed and unsteady, Benavidez stumbled across the canvas at an outdoor ring at Home Depot Center, yet managed to hold on to victory by unanimous decision and his status as an unbeaten prospect.

If Miranda’s hook had landed earlier, or if he had followed up with another punch, or had the fight been scheduled for 10 rounds, the story might be very different. Benavidez might be anguishing over his first defeat.

Those are questions that the 20-year-old Benavidez will now have to confront and answer against better, more powerful opponents. There’s never a definitive answer. There are only lessons and more fights, many more of both for Benavidez, who relied on his jab to claim a victory that was nearly taken from him during the bout’s desperate last moments.

The Best
Light-heavyweight Trevor McCumby only enhanced the likelihood he’ll be offered a Top Rank contract this week with his seventh stoppage in seven victories. McCumby, a Chicago native who trains in Phoenix and Oxnard, Calif., at Robert Garcia’s gym, was never challenged in a first-round demolition of Mexican Eliseo Durazo (4-4, 1 KO).

The Rest

Lightweight Javier Garcia (8-2-1, 7 KOs) of Oxnard, Calif., knocked down Jose Roman (14-0-1, 11 KOs) in the first round. Roman, of Garden Grove, Calif., returned the favor in the second. But the ringside physician had the final say. He stopped the fight after the third because of a cut sustained by Garcia, although it appeared the wound was cause by a punch. The fight was declared a technical draw.

Featherweight Evgeny Gradovich (14-0, 7 KOs) calls himself the “Mexician Russan.’’ He needed Mexican tactics and toughness to score a unanimous decision over Jose Angel Beranza (36-25-2, 27 KOs) in a brawling, give-and-take eight-rounder.

Miami super-middleweight Ronald Ellis (4-0, 3 KOs) came into the ring wearing sunglasses. He took them off, fought for four rounds, put them back on, stepped out of the ring and into the sunshine with a unanimous decision over Denver’s Katrell Straus (2-3, 1 KO). Easy as that.

A super-featherweight bout between Mexican Cesar Garcia (6-12-1, 1 KO) and Saul Rodriguez (6-0-1, 5 KOs) was ruled technical draw. The ringside physician stopped it after two rounds because of bloody cut suffered by Garcia in an apparent head butt.

Top Rank signs Mexican Olympian
Top Rank announced Saturday that it has signed Mexican Olympian Oscar Valdez. Valdez, a two-time Olympian, lost to eventual silver medalist John Joe Nevin of Ireland at bantamweight during the London Games in August. Valdez, 22, grew up in Nogales, which is a town on the border with Arizona.

Photos by Chris Farina / Top Rank

CARSON, Calif. – If maturity is measured in knowing what to keep and what to shed, there is some good news in Jose Benavidez Jr.’s transformation from prospect to pro.

Benavidez got rid of an expensive toy, a Maserati, as though it were an excess pound.

“It was costing me too much to insure and too much to maintain,’’ said Benavidez, whose insurance premium on the high-performance sport car was $1,500-a-month. “I’ve got more important things to do.’’

Did you just hear a loud sigh of relief? No need to get your ears checked. It came from dad, Jose Benavidez Sr. who a year ago worried about his son’s purchase of the high-performance sports car. It attracted too much attention. Dad worried that fans might begin to think that his son was more interested in expensive toys than hard work. No worries. None at all.

“Oh yeah, it’s a good sign,’’ the senior Benavidez said. “To me, it means he’s figuring it out. He’s getting serious. Sometimes, I have to get on him about some things. But he is starting to get it.’’

Benavidez (16-0, 13 KOs) is still about seven months away from a birthday that will turn him into a 21-year-old adult. Yet, his wisdom often belies his years. He is quick to say he still has much to learn and many to fight.

“I’ve got a lot of work to do, a whole lot,’’ said the Phoenix prospect, who goes back on the job Saturday night at the Home Depot Center against Pavel Miranda (19-7-1, 10 KOs) of Tijuana on the undercard of two HBO-featured fights, junior-welterweights Mike Alvarado (33-0, 23 KOs) of Denver against Brandon Rios (30-0-1, 21 KOs) Oxnard, Calif., and super-bantamweights Nonito Donaire (29-1,18 KOs) of the Philippines against Japan’s Toshiaki Nishioki (39-4-3, 24 KOs) of Japan.

At a formal weigh-in Friday in a crowded hotel ballroom in nearby Manhattan Beach, Donaire was at 121.6 pounds and Nishioka 121.8, both under the 122-pound limit for their title fight. Meanwhile, Rios, unable to make the 135-pound mandatory at lightweight in his last couple of outings, had no trouble at junior-welter. He was at the limit, 140. Alvarado tipped the scales at 139.8.

Miranda was at 144.2 pounds and Benavidez 143.4 for a bout scheduled for eight rounds and officially classified as super-lightweight. In another sign of Benavidez’ ongoing maturity, however he is closer to becoming a welterweight than a junior-welter.

“Anymore, I walk around at 160-pounds,’’ Benavidez said. “At some point, I’ll be a welterweight.’’

That official jump might not happen until sometime next year.

“If we could fight for a youth title or something like that, 140 pounds wouldn’t be a problem,’’ Benavidez Sr. said.

If Benavidez wins as expected against Miranda, he could be ticketed for a bout on the Dec. 8 card featuring the third rematch between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand.

“But he’s got to be ready for everybody now,’’ Benavidez manager Steve Feder said. “Every young guy out there wants to be the one to upset Jose Benavidez Jr. He’s become a target.’’

But not a flashy one.

NOTES: The Carson card also includes a light-heavyweight bout between light-heavyweight Trevor McCumby (6-0, 6 KOs) against Eliseo Durazo (4-3, 1 KO). McCumby has the look of a prospect. He has been training in Phoenix and at Robert Garcia’s gym in Oxnard. Another big McCumby win Saturday night might lead to a Top Rank contract next week.

And the card had yet to sell out Friday, but there was a buzz at a weigh-in crowded with more Japanese media than American for a main event featuring Nishioka, who grew up in Nagasaki and trains in Tokyo.

Boxing’s equivalent of lighting in a bottle was captured by Nonito Donaire nearly two years ago when he knocked out accomplished Fernando Montiel within two rounds of a stunning statement that transformed him into a pound-for-pound contender.

Everything since then has been like time in a high school class. Donaire studied, did his homework and roadwork. Yet, he yearned for that bold stroke of reality that still has fans and media talking about him.

“The last three fights were experimental,’’ Donaire said in a conference call. “This fight, we are going back to boxing and being unexpected. We relied on the power in the last three fights. But this fight we will come out throwing lots of punches.’’

In a statement that sounds a lot like a bid to re-insert himself into the pound-for-debate amid doubts about whether Manny Pacquiao can beat Juan Manuel Marquez in a third rematch and only silence from Floyd Mayweather Jr., Donaire promised to reaffirm his credentials in a significant test Saturday night against another accomplished foe, Toshiaki Nishioka of Japan.

It’s another step up for Donaire (29-1, 18 KOs), whose version of the super-bantamweight titles – the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Organization – will be at stake in an HBO-televised bout from the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. In beating Montiel in February, 2011, Donaire stopped an acknowledged master of tactical skill. The proof was in Montiel’s record, then 44-2-2 with 35 KOs.

Flip the calendar forward, jump up in weight and you’re looking at Nishioka, whose record (39-4-3, 25 KOs) adds up to mastery of a division, 122 pounds, that he has quietly ruled since 2004.

“This is a fight Nonito has wanted for a very long time,’’ said manager Cameron Dunkin, who sounded as if he worried Donaire might regret that his wish was granted.

A Donaire advantage appears to be his age. At 29, he should be stepping into his prime. At 36, Nishioka is probably a step beyond his. There is also Nishioka’s recent inactivity. He hasn’t fought since a unanimous decision over skillful Rafael Marquez a year ago.

“We don’t want to take any chances at all,’’ said Donaire, who this year has fought twice at 122 pounds and won both, beating Jeffrey Mathebula and Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. by decisions. “I believe when we are at this level and at this age and even if he hasn’t fought in a while, he can be very dangerous.’’

A potential disadvantage for Donaire is the absence of trainer Robert Garcia for much of his camp. The busy Garcia was also working with Brandon Rios, who faces Mike Alvarado in a junior-welterweight clash that has potential to upstage Donaire-Nishioka.

Nishioka’s advantage rests in experience and smarts. He hasn’t been stopped once and that was in 1995 in only his second pro bout. If Donaire is trying to re-energize his pound-for-pound claim with emphasis – meaning a knockout, he might have picked the wrong guy.

“Sometimes, you don’t get the results that people look for,’’ Donaire said. “ People expect a lot from me. We have been trying to change things up to get different results. Against Nishioka we can’t let our guard down and going back to the old Nonito Donaire style of fighting smart.

“When it comes, it comes. But the proper game plan will show my power, which is what I was known for – lightning fast counters that were knocking people out because they never saw it coming.

“No matter how tough you are, if you don’t see where it’s coming from, you don’t expect it and it will knock you down.’’

And maybe knock him squarely back into pound-for-pound talk.

The nickname is Bam Bam. Bold and Bolder might be more appropriate for Brandon Rios, who isn’t afraid of promises or punishment.

Rios’ confrontation with Mike Alvarado on Oct. 13 at Carson, Calif., is generating buzz about a possible Fight of the Year. But Rios raised the bar, or at least the blood lust, for a junior-welterweight bout that could upstage the main event, Nonito Donaire versus Toshiaki Nishioka.

“A Micky Ward-Arturo Gatti kind of fight,’’ Rios said Thursday during a conference call.

For bruises, danger and drama, Ward-Gatti is the modern standard. It’s not the sort of fight that Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Andre Ward would seek. They see themselves as scientists who try to balance their craft with a sweet balance of offense and defense. Their philosophy has been heard for as long as there has been an opening bell. They live by one credo: Hit and not get hit. Delete the not from that formula and add as many hits as possible, and you’ve got a pretty good idea at what Rios hopes to inflict and perhaps endure.

That stretch of canvas between the ropes is no checker board for Rios, who is moving up in weight, to 140 pounds, after a controversial failure to make the lightweight limit, 135. He has no patience for what he calls “little chess games.’’

When Rios looks at the unbeaten Alvarado, he could be looking into a mirror. He sees a similar style and the same stubborn streak of pride that demands, if not welcomes, a walk though harm’s way.

“It’s going to be a bloody, massacre fight,’’ said Rios, who told trainer Robert Garcia that he has been dreaming about a chance to do battle in a fight that would be the equal of Gatti-Ward. “I’ve been telling Robert since I started as a professional I’ve been waiting for that type of fight and hopefully this is that fight.’’

Whether that chance will be there in an outdoor ring above the Home Depot Center’s tennis court, however, depends on Alvarado. Alvarado’s trainer, Henry Delgado, left it open-ended as to whether Rios will encounter the Alvarado he expects.

Fans and media have yet to see Alvarado’s boxing skill, Delgado says. His instincts draw him into exchanges from which there is no retreat.

“He makes it tougher than it has to be, because he’s a warrior,’’ Delgado said. “But we’ve got some surprises coming. We have options, lots of options.’’

Options are often forgotten after the first big punch lands, of course. That’s when even the most seasoned fighter reverts to what he knows and does best.

“He looks to come forward; I like to come forward,’’ said Rios, who says there’s nothing new about a heavier weight which he believes makes him stronger and able to hit with the power of a welterweight. “I don’t change my style.’’

Or his hopes of realizing a dream that many avoid like a nightmare.

Tyson can’t escape 20-year-old controversy
New Zealand’s withdrawal of Mike Tyson’s request to enter the country because of his conviction for raping Desiree Washington is just another sad chapter in a 20-year-old controversy.

Tyson, who was scheduled to speak at series of events in New Zealand, has long denied that he committed the crime. Legal experts, including Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz, criticized the 1992 Indianapolis trial and Tyson’s legal defense.

In 2001, Tyson underwent a lie-detector test in Phoenix, where he was living at the time. According to test results acquired by The Arizona Republic, Tyson was truthful when he said he did not rape Washington. But the conviction will always be on his record. Fair or not, it also will always be there for people seeking to make political capital out of it, no matter what he says or they believe.

AZ Notes
Unbeaten Phoenix prospect Jose Benavidez Jr. (16-0, 13 KOs) has a change in opponents for his undercard appearance on Donaire- Nishioka undercard on Oct. 13. Benavidez now is scheduled to face Pavel Miranda (17-7-1, 7 KOs) of Tijuana, Mexico.

Iron Boy Promotions of Phoenix is back at Celebrity Theatre Saturday, Oct. 6, with a card full of young fighters, including Phoenix super-bantamweight Emilio Garcia (6-0-1) against Jensen Ramirez (2-1-1) of Tucson. Opening bell is scheduled for 6 p.m.

Talk about Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. is back like a bad hangover. Everybody seems to have an interpretation, if not a prediction, in the wake of a settlement to Pacquiao’s defamation suit and his offer to give Mayweather the lion’s share in a 55-45 split.

It’s as if Pacquiao’s rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez in their fourth meeting on Dec. 8 doesn’t matter. Maybe, it doesn’t, which is good reason for Marquez to worry about Robbery IV. The public and media fixation on Pacquiao-Mayweather won’t go away and perhaps won’t let anything stand in its way

That said, there’s been a shift in public sentiment and in Pacquiao himself. Combine the two, and only Marquez matters – or should – in any talk about Pacquiao-Mayweather. If Pacquiao loses, the Filipino Congressman becomes a full time politician. He has talked about leaving the ring. Marquez could hasten that departure.

Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach is concerned on a couple of levels.

First, there’s sympathy for Marquez and his argument that he was robbed in the narrow decisions, split and majority, that went against him in the first and second rematches. Scorecards can be like ballots. They’re subjective.

“I think we go into the fight three to four rounds down already,’’ Roach said about the Marquez bout when it was still being negotiated a couple of days before he worked Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.’s loss to Sergio Martinez on Sept. 15 at Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center.

That means Pacquaio has to win by knockout. That would be a first. Marquez, who has six losses, has never been stopped. Given the narrow 36 rounds that already have transpired and Pacquiao’s record of no stoppages in five fights since a 2009 TKO of Miguel Cotto, Pacquiao by KO is a very tall order.

Roach says the task in camp at the Wild Card Gym will be to rediscover Pacquiao’s old aggression, which has withered for reasons that aren’t clear.

Compassion, perhaps the born-again expression of Pacquiao’s return to a Catholic lifestyle, has lessened the ferocity for which there was no refuge for so many of his fallen foes, Roach says. It was evident in 2010 when Pacquiao almost begged referee Laurence Cole to stop what he wouldn’t in a brutal decision over Antonio Margarito at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Tex.

Then again, it wasn’t enough in 2004 when Pacquiao, then at his ferocious best, knocked down Marquez three times in the first round, but never out during the next 11 in a bout that ended in a draw.

Roach says Pacquiao’s physical skills are as sharp as ever, although there seemed to be a missing gear in the hand speed throughout his controversial loss by decision to Timothy Bradley on June 9. From Erik Morales to Oscar De La Hoya, Pacquiao threw punches at a rate that overwhelmed. Against Bradley, that rate proved pedestrian.

But Roach is convinced that those hands will move at a ruthless rate if Pacquiao’s heart still has the streak of larceny needed in a brutal business.

Will it?

“I don’t know,’’ Roach said. “That’s the challenge.’’

The only one.

Is anybody surprised that Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., tested positive for marijuana?

Didn’t think so.

News of the test in the wake of Chavez’ loss by one-sided decision Saturday night to Sergio Martinez at Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center is just more of the same in an exasperating pattern of behavior from a man-child who won’t grow up.

Already, Chavez’ enablers are trying to muddy up the issue by arguing that pot is as much a performance-enhancer as a bacon-cheeseburger. It should be legal, they say. It’s already legal in some places. Smoke it for therapy. Smoke it as a sleep aid. Soon, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton will be tossed into all that smoke. The current president inhaled it and a former one said he didn’t. Blah-blah-blah

So what’s the problem?

It’s not the pot. It’s the irresponsibility.

If Chavez, Jr., smoked a joint after a fight that included an epic 12th round, that’s his choice. But the positive test indicates he was indulging when he wasn’t training throughout a haphazard camp, which included weird hours and sessions when apparently his road work was limited to a few laps around the couch in his Vegas’ living room.

Instead of fulfilling his obligations with some sweat equity, it looks as if the former middleweight champ was getting stoned. That was irresponsible to trainer Freddie Roach, who sometimes would be summoned to supervise a workout at midnight or 3 a.m. It was a breach of what Top Rank and fans expected him to do.

Chavez has been allowed to skate from accountability throughout his young life because of his name. He’s the son of Mexico’s beloved Julio Cesar Chavez, Father Legend. If there’s a burden in carrying on the name, it includes favors that have postponed maturity.

More troubling and perhaps ominous, he hasn’t learned from his father’s mistakes. In addition to a durable chin, there are signs that the 26-year-old Chavez inherited dangerous habits that led his dad into substance-abuse and rehab. Chavez Jr. talked about his dad’s problems a couple days before the Martinez bout. In a forthright manner, he talked about fears his dad would die. He called the experience “horrible.’’ But he didn’t call it a lesson.

It’s not as if Chavez Jr. didn’t know he would be tested. His history dictated that he, perhaps more than any fighter, would be. In 2009, he was suspended for seven months after testing positive for a diuretic. In January, he was arrested for DUI. In June, Andy Lee trainer Emanuel Steward questioned the legitimacy of a test that Chavez underwent before he beat Lee in El Paso.

By now, Chavez knows the rules. If he had trouble sleeping, he should have used something else other than pot to help him get his rest. Marijuana is still on the banned list. It’s fair to argue whether it should be. But that’s an argument for another day.

Today, the argument is only about Chavez Jr. In a Don’t Worry, Be Happy style, he’s likable. He has potential. But that’s all he’ll ever have if the people around him continue to postpone the battle to mature. For now, it’s the only fight that matters.

LAS VEGAS – Two major cards separated by a short ride looked like an accident about to happen. Look again. Sergio Martinez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at Thomas & Mack Center and Canelo Alvarez-Josesito Lopez at the MGM Grand were a lot of things. It was a good night to wear a sombrero. It was a long night in line for a cab and a longer line at the bar.

It was one shot of Pancho Villa, a shot of Peron, another shot of soccer and endless shots of tequila. Above all, it was thoroughly Vegas, at least Vegas before the recession. It was also boxing at its best, which also means some of its worst. Nothing can be so irresistible and so distasteful at the same time.

But there it was Saturday night, a double shot and 180 proof of what is so compelling about a sport that just won’t die no matter how hard it tries to kill itself.

It was impossible to see the depth of its unique resiliency Saturday. I tried. But there was just too much to see. My night started at the MGM Grand. It ended at Thomas & Mack with a brilliant victory by Sergio Martinez, who survived a wild 12th-round comeback from Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.

My cab driver predicted the winner. But not the drama.

“Martinez by knockout,’’ the driver said beneath an old cowboy hat that he had to have been wearing 25 years ago when he collected fares from fans who watched Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin, Hagler, Robert Duran and Thomas Hearns.

But it was Chavez who almost won by knockout. Chavez sent Martinez spinning down and onto the canvas in the 12th round, immediately conjuring up memories of how his dad, Julio Cesar Legend, beat Meldrick Taylor with two seconds left so long ago.

An encore for the Chavez family didn’t happen, not even on a weekend celebrating Mexican Independence. Chavez blamed himself after losing a unanimous decision. He said he started his stubborn assault too late. Martinez, a proud Argentine, also put himself in harm’s way when he didn’t have to. In the end, however, Martinez wouldn’t let Chavez steal a victory or the middleweight title he had ensured himself on the scorecards. Argue with Chavez’ early rounds. Argue with Martinez’ last round.

But don’t argue with the climactic finish. A record crowd of 19,187 at Thomas & Mack loved it. Mexicans and Argentines, alike, cheered loudly, filling the old basketball arena with chants that echoed down the aisles and through time.

Boxing isn’t back. It never left.

Not long after leaving the MGM Grand, super-middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez scored a fifth-round KO of Josesito Lopez in a bout that was probably more significant for the number of people in the seats than it was for the victory. The undersized Lopez was overmatched. Canelo had been favored by odds as big as 14-1. Yet, a capacity crowd of 14,275 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena showed up. There’s been a nasty debate between Golden Boy Promotions and rival Top Rank about how many tickets were sold and at what price. Yet on a night when Canelo was a laughable favorite in a Golden Boy promotion up against Top Rank’s intriguing Martinez-Chavez Jr. showdown, Canelo filled the seats.

“That underlines just how big an attraction Canelo is,’’ Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said.

It underlines much more than that. Two cards within a couple of miles of each other drew a total of 33,462 fans. That’s no accident.

LAS VEGAS – A motorcycle accident took away Paul Williams’ legs, but not his confidence.

It was there, as evident as ever Friday when he came out of an elevator at the MGM Grand before the weigh-in for the Showtime-televised junior-welterweight fight between Canelo Alvarez and Josesito Lopez Saturday night.

Williams was in a wheelchair. But he made it sound as if that chair was a temporary vehicle until that day when he believes he will recover, perhaps enough to even fight again.

“I feel good,’’ Williams said. “This is a small thing for a giant.’’

Williams is in Las Vegas for a fight that was supposed to include him against Canelo before the accident in Atlanta left him paralyzed. In his brief comments to 15 Rounds and Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times, it wasn’t clear what his condition was.

But his confidence was unmistakable. Williams has faith that he will walk again in a path that might even take him up those steps, through the ropes and into the ring for another opening bell.

“I think I can come back,’’ Williams said. “Give it two or three years. I’ll come back.’’

If Williams had been Canelo’s opponent instead of the undersized Lopez in a Golden Boy-promoted bout, there’s speculation that rival Top Rank would have moved Saturday night’s other fight, Sergio Martinez-versus-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for the middleweight at Thomas & Mack Center, to a different date, possibly Oct. 6.

The consensus is that Williams-Canelo would have been more competitive and marketable than Canelo-Lopez.

Weights from the MGM

About 90 minutes before the Martinez-Chavez weigh-in, Canelo and Lopez stepped on the scales. Canelo looked solid at 154 pounds, the junior-middleweight limit. Lopez looked a little soft at 153, his heaviest ever.

“I’m not as weak as I look,’’ Lopez joked a day before the weigh-in. “I just look skinny.’’

At opening bell, Lopez expects Canelo to be at 170, which would mean about a 10-pound advantage for the favored Mexican, who holds the World Boxing Council’s version of the title.

Notes, Quotes

· Golden Boy announced a sellout Friday for the Canelo-Lopez featured card. Within minutes of the announcement, tickets were still available on Ticketmaster.

· Jose Benavidez Jr., an unbeaten junior-welterweight prospect from Phoenix, has been added to the Top Rank card featuring Nonito Donaire versus Toshiaki Nishioka at Carson, Calif., on Oct. 13. Benavidez is expected to fight Raul Tovar.

LAS VEGAS – News conferences came like a one-two punch Wednesday and Thursday for dueling promotions Saturday night featuring Sergio Martinez-versus-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at Thomas & Mack Center and Canelo Alvarez-Josesito Lopez at the MGM Grand.

It’s been a rhetorical food fight, boxing’s version of Republicans and Democrats after back-to-back conventions. First, it’s Top Rank to the bully pulpit. Then, it’s Golden Boy’s turn. It’s Home Box Office- versus-Showtime. Ego-against-ego. An insult-fest. But should it be?

After widespread criticism for scheduling two major cards on the same night and amid all the ongoing negativity, there’s a chance at some numbers that might put a surprising spin on the business. Attendance at each could provide a powerful counter to an epitaph so often repeated, yet never proven.

If boxing is really dying, then a lot of people – maybe more than 30,000 at two venues within a couple miles of each other – have yet to hear the news.

There’s plenty of debate about box-office numbers promised by Golden Boy for Alvarez-Lopez in a 154-pound bout televised by Showtime. Golden Boy President Oscar De La Hoya said Thursday at the Canelo-Lopez news conference that 13,000 tickets had been sold.

“We are expecting a sellout,’’ De La Hoya said of a weekend celebrating Mexican Independence.

Top Rank doesn’t believe it. On the surprise meter, that ranks somewhere between zero and yawn. If the situation was reversed – and it will be one day, Golden Boy wouldn’t believe it either. Remember, Republicans and Democrats trust each other more than Top Rank and Golden Boy do.

For Martinez-Chavez, Jr., in a HBO pay-per-view bout for the middleweight title, Top Rank already has a sellout, 19,186, a boxing record at Thomas & Mack. Even if a sellout is announced for Alvarez-Lopez, there will be suggestions that Golden Boy gave away tickets to get there.

As of Thursday, it wasn’t clear what number Golden Boy needed for a sellout. Seating capacity at The MGM Grand Garden Arena has been 14,800. But Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said 2,000 seats can be added before Saturday’s opening bell. If there’s time to construct the addition and the seats are filled, the crowd would be announced at 16,800. Add the Thomas & Mack sellout, and the total would be 35,186.

“That would tell you a lot about the sport,’’ Schaefer said.

With apologies to Mark Twain, t would tell you that all those dire warnings of imminent death are greatly exaggerated.

It might also tell you what could happen if Golden Boy and Top Rank made peace and did business together. But that’s another story, if not a miracle. It didn’t sound as if peace were even a remote possibility Thursday. The irony is that the fighters were the diplomats. Canelo and Lopez praised each other. The only real trash talk came from Keith Kizer, the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s executive.

In an apparent reference to the controversy over the judging of Tim Bradley’s decision over Manny Pacquiao in June at the MGM Grand, Kizer seemed to take exception at HBO’s criticism of judges Duane Ford, CJ Ross and Jerry Roth.

“There was another fight here in June, but some of the veterans at ringside that felt badly that night won’t feel so bad this time, because HBO, (Jim) Lampley and (Harold) Lederman won’t be there,’’ Kizer said. “I like the Showtime announcers much better.’’

Kizer’s shot followed one at Showtime from Top Rank’s Bob Arum.

“Half the people who’ve got Showtime don’t know they have it,’’ Arum said.

Shot, counter-shot. The beat goes on.

But if predictions are fulfilled and the numbers add up Saturday night, there won’t be an argument about whether the business still has a heartbeat.

LAS VEGAS – There was a time when the son couldn’t mention his father’s name. It was too painful. Legends don’t die. But dads do.

It was 2010. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. watched substance-abuse wash away the immortality that Mexicans have attached to his famous dad, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

“I kept thinking this guy is going to die,’’ Chavez Jr. said Wednesday to handful of reporters after a formal news conference for his middleweight title fight Saturday night against Sergio Martinez at Thomas & Mack Center. “He’s going to die. I got used to thinking about it.’’

Dad changed his son’s mind, but only after the end so feared by his son ominously appeared one day in Tijuana. Julio Sr. said he didn’t feel well. His son recalls that he sought medical help. His father was sedated and then rushed to rehab.

Twenty-six months later, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. sat Wednesday – clean, sober and proud — near his son just days before the family business continues against Martinez in an HBO pay-per-view bout.

“Right now, our relationship is good,’’ said Chavez Jr., about a 2-to-1 underdog in betting odds posted late Wednesday. “It can withstand the disagreements we have.’’

The relationship has healed so much that the son can now often joke about a dad who doesn’t often like to be the intended target of any sort of mockery. Julio Chavez Sr. has been in gym with his son and trainer Freddie Roach. But Chavez says he listens only to Roach. The son is a smart guy. He knows that old lesson about dads, even Hall of Fame Fathers. They don’t belong in their son’s corners.

“Freddie is the last word,’’ Chavez Jr. said. “Sometimes, my dad will run to my corner and say something. I’ll tell him: ‘Work the corner or get the hell out.’ ‘’

Dad always gets the message, Julio Jr. said.

At least, he does now.

A couple of years ago, he wasn’t certain. His father, he says, would come home early in the morning after a night of drinking.

“He would come home, sometimes at 5 a.m. and sometimes on the day I’d fight, sit down and start talking, while I was trying to sleep’’ he said. “He’d just talk and talk, talk for three and four hours.’’

About what?

“Not sure,’’ Chavez said. “About everything.’’

In the couple of years since his dad underwent rehab, Julio Jr., once dismissed as a lazy rich kid, began to mature as a fighter under Roach’s steady guidance. His training schedule might be quirky. Roach said he often trains in the early morning hours. Workouts can start at 1 a.m. and end 4 a.m. But the work is serious, Roach said.

In part, Julio Jr. appears to have inherited some his dad’s toughness. There’s the durable chin. There are also the body punches. Both made a Hall of Famer out of his stubborn dad.

“That’s why I feel sorry for Sergio Martinez,’’ Bob Arum, Julio Jr.’s promoter, said Wednesday during the news conference. “He’s going to take body shots like he’s never felt before.’’

But there can also be dangers in what a son inherits from his dad. For Julio Jr., it is a lifestyle that put his dad in rehab. A warning sign was there in January when The Ring’s Lem Satterfield reported that Julio Jr. was charged with DUI within a couple of weeks of his victory over Marco Antonio Rubio.

It was a lesson then.

It’s a lesson now, especially for a family business that needs to remember them if it hopes to fight on.

It’s hard to know whether September’s promise is a new dawn or just a familiar set of oncoming headlights in another head-on collision with a demise predicted and heightened by August’s doom and gloom.

No matter how you look at Andre Ward-versus-Chad Dawson Saturday in Oakland, Calif., and a dueling Las Vegas’ twin bill on Sept. 15 featuring Sergio Martinez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at Thomas & Mack Center and Canelo Alvarez-Josesito Lopez at the MGM Grand, however, it is hard not to see potential for a comeback that is a boxing specialty. No business does it better.

Reliable resiliency is there in a shifting alignment that offers a way out of the never-never land of talk and only talk about Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Yeah-yeah, it could still happen. But a generation of lost fans doesn’t care anymore. The good news is that there is always a new one. In part, chances at winning over generation-next rest in what happens with fighters poised to succeed Pacquiao and Mayweather.

For now, the intriguing battle is for No. 2 spot in the pound-for-pound debate. The fading Pacquiao, second on most lists behind Mayweather, is in jeopardy of falling to third or even fourth after evidence of decline in his last two fights, controversial decisions over Juan Manuel Marquez and Timothy Bradley.

“Me, I believe I’m No. 2 at this moment,’’ Martinez said Wednesday in a conference call for his showdown with Chavez Jr. in a HBO pay-per-view bout for the middleweight title.

A better argument might come from Ward, if he remains unbeaten (25-0, 13 KOs) Saturday in a HBO-televised bout against light-heavy champion Dawson (30-1 17 KOs), who agreed to come down in weight for a 168-pound fight in Ward’s hometown. Mayweather stays at No. 1 because of his perfect record (43-0, 26 KOs). Martinez can’t make that claim. Even if he beats Chavez Jr., there are still losses to Antonio Margarito and Paul Williams and two draws on his resume (49-2-2, 28 KOs).

Predictably perhaps, the more circumspect Ward isn’t as bold about his place in the pound-for-pound debate as Martinez, who has become more outspoken in an escalating exchange of trash talk with Chavez Jr.

For the most part, Ward’s attention isn’t easily diverted by anything beyond the challenge immediately in front of him. That means the dangerous Dawson. Everything else is just talk that would take him away from the task at becoming an equal of fighters he admires, including Mayweather and Sugar Ray Leonard.

“They’re masters,’’ Ward said. “I’m trying to be a master.’’

The guess is that Ward will never quit trying. The goal will be there for as long as he is fighting. It’s a motivational piece to a Ward persona that in a couple of years could put him at the top of the pound-for-pound crowd.

Even in the build-up for Dawson, he seemed to look for something that would drive him to knock out slights, imagined or real. Dawson’s camp praises him. But the skeptical Ward deflects it.

“I think they’re giving us some superficial credit because they have to,’’ he said. “…To listen to them tell it, they have every advantage in the book. I think they’ll discover that isn’t the case.’’

Ward’s insightful trainer, Virgil Hunter, had his own spin.

“Our advantage is being at a disadvantage in their eyes,’’ Hunter said.

If there’s a disadvantage during the next nine days, it is expected to be in betting odds against Chavez Jr. and Dawson. But even those are slim. Spring an upset, and one or both will suddenly leap to the front of a line in the fight for spots at the pay window long occupied by Pacquiao and Mayweather.

Bob Arum, Chavez Jr.’s promoter, said an earlier opportunity for big money against Martinez was resisted precisely for the moment that will transpire on Sept. 15.

“We could have taken a chance against Martinez a year ago,’’ Arum said. “If he wins – and we believe he will, he will become an attraction on the level of Pacquiao, Mayweather.’’

Meanwhile, a hint at Mayweather’s immediate future could unfold at the Canelo-Lopez fight at the MGM Grand. Canelo keeps talking about how he wants to fight Mayweather. His representatives at Golden Boy Promotions have advised caution. At least, Golden Boy President Oscar De La Hoya did on May 5 in the wake of Canelo’s victory over Shane Mosley. But an impressive victory over a smaller Lopez on Showtime might sweep aside concern that Canelo is getting ahead of himself.

If Mayweather decides he wants to fight the popular Mexican redhead now instead of later, there’ll be no waiting.

Another future will have arrived.

What’s known about Kazakhstan by a U.S. audience that gets most of its news from late-night comedians probably comes from the film, Borat, a so-called mock-u-mentary. If Gennady Golovkin has his way however, his homeland will be remembered for its boxing more than jokes about potassium and clean prostitutes. It won’t be easy. Perceptions are as durable as a memorable punch line. But maybe — just maybe — Golovkin has a chance. The journey from a Central Asian nation as faraway as a remote planet for geographically-challenged Americans has already been attempted. Vassiliy Jirov did it a decade before Borat landed in American theaters..

Jirov arrived in the U.S., upset Antonio Tarver at the 1996 Olympics, won a gold medal for Kazakhstan, was awarded the Val Barker trophy for being the best boxer at the Atlanta Games, learned English, got an Arizona driver’s license and lost in 2003 to James Toney in one of the best fights during the last decade. Jirov never got a rematch with Toney. He never got a shot at the money that might have been there in a bout with Roy Jones Jr. Big dollars eluded him. So, too, did many of the dollars owed him for fights he won and contracts he signed.

No, the American dream wasn’t there for Jirov, who is the first of what has become a Kazakhstan tradition for great Olympic boxers. But he served as a pathfinder, a guide perhaps for Golovkin (23-0, 20 KOs), who introduces himself to the U.S. Saturday night against Poland’s Grzegorz Proksa (28-1, 21 KOs) in Verona, N.Y., at Turning Stone Casino in a middleweight title fight televised by HBO’s Boxing After Dark.

“They’ve talked,” said trainer Abel Sanchez, who once worked Terry Norris’ corner, yet says Golovkin is the best he has ever trained. “Gennady says Vassiliy just told him to be himself. Every fighter is different. He told Gennady to use his own strengths.”

Jirov, who lives in Phoenix and works as a trainer in the city’s many gyms, said he didn’t try to advise Golovkin on what and what not to do during their first meeting about two years ago.

“My experience is not anybody else’s,” said Jirov, whose Barker Award in 1996 was followed by two more for Kazakhstan with welterweight Bakhtiyar Arkyev in 2004 and Serik Sapiyev, also a welterweight, at the London Games a couple of weeks ago. “My experience was a good one. I’m happy with what happened. I’m happy that Gennady is trying. I like anybody who tries something new. That’s what creates opportunities.

“From talking to him, I really think he has very good chance of being very good as a pro in this country. With his power and skill, his potential in this country is great. He’s smart, very smart.”

He also has at least a couple of advantages that Jirov did not.

One is the weight class.

“A key difference, I think, is that Gennady is a middleweight and Vassiliy fought mostly as a cruiserweight,” Sanchez said.

Jirov was at his best in a lost division. There’s a reason fighters like David Haye are quick to to move up and out. No matter what the passport says, nobody pays much attention to the snoozerweights. For Jirov, that meant an even more difficult task at becoming known in the American market. He was always most comfortable at 190 pounds. A move to heavyweight, a business decision, led to mixed results with a TKO loss to Michael Moorer and a strange fight in 2004 with Joe Mesi, who won a decision, yet suffered a dangerous head injury — reported bleeding on the brain. The Mesi bout cemented Jirov’s fate. He wasn’t known by many fans, yet was feared by every potential rival. On the reward scale, Jirov wasn’t worth the risk.

Golovkin, the World Boxing Association’s 160-pound champion, is employed at a much more marketable weight. He also is working in a world-wired era. Although he lacks the name recognition of the known Americans, Mexicans and at least one Filipino, he fights for the first time in the U.S. with the internet and social media as an introduction. Digital hype has preceded him. Jirov didn’t have that advantage. Of course, Golovkin has to fulfill the promise.

“Gennady understands that the American public wants knockouts,” Sanchez says. “Whichever round it is, they want to see a knockout.”

Intriguing knockout power is evident both in anecdotes from Golovkin’s training camp and his record. Twenty knockouts in 23 victories add up to a hint of power that is hard to resist for even a casual fan. Golovkin is worth a look. But Jirov had plenty of marketable power himself. A missing element in Jirov’s marketing plan was an interim step. Golovkin has taken it. Instead of jumping straight into the American market in the transition from amateur to pro, the 30-year-old silver medalist from the 2004 Olympics first created a European market for himself. He moved to Germany and pounded out an unbeaten record impossible to ignore in any language and on any continent.

Can Golovkin take that next step with an entertaining style that will make him known, feared and worth the risk for familiar names always seeking the biggest reward?

“I really hope so,” said Jirov, who deserves a thank-you if Golovkin completes what he began 16 years ago.

The dog days of August, an unexpected offseason, is full of more idle speculation than medal winners among the American men at the London Olympics. There’s little to celebrate and much to anticipate before it starts all over again next month. A busy September includes one night — the 15th — with two good cards: HBO’s telecast of Sergio Martinez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center and the Showtime telecast of Canelo Alvarez-Josesito Lopez down the street at the MGM Grand. A couple of miles of Vegas neon will separate the two. After a barren August, an embarrassment of riches awaits. Or maybe just embarrassment. Until then, it’s just a guessing game.

A few more guesses:

Manny Pacquiao. Further uncertainty is about the only way to interpret his latest decision. Reports about him moving his next bout from Nov. 10 to Dec. 1 seem to say he doesn’t really know what he wants. Advisor Michael Koncz says the new date is a political necessity. It eliminates a potential interruption of training by allowing Pacquiao time in October to refile his candidacy for re-election to the Filipino Congress, according to Koncz, who was quoted as saying he has to be in the Philippines to file the documents. But Filipino media reports that he does not have to be there. He can mail in the documentation, according to the reports. The contradictions only muddy uncertain waters. Just who does he plan to fight? Reported options are Juan Manuel Marquez, Miguel Cotto and Timothy Bradley. There would be a lot less uncertainty about Pacquiao if he had announced the opponent along with the new date. As it is, there are questions about whether retirement is another option.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. It’s been three weeks since he walked out of a Las Vegas jail after serving about two months for domestic violence. There’s still no word on what his plans are. Pacquiao doesn’t seem to be among them, at least not during the final months in 2012. Keep an eye on Twitter, Mayweather’s favorite way to communicate. Also keep an eye on Canelo-Lopez. It’s not the biggest fight on Sept 15. Martinez-Chavez is. But Golden Boy Promotions has dropped hints that Canelo might be Mayweather’s next opponent if Lopez doesn’t score an encore of his upset of Victor Ortiz.

50 Cent. Keep another eye on the rapper whose birth name, Curtis Jackson, is included on the promotional license that sets him up as a potential rival to Golden Boy and Top Rank. He might have some very different ideas about who Mayweather, his friend and confidante, should fight next.

Juan Manuel Marquez. He plans to write a book. At least three of the chapters figure to be about how he says he got
robbed against Pacquiao, who won two disputed decisions after a draw against the tactically-skilled Mexican. A fourth chapter looks doubtful, if only because the proven risk isn’t worth an iffy reward for Pacquiao

Ricky Hatton. Yeah-yeah, we read the rumors about a Hatton comeback, possibly against Paulie Malignaggi. Can another Oscar De La Hoya rumor be far behind?

Andre Ward and Chad Dawson. It looks like the best of September. Martinez-Chavez Jr. is getting most of the attention, which also means all of the expectations. Those might be very hard to fulfill. Ward-Dawson on Sept. 8 in Oakland, Calif., isn’t surrounded by all of the hype, in part because neither fighter engages in much braggadocio. But the fight, an All-American bout, might introduce a new argument to a pound-for-pound debate grown stale by the unresolved blather about when or whether Pacquiao and Mayweather will fight. Ward-Dawson “sells itself,” Ward told the media Thursday in hometown Oakland. It does.

Gennady Golovkin. Never heard of him? That’s a question Golovkin, an unbeaten middleweight and Olympic silver medalist from Kazakhstan, hopes to quit hearing in the U.S. sometime after he fights for the first time in America on Sept. 1 when he kicks off next month’s schedule on HBO After Dark against Grsegorz Proksa at Turning Stone Resort in Verona, N.Y. “We’ve made it clear we’ll fight anybody in the middleweight division,” Tom Loeffler of K2-Promotions said of Golovkin. In a month that includes middleweight Chavez Jr. and Martinez, Golovkin needs to make his American debut a memorable one.

Devon Alexander and Randall Bailey. Showtime and HBO will stage a preliminary Sept. 8 to their Sept. 15th duel for viewers. That’s when Showtime will televise the Bailey-Alexander welterweight at Las Vegas’ Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on the same night as HBO’s telecast of Ward-Dawson. Alexander-Bailey has the makings of a classic boxer-puncher confrontation. Bailey already is making it fun. Bailey, who says his one-punch KO power makes him the last of a kind, has little patience for Alexander’s speed and boxing skill. “Everybody gets hit with that right hand,” Bailey said during a conference call. “Question is, when you get hit with that right, what are you gonna do?”

In September, at least, we’ll get the chance to find out.

USA Boxing’s search for a national coach might be as futile as winning an Olympic medal. After the American men came home from the London Games without even a bronze and about as much respect, the proposed job hunt looks like mission impossible. Then again, it can’t get any worse. If the sell-high-and-buy-low strategy applies, there might be an opportunity lurking in the mess.

Anybody who dares take the job, however, faces a big challenge in trying to convince young Americans that Olympic boxing is even worth it anymore. For the last couple of decades, the best have been moving away in an exodus that kept the American men off the medal stand for the first time ever. The 15-year-old who watched the 2012 debacle could not have seen a reason to try in 2016.

Only a competent cornerman with the right name has a chance at rebuilding an American franchise. By the right name, we’re talking about a resume that includes professional champions, some celebrity and credibility that comes with being a teacher. If Olympic boxing trashes computer scoring for pro-style cards and the international ruling body (AIBA) doesn’t become another pro acronym, there’s much to gain for somebody willing to assume the risk.

Three nominations:
Freddie Roach. Can we try this again? Please. Roach was never given much of a chance at helping the 2012 team as a consultant because of American coaches jealous of their turf. Then, there was turmoil that led to a staff shuffle just months before opening ceremonies. Roach’s busy schedule with Manny Pacquiao and Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., looms as a problem. But give him the funds to hire a staff this year, and he could have time to develop medalists four years from now. As the best trainer of his generation, he’s known to emerging prospects who hope to forge pro careers. Roach’s name recognition and clout could go a long way in re-establishing an Olympic medal as a steppingstone to the pros. After all the confusion over his role with the 2012 team, Roach also knows what’s wrong. Only a real boxing guy can fix it.

Emanuel Steward. Steward was the American choice to coach the 2004 team at the Athens Games until politics knocked him out of the job. Turns out, it was a sign of what would happen eight years later in London. Steward wanted the 2004 Americans to re-emphasize KO power. HIs old-school idea was to take the judging out of the equation. Given the bizarre decisions made by key-punch operators posing as judges at every Olympics since 1992, what could make more sense? Even if computer scoring is trashed in favor of a 10-point-must system, decisive power is the answer. Power also retains the element demanded by young Americans, who want to learn how to deliver it as they prepare to go pro. Like Roach, Steward has a busy schedule, including ringside analysis for Home Box Office and corner work with Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko and Irishman Andy Lee. He has become something of an ambassador for boxing. Steward in the job would mean the Americans are serious, which they were not in London. Subjective judges, whether punching a computer pad or writing on a scorecard, notice those kind of things

Teddy Atlas. He’s a lot less diplomatic in his talk and opinions than either Roach or Steward. But maybe that hard-nosed approach is what’s needed. Atlas’ uncompromising commentary for NBC in London left no doubt about what he thinks of USA Boxing, AIBA and international judging. All of those bureaucrats and officials heard it the way Michael Moorer heard it from Atlas, then Moorer’s trainer, during a 1994 loss to George Foreman for a heavyweight title. Atlas couldn’t stand what he was witnessing.

It’s time to hire somebody who won’t stand for what happened to American boxers in London.

Notes, Quotes
Timothy Bradley chose the wrong word, but had the right idea when he told The Desert Sun that “a lot of people on that side are scared” about Pacquiao fighting him on Nov. 10 at Las Vegas MGM Grand in what would be an immediate rematch of his controversial victory by split decision on June 9. A better word than scared? How about worried? Juan Manuel Marquez and Miguel Cotto are Pacquiao’s other options. Pacquiao’s corner should be worried about any of the three. Unless there’s a reversal in the evident erosion of hand speed, Pacquiao is vulnerable.

And Chavez Jr. weighed 176 pounds 30 days before his middleweight showdown against Sergio Martinez on Sept. 15 at Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center, according to news reports from Chavez’ training camp. Reaction: What do you want to bet that Chavez is 180-plus at opening bell, 24 hours after the formal weigh-in?

It’s hard not to think about Jose Benavidez Jr. while watching the sad and inevitable demise of American boxing at the London Olympics. In another time, Benavidez would have been there. But today that time looks lost in the collapse of an American tradition. For nearly a century, the American men dominated the medal count. In London, they couldn’t count one. They were shut out for the first time ever.

Some of the best Americans just don’t go anymore. Pick the reason: Disarray in USA Boxing or computer-based scoring system, or coaching, or 24 years of controversy since Roy Jones Jr. and Michael Carbajal were robbed of gold at the infamous 1988 Games, or all of the above.

“It’s just not the way it used to be anymore,’’ said Benavidez, 20, an unbeaten junior-welterweight prospect from Phoenix who was projected to be a star for the 2012 U.S. team before he signed with Top Rank as a 17-year-old. “A lot of guys just go pro. That gold medal isn’t worth what it used to be.’’

The computer-scoring, Benavidez says, is the biggest reason he went pro.

“I decided I didn’t want to continue boxing as an amateur because of that system,’’ said Benavidez (16-0, 13 KOs), who on Nov. 4 fought in Las Vegas instead of London, winning a fourth-round stoppage over Javier Loya. “It’s just throw- throw-throw, throw as many punches as fast as you can. But sometimes, you might land two shots and they won’t score them. It was just frustrating, real hard to understand.

“All along, I’d been taught to fight like a pro. I like to take more time, set up my shots. It just made more sense to go straight to the pros when Top Rank made me that offer. I don’t have any regrets. None at all.’’

Benavidez knows all about the long run of Olympic controversy, which continued in London with a referee who was expelled from the Games after he failed to rule a single knockdown in a round when the same fighter was on the canvas six times. But the controversies are older than he is. Benavidez wasn’t even born when Jones and Carabjal, also of Phoenix, lost at the Seoul Games in controversial scoring by judges who were linked to suspected bribes in the subsequent disclosure of old East German secret police files.

Still, the uninterrupted controversies have devalued the gold medal once so important in launching a pro career. For the best American amateurs, it also has created a culture in which the Olympics are no longer a priority.

Before the 2004 Olympics, I recall an interview with Rafael Valenzuela, then a terrific amateur with the kind of hand speed that might have been able to score with keypad punchers posing as judges. Valenzuela, a Phoenix featherweight, represented the U.S. in the 2003 World Championships in Thailand. In the ready room before a preliminary bout, Valenzuela said a Cuban looked at him and told him:

“You’re an American. Why did you Americans even come here? You’re going to get screwed.’’

Valenzuela came home and quickly went pro.

USA Boxing has a lot of work to do and perhaps a few good ideas about how to rebuild its Olympic fortunes. One plan includes a permanent national coach, instead of the patchwork collection of coaches. The revolving door continued to cripple American chances in London with the April dismissal of Joe Zanders and the late hiring of his replacement, 2004 coach Basheer Abdullah, who wasn’t allowed to work any American corner in London reportedly because he worked with a pro.

Lost in the shuffle was Freddie Roach, the Hall of Fame trainer who amid much fanfare had offered to work as a consultant, yet ultimately was rebuffed. Roach worked with a few of the Americans. Yet, Roach never made it to London.

No wonder the Americans looked confused. From day-to-day and perhaps from round-to-round, they didn’t know who would be in their corner. A permanent national coach might be a good step. But that coach will have to change a culture in which an Olympic medal has mattered less and less. After London, it doesn’t matter at all.

QUOTES, ANECDOTES

· There’s been a lot of talk about sending pros in a bid to re-assert American dominance in the same way USA basketball did in 1992 with the Dream Team. Even a roster including America’s best pros, however, might have had a tough time in London. “Most of our pros would lose, because they don’t understand that scoring system,’’ Roach said. Muhammad Ali, now an Olympic icon and a light-heavyweight gold medalist in 1960, might have had a tough time winning if the computer had been at ringside for the Rome Games.

· In terms of media perception, America’s failure to medal is devastating. But mainstream media in the U.S. doesn’t care about boxing anyway. No American medal figures to have no impact on the pro game. Here’s why: Mexico didn’t win a medal either. Medal hopeful Oscar Valdez, a bantamweight from Nogales on the other side of the border from Arizona, was eliminated, 19-13, by Ireland’s John Joe Nevin. Mexico is the world’s best boxing country. Without Mexican fighters and fans, the pro game wouldn’t be the same. For boxing’s most important audience, the medal count doesn’t count.

Photo by Stephanie Trapp

We were hoping for a rebirth. Instead, we got another robbery.

On a day when I had hoped to write that three-time heavyweight gold medalist Teofilo Stevenson was a greater Olympian than swimmer Michael Phelps, boxing continued to trash its own legends and any chance at credibility with a referee and judges who didn’t even bother to wear ski masks in the attempted heist Wednesday of Japan’s Satoshi Shimizu at the London Games.

No reason to hide. The undisguised spree has gone on, without interruption and without an apology, since 1988. That’s when judges in Seoul robbed Roy Jones Jr. of a gold medal that went to South Korea’s Park Si Hun. The theft was subsequently proven when the judges’ fingerprints were found throughout files kept by East Germany’s old secret police.

Yet, the Seoul scandal was allowed to stand. Jones never got the medal he rightfully won and Olympic boxing never got the message that it was time to clean up its act. Instead of gold, the International Olympic Committee gave Jones a conciliatory trinket. The IOC awarded him something called an Olympic Order, which didn’t include an order for the judges to pose for mug shots.

It was outrageous 24 years ago, yet as current as Twitter Wednesday while watching Shimizu knock down Magomed Abdulhamidov of Azerbaijan six times in the third round. Somehow, referee Ishanguly Meretnyyazov of Turkmenistan missed all six. It was as if Meretnyyazov thought that Abdulhamidov had slipped on a wet London sidewalk. The bout should have ended there, a stoppage as clear cut as any.

But no, oh-no.

Not only did Meretnyyazov fail. The scorecards, compiled by computer operators posing as judges, did too. Abdulhamidov won a 20-17 decision. The Japanese protested. The decision was reversed. Meretnyyazov was banned from working the rest of the 2012 Games. Boxing’s ruling cartel, AIBA, fired an international technical official.

Yet, no action was reported against the judges. For all we know, they are still there for the next round of outrage between now and the gold-medal bouts on August 11 and 12. With some of the usual suspects still in place, a BBC story about money for medals has re-emerged. In September, the BBC reported that Azerbaijan, host for the World Championships last fall, loaned AIBA $10 million. The payback was reported to be two gold medals for Azerbaijan.

There was an investigation, conducted by AIBA. Surprise, surprise, the cartel dismissed the BBC report. At this point, it’s hard to know where the IOC is in all of this. Then again, it’s hard to know where the acronym was more than two decades ago in the aftermath of a Seoul scandal that still makes Olympic boxing look as if the ring is surrounded by yellow crime tape instead of those traditional ropes. If history is a guide, the IOC is MIA.

There’s an argument that it’s time to just drop boxing from the Olympic program. On the politically-incorrect scale, however, the 2012 introduction of the women makes elimination unlikely. Major endorsement money and media attention for American Marlen Esparza might make it impossible.

The real problem might come from the boxers themselves. The London controversy is fueled by suspicions that the referee and judges acted together in an attempt to fulfill a reported loan that, if accurate, will surely mean that good boxers, like fans, will stay away. In an interview with Jones for the August issue of The Ring, I asked him if he would have fought in the Olympics today.

“If I saw what I went through, I’d say: ‘Hell no, I won’t go,’ ’’ the former pound-for-pound champ said. “No way. You invest too much of your time and yourself to take that chance. I mean not only can they cheat you. They’ll stick to it if they do.’’

Before long, they might have only themselves to stick it to.