TUCSON – There was no comeback from Antonio Margarito. That will have to wait. But there was a split decision, a couple of split lips, controversy and a tentative comeback from a leading prospect whose fight with fragile hands continues.

Margarito could only watch Saturday night, first from a seat and then from a corner behind trainer Roberto Garcia at Casino Del Sol’s outdoor arena where the former welterweight champion is expected to fight on July 20 in his first bout since his dramatic loss to Miguel Cotto in December.

Margarito, who had been scheduled to fight Abel Perry Saturday night, was there for his brother-in-law, Hanzel Martinez (18-0, 15 KOs), who won a minor World Boxing Council bantamweight title when Felipe Rivas (13-10-1, 7 KOs) suddenly quit before the seventh.

Rivas, who agreed to the fight only two days before opening bell, scored a third-round knockdown and was leading on the scorecards when he abruptly checked out. Rivas said he decided he couldn’t continue because of the difference in weight.

“The pounds were just too much,’’ Rivas, a Mexican, said through an interpreter.

Rivas weighed in on Friday at 116.2 pounds. Martinez’ official weight was 118.

Rivas, whose compact punches left Martinez bleeding from the nose and lip, said he knew he was winning.

“But it wasn’t worth for me to continue in a fight like this,’’ said Rivas, who is from the border town of Nogales, about 60 miles south of Tucson.

Martinez’ corner believed that Rivas, penalized a point in the third for spitting his bloodied mouthpiece at Martinez, just ducked the inevitable. Martinez, who appeared to get stronger in the sixth, would have scored a knockout within the next two rounds, said Garcia and Sergio Diaz of ShowDown Promotions.

The in-laws, it turns out, fight the same way. Both Margarito and Martinez are notorious slow starters.

Diaz said he hopes to have Martinez back at Casino Del Sol on a card scheduled for July 20, when Margarito’s comeback has been re-scheduled for a second time. It was postponed the first time, from May 26 to July 7, because of a strain to an Achilles tendon suffered while training in Tijuana about a week after the fight with Perry was formally announced. It was re-scheduled again, this time to July 20, to accommodate TV Azteca, which has other bouts scheduled for July 7.

“Tony’s been running and is in good shape,’’ said Diaz, who said Perry is still Margarito’s opponent.

However, It’s not clear who will train Margarito, who was in Martinez’ dressing room and not immediately available for comment. Garcia was in Margarito’s corner for losses to Cotto and Manny Pacquiao. Some have urged Margarito to retire because of damage suffered to his right eye, which was surgically-repaired after the orbital bone was fractured by Pacquiao. Margarito said in March that he hopes for a shot at fellow Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in September.

“He’s still working out in Tijuana,’’ Garcia said. “This is not just about me. He has lot of thinking to do.’’

In a main event put together after Margarito’s injury in early May, Mexican super-welterweight Jesus Soto Karass (25-7-3, 16 KOs) battled to a split decision over Said El Harrack (1-2-1, 4 KOs) of Henderson, Nev.

“It was tough fight,’’ said Soto Karass, who rocked El Harrack, a Moroccan, with uppercuts to the stomach. “That guy is a good fighter. My body assault won it for me.’’

Before Soto Karrass-El Harrack and the Martinez-Rivas controversy, Phoenix prospect Jose Benavidez Jr.’s tested his right wrist for the first time since undergoing surgery for a misplaced bone in January. Benavidez (15-0, 12 KOs) was cautious early, throwing only three right hands in the first round en route to a unanimous decision over Josh Sosa (10-3, 5 KOs). Benavidez relied on a powerful jab, head to body and body to head, throughout most of the next five rounds, until rocking Sosa with rights in the bout’s final moments.

There was no further pain in the right hand or wrist, Benavidez said. However, there was swelling and bruising on the middle knuckle of the left. Benavidez has had problems with both hands. The 20-year-old junior-welterweight will have a physician look at the left hand sometime within the next week, his dad-and-trainer, Jose Benavidez Sr. said.

Best of the undercard

Super-lightweight Abel Ramos (4-0, 3 KOs) of Arizona City displayed a prospect’s power with a second-round stoppage of Cassius Clay (0-4,), a Las Vegas fighter who has the legend’s original name and a photo of himself as an infant in the arms of the heavyweight champ better known as Muhammad Ali.

In the first, Ramos threw an overhand right that lifted Clay up and dropped him on to the canvas as though he had fallen off a one-meter diving board. At 1:54 of the second, Ramos threw another right. Clay spit out his mouthpiece in a gesture that needed no interpretation. He was finished.

The rest
· Lightweight Javier Garcia (8-2-1, 7 KOs), of trainer Robert Garcia’s gym in Oxnard, Calif., scored four knockdowns, forcing Juan Jaramillo (8-11-2, 3 KOs) of Salem, Ore., to quit after the fifth round.

· Lightweight Eric Flores (3-1-1, 1 KO) of Los Angeles scored a unanimous decision over Rudolfo Gamez (1-2) of Tucson.

· Lightweight Andrey Klimov (14-0, 7 KOs) stayed unbeaten with a unanimous decision over Alejandro Rodriguez (13-6, 6 KOs) of Mexico.

· Phoenix super-middleweight Andrew Hernandez (4-0-1 scored a unanimous decision over Katrell Strauss (2-2, 1 KO) of Denver.

Photo by Phil Soto / Top Rank

Jose Benavidez Jr.’s apprenticeship will move on to another stage, from patient prospect to potential contender, if he can get through a test Saturday at Tucson’s Casino del Sol that is critical and perhaps necessary in the development of the 20-year-old junior-welterweight.

Benavidez (14-0, 12 KOs) is coming off surgery for a troublesome right wrist that forced him out of a couple of fights and gave him a hint at what he can expect. The Phoenix fighter has yet to encounter much adversity from the opposite corner, although that surely awaits him if he fulfills all that has been forecast. But surgery creates its own adversity. It leaves a scar and sometimes questions.

Questions might be there are at opening bell at Casino del Sol’s outdoor area on TV Azteca against Joshua Sosa (10-2, 5 KOs) of Leavenworth, Kan., on an eight-fight card (6 p.m. first bell) featuring junior-middleweight Jesus Soto Karass (24-7, 16 KOs) of Mexico against Said El Harrack (10-1-1, 5 KOs) of Henderson, Nev. Benavidez father and trainer, Jose Benavidez Sr., is confident his son will answer in a fashion that will leave only the scar.

The wrist, he says, has withstood long hours of pounding mitts, speed bags, heavy bags and sparring partners at trainer Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Calif., and Central Boxing in Phoenix.

There were some predictably tentative moments in the early going. The senior Benavidez could see it. His son would wince.

But five days before Benavidez’s first fight since a victory in November on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao’s controversial decision over Juan Manuel Marquez, that wince was gone, replaced by confidence.

“We were working the mitts,’’ Jose Sr. “The first time he hits the mitts with the right hand, I looked up into his face. There was no expression. He just kept on working. Then, he sparred eight, nine rounds. He’s ready to go. Everything is good.’’

Jose Benavidez Sr. works to balance the various, sometimes conflicting tasks that go into being a dad and his son’s trainer. It’s not easy. Many fail to separate emotions from business. But there have been dads and sons who have managed, including retired welterweight and middleweight champion Felix Trinidad and his father, Felix Trinidad Sr. The senior Benavidez has tried to learn by quietly watching others.

His son turned 20 on May 15. That’s the good news. Somebody who was 19 just a month ago has a short memory for surgery that happened in January. Concern is for old guys. That’s his dad, CEO of the family business.

Jose Benavidez Sr. looks at the rest of 2012 and sees a year in which his son is going to have to further prove himself to Top Rank, which signed him as a 17-year-old.

“I’m sure there are some doubts in a lot people’s minds,’’ said Jose Sr., who hopes a first or second-round stoppage without further trouble to the right wrist will put his son into a bout on the June 9 undercard of Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. “That’s just the way the business is. Over the next year, the level of competition will be stepped up. He’s ready for that. But we have to show improvement.

“Right now, it’s about how you win.’’

Bute might have to steal one in Nottingham
Lucian Bute might have to be a modern-day Robin Hood to steal a victory Saturday in Nottingham, England, from Carl Froch in an EPIX-televised super-middleweight bout.

Bute has the title — the International Boxing Federation’s version, but few advantages in going to Froch’s hometown. Bute, a Romanian living in Canada, tried to duplicate the expected atmosphere by even training while listening to a tape of crowd noise that included the voice of Froch’s wife.

Meanwhile Froch, who lost to Andre Ward in his last bout, has been predictably forthright and confident. Bute, he says, is out of his league.

“We’re going to find out if he’s good enough to fight at the next level,’’ Froch (28-2, 20 KOs) said in a shot at Bute’s unbeaten record (30-0, 24 KOs) during an international conference call. “Lucian Bute, on paper, is overrated.’’

Notes, Quotes
· During a conference call with Pacquiao, Top Rank’s Bob Arum said he doesn’t believe that Lamont Peterson and Andre Berto are drug cheats. Both have tested positive. Arum asked for further research before a rush to judgment. “Unless everybody sits down and works through this, we’ll have chaos,’’ he said.

· And Antonio Tarver started slowly and picked up steam in an angry rant directed at Lateef Kayode during a conference call for their Showtime-televised cruiserweight bout on June 2 in Carson, Calif. Apparently, Kayode is upset that Tarver criticized him while working as a TV analyst. “”He told me what’s he’s going to do me when he sees me in the street,’’ said Tarver, who promises to break down Kayode. “This man has threatened me.’’

Boxing and politics are impossible to separate. Proof rests in Muhammad Ali’s opposition to the Viet Nam war. But the ring and political office are an impossible mix. The furor surrounding Manny Pacquiao’s opposition to same-sex marriage in a misleading, examiner.com story is just another example of why the Filipino Congressman would have been better off if he had postponed his political career.

From this corner, it’s a mystery as to why Pacquiao would even comment about the issue. I’m a lot more interested in how he plans to deal with Tim Bradley’s head-butts on June 9. I also suspect the controversy will quickly subside, a forgotten tempest. An athlete’s opinion about anything outside of the arena is a little bit like going to the window at a Vegas book in March with wagers based on President Barack Obama’s NCAA bracket.

It’s foolish.

Pacquiao’s seat in Congress has always seemed to be something of a sideshow. It’s an intriguing element, just one among many in the make-up of a compelling story. Put it this way: Pacquiao is not going to be judged on what legislation he proposes, but only for whom he beats and how he beats them. If he loses to Bradley, he loses more votes than he would with an opinion about gay marriage.

The trouble with his political office is that he has become fair game, an easy target, for unseen shots he can’t counter when all of his time and energy are needed in the challenge posed by the dangerous Bradley. Politicians without enemies are ex-politicians.

From an issue with Filipino authorities to a controversy with customs about goods imported by his charitable foundation, Pacquiao’s office and his aspirations beyond Congress have created a complicated landscape full of fronts that will confront him all at once at a time when only one fight really matters.

From the Twitter front
Is anybody taking Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s latest tweet seriously? Mayweather tells his 2.8 million followers: “I stand behind President Obama & support gay marriage. I’m an American citizen & I believe people should live their life the way they want.’’

I guess that means few remember Mayweather’s internet video about Pacquiao a couple of years ago. Mayweather repeatedly used a homophobic slur to describe Pacquiao.

Dates, Quotes, Anecdotes
· Happy Birthday, Sugar Ray Leonard. He turned 56 Thursday.

· With a Chad Dawson-Andre Ward fight possible in September, Lucian Bute was asked for his pick Thursday in a conference call that included Carl Froch in the build-up for their EPIX-televised fight on May 26 in Nottingham, England. “A very good fight,’’ said Bute, who agreed to face Froch when Ward said no. “Probably 50-50. I would give a little edge to Dawson right now.’’ Leonard will work as an EPIX analyst for Bute-Froch.

· And Froch, on Bute’s contention that a succession of punches can crack his durable chin. “The best chin in the business is the one that doesn’t get hit.’’

AZ Notes
· Happy Birthday, Jose Benavidez, Jr. The Phoenix junior-welterweight prospect turned 20 Tuesday while training for May 26 at Tucson’s Casino del Sol in his first bout since surgery on his right wrist for an injury suffered in a November victory on the Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez undercard. “He looks good, looks strong,’’ said his dad and trainer, Jose Benavidez Sr., who said his son knocked out a sparring partner last week with a left hook.

· Tijuana super-flyweight Hanzel Martinez, Antonio Margarito’s brother-in-law, will get a shot at a minor title, the North American Boxing Federation’s version, on the May 26 card. Margarito had been scheduled for the main event, but his first fight since a December loss was postponed until July because of foot injury suffered a few days after it was formally announced.

Lamont Peterson’s camp must not have been reading websites, Twitter or Facebook when ESPN reported just two days after Peterson’s upset on Dec. 10 of Amir Khan that Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun had tested positive.

Either that or Peterson’s management was partying on a planet where there is no social media. Braun’s positive test was for elevated levels of testosterone. A second test showed that the testosterone was synthetic, meaning that Braun, the National League’s 2011 MVP, had either injected it or ingested it.

Braun’s positive test was a cautionary tale in what not to do. Peterson went ahead and did it anyway, setting off a fast-moving chain of events that led to the cancellation Wednesday of a May 19 rematch with Khan at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay. Peterson’s test samples also revealed a testosterone that had been injected as pellets into the junior-welterweight’s hip.

Expect lots of legalese in the argument about whether the testosterone in the Peterson sample was synthetic. His Las Vegas physician, Dr. John Thompson, said it was soy-based, calling it “bioidentical testosterone’’ administered after Peterson complained about fatigue brought on by what Thompson said were low levels of the natural stuff.

Even if those pellets were veggie burgers, they had to be injected in a procedure not reported to VADA, the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association, which conducted the tests in an agreement with both camps. If there was in fact a legitimate medical reason for the testosterone treatment, VADA should have known about it. That it didn’t before a positive test on March 19 raises a red flag.

Peterson, a nice guy with a compelling story, said he was told that soy-based testosterone was not on the banned list. He said he researched on-line and decided it was natural. He said there no reason to worry. If not, why not report it on a VADA form that asked each fighter to disclose medications? Sorry, but to call its absence on the document an inadvertent slip just doesn’t explain it. Even his own camp says the treatment started about a month before his controversial decision over Khan in Washington D.C.

Questions raised by Braun’s positive test should have alerted Peterson to the peril of continuing it without disclosing it. Unlike Braun, the unfortunate Peterson doesn’t have a Player’s Union or an appeal process that can protect him and his livelihood. Braun’s 50-game suspension was overturned in February on an appeal that disputed only the process in which the sample was delivered and not the result itself.

Braun got off on a technicality.

Peterson didn’t.

He already has lost a payday in a cancellation also costly to Khan and Golden Boy Promotions. He’ll lose a few more if he can’t explain to various state commissions why he wasn’t more transparent about his use of a substance long controversial in other sports but just becoming an issue addressed by boxing.

In some ways, Peterson has become the personification what boxing must do: Pay attention, or else there will be cancellations in a business that can’t afford them.

AZ Notes
Phoenix junior-welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez Jr. (14-0, 12 KOs) is expected to test his surgically-repaired right wrist on May 26 at Casino Del Sol in Tucson against Josh Sosa (10-2, 5 KOs), a Leavenworth, Kan., fighter who has lost has last two. The fight will be Benavidez’s first since injuring the wrist during a victory in November on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao’s controversial decision over Juan Manuel Marquez.

Benavidez is scheduled for an undercard that will feature Mexican welterweight Jesus Soto Karass (24-7-3, 16 KOs) against Said El Harrack (10-1-1, 5 KOs) of Henderson, Nev. Karass-El Harrack replaces the Antonio Margarito-Abel Perry bout, which was moved to July 7, also at Casino Del Sol, because of an Achilles tendon injury suffered by Margarito last week while training in Tijuana for his first bout since a loss in December to Miguel Cotto.

LAS VEGAS — There were a lot of surprise, but only one upset.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. did the expected Saturday night at the MGM Grand and beat Miguel Cotto with a decision that was as bruising as it was unanimous. Then, there was the upset.

Mayweather did an interview with HBO’s Larry Merchant after saying he wouldn’t after the two engaged in a war of words following his controversial stoppage in a September stoppage of Victor Ortiz. Merchant said Mayweather apologized Friday for the rhetorical brawl.

The bet was that an apology from Mayweather would happen before immortality and an end to taxes. The way things are changing, anything looks possible, maybe even a Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight. More on that later.

Nevertheless, there have been hints for at a least week that Mayweather is a changed man even before he has to report on June 1 for an 87-day jail sentence for domestic abuse. At news conferences and other public appearances, he had begun to behave more like a diplomat and less like an ill-mannered rapper.

In Cotto, he said, he expected a tough fight.

“He came to fight,’’ said Mayweather (43-0, 26 KOs), who collected a minimum of $32 million, a record guarantee. “He didn’t come for survival.’’

No, he didn’t. Cotto came for a significant upset. He didn’t get it. On the scorecards, his loss was one-sided. Judges Patricia Morse Jarman and Dave Moretti scored 117-111 each for Mayweather. The third judge, Robert Hoyle, had it 118-110. Cotto (37-3, 30 KOs) left the ring without speaking to the media, which might be a sign of his frustration at the scoring.

But there are no points for determination and the guts to sustain an attack throughout 12 rounds. A key element to Cotto’s tactical plan took shape early. Mayweather often uses distance like a puppeteer uses strings. From about the length of a jab, he pushes, pulls, leads, twists and, in the end, turns ordinary opposition inside-out. But Cotto refused to let him maintain the distance so fundamental to his reign.

In the second, it was evident Cotto would not follow Mayweather’s calculated lead. Cotto shoved him up and against the ropes as if to say that Mayweather should have picked a different dance partner. Cotto returned to the blueprint again and again throughout the next 10 rounds, driving Mayweather into the ropes with a bruising jab and a physical attack that bloodied Mayweather’s nose.

The blood was a surprise. If anybody was going to bleed, the guess was that it would be Cotto, whose eyes are surrounded by scar tissue from old wounds. This time, however, the unmarked Mayweather was the only one to bleed and sight of that blood elicited cheers from that part of the crowd that lusts for him to lose.

He didn’t, because in the ring, at least, he never changes. He is never without resources or an infinite ability to adjust. He scored by getting Cotto out in the center of the ring and landing shots, some unlikely. In the fourth, he rocked Cotto with a right that circled around his upraised hands. The punch found its mark, almost like a curve ball. Even when pushed up against the ropes, he rolled his shoulder and managed to deflect many of Cotto’s blows.

What’s next? For now, there’s only June 1 and time in Nevada’s Clark County Jail.

“That comes with the territory,’’ Mayweather said. “Things of life. You are faced with certain obstacles. You take the good with the good and the bad with the bad. …When June 1 comes, I’m going to accept it, like a true man would do.’’

And after his release?

“I don’t know,’’ said Mayweather, who went on to rip Pacquaio’s promoter, Bob Arum. “I was looking to fight Manny Pacquiao. I didn’t think that fight would happen because of Bob Arum. Bob Arum stopped the Manny Pacquiao fight. Let’s give the fans what they want to see. Let’s get that fight together.’’

Otherwise, Mayweather might have to apologize again. Once is enough.

It was the end of a beginning for a 21-year-old Mexican who might finally begin to be known for something more than his red hair.

“This is the beginning of my career,’’ Saul “Canelo” Alvarez said. “Thank you, Shane Mosley, for giving me this experience.’’

Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 KOs) might also have said thanks to Mosley (46-8-1, 39 KOs) for letting him add a legendary name to his unbeaten resume. He could also have said good-bye and good-luck to Mosley.

Mosley never had a chance. He was pounded to the body, pounded to the head, pounded from pillar-to-post in losing a unanimous decision to Alvarez, still the World Boxing Council’s junior-middleweight champion and more ambitious than ever to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Miguel Cotto or Manny Pacquiao.

A sign, perhaps, that Canelo is growing up and beyond his Howdy Doody days happened at the moment when he encountered the only potential adversity in an otherwise one-sided fight.

Blood, Canelo red, poured from a cut above Alvarez left eye after a head butt in the second. But it didn’t seem to bother Alvarez, who is said to have never suffered a cut before the inadvertent collision with Mosley.

If it really was Alvarez’ first wound, the 21-year-old Mexican responded as if he had always known how it would feel. How it would color his vision. How it would taste. It was a moment when he looked as if he had been born for the blood sport.

“He can go a long ways,’’ said Mosley, who collected $650,000 on a night when Alvarez earned $2 million.

The totality of Alvarez’ victory, however, might be hard to judge in terms of how he will do against younger, more dangerous opponents. The 40-year-old Mosley did nothing to dispel mounting evidence that he’s more shot than Sugar. He endured 12 rounds. He would not quit Saturday night. After sustained punishment that has left his face puffy and some say his speech slurred, however, it looks as it is time to quit the long, legendary career that will one day land him in the Hall of Fame.

“It can look that way,’’ said Mosley, who in the immediate aftermath of the loss didn’t say he would retire.

Mosley had no defense for the heavy hands that ricocheted off his midsection, rocked his head and echoed with an almost sickening thud throughout the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

“Maybe, he’ll be one of the next kings of the ring,’’ Mosley said.

Maybe.

Las Vegas welterweight Jessie Vargas (19-0, 9 KOs, a Floyd Mayweather Jr.-promoted fighter, is still unbeaten, but there wasn’t anything unanimous about his performance after a unanimous decision over shop-worn Steve Forbes (35-11, 11 KOs), also of Las Vegas.

There were scattered boos from a crowd gathering for the Mayweather Jr.-Miguel Cotto fight for the dull 10 rounder. Vargas won at least eight of the rounds, but wasn’t dominant in any of them over Forbes, who has lost six of his last eight fights.

With Miguel Cotto watching from a ringside seat, super-welterweight Carlos Quintana (29-3, 23 KOs) scored a sixth-round knockout of DeAndre Lattimore (23-4, 17 KOs) of Las Vegas in the first bout on the pay-per-view part of the card.

Cotto must have liked what he saw from Quintana, a fellow Puerto Rican, in a victory that might have been a good sign for his chances at an upset of Floyd Mayweather in the main event. Quintana swarmed Lattimore with a barrage of punches — head to body, body to head.

Midway through the sixth, Quintana stunned Lattimore in a neutral corner. A dazed Lattimore slid along the ropes. Quintana pursued, hitting Lattimore with a succession of left hands that finally dropped him near his own corner at 2:19 of the round.

“A great day for Puerto Rico,’’ Quintana said of a night that he hoped would end in a Cotto encore.

Puerto Rican featherweight Braulio Santos (6-0, 5 KO) employed explosive quickness for a unanimous decision over Juan Sandoval (5-9-1, 3 KOs) of San Bernardino, CA, in the last fight before the pay-per-view telecast.

Santos’ array of punches came at a blinding rate, especially in the fourth when Sandoval was knocked into the ropes by combo capped by a stinging left.

Lightweight Omar Figueroa (16-0-1, 13 KOS) of Weslaco, TX, could have been swinging a bat at a ball poised on a tee with a wide left hook that lifted Robbie Cannon (12-7-2, 6 KOs) of Pevely, MO, up and almost out of the ring.

Somehow, Cannon got up, but only to see that referee Vic Drakulich had ended it, declaring Figueroa a TKO winner at 2:08 of the second round.

Welterweight Keith Thurman (17-0, 16 KOs) of Clearwater, FL, turned the card’s second fight into a display of the reasons why Golden Boy Promotions signed him.

Thurman’s foot speed, power and quick jab overwhelmed Brandon Koskins (16-1-1, 8 KOs) of Hannibal, MO. Referee Russell Mora stopped it at 25 seconds of the third with a defenseless Koskins hanging on the ropes after a head-rocking right hand from Thurman.

Antonio Orozco and Dillet Frederick fought in front of referee Kenny Bayless, three judges, cornermen, a few ushers and nobody else in the first fight on a card Saturday that would end hours later with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Miguel Cotto in the main event at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

The arena was filled only with echoes, mostly from body punches landed by Orozco (14-0, 10 KOs), a San Diego welterweight who won a third-round TKO over Frederick (8-6-3, 5 KOs) of Fort Myers, Fla.

LAS VEGAS – Floyd Mayweather Jr. generated cheers, boos and even a reaction from the stoic Miguel Cotto after a stare down Friday that lasted longer than anybody can remember in a ritual that has followed weigh-ins for as long as there has been an opening bell. For 70 seconds, they looked into each other’s eyes, maybe looking for a weakness or maybe looking for another clue to the outcome of Saturday night’s junior-middleweight fight at the MGM Grand.

Those dangerous eyes stayed locked, without a single blink, like lasers onto a target in a break from expectation and perhaps a sign that the Mayweather-Cotto fight will end in a surprise.

The biggest, of course, would be a Cotto victory. That’s the most unlikely outcome. Mayweather leaves very little to chance. Proof of that is in his unbeaten record (42-0, 26 KOs). He picks his opponents these days. In fact, he hires them, which helps explain why he will collect a $32 million before anybody even begins to count his cut of the pay-per-view revenue, concessions and ticket sales. According to contracts filed with the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Cotto (37-2, 30 KOs) will get $8 million. Not bad, but it’s a fraction, a quarter, of the record guarantee that further confirms Mayweather’s nickname, Money.

Maybe, that’s why Mayweather has been acting as cool and calm as any CEO with Wall Street-like wages already in his wallet. For him, there have been no worries. He weighed in at 151 pounds, his heaviest ever and one more than his official weight before his victory over Oscar De La Hoya in 2007.

“I feel comfortable at any weight,’’ Mayweather said.

Cotto was three pounds heavier at 154, the junior-middleweight mandatory.

No matter what the scale, the hired help is never supposed to have an advantage, no matter how minimal. From Mayweather’s perspective, Cotto looked as if he had struggled to make weight.

“He looked kind of dry, kind of drawn to me,’’ he said.

If anything, Cotto looked out of character after stepping off the scale and onto a side of the stage for a stare down that almost lasted past sundown. He started talking at Mayweather. From a man whose meals outnumber his words over any given day, it was unusual.

“I told him, he has never faced anybody like Miguel Cotto,’’ the Puerto Rican said. “That’s the reason he’s undefeated and that’s the reason I will win on Saturday night.’’

The unusual stare down was punctuated by a backstage controversy that erupted behind curtains that hid the scale from the weigh-in crowd of about 6,000. Mayweather and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who faces Shane Mosley on the undercard, will have to get new gloves for Saturday night’s fight. The gloves they had planned to wear included thumbs made in plastic. Mosley trainer Nazim Richardson said that plastic cuts more easily than leather. Richardson spotted plaster-like inserts in the gloves Antonio Margarito tried to wear before he lost to Mosley in 2009. When Richardson complains about gloves, regulators listen. The Nevada Commission ordered that Mayweather and Alvarez get gloves with thumbs made in leather. New Grant-made gloves are expected to arrive in Las Vegas from New York some time before Saturday night’s card.

What else can happen? Anything.

Everything, said Cotto, who was asked whether his best chance at upset rested with his proven arsenal of body punches.

“I can’t just go to the body,’’ he said. “I have to be on top of everything.

“If he wants to fight, I’m ready. If he wants to run, I’m ready for that. I’m ready for everything.’’

Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KOs) wasn’t ready for the scale. At least, not the official one. He was a half-pound heavier than the mandatory 154 for his shot at the World Boxing Council junior-middleweight title held by Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KOs). After a run, he returned to the scale an hour later and made weight.

“I was on weight, but on a different scale,’’ Mosley said. “I ran, sweated it off. No problem.’’

The 21-year-old Alvarez, who is 19-years younger than Mosley, had no problem in his first trip to the scale. He was 154 pounds.

In a welterweight bout on the HBO telecast, Jessie Vargas (18-0, 9 KOs) of Las Vegas weighed 146 pounds. Steve Forbes (35-10, 11 KOs), also of Las Vegas, was 146.5. In the first bout on the pay-per-view telecast, junior-middleweight DeAndre Latimore was 154.5 pounds and Carlos Quintana (28-3, 22 KOs) was at 154.

Antonio Margarito’s comeback against Abel Perry of Colorado Springs has been postponed from May 26 to July 7 at Casino Del Sol in Tucson because of a foot injury sustained Thursday while training in Tijuana, Gerry Truax of Showdown Promotions said.

Truax said Margarito hurt an Achilles tendon. Physicians told the three-time former welterweight champion to rest the tendon for three weeks, said Truax, who said he reserved Casino Del Sol for July 7 for Margarito’s first fight since a loss to Miguel Cotto in December in New York.

The May 26 card, a Top Rank and Showdown promotion, is still scheduled. A Top Rank spokesperson said a new main event for May 26 will be announced sometime next week.

Margarito, who was at a news conference Monday at Casino Del Sol, is hoping for a shot at fellow Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., the World Boxing Council’s middleweight champion. He plans to fight Perry at 160 pounds.

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank

LAS VEGAS – It sometimes sounds as if Mexico looks at Saul Alvarez’ red hair and sees a halo. Jose Suliaman, president of the Mexico City-based World Boxing Council, called the young fighter his Godson Thursday during a news-conference filibuster about a search for heroes in a nation known for drug violence. Suliaman sees the halo and thinks he has found one. A Mexican idol, the Godfather said. But halos can be targets, too. They get knocked off all the time.

Whether that halo is a real crown or just an illusion is the question at the center of a career crossroads for Alvarez Saturday night against Shane Mosley at the MGM Grand on the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Miguel Cotto pay-per-view card. Consider just two circumstances: There’s the date, May 5, Cinco de Mayo, a major Mexican holiday that celebrates the nation’s victory over the French in a battle, a fight. Then, there’s Mosley’s unbeaten record against fighters of Mexican descent.

There’s enough pressure there to turn an ordinary redhead gray. But Alvarez addresses it in a style straight out of Charles Barkley’s guide on how to make it work for you. Pressure, Barkley said, is for tires. Use it the right way, and you’ll reach your destination a lot faster.

“It’s a motivation,’’ said the 21-year-old Alvarez, whose confidence includes hopes of a bout against the Mayweather-Cotto winner some time next year. “On May 5, the only thing I want to end is that Mosley streak.’’

The guess is that Alvarez will do exactly that. A www.RingTV.com panel of writers, fighters and broadcasters pick Alvarez, 19-to-1. But there are a couple of assumptions baked into that one-sided cake. There’s Mosley age. He’s 40. Then, there are his last two fights, a dull draw with Sergio Mora and a loss by unanimous decision to Manny Pacquiao on a night when Mosley survived 12 rounds, yet did nothing dispel talk that he was shot.

There’s speculation that Mosley is fighting only for the money, because of an expensive divorce a couple of years ago. His purse is $650,000 before taxes and expenses. After the IRS and everybody else get their cut, there might not be much left. But there is his reputation, which was run through the media shredder after the Pacquiao loss.

“There’s motivation in showing the way Sugar Shane really fights,’’ said Mosley, whose son, Shane Jr., is the same age as Alvarez.

Mosley has no illusions about what he has to do. Alvarez’ popularity is evident in Suliaman’s remarks and even on the Ring Kings’ fight poster. There’s no mention of Alvarez. Just Canelo. That’s his nickname, which is Spanish for Cinnamon and universal for the halo that many of his countrymen see in his distinctive hair. Against the Word Boxing Council’s 154-pound champion, Mosley can’t risk a fight that goes to the scorecards. With widespread talk of Mosley being shot, he also says he can’t let Alvarez’ heavy hands get him into trouble with a knockdown or cut that might lead to a TKO loss.

“I’m not even thinking about a decision,’’ said Mosley, who has promised a stoppage.

Mosley’s quiet confidence suggests that he will re-enter the ring more Sugar than shot. He says there were injuries before his loss to Mayweather and distractions before Pacquiao. Against Mayweather, he said he suffered from blisters on his feet that were sustained while snowboarding. He didn’t elaborate about distractions before Pacquiao. Instead, he referred to a comment made by Steve Forbes, who faces Jessie Vargas in a welterweight bout on Saturday night’s undercard. Forbes has struggled. He’s 2-4 since losing a decision to Oscar De La Hoya in May, 2008.

“Glad to be back on the biggest stage,’’ Forbes said at Thursday’s news conference. “Had a lot of problems, but, thank God, she packed up and moved out.’’

Enough said.

LAS VEGAS – It was a different day and a very different Floyd Mayweather Jr.

About twenty-four hours after Mayweather played the bad cop in an impassioned rant at Manny Pacquiao, Bob Arum, drug cheats and unfair media, the good cop showed up Wednesday at a news conference armed with only polite respect for Miguel Cotto and not a single word of profanity for anyone.

It was a surprise for just about everybody other than perhaps Cotto at the MGM Grand.

“He has been a gentleman with me all the way,’’ said the granite-faced Cotto, whose body language is impossible to interpret because there is so little of it. “I have been a gentleman to him all the way. That’s the way it has to be.’’

But it’s a way not expected from Mayweather. Ask his dad, Floyd Sr., how often he sees the gentleman in his son. Ask Larry Merchant, who should have received a Boxing Writers award for Comeback of the Year in the aftermath of the crazy climax to Mayweather’s victory over Victor Ortiz in September when the HBO broadcaster told him he would have kicked his butt if he had been 50 years younger.

But the unexpected is also part of the Mayweather attraction, which some predict will break the pay-per-view boxing record with more than 2.4 million customers Saturday night for his junior-middleweight fight with Cotto. There is no drama without surprise. Mayweather seems to understand he can’t be ho-hum predictable. He’s not selling appliances. If you’re shopping for reliability, buy a warranty. Mayweather is selling himself, selling show biz, which means he has to play a different role for different crowds.

“When it’s all said and done, I’m making smart business decisions,’’ Mayweather said during a conference call 10 days ago. “I understand when I’m on 24/7 it’s about the viewers; it’s about ‘You Must Watch TV’.

“When I’m on TV I want to keep people glued to the television, because that’s what it’s about. So even people that aren’t boxing fans are going to say, ‘You know what, we got to tune in and watch this guy. He’s very, very interesting. He has a great story.’ ‘’.

Mayweather doesn’t care if the audience likes the story, or hates it. Silence is worse than boos. Mayweather wants to hear them as much as the cheers, just so long as he hears them as loudly and as often as possible.

“I don’t ever go out there and talk about how many things I have done for the people less fortunate, those things me and my team have done,’’ Mayweather said. “But that’s not important. I do it for myself. I do it because I feel it’s the right thing to give back to certain public schools, give back to children less fortunate, Habitat for Humanity, Three Square Meals. It’s very, very important.

“But on 24/7 we don’t always talk about those things or on TV we don’t always talk about those things, because a lot of time the feedback we get is that that’s not entertaining, that’s boring. We want to see the Floyd Mayweather with the flashy money; we want to see Floyd Mayweather with the diamond necklace; we want to see Floyd Mayweather with the nice cars. And the response we get from that it is that they love it, they love it. We get more viewers. But then on the flipside, they say, ‘All the guy does is show off.’

“So it’s a Catch 22. It’s like damn if I do, damn if I don’t.’’

It also means being a villain one day and a gentleman the next.

After his official arrival to the MGM Grand Tuesday, Mayweather met with a handful of reporters and unloaded familiar vitriol, mostly at Arum and Pacquiao. He called Arum “a professional liar.’’ He said again that Pacquiao isn’t a clean fighter and he challenged anybody in the media who thought otherwise.

Wednesday in a room appropriately named the Hollywood Theatre, he played the good guy. There was only one testy exchange. But it didn’t involve Mayweather. Instead, it was initiated by his advisor, Leonard Ellerbe who chided Cotto trainer Pedro Diaz. First, Diaz said that talking doesn’t win fights. Then, he predicted a Cotto victory.

“You’re right,’’ Ellerbe said as he looked at Diaz. “Talk doesn’t win fights. Fighters do. Last I checked, Miguel Cotto is fighting Floyd Mayweather Saturday night, so keep your opinion to yourself.’’

It was a moment to turn up the volume, fill the speakers with trash talk that has long defined boxing news conferences. But Mayweather didn’t.

Cotto “has done something to get this far” the understated Mayweather said as he and Cotto sat in red-and-gold thrones that looked as if they were discarded stage pieces from the set of Excalibur, a 1981 film.

In a session with reporters after the news conference, Mayweather remained low key. He was asked about jail. On June 1, he is scheduled to report for a 90-day sentence at Las Vegas’ Clark County jail for domestic abuse. No worries, at least not for Mayweather.

“I’m here to fight,’’ he said in a matter-of-fact tone. “Me going to jail is just another day, another day.’’

So is Thursday, another day for still another Mayweather.

TUCSON – Antonio Margarito said Monday that a fight between him and fellow Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. would be more exciting than a speculated bout between Chavez and Argentina’s Sergio Martinez for the middleweight title.

“Between two Mexicans, I think it would be better,’’ Margarito said after his bout against Abel Perry on May 26 at Casino del Sol was formally announced during a news conference at the southern Arizona property.

Margarito wasn’t trying to eliminate Martinez as a potential fight for Chavez, the son of a Mexican legend.

“I’m not saying it shouldn’t be Maravilla,’’ Margarito said in a reference to Martinez’ nickname. “I’m not saying that at all. I’m just saying that I’m here too.’’

The controversial Margarito emerged as a possibility for Chavez, since his management put together the May 26 bout, Margarito’s first since a loss in December to Miguel Cotto. Another factor fueling the speculation is that Top Rank represents both Margarito and Chavez, who faces Andy Lee on June 16 at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Tex.

Margarito, a former welterweight champion, will fight Perry at middleweight, 160 pounds. Margarito predicts that he will feel stronger at the heavier weight. He said he was at 172 pounds Monday.

Margarito is training for the first time in Tijuana, his hometown. Javier Cortez is working as his trainer. Raul Robles is working as his conditioning coach. Trainer Robert Garcia, who was in his corner for loss to Manny Pacquiao and Cotto, is not expected to join him in Tijuana. However, Margarito co-manager Sergio Diaz said Garcia will in his corner at opening bell for Perry, a Colorado Springs fighter who has won his last five fights, four by stoppage.

Phoenix junior-welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez Jr. is also scheduled for the Casino Del Sol card. His opponent has yet to be determined.

Benavidez expects his right wrist to be fully recovered in time for his first fight since a victory in November on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao’s disputed decision over Juan Manuel Marquez. Benavidez underwent surgery on the wrist in late January.

He has returned to trainer Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Calif., after working out for several weeks at Central Boxing in downtown Phoenix. He said he has resumed sparring.

“Went eight rounds twice over the last couple of days,’’ Benavidez said. “The wrist is getting better. In three or four, weeks it’ll be all the way back.’’

Photo by Phil Soto/Top Rank

Francisco Gonzalez Cigarroa’s official title is Chancellor of the Texas University System, but he acted like an emperor in canceling the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.-Andy Lee fight at Texas-El Paso’s Sun Bowl in the dumbest decree since World Boxing Council President Jose Sulaiman announced that his acronym would prohibit Mexicans from fighting in Arizona because of SB 1070, the state’s controversial immigration law.

Epithets have been flying since Tuesday when Cigarroa turned thumbs down on the June 16 fight, citing a heightened, yet undisclosed, security risk, just a few days after no arrests were reported during Abner Mares’ victory over Eric Morel at UTEP’s Don Haskins Center. Bob Arum screamed “racist” in comments to Tim Smith of the New York Daily News. Diplomacy has never been an Arum specialty. Still, it also would be naive to say that race isn’t there, somewhere, in any immigration controversy. At demonstrations for and against SB 1070 in front of Arizona’s capitol in Phoenix, it’s there almost every day, in word and deed.

At best, however, Cigarroa’s decision without a vote from the Texas Board of Regents appears to be misinformed. At worst, it’s an insult to El Paso and the border city’s well-practiced ability at crowd control. News reports suggest the Chancellor feared a big boxing crowd in an outdoor stadium would import the random violence associated to the drug wars in Juarez. But is there any history of Mexican drug gangs disrupting fight cards in their own country? Don’t think so.

In 2009, Arum promoted a card in an arena north of Tijuana. Then, there was concern that rival cartels would move the front lines to ringside. But there were no reported incidents. The only violence was within the ring, any irony perhaps, but also a sign that Mexico’s reverence for the violent sport actually serves as a refuge from the tragedy that runs through its streets. It’s similar to the Philippines, where rebels and government troops reportedly declare a truce to watch Manny Pacquaio. They resume their fight after Pacquiao finishes his.

Cigarroa’s action also smacks of arrogance, not unlike newspaper editors who have quit covering the sport and abandoned potential readers in the process simply because they don’t like boxing. What does that say about their business sense? Take a look at circulation numbers. There’s not much of either.

If not arrogance, Cigarroa was grandstanding in the style of Sulaiman, a president who often acts as though he wants to be a Chancellor. On May 1, 2010, the WBC said it would not “authorize” Mexicans to fight in Arizona. Who knew? Just when you thought the WBC only collects sanctioning fees, you discover it also issues passports. Just kidding, I think.

What wasn’t a joke, however, was the impact it had on the Arizona market, one of the nation’s liveliest for many years. Golden Boy Promotions left Desert Diamond Casino south of Tucson. Top Rank prospect Jose Benavidez Jr.’s pro debut in hometown Phoenix was delayed in 2010 because broadcaster TV Azteca and advertiser Tecate didn’t want to be tied to Arizona at the height of the controversy. Only the grandstanders profited.

In August of 2010, three Mexican fighters crossed the border and fought at Casino del Sol on tribal land near Tucson, despite Suliaman’s proclamation. Two, lightweight Genaro Trazancos of Mexico City and featherweight Adolfo Landeros of Hidalgo, were warned by the WBC before opening bell that they faced suspension for defying Sulaiman.

“That’s it, I guess,’’ Trazancos said after a loss to Filipino Mercito Gesta at Casino Del Sol in a TeleFutura-televised bout. “I guess, I’m suspended. Believe me, I strongly support Mexican migrants. They have to work for a living. So do I.’’

Trazancos has fought four times since then, once in Mexico last May in Mexicali. Sulaiman’s threatened suspension? If there was one, it lasted about as long as anybody took it seriously. Meanwhile, Antonio Margarito is scheduled to fight at Casino del Sol on May 26. It’s safe to say that Sulaiman hasn’t threatened to suspend him, not with the chance at collecting another sanctioning fee if Margarito gets a shot at Chavez’ WBC middleweight belt instead of Sergio Martinez.

Chancellor Cigarroa’s cancellation is more damaging because it subtracts a paycheck from working folks at the concession stands. It robs El Paso’s hotels and restaurants of revenue. The city loses tax money. I applaud Arum for fighting to keep the bout in Texas, Houston or San Antonio. It belongs there — now more than ever — in a stand against the stupidity of people who act as if their titles aren’t interim.
AZ Notes

· Margarito’s bout, his first since losing to Miguel Cotto, at Casino del Sol’s outdoor arena against Abel Perry (18-5, 9 KOs) of Colorado Springs will be officially announced Monday at the Tucson casino. The 33-year-old Perry, an orthodox right-hander, has won his last five fights, four by stoppage. It’s also been announced that Benavidez will fight on the card in what would be his first bout since undergoing surgery on his right wrist in January. A Benavidez opponent has yet to be determined. The unbeaten junior-welterweight has been testing the surgically-repaired wrist in workouts at Central Boxing in downtown Phoenix

· Phoenix super-bantamweight Emiliano Garcia (5-0-1, 1 KO) has added an experienced, insightful eye to his corner in trainer Chuck McGregor. McGregor, also of Phoenix, was in Garcia’s corner last Saturday for a unanimous decision over Jesse Ruiz (0-2) in front of a wild crowd at Celebrity Theatre. McGregor, Shannon Briggs’ trainer when he took the World Boxing Organization’s heavyweight title in 2006 from Sergei Liakhovich, occupies an interesting footnote in boxing history. He worked a corner in boxing’s last 15-round fight – Calvin Grove’s 1988 loss by majority decision to Jorge Paez for the International Boxing Federation’s featherweight title in Mexicali.

The argument is that only a great American heavyweight can resurrect boxing in the United States. Good luck on that search. At the opposite end of the scale, however, there’s no debate. There’s reality. Given the Mexican and Mexican-American demographic at the heart of the game’s audience, the little guy is imperative. Abner Mares might be that guy, the latest in a line of little big men from 105 to 126 pounds who have helped sustain the business since Michael Carbajal and Humberto Gonzalez transformed it.

Mares carries a sense of poise, smarts and skill with him when he steps through the ropes. There’s also accountability. There was never any hesitation in his decision to fight a rematch with Joseph Agbeko after a controversial victory marred by low blows. The pragmatist might have moved on. But that would have left a mess. Mares cleaned up the questions with a victory, a unanimous decision, in a December rematch that allowed him to take the next step, from bantamweight to super-bantam, against Eric Morel Saturday night in El Paso, Tex.

Mares is trying on a heavier weight with the hope of generating momentum for a date with Nonito Donaire. In a conference call, Mares talked about five super-bantamweights he’d like to fight.

“Victor Terrazas, Fernando Montiel, Rafael Marquez, Wilfredo Vazquez Jr., Jorge Arce, and the big name that is up there is, no doubt, Nonito Donaire,’’ Mares said.

Much depends on how Mares (23-0-1, 13 KOs) looks against an experienced, yet aging Morel (46-2, 23 KOs), who is 11-0 since two years in prison for sexual assault. The jury is still out on Donaire since he made the jump from 118 to 122 for a split decision over Vazquez in February. Donaire, who in October won a dull and dominant decision over Omar Narvaez in his last fight at 118, hasn’t followed up on his spectacular knockout of Fernando Montiel in 2011. Then, his second-round stoppage put him into the pound-for-pound debate. But his show-stopping power hasn’t been there since his left hook struck down Montiel like a lightning bolt.

“Definitely a great fighter,’’ said Mares, who knows about Donaire’s knockout ratio, 18 in 28 bouts. “But I don’t think he’s knocked out anybody at 122 yet.’’

He’s fought only one, so we’ll wait-and-see.

Mares has been there before. He’s going back to where he began. In his first 10 bouts as a pro, he was between 120 and 122 pounds for nine of them, winning six by stoppage and three by unanimous decision. He should be comfortable at 120, the catch-weight for Morel. If Donaire makes the adjustment, Mares-Donaire emerges as a possibility that could be among the biggest in the lightest divisions since Carbajal and Gonzales met at 108 in a 1993 Fight of the Year that awakened promoters to a market for smaller fighters at a time when heavyweights were vanishing, or at least going Euro.

Top Rank-versus-Golden Boy stands in the way, if the promotional feud continues and, yawn, everything seems to say that it will, ad nauseam. Donaire is a Top Rank fighter; Mares is Golden Boy. Then there’s history. Even at the lightest weights, some fights never happen. Carbajal never fought Ricardo Lopez; Lopez never fought Gonzalez. But Mares is smart to foresee the rich possibility. Smart to talk about it, too. He’s taking care of business. Too many would kick a potential biggie down the road by saying they’d leave that job up to their promoters. But they forget that the promoters work for them, not the other way around.

Mares seems to know what he wants and, thus far, he has shown that he’ll do what he has to. The promotional fracas, a cold war without apparent end, is suffocating possibilities. Maybe, it’s too much to ask Mares for help. Then again, it wouldn’t be the first time a little guy has helped boxing recreate itself. They know how to fight their way out of tight places.

PROSPECT JR.
Jose Benavidez Jr.’s 15-year-old brother, David, will appear in an amateur bout on an Iron Boy Promotions card at Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix Saturday night. A sign of Arizona’s interest in anything Benavidez was evident Tuesday at an open workout at Central Boxing in downtown Phoenix. The place was jammed for a glimpse at a fighter who might be the state’s next prospect.

At 190 pounds, David is bigger than his celebrated brother, an unbeaten junior-welterweight who is back in the gym and working to rehab his right wrist since undergoing surgery.

“He’s more of inside fighter than I am,’’ said Jose Jr., who says his wrist is about 45 percent healthy. “Basically, he has been boxing since he’s been about 3-years old. He’s always followed it. He watches it at home on television more than I do.’’

Yes, the brothers have sparred. But it hasn’t just been a sibling rivalry played out in the backyard or at the dinner table.

“No, we’ve sparred in the gym,’’ said the 19-year-old Jose, whose brother has sparred with Kelly Pavlik. “I wouldn’t go all out because he’s my little brother. But he tried to kill me. He was hitting me hard, hitting me low. I just had to grab him and talk some trash at him.’’

So what did he say?

“You know, just some brotherly love,’’ Jose Jr. said.

First bell is scheduled for 7 p.m. for a 10-fight card featuring Phoenix super-bantamweight Emilio Garcia (4-0-1) against Jesse Ruiz (0-1), also of Phoenix.

AZ NOTES
· Carbajal, of Phoenix, is scheduled to be a ringside Saturday night at Celebrity. Iron Boy Promotions plan to honor him for his Hall of Fame career.

· Former junior-middleweight champ Winky Wright (51-5-1, 20 KOs) began training in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago for his comeback attempt on June 2 against Peter Quillin (26-0. 20 KOs) in Oakland, Calif. Wright, 40, hasn’t fought since losing a decision to Paul Williams in March, 2009. He began his workouts at Athletes Performance, where well-known pros in all sports go for conditioning.

Antonio Margarito’s management has an agreement for the former welterweight champion to fight on May 26 at Casino del Sol in Tucson, Gerry Truax of Showdown Promotions said Wednesday.

Talks with Casino del Sol have been underway since March 23 when 15 Rounds first reported the possibility of a Margarito fight in southern Arizona in his first bout since a bloody loss to Miguel Cotto last December. June 15 was an alternate date.

An opponent has yet to be determined, Truax said.

Margarito (38-8, 27 KOs) is trying to keep himself in line for a shot at Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., who is expected to face middleweight champion Sergio Martinez if he beats Andy Lee on June 16 in El Paso, Tex.

The controversial Margarito is coming off successive loss to Cotto and Manny Pacquiao, who fractured the bone surrounding his right eye in 2010. Margarito underwent surgery on the eye before the loss to Cotto. Cotto targeted the eye in a dramatic rematch that ended after nine rounds on advice from the ringside physician, who said blood and swelling had begun to limit Margarito’s vision. Margarito insisted that he could have continued.

Margarito manager Sergio Diaz said the skin surrounding the eye is vulnerable to further cuts because of the many blows he has absorbed. The eye will continue to be a target. Diaz said Margarito, 34, will probably have to take on a more defensive style if he wants to extend his career.

There’s only one safe pick for Saturday night’s fight at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay between Brandon Rios and Richard Abril, unknown a month ago and known today only for not being shy. The fight won’t be as good as the news conferences.

How Abril walked into this fight is a matter of conjecture. Believe what you want, but there he was, in a tux and with more trash talk than Floyd Mayweather Jr., in Miami last month on the very day when promoters knew they needed a stand-in for Yuriorkis Gamboa, a no-show then and seen since about as often as somebody in the witness-protection program.

“I was supposed to be with Gamboa, and all of a sudden this guy came in, and he started talking smack,” Rios said a couple of weeks ago in a conference call. “He came up to me and said, ‘I want to fight you.’

“I said, ‘Who are you? You look like an average guy with a tuxedo on.’

“He kept running his mouth saying, ‘I’m the champion, and you are nothing.’ I said, ‘You are the champion, and you want to fight me? There’s my manager, right there. Go talk to him.’ ”

Abril has done nothing but talk ever since in a series of circus-like news conferences. Other than the mouth, we know he has an interim 135-pound title, the World Boxing Association’s version. These days, you can get one of those belts off-the-rack. He’s lanky. He has one common opponent with Rios. Both beat Venezuelan lightweight Miguel Acosta. Rios stopped Acosta in the 10th round in February, 2011. Abril scored a 12-round decision over Acosta in October.

Maybe, it was just coincidence that Abril showed up in Miami. Nevertheless, he has played the only role he could to create interest in a fight that had generated widespread interest before Gamboa went missing. Gamboa –Rios had Fight of the Year potential. If the Rios-Abril and Juan Manuel Marquez-Sergey Fedchenko doubleheader does pay-per-view business, it will be the Save of the Year.

Abril, a Cuban, has been saying all of the things usually said in an attempt to generate sales, especially among Mexican and Mexican-American fans. At times, it sounds as if he is reading from a script, one used by promoters for decades.

“I’m here and not afraid of you,’’ Abril said to Rios Wednesday at the final news conference. “I’m the one who wanted this fight. You are not 100% Mexican. You talk a lot of smack.”

“I ride horses, listen to Mexican music and speak the language. I am more Mexican than Rios. He doesn’t even understand me when I yell at him in Spanish.”

Maybe not, but Rios (29-0-1, 22 KOs) probably understands this: All of the pressure is on him. He can’t afford to look anything but sensational against Abril (17-2-1, 8 KOs), who has never fought on a stage as big as the one he will step on to Saturday night in a telecast produced by Top Rank and distributed by HBO.

A misstep of any kind against Abril would put a hold on Rios’ quest to become one of the game’s major stars. At stake, there is a possible fight on July 14 at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas against Marquez, if Marquez beats Fedchenko in Mexico City.

Rios, who has never been shy either, has shoved Abril and slapped Abril’s trainer, Osmiri Fernandez. He has said an unknown will never beat him. Abril, he said, is in the darkness.

“And I will keep him there,’’ said Rios, who doesn’t plan on a rematch, not even at a news conference.

The good news is that Juan Manuel Marquez will forego retirement. His tactical skill is an ongoing example of how a master craftsman never lets his attention stray from detail. He counters chaos with smarts. Marquez is a lesson for young prospects, old writers and just about anybody else with a job to do.

The bad news is that Marquez’ decision to fight on is more perilous than promising in his quest for a fourth fight with Manny Pacquiao.

“The main reason for me to continue is that I want a rematch with Manny,’’ Marquez said Wednesday in conference call for his April 14 fight with Sergey Fedchenko in Mexico City. “…I think I won the last fight.’’

So do a lot of other people, including the one seated in this corner. Marquez was a 115-113 winner here and on many other unofficial scorecards last November at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. But the crowd that argued for Marquez and against Pacquiao’s escape with a majority decision has moved on, or back to where it has been all along.

Talk about Pacquiao-versus-Floyd Mayweather Jr. covers the sport like perpetual smog. It just won’t clear. Leave it to someone else to condemn the speculative pollution or decide whether the fight will ever happen. While you’re at it, leave me some nausea medicine. It’s sickening, but it’s there, nonetheless. It was there all over again Wednesday.

“I have to be realistic about this,’’ said Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum, who has the Filipino Congressman in tough on June 9 against Tim Bradley. “I don’t think that Mayweather will be available in the fall to fight Manny. He certainly doesn’t indicate that he wants to fight Manny. I think everyone would be better off if we thought about that fight for next year. But everything is open. First of all, Manny has a really tough fight with Bradley and secondly, everybody would certainly agree that Juan Manuel deserves a rematch.’’

But it is a rematch that Marquez deserves now, not at some speculated date that hinges on him overcoming a presumed tune-up against Fedchenko in his hometown and then a very dangerous Brandon Rios, who faces Yuriorkis Gamboa stand-in Richard Abril at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay, also on April 14, in a pay-per-view doubleheader produced by Top Rank and distributed by HBO.

“Everybody knows I was looking for the rematch with Manny but I don’t know what happened,’’ Marquez said. “The most important thing is I like to fight and I will fight on April 14. I am very happy about that. But I don’t know what happened with the rematch.’’

What happened is this: The public and media interest in Pacquiao-Mayweather suffered, yet remained at the top of the agenda despite a second rematch in which Marquez again showed he can beat Pacquiao. Despite a very good argument that Marquez beat the Filipino twice after a draw in the first bout, there is still a bigger market for Pacquiao-Mayweather than there is for Marquez-Pacquiao IV.

Now, here’s what could happen: As expected Marquez beats Fedchenko and Rios overwhelms Abril, an unknown Cuban. Then, Marquez and Rios fight.

“We are holding Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, for the match if we make it,’’ Arum said. “But one step at a time. July 14 is the date we are holding it for.’’

Manager Cameron Dunkin looks at Rios and thinks of Johnny Tapia.

“I love what I do,’’ Rios said. “A lot of fighters do it for a job. I do it because I love it. It’s my high. It’s like my Ritalin. I am very hyper and it calms me down a lot. If I didn’t do this I don’t know where I would be right now. I think I’d be locked up.’’

Translation: Beware.

The 25-year-old Rios has dangerous energy and enough larceny in his heart to end the Marquez pursuit of a rematch. Marquez, 38, could go the way Erik Morales, 35, did on March 24 against 24-year-old Danny Garcia in Houston.

Despite being three years younger, Morales has suffered more wear, tear and scarring in his career than Marquez ever did. Also, Rios, who is poised to move up in weight to 140 pounds after losing his lightweight title for failing to make the 135-pound limit in December, possesses more explosive skill than Garcia. But Garcia-Morales serves as a road sign, a warning for Marquez, if he were to face Rios in another bout between the best of an aging generation and the cutting edge of a new one.

AZ NOTES
· Junior-welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez Jr. plans to test his right hand in limited work Monday at Central Boxing in downtown Phoenix. Benavidez underwent surgery on his right wrist, which was injured in November on the undercard of Pacquiao’s victory over Marquez. The cast was removed about two weeks ago. He has been undergoing rehab. “We’ll just do some light stuff to see how the right hand feels,’’ dad-and-trainer Jose Benavidez Sr. said.

· Antonio Margarito’s comeback at Tucson’s Casino del Sol on May 26 is close to a formal announcement. An opponent has yet to be found, but the casino and Margarito’s manager, Showdown Promotions, have agreed to the date and terms. TV Azteca also plans to televise. The bout, Margarito’s first since a rematch loss to Miguel Cotto in December, is scheduled for Casino del Sol’s outdoor arena. A Margarito bout at the southern Arizona venue promises to be the biggest draw there since Fernando Vargas attracted an overflow crowd of more than 5,000 in 2003 for a seventh-round stoppage of Tony Marshall.

· The Margarito bout figures to cap off a busy Arizona spring, including two cards in Phoenix and two in southern Arizona. On April 12, Phoenix super-bantamweight Alexis Santiago will be featured at El Zaribah Shrine on 40th Street in east Phoenix on a card (7:30 p.m. first bell) put together by Alma Canez of Estrella Promotions. Iron Boy Promotions follows on April 21 at Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix with a hybrid card that will include an amateur bout featuring 15-year-old David Benavidez, who – yes — has sparred with his older brother, Jose Jr. On May 4, boxing is back at Desert Diamond Casino south of Tucson on a card put together by Michelle Rosado of Face II Face Promotions. Who said boxing was dead in Arizona?

Photo by Chris Farina /Top Rank

Staying in line means staying busy and that’s all Antonio Margarito can do in a dogged, controversial pursuit of another big payday.

Margarito told 15Rounds.com in Tucson last week that he wants to fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in September. But speculation, fueled by Bob Arum’s comments to RingTV.com. has Chavez fighting Sergio Martinez instead. Nobody has to tell Margarito that Chavez-Martinez is the bigger fight. Nobody has to tell him that big fights don’t get made for more reasons than anybody wants to recount, either. Without mentioning the oh-so-familiar suspects, let’s just say that bouts between fighters represented by rival promoters these days qualify as a minor miracle.

If Arum, Chavez’ promoter, can’t make a deal with Martinez promoter Lou DiBella, it would be easy for him to stay in-house. Arum promotes Margarito, too. As the first alternate, Margarito gives Arum a marketable option, especially among Mexican and Mexican-American fans.

Many might still dislike Jr. for suspicions that he was allowed to sidestep the game’s bruising dues because of his legendary dad, Julio Cesar Chavez, Sr. Many more dislike Margarito for the hand-wrap scandal that will be with him for as long as those scars surrounding his surgically-repaired right-eye. But the complaints are free advertising. Margarito’s reputation is notorious. The Chavez rep is pampered. Mix the two and you’ve got a formula for strong sales and big television ratings.

That’s why Margarito intends to fight a tune-up on May 26 or June 15 in southern Arizona at Casino Del Sol, where his brother-in-law, super-flyweight Hanzel Martinez, won a first-round stoppage on March 23 on a ShoBox-televised card. In a sure sign of interest among Mexican and Mexican-American fans, TV Azteca plans to televise Margarito’s next bout. But against whom?

One of the names mentioned on March 23 was Jesus Gonzales, popular in Phoenix, his hometown.

“Absolutely,’’ Gonzales said when asked if he would be interested. “That would be great opportunity.’’

But Gonzales’ chances at the bout aren’t great. He is coming off a loss in Montreal to Adonis Stevenson, who knocked him out in the first round. According to people who represent Margarito and Gonzales, Gonzales has been medically cleared to fight since the devastating loss. His promoter had asked him to undergo an MRI for head trauma.

Gonzales also plans to go down in weight — from super middle (168 pounds) to middle (160). Margarito said on March 23 that he is training and weighs about 165 pounds. He wants to fight for the 160-pound title held by Chavez, the World Boxing Council champion who has reportedly been at least 180 at opening bell for his last few fights.

Neither the weight nor Gonzales’ stunning loss in his last outing, however, appears to be the issue. Gonzales’ southpaw stance against the orthodox Margarito might be. The left-handed Gonzales has a better chance at hitting Margarito’s right eye, which was badly-bloodied in his December loss to Miguel Cotto in a rematch stopped after the 10th round.

Repeated blows have degraded the skin around the eye, which was badly damaged in 2010 by Manny Pacquiao, who fractured the orbital bone. It quickly tears and ruptures into the bloody mess that led to the ringside physician in New York to call a halt to the fight against Cotto, despite Margarito’s protestations. Cotto targeted an eye that will be target for as long as Margarito continues to fight.

Margarito might have to become more defensive, says his manager, Sergio Diaz. At best, a change in style is problematic for an iron-chinned fighter known best for moving forward. Against a natural left-hander aiming for a problematic right eye, chances at pulling off that one get complicated, if not dangerous.

Dangerous enough to lose that valuable place in line for one more trip to the pay window.

TUCSON, Ariz. – Maybe, it was a wake-up call. Maybe, it was just embarrassing. Whatever it was, it worked Friday night for Las Vegas super-featherweight Diego Magdaleno in front of a soldout crowd of 2,000 at Casino Del Sol.

Magdaleno got up from a surprising knockdown in the fourth round, seemingly angered and unmistakably determined to make amends.

Mission accomplished.

Magdaleno (22-0, 8 KOs) rocked Fernando Beltran Jr. (35-8-1, 19 KOs) with menacing purpose and head-rocking rapidity, finally forcing Beltran’s corner to surrender at 2:28 of the seventh round.

“I was upset at myself,’’ said Magdaleno, who retained his Northern American Boxing Federation title and improved his chances at getting a shot at a major crown. “I’m my own worst critic.’’

Magdaleno almost drove Beltran, a Mexican journeyman, through the ropes in the sixth. In the seventh, Beltran was on unsteady feet and appeared ready to collapse when his corner threw in the towel.

Magdelano hops his next step is a fight for either the International Boxing Federation title held by Takashiro Ao of Japan or the World Boxing Council’s version held by Juan Carlos Salgado.

“Either one,’’ Magdaleno said. “I’m ready for either guy.’’

Best of the undercard: Yordenis Ugas, a 2008 Olympic bronze medalist for Cuba at the Beijing Games, had all of the credentials and most of the hype. Johnny Garcia had most of the resilience and all of the toughness.

Resilience and toughness prevailed in a significant upset of Ugas (11-1, 5 KOs), a Top Rank prospect, who lost a split-decision to Garcia (12-0, 8 KOs), an unheralded super-lightweight from Holland, Mich. Garcia won because he got up. Ugas dropped him in the fifth with a left-right combination. The stunned look in Garcia’s eyes seemed to say he was finished. Looks are deceiving.

Garcia came roaring back. Surprised and perhaps fatigued, Ugas began to back-pedal and at one point in the sixth he almost fell through the ropes into the lap of a ringside judge. It could have been scored a knockdown. It wasn’t. In the end, however, it didn’t matter. Garcia already had made his point. Two judges scored it, 76-75, for Garcia. The third had it, 76-75 for Ugas.

The rest: Middleweight Abie Han (16-0, 10 KOs) of Mexico won a unanimous decision over Rahman Yusubov (13-6, 11 KOs) of Dallas; Mexican heavyweight Andy Ruiz Jr. (14-0, 8 KOs) won a unanimous decision over Homero Fonseca (9-5-3, 2 KOs); and Mexican super-flyweight Hanzel Martinez (17-0, 14 KOs), scored a first round stoppage of fellow Mexican Jose Miguel Tamayo (12-4-2, 11 KOs).

TUCSON, Ariz. – Talks are underway for Antonio Margarito to fight in Arizona in May or June, Margarito and his manager, Sergio Diaz, said Friday.

“We’re talking about May 26,’’ Margarito said through an interpreter after his brother-in-law, super-flyweight Hanzel Martinez, threw a powerful right hand for a first-round stoppage of Jose Miguel Tamayo at Casino Del Sol.

Margarito manager Sergio Diaz said June 15 also is under consideration, possibly at Casino Del Sol’s outdoor stadium. Friday night’s card was staged in one of the casino’s ballrooms.

“May or June is fine,’’ said Margarito, who last fought in December in a dramatic loss to Miguel Cotto in New York.

Margarito, whose surgically-repaired right eye was badly bloodied by Cotto, said he is pointing to a fight in September with World Boxing Council middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.

Margarito said he currently training and his weight is at 165 pounds.

TUCSON, Ariz – Home is where the victories are. As long as there is a 0 on the right side of the record, Las Vegas super-featherweight Diego Magdaleno will be happy in any zip code.

Magdaleno (21-0, KOs) hits the road and travels outside of Nevada for only the second time in his career Friday night at Casino del Sol against an opponent who has changed twice since the ShoBox-televised card was announced.

Magdaleno has fought 18 times in Las Vegas, his hometown. Two fights have been in Primm, Nevada. He went out-of-state once for a bout in Maywood, Calif., in 2009.

For his Tucson trip, he was initially scheduled to fight Miguel Beltran. But Beltran failed a physical conducted by the Pascua Yaqui for a bout subject to regulation by the Tribe, which owns the southern Arizona casino. Then, he was supposed to face Eduardo Lazcano. But Lazcano injured a rib in training.

Finally, journeyman Fernando Beltran (36-7-1, 20 KOs) of Tijuana got the call on Wednesday.

No matter who or where he fights, Magdaleno, the North American Boxing Federation’s 130-pound champion has to win to stay in line for an eventual shot at a major title.

“I feel right at home here,’’ said Magdaleno, who has family in Tucson and expects his Las Vegas fans to be at ringside. “I’m ready to put on a show.’’

First bell is scheduled for 6 p.m. (PST) on a card scheduled to include welterweight Yordenis Ugas (11-0, 5 KOs), a 2008 bronze medalist for Cuba at the Beijing Olympics, against Juan Garcia (11-0, 8 KOs) of Holland, Mich.

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank

Danny Garcia’s greatest challenge Saturday night at Houston’s Reliant Arena might be one of the biggest intangibles of all. Awe is dangerous. Tough to control, too. But that’s what Garcia faces in Erik Morales, a fighter he watched when he wasn’t watching cartoons. Morales won his first major title when Garcia was a restless nine-year-old.

Until he reached his mid-teens, Garcia witnessed Morales’ skillful tenacity throughout his epic series against Marco Antonio Barrera and the trilogy against Manny Pacquiao. No doubt, there’s much to admire. Morales is a good example for any young fighter. From this corner, he also provides a look, scars and all, at what separates the Mexican fighter from the American.

North of the border, only victory matters. To wit: Floyd Mayweather, Jr., whose career seems to start and end with a plan to stay unbeaten. South of the border, performance is often as important as victory. Some of Mexico’s legends are created in defiant battles that happen to end in defeat. Morales has won many more than he’s lost, but he was applauded for the way he fought in defeat by majority decision last April to Marcos Maidana. He has always been willing to take as much punishment as he delivers. It’s an exchange that is dangerous, dramatic and bloody well worth the price of admission.

Garcia (22-0, 14 KOs), an emerging junior-welterweight from Philadelphia, has seen enough of Morales (52-7, 36 KOs) to know he will encounter the resilience that is there now just as surely as it before the comeback. Dealing with it, I suspect, will prove to be as daunting as adjusting to Morales’ tactical expertise, especially in the early rounds. At 47, light-heavyweight Bernard Hopkins has said that his age is one of his prime advantages. It’s simple: The younger fighter is afraid of losing to an old man, Hopkins says.

Morales is 35, yet much older in terms of wear, tear and stitches. Surgery for gall stones forced a postponement of the HBO-televised bout, which had been scheduled for Jan. 28. Morales says he has recovered from the procedure. But 12 rounds aren’t exactly ordinary rehab. Then again, Morales has never been ordinary.

There’s a temptation to pick Morales, because of his extraordinary career. But that would be a mistake, not unlike the one Garcia would make if he succumbed to hero-worship. Before opening bell, Garcia seems to understand.

“Erik Morales is a great fighter,’’ Garcia said in a conference call on Tuesday, also his birthday – he’s 24. “He did a lot for the sport. He had great fights with Barrera and Pacquiao. He had his time to shine. Now it’s my time.’’

If Morales were working Garcia’s corner against another legend, he might tell him about his first title. It was 1997 in El Paso. Morales was 21, facing World Boxing Council super-bantamweight champion Daniel Zaragoza, then 39 and with a Morales-like record of 55-7-3 with 28 KOs. Like Garcia is today, Morales was unbeaten then at 26-0. Any awe of Zaragosa was conquered. Morales knocked out the Hall of Famer in the 11th round. Zaragosa never fought again.

Garcia’s blend of power, speed and youth is enough for him to do the same. The guess here is that experience and knowhow will allow Morales to endure the full 12 rounds. Garcia will win a unanimous decision. Then, he can ask Morales for an autograph.

AZ Notes
Phoenix junior-welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez is back in the gym and undergoing conditioning drills after having a cast removed from his right hand on March 14. Benavidez underwent surgery for a troublesome injury to his right wrist. The procedure forced him off a ShoBox televised card Friday night in Tucson at Casino del Sol.

“It’s cool to be back in the gym,’’ Benavidez said Wednesday from Los Angeles where he resumed workouts at trainer Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym. “There’s some stiffness. But we’ll let it heal.’’

Benavidez is scheduled to see doctors for a routine check on April 2. His dad and trainer, Jose Benavidez Sr., said there’s a chance his son’s next bout could be on the Manny Pacquiao-Tim Bradley undercard on June 9 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand.

“We’ll just see how it goes,’’ the senior Benavidez said.

Meanwhile, another Benavidez prospect might be on the horizon. David Benavidez, who fights at between 185 and 190 pounds, is scheduled for an amateur bout on April 21 at Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix on hybrid — pro-and-amateur — card staged by Iron Boy Promotions. David, a 15-year-old student at Hollywood High School, has done some sparring with former middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik, who has been training for a comeback against Aaron Jaco on March 31 in San Antonio.

“It’s hard to compare the two,’’ their dad said. “In terms of style, they’re just a little bit different.’’

Yuriorkis Gamboa looks like a pawn in a standoff perilous to his own future and bad for a divisive business populated by more lawyers and fewer potential stars.

Start with Gamboa, if you can find him. The Cuban has displayed potential enough to become part of a generation that will succeed Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Miguel Cotto and Juan Manuel Marquez.

But at 30, Gamboa is not exactly a prospect. He has no time to waste. But waste is what he’ll do if a Top Rank lawsuit against him gets buried in the legal swamp. Throw in an injunction into a lot of legalese, and suddenly Gamboa is 32, mostly forgotten and remembered only as an obscure answer to a trivia question: Hey, whatever happened to that promising lightweight who was supposed to fight Brandon Rios?

The answer to that one apparently was not anywhere on the agenda held by whoever advised Gamboa to be MIA for news conferences in Miami and then Los Angeles. The story is that Gamboa is unhappy with his Top Rank contract. OK, but shouldn’t he have expressed that dissatisfaction in the public arena, like say at a news conference?

Instead, he acts like a kid cutting class. That doesn’t say much for his maturity, his reliability and, above all, his independence. If he can think and speak for himself, where is he? Despite his evident skill, Gamboa has yet to prove he can draw a crowd. Now, I’m not sure he’ll get that chance.

Top Rank’s lawsuit alleges that an unidentified crowd, “John Does 1 through 10,” have been orchestrating Gamboa’s every move. It doesn’t take much imagination to guess who Top Rank’s Bob Arum thinks that John Doe family happens to be. There’s been plenty of speculation that Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s promotional company has been telling Gamboa what to do and where not to appear.

Mayweather’s name is never mentioned. But the lawsuit’s language, already reported, looks like a warning intended for Mayweather. If he is in fact involved with Gamboa, I’m betting he won’t back down. Neither will Arum. Instead, there will be just an escalation of a feud that means the biggest fights will only involve more lawyers.

AZ NOTES
I got a call from Michael Carbajal last Tuesday. The Hall of Fame junior-flyweight asked me if I knew what that day meant to him. Not sure, I said.

“It’s a 19-year anniversary,’’ he said.

So it was.

On March 13, 1993, Carbajal and Humberto “Chiquita” Gonzalez made some history with an epic fight that saw Carbajal get up twice and win by a seventh-round KO.

Carbajal is now 45. Gonzalez will be 46 on March 25. Some of us who were at ringside are just getting old.

On the 41st anniversary Thursday of the first Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight, random reflections and recollections while wondering if there will be ever be a Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao anniversary:

· Sorry for wondering at all, but at least I didn’t have to wonder for long. Chances aren’t good that history will repeat itself with a fight remembered in the next century.

· Thursday’s anniversary of Frazier’s epic decision over Ali in 1971 at Madison Square Garden is the first since Frazier died in November. On the 25th anniversary, I sat with Frazier in Indianapolis at a luncheon sponsored by the U.S. Olympic Committee during 1996 swimming trials. Film of the bout played on screens in every corner of the room. I asked Frazier about Ali’s terrible fight with Parkinson’s. “You see that right hand, you see that left,’’ Frazier, a 1964 gold medallist, said as he pointed at the screen with the right he had landed that night. “That’s why he has problems.’’ Frazier never forgot. Rest in peace, Joe.

· Some Puerto Rican history is at stake Saturday night at Roberto Clemente Stadium in San Juan. For two decades, Puerto Rico’s proud boxing heritage has been sustained, first by Felix Trinidad and then by Miguel Cotto. Juan Manuel Lopez has been the designated successor. But that uninterrupted line of succession is in danger in a Showtime-televised rematch with Mexican Orlando Salido, who in April knocked out Lopez. Lopez has talked about distractions – marital strife and weight problems – before the loss. Safe to say, Puerto Ricans don’t want hear about any more distractions. At home, all of the pressure is on Lopez. The pick here: Lopez, in a late-round stoppage.

· Pacquiao is suing an Asian journalist for libel in a story that linked him to a carjacker, is thinking about running for the Filipino presidency and is facing a complaint from Filipino tax authorities, who have questions about his documentation. Those are the headlines, all within a couple of days and each with only passing reference to the Congressman’s June 9 fight against dangerous Timothy Bradley. Distractions have always followed Pacquiao. But these aren’t about singing, or basketball, or movie-making. They are the kind that dog and define prominent politicians. Fulltime ones, too.

· Just when I thought Missing was a new ABC series starring Ashley Judd as a mom searching for her son, Yuriokis Gamboa doesn’t show up. Gamboa went missing, not one but twice, first in Miami and then in Los Angeles for news conferences scheduled to hype what now appears to be a tentative – very tentative – bout with Brandon Rios on April 14. Rumor is that Gamboa is unhappy with Bob Arum’s Top Rank and wants to jump to Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s promotional company. If true, that will be another reason for Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, to detest Mayweather and just another reason to think that Pacquiao-Mayweather won’t happen.

AZ NOTES
Another chapter in Arizona’s comeback from the immigration controversy, SB 1070, will happen this spring, first on March 23 at Tucson’s Casino del Sol with a ShoBox-televised card featuring Las Vegas super-featherweight Diego Magdaleno.

It’s intriguing, in part because Antonio Margarito’s brother-in-law, bantamweight Hanzel Martinez, is scheduled for the undercard. Martinez got interested in boxing when he used to run with Margarito. The March 23 card might set the stage in May for a Margarito fight in Arizona, his first since his loss in a December rematch to Miguel Cotto.

On April 21, Iron Boy Promotions plans to be back in Phoenix for an encore of its Feb .17 debut in front of near capacity crowd at Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix. On May 4, Michelle Rosado, who took the lead in re-opening the Phoenix boxing market, will promote in southern Arizona for the first time on May 4 with a card at Desert Diamond Casino, where Golden Boy Promotions had a good run before leaving because of the cost and license restrictions brought on by SB1070.

Heavyweights, a division in exile if not endangered, are making a lot of Euros, but American ambivalence at what was a piece of Americana frustrates Wladimir Klitschko trainer Emanuel Steward in a way he could have never imagined when he was an amateur growing up in Detroit, Joe Louis’ hometown.

Frustration said it all in a conference call.

Steward said it once, again and often — first at the criticism he hears about Klitschko’s opponent, former cruiserweight champion Jean-Marc Mormeck, Saturday in Dusseldorf in the third round of an Epix-televised trilogy (4:30 p.m. EST/1:30 p.m. PST) and again when asked whether there are any worthy challengers at all in a division that draws crowds in Germany and yawns in the United States.

“It’s so frustrating, these comments we’re reading,’’ said Steward, who says Klitschko (56-3, 49 KOs) will be confronted by a style he has yet to see in a smaller body that could make the 39-year-old Mormeck (36-4, 22 KOs) an awkward target.

Steward expects Klitschko to solve the problem with the calculating skill of a chess player. But check-mate isn’t what fans expect. Only an early knockout will do.

“According to all the experts, if the fight goes over three or four rounds, it’s a terrible performance,’’ Steward said. “If Wladimir knocks him out in a minute, it’s what he was supposed to do. We’re going into a definitely no-win situation.’’

No-win is a byproduct of the dominance Wladimir and his older brother, Vitali, have exerted over the heavyweights in the longest family reign since the Hapsburgs ruled Austria. The Klitschkos have won it all. Between them, they possess every acronym attached to a championship belt, including Vitali’s victory in a WBC-title defense three weeks ago over Dereck Chisora in Munich.

Chisora slapped Vitali at the weigh-in, spit in Wladimir’s face before opening bell and brawled with David Haye after the bout. Chisora got a split decision, losing the fight and winning the outrage, within a couple of circus-like days that brought a lot of attention to the heavyweights, but not because of the Klitschkos. They were there, doing what they always do: Winning. Steward is right. They only become news if they lose, or at least face what is perceived to be a real threat.

It’s within that context that Steward’s frustration is understandable. It’s hard to know where the Klitschkos belong. How would they have done in the Muhammad Ali era of the late 1960s and ‘70s? There’s only an argument and perhaps one day a video game.

“Unfortunately, this is probably – maybe – the worst heavyweight time in history,’’ he said. “It’s frustrating for us sometimes, too.’’

That frustration isn’t new. Larry Holmes suffered through it, post-Ali. Steward recalled a time when Joe Louis dominated the division so thoroughly that he turned it into his bum-of-the-month club. Each barren stretch, however, was followed by a rebirth.

“I think that those heavyweights are coming up,’’ said Wladimir, who at 35 is confident history will repeat itself in time for a true measure of where he belongs. “Think about Mike Tyson. He was 20-years-old. Nobody would ever think that a 20-year-old – boy or man – would become the youngest heavyweight champion in history.

“It always has been like that in the past. And it’s going to be like that in the future.’’

Amid renewed signs of life in the dormant division, Steward and Wladimir talk as if that future will have to happen in the U.S. against an emerging American contender. But who, please, who? Wladimir mentioned Chris Arreola. But Arreola is already a Klitschko victim. He was overwhelmed by Vitali in a 2009 mismatch at Los Angeles’ Staples Center. A better possibility might be Seth Mitchell, a promising apprentice and a former Michigan State linebacker who has talked about fighting a Klitschko, perhaps in early 2013. Wladimir has talked about Mitchell a couple of times during the last few months. It’s as if he sees him as a ticket back to the American stage.

Steward is hopeful, yet cautious.

“He looks good,’’ he said of Mitchell. “He’s a fundamentally good fighter. He comes in and he throws punches. He doesn’t wait. He’d be a good challenger.’’

But here’s the caveat and perhaps the frustration:

“Too bad we don’t have a bunch of them,’’ Steward said.

With Wladimir and Vitali, there are only two, too few.

AZ might be Margarito’s next stop

Tucson and Phoenix are possibilities for Antonio Margarito’s first fight since his December loss to Miguel Cotto, who won a 10th-round stoppage in New York when the ringside physician ended the rematch because of blood and swelling around Margarito’s problematic right eye.

Margarito wants a tune-up in May that will put him in line for a shot at Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Tijuana, his home, has been mentioned. But Top Rank and his company, Showdown, already are doing a co-promotion of a ShoBox-televised card on March 23 at Casino del Sol in Tucson. Margarito’s brother-in-law, super-flyweight Hanzel Martinez, is scheduled for the undercard against fellow-Mexican Alex Rangel.

Margarito accompanied Martinez to a news conference at Casino del Sol a couple of weeks ago. Despite all the controversy that surrounds him, he is comfortable in Arizona, where he fought three times early in his career.

When there were questions about whether New York would license him for the Cotto rematch because of his surgically-repaired eye, US Airways Center in Phoenix became an alternate site. The Arizona State Boxing & MMA Commission said it would have licensed Margarito. Sergio Diaz, Margarito’s manager, said he believes the fight would have gone to Phoenix if New York had said no to the license and Cotto had agreed to the move.

For the congregation that still prays for Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr., pray a little harder that the born-again Pacquiao isn’t struck by a head butt from Tim Bradley that ruptures old wounds above a right eye with scars that might as well look like a target.

A perfect storm of circumstances are aligned for just such a collision in the Bradley-Pacquiao fight on June 9 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. Head butts are already more likely in a bout between a southpaw and an orthodox fighter. Between the left-handed Pacquiao and the orthodox Bradley, one and more are an even better bet than a Pacquiao victory.

Start with each fighter’s past. Start with Bradley’s head. It has become a weapon, notorious and dangerous. Accidental butts led to cuts that resulted in his last victory, a 10th-round technical decision, over a bloodied Devon Alexander last winter in Detroit.

Pacquiao has suffered cuts above the right eye repeatedly, once in a decision last year over orthodox Shane Mosley in May and again in November with a gash deep enough to expose bone in the 10th round of his controversial decision over orthodox Juan Manuel Marquez. It was caused by – you guessed it – a head butt. Twenty-eight stitches were needed to close that one.

The lengthy healing process was mentioned as a reason Pacquiao couldn’t fight Mayweather on May 5. The real truth might be more about money than stitches. The danger now, however, is that there won’t be any argument left about Pacquiao-Mayweather next November if Bradley’s head lands all over again.

Remember this: A cut over that same eye appeared to the biggest factor in Pacquiao’s last loss by unanimous decision to orthodox Erik Morales in 2005. The cut was sustained in the fifth round from a clash of heads. Then, it was called accidental. If it happens again, it won’t be called coincidental. It will be remembered as an avoidable obstacle standing in the way of the one fight the world has wanted to see.

Gonzales wants to fight on
Jesus Gonzales of Phoenix plans to continue fighting despite a loss that, at first glance, appeared to be a career-ender Saturday when Adonis Stevenson dropped him with left hands 99 seconds after the opening bell in Montreal.

The 27-year-old Gonzales (27-2, 14 KOs) wants to move back down in weight, from super-middle (168 pounds) to middle (160), according to his promoter, Canadian Darin Schmick of FanBase.

Stevenson (17-1, 14 KOs) overwhelmed Gonzales, perhaps because he was the bigger, stronger fighter, although Gonzales never even attempted to circle away from the known power in Stevenson’s left . He simply walked right into it, almost as if he were walking into an oncoming locomotive.

Gonzales also has talked about finding a new trainer. He has mentioned Robert Garcia, who is already busy with Brandon Rios, Nonito Donaire and Antonio Margarito. A revolving corner has been a problem for Gonzales, who took the Stevenson fight on late notice.

In Montreal, Gonzales father, Ernie, was back in his corner. His dad, his trainer for the first part of his pro career and throughout his brilliant days as an amateur, had decided to step away. But he worked with him for nearly four weeks of training in Calgary.

Gonzales’ plans, however, hinge on an MRI to determine if he suffered head trauma, Schmick said. Gonzales, who lost by TKO in 2005 to Jose Luis Zertuche in his only other loss, was knocked out for the first time in his career by Stevenson. The KO means he’ll need a clean MRI to get licensed, said Schmick, who was trying to put Gonzales in position for a shot at Andre Ward. Ward’s last loss was to Gonzales when both were amateurs.

NOTES, COUNTERS
Alexander tries to put his career back on track against dangerous Marcos Maidana Saturday in St. Louis, Alexander’s hometown. He said he’d like another shot at Bradley, although he also said something in a conference call that might serve as a warning to Pacquiao. “You can’t train for head butts,’’ Alexander said. “You can’t train to get head-butted and to get your eye all messed up.’’

And there’s no truth to the rumor that the Texas Department of Licensing & Regulation – the Lone Star State’s boxing commission — conducted the drug testing for Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun, whose 50-game suspension was overturned Thursday. Apparently, protocol wasn’t followed. In San Antonio, the Texas commissioners forgot to test Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. after he beat Marco Antonio Rubio on Feb. 4. Details, those pesky details.

History will have the last say on where Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko rank among great brothers. Their unprecedented reign is either a reflection of a fading heavyweight division full of more clowns than Ringling Brothers or an enduring statement about their power, skill and smarts. If they were American instead of Ukrainian, they might be more appreciated. Then again, they might have been NFL defensive ends instead of fighters.

The good news – good sense, too – is that neither Klitschko is in a race with time or Floyd Mayweather Jr. to define their place. Can’t win that one. But they can beat the next guy in front of them, Dereck Chisora for Vitali on Saturday in Munich and Jean Marc Mormeck for Wladimir on March 3 in Dusseldorf in an EpixHD.com trilogy that includes lots of autobahn miles and Alexander Povetkin-versus-Marco Huck on Feb. 25 in Stuttgart.

“My career is not over,’’ Vitali said in a conference call.

At 40, it is a lot closer to the end than it is the beginning. Even with a political career in his future, however, there was no spin about when he might quit or how he hopes to be remembered.

“It’s always very difficult to talk about myself,’’ he said. “It’s you, as boxing experts, who know about that better. You can be objective, much more objective.’’

Okay, maybe some spin. With his own political party, The Punch, and talk about a third run for mayor of Kiev, his political footwork is as artful as any he employs in the ring. A little flattery for the media is a beautiful feint. Nevertheless, there was a tone that says he knows he will encounter an emerging, perhaps surprising, new face in what looks to be a division that is dormant, if not near extinction.

“Lennox Lewis was a big star, a big star,’’ said Vitali, who nearly upset Lewis in 2003 at Los Angeles’ Staples Center. “Right now, all the big stars have retired. Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson are not there. Lennox Lewis is not there.

“No big names, and that’s why everyone from the new generation who challenges the Klitschkos gets stopped. Any moment, there can be a new guy. He can be tough. He can give us a tough challenge. One of them is Dereck Chisora.’’

But Chisora’s experience doesn’t add up to much of a chance. With only 17 pro bouts including two losses and nine knockouts, Chisora is an apprentice on a master’s canvas that includes the World Boxing Council’s title, 43 victories, 40 knockouts and two defeats. There nothing new about that, at least not during a Klitschko reign that some say has been suffocating.

“For a real challenge, it would have to be somebody who can beat a Klitschko,’’ Vitali said. “But we don’t give anyone a chance inside the ring. We leave no room for doubt that we are stronger than our opponents. That’s why everybody is talking about a crisis in boxing because nobody can beat us.

“No, it is not a crisis, although somebody told us the name of the crisis is the Klitschko brothers, because nobody can beat the Klitschko brothers.’’

Barring an upset Saturday or on March 3, only they can. But that’s a fight that will happen only as a computer game. Vitali said they promised their mom that they would never fight each other. Besides, it would be biblical-like spectacle offensive by even boxing’s elusive standards. That’s not to say there isn’t a sibling rivalry. It happens on the ping-pong table. It’s there again in the swimming pool when Vitali makes it sound as if he is trying to beat Michael Phelps.

“Other than a hairy chest, he’s much better than me,’’ Vitali says of heats in a 50-meter pool. “Sometimes in ping-pong, but it is more difficult.’’

Wladimir, 35, is the athlete in the family, Vitali says.

“My brother has a big talent in boxing and in sport,’’ he says.

Only at the chess board and as a dad does Vitali say he has an advantage. Vitali has three kids. Wladimir has none.

“I dominate him, three-to-zero,’’ he said.

Dominant is the only way to describe the both of them.

Gonzales puts a grudge into his Montreal date with Stevenson
Phoenix super-middleweight Jesus Gonzales’ challenging trip to Montreal for a bout Saturday against Adonis Stevenson exploded Wednesday into a nasty grudge match.

At a Montreal news conference, Gonzales (27-1, 14 KOs) talked about Stevenson’s criminal past, which includes an 18-month jail sentence for assault and his role in a Quebec gang that forced young girls into prostitution. Gonzales’ public comments enraged Stevenson (16-1, 13 KOs), who used a series of expletives in a promise to knock him out.

Stevenson, who was charged with the crimes 14 years ago, also went to his Facebook page and alleged that Gonzales used a racial slur, the N-word. Gonzales denied it. It’s not clear why the Haitian-born Stevenson waited to write the allegation in a Facebook missive. A racial slur usually sparks an immediate, face-to-face response.

Gonzales is a Mexican-American who has heard many slurs. In my years around him, however, I’ve never heard him make one. But it’s evident he has angered Stevenson, who might be further angered at the sight of a logo – APECA — that Gonzales plans to wear on his trunks. It stands for the “Protection of Exploited Children and Adults.” Gonzales, who took the fight on short notice, says he will wear it in support of Natalie’s House, a women’s shelter near Phoenix.

The bout for the No. 2 spot in the International Boxing Federation’s 168-pound ratings is scheduled to be telecast by Fight Now TV, which can be accessed by cable and satellite distributors.

AZ NOTES
Arizona’s first card in 2012 is scheduled for Friday night at Celebrity Theatre. At least eight bouts are planned, including two amateur, on Iron Boy Promotion’s first event in the state. Roger Mayweather is scheduled to work a couple of corners for young fighters from the Mayweather gym in Las Vegas. First bell is scheduled for 7 p.m. (MST).

TUCSON — The long hair and large dark glasses were there. They identify Antonio Margarito wherever he goes these days. On Wednesday, he was in Tucson at a Casino Del Sol news conference for a March 23 ShoBox card promoted by his company, Showdown, and Top Rank.

That hair and those glasses almost have become a costume in Margarito’s role as one of boxing’s bad guys. I’m not sure it’s a part in the bloody theater that he ever wanted, or expected. But it’s there because of controversies as hard to heal as the battered skin around his right eye. He’s a target for well-aimed punches and pointed questions. Yet, he accepts it all with stubborn consistency and moves forward as he always has, in the ring and outside of it.

The bad-boy portrayal was belied for a few hours in Tucson by a patient, approachable personality who is as comfortable as ever in his own skin, despite the scars. He sat with fans, writers, security guards, waiters and anybody else seeking an autograph or an answer. The bad guy was just a regular guy, which I think has always been his real role since long-ago days when he entered the ring at an open-air mercado in Phoenix with an old-shower-curtain for a robe. He is as unassuming now as he was then. But that might not be enough in a dangerous business that often demands a star become his own boss by assuming control of what he sees and what surrounds him.

Believe what you want about the right eye damaged by Manny Pacquiao and bloodied by Miguel Cotto. Believe what you want about whether Margarito knew his gloves were loaded in the handwrap controversy that started before his loss to Shane Mosley. I’m not sure I do. The eye is hidden behind those glasses. Handwrap-gate is hidden in a cloud of allegation. But know this: Margarito has never changed his own story about any of it. Despite my skepticism, I admire him for that.

He arrived in Tucson with the same mindset he had when he left New York in November after his dramatic rematch to Cotto was stopped in the 10th by the ringside physician. Margarito continues to say that the doctor acted prematurely, because of the pre-fight controversy about whether New York would even license him. He doesn’t have any immediate plans to quit, despite mounting talk in Mexico and the U.S. that it’s time. Vision in the surgically-repaired right eye is good, he says, although weakened tissue around the eye is vulnerable to further cuts. He wants to fight fellow-Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., despite questions about whether the Mexico City-based World Boxing Council would sanction the bout. His future, he says, would be determined by the Chavez bout.

“People are opinionated and, sure, they are welcome to those opinions,’’ Margarito said in Spanish translated by Gerry Truax, Showdown’s Arizona promoter for a card featuring unbeaten super-featherweight Diego Magdaleno (21-0, 7 KOs) of Las Vegas in defense of his North American Boxing Federation title against Miguel Beltran Jr. (26-1, 17 KOs) of Mexico. “I still feel strong. I’d be a good fight for an up-and-coming contender such as Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Chavez hasn’t fought anybody at my level. I think that’s a good fight for me.

“If he winds up beating me, then it’s time to retire.’’

No matter what the WBC decides or whether Sergio Martinez emerges as a more viable challenge for the young Chavez, Top Rank and Sergio Diaz of Showdown first want Margarito to fight a tune-up.

“Get a win,’’ Top Rank matchmaker Bruce Trampler said.

A tune-up might restore some confidence and, more important, test the problematic eye. In a post-fight examination after the junior-middleweight loss to Cotto, Diaz said physicians determined that the vision is good. But the skin around it is not. Diaz said doctors recommend that Margarito ice it down before opening bell. He also said Margarito might have to adjust his ring style. Instead of the forward-moving machine with the indestructible chin, Margarito might have to become more defensive. He has to protect the eye from punches that will cut and unleash the carnage that will force another stoppage.

But that begs a question: Can Margarito change that style? I’m not sure he can any more than he can change what he has said about all of the many controversies that, fair or not, have become part of his portrayal. He is proud of his career and how he foresees his place in history.

“I am indebted for life to my fans,’’ he said when asked how he wants to be remembered. “I’m loved wherever I go. People remind me that I’m a three-time world champion. That’s how I expect to be remembered. For that and that I always gave everything for my fans. I never left anything in doubt.’’

Questions are still there. Always will be. But about Margarito’s consistency, there’s no doubt. No doubt, either, about a regular guy’s loyalty for regular fans.

AZ NOTES
During the Tucson news conference, Magdaleno, who will fight for the only the second time outside of Nevada in 22 bouts, calls Beltran “a brawler with a raging-bull mentality’’ Magdaleno hopes for a shot at a major title some time in 2012.

Phoenix super-middleweight Jesus Gonzales heads to Montreal on Feb. 13 for a tough bout on Feb. 18 against Adonis Stevenson at the Bell Centre. In the corner opposite of Gonzales, there will be Stevenson trainer Emanuel Steward, who once called Gonzales the potential star of the 2004 Olympic team. At the time, Steward was projected to be the U.S. coach. Before the Athens Games, however, Gonzales went pro and Steward withdrew as the American coach.

He was a trainer by trade. He was called an ambassador by everybody who knows that boxing desperately needs one. Angelo Dundee was all of that and yet so much more.

“That one minute with Angelo between rounds was like coming home to your mother and father,’’ said Bill Caplan, who worked in 1974 for George Foreman when he lost in Zaire with Dundee in Muhammad Ali’s corner and again when Dundee was there two decades later for a 45-year-old Foreman in his 1994 knockout of Michael Moorer for his second heavyweight title.

Mom-and-dad’s wisdom passed Wednesday night with Dundee’s death at his home near Tampa, Fla. Foreman mourns. Caplan mourns. Boxing mourns. Ali got the news while at home in Phoenix, less than a month since a reunion with Dundee at Ali’s birthday party in Louisville, said Jimmy Walker, the founder of Celebrity Fight Night, Ali’s annual fund raiser in the battle against Parkinson’s Disease.

The 90-year-old Dundee was there, confined to a wheelchair after undergoing hip-replacement surgery. Ali, confined by Parkinson’s terrible symptoms, sat next to him. Time marches on and often over. But Ali and Dundee remain inseparable. They have a corner on history.

“You could see, really feel, this chemistry between them,’’ said Walker, a Phoenix businessman who joined Ali in Louisville, his hometown, for his 70th birthday.

Other than Manny Pacquiao and Freddie Roach, it’s the kind of chemistry you don’t see much of anymore, perhaps because Dundee was always more loyal to people than money. Sounds quaint today. Then again, boxing was at its best when Dundee was in a corner. He was with Sugar Ray Leonard after Ali and Carmen Basilio before him. But it was his time, a lifetime, with Ali that defined his generosity and gentleness in a sport not known for either.

Ernest Hemingway once said that courage is grace under pressure. Few have been able to put that one into action like Dundee. Hemingway’s definition defines Dundee. He was there to guide a fighter through the rigors of training and the subsequent adversity of a fight, yet he never interfered with their lives outside of the ropes.

He knew all the tricks. One of them saved Ali from a loss to Henry Cooper in 196 at London’s Wembley Stadium. Ali was on the mat and in trouble in the fourth round. Dundee bought some time by alerting the referee to a tear in Ali’s gloves. Officials searched for a new pair and never found them, allowing Ali to regain composure and confidence. Years later, Dundee acknowledged he saw the tear before opening bell. It was there to use, just in case. That’s part of the game. Interference in Ali’s decision to become a Black Muslim and change his name from Cassius Clay, his opposition to the Vietnam War and his public bravado during the polarized ‘60s was not.

In a sport and time loaded with controversy, Dundee was never a controversial man. In boxing, only the back-stabbers outnumber the low blows. If anybody has ever had a bad word to say about Dundee, I’ve never met him. Caplan remembers a man who just liked people.

“He genuinely cared about everybody he met,’’ Caplan said. “In the days before e-mail and cell phones, Angelo would send post cards to the boxing writers of the day from where ever he was in the world at the time. He was just that kind of guy.’’

He’s gone. But his example lives on. Like Ali, I live in Arizona where we talked about civility after the shooting of Tucson Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, but practice it rarely in our politics, or on our streets. I cover boxing, a business in which trash-talk passes for civil discourse. Listen to the never-ending talks for a Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather fight. Then, listen to Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich debate in the Republican race for the presidential nomination. Different games, same insults.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Pacquiao, Mayweather, Romney, Gingrich and the rest of us could spend that minute in Dundee’s corner? Mom and pop always knew what to do, how to do it.

AZ NOTES
The 2012 Celebrity Fight Night is scheduled for March 24 at the Marriott Desert Ridge and Spa in Scottsdale, Ariz. Last year’s event raised $6.6 million in Ali’s annual fight against Parkinson’s.

Las Vegas super-featherweight Diego Magdaleno replaces Dallas super-bantamweight Roberto Marroquin on the Mach 23 ShoBox-televised card at Tucson’s Casino del Sol. Magdaleno (21-0, 7 KOs) is scheduled for the main event against Miguel Beltran Jr. (26-1, 17 KOs) in the main event for a North American Boxing Federation title. The fighters are scheduled to be at a news conference Wednesday (2 p.m. MST) at Casino del Sol.

Just a year ago, Victor Ortiz was accused of having no heart. Turns out, everybody was wrong. Just the opposite has been revealed in two very different ways about a personable fighter impossible to predict. The only thing we know for sure about Ortiz is that he has too much heart.

Within nine months, it propelled Ortiz to a dramatic triumph which was followed by a bizarre series of events in a bout as controversial as any.

So who is he?

The Ortiz who gained sudden popularity and a healthy measure of personal vindication in beating Andre Berto last April? Or the Ortiz who butted, hugged and kissed Floyd Mayweather Jr., then dropped his hands and took his eyes off the world’s most calculating fighter before he was knocked out in September by a combination he never saw?

I have no idea.

Ortiz is that restless kid in the back of the class. He’s likable, funny, precocious, and thoroughly exasperating. The teacher has to constantly remind him to concentrate on the task at hand. That kid was there in a conference call Wednesday in the build-up to his rematch with Berto in a welterweight bout on Feb. 11 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand.

“I am me,’’ Ortiz said. “If you don’t like it, change the channel.’’

Ortiz made the remark while addressing a question about his appearance a couple of weeks ago before the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which had ordered him to explain comments that, yeah-oh-yeah, he was trying to break Mayweather’s nose with that infamous head-butt.

Nevada heard him, granted him a conditional license and Ortiz has moved on. Changed the channel, if you will. Now, I’m beginning to wonder whether Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KOs) can stay focused long enough to channel his abundant energy and emotion with the maturity he needs to master a brutal craft. In large part, that will be the story of Ortiz’ Showtime-televised encore with Berto (28-1, 22 KOs) in the first major bout of 2012.

Ortiz’ heart-on-the-sleeve demeanor is as genuine and spontaneous as it is good box-office. Without discipline to keep it in check, however, it is a combustible source of potential trouble. Ortiz’ record includes a habit of saying and acting before thinking.

His comment about trying to break Mayweather’s nose is as hard to understand as dropping those hands while standing in front of a fighter who never misses an opportunity. In the noisy aftermath of his September loss, Ortiz, promoter Oscar De La Hoya and manager Rolando Arellano condemned Mayweather’s fight-ending combo.

They had support from that side of the media that called the shots legal, yet devoid of sportsmanship. Then, Ortiz undercuts his own argument by saying he wanted to break Mayweather’s nose???? Okay, then Mayweather had good reason to throw that combo while Ortiz was looking at referee Joe Cortez. Those two punches were a pre-emptive strike. Mayweather prefers a nose that remains intact. Hard to blame him.

The guess here is that Ortiz simply did what he has always done: He said what his heart told him to. He didn’t stop and think about consequences. On Tuesday, he turns 25. Time to grow up and become the consummate pro he’ll have to be against Berto.

AZ NOTES
Phoenix super-middleweight Jesus Gonzales (27-1, 14 KOs) finally signed a contract Wednesday for a fight on Feb 18 against Canadian Adonis Stevenson (16-1, 13 KOs) at Montreal’s Bell Centre. The bout, an eliminator for a possible shot at the International Boxing Federation’s title, had been rumored for a couple of weeks. Gonzales and his Calgary-based promotional team, Fan Base, had second thoughts. Stevenson has a criminal past. In 1998, he was arrested. He was linked to a Quebec gang that forced girls into prostitution. Gonzales and his promoter were uncomfortable at a business deal with a fighter who has a notorious past. On Gonzales’ trunks, there will be a sign he is fighting for abused women. He plans to wear a logo for Natalie’s House, a Goodyear, AZ, organization that helps youth exploited in the sex trade.

News that Phoenix junior-welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez, Jr. underwent surgery Tuesday in Los Angeles for a troublesome injury to his right wrist means he probably won’t fight on March 23 at Tucson’s Casino del Sol. “The doctor said we could get back in the gym, maybe as early as next week to work on the left and other things,’’ said Benavidez’ dad and trainer, Jose Sr., who said Thursday that his son’s right hand is in a cast. Initial projections indicate that the 19-year-old Benavidez won’t be able to fight for two months. “At his age, it’s important and a good time for us to get it fixed now,’’ his dad said. The ShoBox-televised card in Tucson, a Top Rank and Showdown promotion, will go on as planned with super-bantamweight prospect Roberto Marroquin in the main event, said Gerry Truax, Showdown’s promoter in Phoenix. Undercard plans include Cuban welterweight Yordenis Ugas (11-0, 5 KOs).

Optimism is hard to find these days. Dumpster-diving is easier. From embarrassing talks about a fight still in never-never land to cancellations and hollow controversies, there’s just a lot of garbage beneath the headlines. But there is some good news. Really, there is.

Just when it looks as if the rot will finally bury the business, along comes a film that reminds us of its resiliency. It is about surviving and that’s what Freddie Roach does, day-to-day, in a compelling mix of grit and common decency in HBO’s six-part portrayal, On Freddie Roach, which begins Friday (9:30 p.m. ET/PT).

It starts with Roach training Amir Khan for his victory over Zab Judah. There is none of the hyper-active hyperbole that has become the tone of HBO’s 24/7. Instead, it’s is about an ordinary guy confronted by extraordinary challenges. If you ever wonder why boxing survives, there it is. Much has been said and written about Roach’s advancing struggle with Parkinson’s.

With shots of Roach’s shaking hands and arms, however, filmmaker Peter Berg’s documentary reminds

us that it is more than a good story. It’s every day. Roach has often said he wouldn’t know what to do without his work at his Wild Card Gym, without a schedule that takes him from Manny Pacquiao’s corner, to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., to the 2012 U.S. Olympic team, to Khan and so many others. In the hard work, Roach defines himself and forgets about the terrible disease.

Roach’s unflinching honesty is there for Berg’s cameras, seemingly from dawn to dusk and even when Roach falls asleep. It’s been called reality television, whatever that is. It’s not. It’s a lesson about life. Watch it, and you’ll see why the business fights on.

Headlines & Counters
News item: Sergio Martinez at a catch weight has emerged as an opponent for Floyd Mayweather Jr. if talks (insert your own joke here) for a fight in May with Pacquiao continue to fail. Reaction: Martinez at 150 pounds is a tougher opponent for Mayweather than Pacquiao.

News item: The so-called mystery man, Mustafa Ameen, tells the BBC that, yes, he did tell WBA supervisor Michael Welsh to correct his scorecard in the controversial decision that went against Khan in his loss to Lamont Peterson in Washington, D.C. Reaction: How and why was Ameen allowed to approach the judge? Welsh should be banned from judging, Ameen should be banned from ringside and the D.C. Boxing & Wrestling Commission should be subjected to a federal investigation.

AZ NOTES
Sergei Liakhovich’s anger at Eddie Chambers for his late withdrawal from Saturday’s NBC debut of a boxing series because of fractured ribs is fair and understandable. Chambers wasted everybody’s time and money. For Liakhovich, it was just the latest in an unending string of misfortune that started with his 2006 knockout loss to Shannon Briggs in a ring above the infield at the Arizona Diamondbacks home park in Phoenix.

In an interview a few days before Chambers abruptly forced the cancellation of their bout, Liakhovich, a Scottsdale resident, talked about renewed hopes.

Retirement was never a consideration, said the one time heavyweight champ, who said a fractured nose in a loss to Robert Helenius in August left him choking on his own blood.

He refused to look past Chambers. Now, he has to. He says he wants to fight Chris Arreola. Here’s hoping he gets a shot.

The ever-unpredictable Floyd Mayweather Jr. has given Manny Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum another reason not to use his Twitter account.

There might be some unreported negotiations going on somehow, on some planet, for the fight always under discussion, yet still in never-never land Thursday. But I’ll believe that Mayweather is fighting Manny Pacquiao only at the very moment they answer an opening bell. Everything else about this process without end is sad comedy.

Anybody laughing? Actually, I did the other day when Mayweather resorted to Twitter in an attempt to say he’s serious about fighting Pacquiao on May 5. “Step up, punk,’’ Mayweather tweeted. He might as well have broadcast his message on a back-alley wall with a spray-can full of paint. Mayweather’s tweet was digital graffiti.

If negotiations for the richest fight in history can be conducted via Twitter, President Tweet will move into the White House next January. Come on Floyd, be serious. As social media, Twitter is fun. It’s also a good way to see what’s trending, which the Pacquiao-Mayweather won’t be if negotiations are limited to 140 characters.

QUOTES, ANECDOTES & COUNTERS
The Mayweather-Pacquiao mess and ad nauseam qualify as a redundancy. Blame everybody, including the media.

It’s hard to believe Arum’s latest warning that Pacquiao’s can’t fight until early June instead of early May because of a cut above an eye suffered against Juan Manuel Marquez in November. The bigger wound might have been to Pacquiao’s confidence after he escaped with a controversial decision over Marquez. Pacquiao might need a tune-up to recover from that one.

In saying a fight with Mayweather would be better in late May instead of early May, Pacquiao advisor Michael Koncz says he want to maximize financial opportunities by holding the fight in a temporary, 40,000-seat arena on the Las Vegas Strip. Apparently, it’ll take more time to build the outdoor arena. Okay, but there’s a college football venue, Sam Boyd Stadium and Nevada-Las Vegas’ home field, available right now. The stadium’s record crowd is 44,165. After all, major fights already have been staged at Thomas & Mack Center, where UNLV plays basketball.

AZ NOTES
The bad news is Phoenix junior-welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez Jr. was forced to cancel a scheduled fight on Feb. 3 because of a troublesome injury to his right wrist. The good news is that he is only 19 years old. He might have to deal with hands vulnerable to injury throughout his career. It’s not uncommon. Whether he needs to wear different gloves or have his hands taped differently, Benavidez has time to find a solution that could save a promising career.