Junior-welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez Jr. won’t fight on Feb. 3 at Wild Horse Pass Casino near his hometown, Phoenix, because of persistent pain from a lingering injury to his right wrist, said promoters, who canceled the card.

Gerry Truax of Showdown Promotions said Wednesday that the wrist continued to trouble Benavidez (14-0, 12 KOs) when he resumed training after he was medically cleared to fight last week.

Physicians told him to avoid contact for one month, according to Truax, the Arizona representative for Showdown, which had been planning the card in a co-promotion with Top Rank. Truax said he canceled the card because local sponsors withdrew support after being told that Benavidez would not fight.

“It wouldn’t be fair to ask Jose to fight at 50 percent,’’ Truax. “We want him to be healthy for a fight in March.’’

Benavidez, a Top Rank fighter, is scheduled to fight on March 23 on a ShoBox-televised card in Tucson at Casino del Sol. Dallas super-bantamweight Roberto Marroquin, another Top Rank prospect, is scheduled for the main event.

The 19-year-old Benavidez has been struggling with a wrist injury since he made his pro debut in his home state with a fourth-round stoppage in June of Corey Alarcon at Wild Horse Pass Casino. He aggravated the injury in November during a unanimous decision on Nov. 12 over Samuel Santana on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao’s controversial victory over Juan Manuel Marquez at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. is scheduled Friday to begin a 90-day jail sentence that represents a term of uncomfortable uncertainty for a part of the business that dislikes him, yet needs him.

Like it or not, Mayweather’s pay-per-view revenue adds up to proof he has created an audience and anticipation for more from a gifted fighter who controls everything within the ropes, yet seemingly very little outside of them.

It’s the contrast that makes the next three months impossible to predict. Who will step inside the walls and bars of Las Vegas’ Clark County jail? The calculating fighter always able to dictate timing, placement and style in the ring? Or the mercurial personality charged with losing control in a confrontation with an ex-girlfriend?

He’s been reserved a room without a view in a place without personal choice. Mayweather will be told when to eat, what to eat, when to shower, what to wear and when to sleep. One of the few things anybody knows for sure about Mayweather is that he hates being told what to do. He rebels at what he can’t control.

I’m guessing that terse comments and no comments about him from Top Rank’s Bob Arum, Mayweather’s estranged promoter, and Golden Boy’s Richard Schaefer, his recent representative, are guided by that realization. But there’s more to it than that. Both know how the public, blow-by-blow accounts of talks for Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao drove the futile negotiations into the ditch. Any kind of speculation from either promoter might further endanger Mayweather’s chances at winning the biggest fight of his life.

I applaud them for saying as little as possible. Let Mayweather do his time without it becoming what I fear could become another chapter of HBO’s 24/7, which became one of television’s most popular reality shows because of its portrayal of his dysfunctional family. Unfortunately, Mayweather’s celebrity probably means he won’t be left alone, inside and out. How long before TMZ gets a collect-call from an unidentified inmate offering a salacious anecdote? Chances of that call getting made and reported are a lot better than a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight.

If Mayweather is allowed to come to terms with what he has done and why, he can walk out of jail with newfound maturity and a much better chance at achieving the potential he has always possessed. He would prosper. Pacquiao, Arum and Schaefer would prosper. But if he surrenders to the demons that put him there, he loses. Everybody does. Let him win. Hope that he does.

A COUPLE OF COUNTERS
· Arum says he will discuss four possible opponents – Lamont Peterson, Tim Bradley, Miguel Cotto and Juan Manuel Marquez — for Pacquiao during a visit next week to the Philippines. Leg cramps also figure to be a talking point. Cramps in his last two fights, first over Shane Mosley and then over Juan Manuel Marquez, were the one opponent he couldn’t beat.

· New Year’s resolutions are like fighters’ nose. They’re there to be broken. But here’s one resolution I wish could be kept. At a San Antonio news conference for the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.-Marco Antonio Rubio news conference, Chavez was quoted as saying he’d be willing to die in the ring. Please, no more talk of dying. We only want to see a willingness to win.

AZ NOTES
· Top Rank and Showdown Promotions are planning a March 23 card for Showtime’s “ShoBox” at Tucson’s Casino del Sol featuring super-bantamweight prospect Roberto Marroquin of Dallas in the main event and 19-year-old junior-welterweight Jose Benavidez Jr. on the undercard. The initial date had been March 9, a month and a few days after Benavidez fights on Feb. 3 for only the second time in front of a hometown audience at Wild Horse Pass Resort & Casino in Chandler, a Phoenix suburb. Benavidez has been given final medical clearance for the Feb. 3 bout. He had been bothered by pain from a strained right wrist suffered in November during a victory before Pacquiao’s controversial decision over Marquez at Las Vegas MGM Grand.

· And Phoenix super-middleweight Jesus Gonzales, who has been searching for a fight since an impressive victory on July 8, is staying busy by sparring with Canadian junior-middleweight Janks Trotter. In the biggest Canadian showdown not on NHL ice, Trotter (7-0, 7 KOs) faces Adam Trupish (9-0, 6 KOs) on Jan. 13 in Calgary. On the July night that Gonzales got off the canvas to beat Francisco Sierra at US Airways Centre in downtown Phoenix, Trotter scored one of the knockouts of the year with a second-round punch that lifted Arturo Crespin high enough and long enough for some real hang time in the NBA arena.

A year ends with memories of those who are gone, optimism for those who are emerging and hope for those who are back. There are lessons from unresolved controversies and controversy that never ends. Farewell Joe Frazier, Genaro Hernandez, Ron Lyle, Henry Cooper, George Benton, Nick Charles and George Kimball. It won’t be the same without you. Hello Andre Ward, Nonito Donaire, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Seth Mitchell, James Kirkland, Gary Russell Jr. and Jose Benavidez Jr. You’re the future.

Those new calendars in the mail are an empty canvas. Opinions and predictions are as irresistible as they are frivolous and about as forgettable as graffiti. Here are a few – the good, the bad and the tongue-in-cheek. But, first, a warning. For anybody who takes any of them seriously, remember that I picked Alfredo Angulo to beat Kirkland, who got up from a first-round knockdown and made the prediction game look foolish with a sixth-round stoppage.

Now, a look at what might – and might not — unfold:

Opinion: There’s a better chance of Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather in 2012 than there is of a fourth fight between Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez. Pacquiao-Marquez IV would look a lot like II and III. What’s the point? It would end in just another noisy controversy about who won. Fair or not, Marquez’ legacy rests on the brilliant way he made Pacquiao look beatable. In subtle adjustments from round-to-round last November, he forced Pacquiao to hesitate and think. It was enough to prevent Pacquiao, an instinctive fighter, from establishing a rhythm. Allow Pacquiao to get on a roll, and there’s no stopping him.

Prediction: Marquez, who keeps his promises, retires

Opinion: Somebody needs to convince Mayweather that his 90-day jail sentence on reduced charges for his role in domestic abuse is a chance to think about a legacy he has put in jeopardy. If he stays out of trouble and vows to devote the next few years to his evident talent, he still can achieve the respect he always believes has been denied him. That respect isn’t an entitlement. It’s won by fighting through adversity. For the first time in his career, he is facing some that he can’t trash-talk or side step. It’s the biggest fight of his life.

Prediction: Mayweather beats Lamont Peterson three months after his release.

Opinion: Mayweather advisor Al Haymon is the elusive powerbroker, whose influence is there, yet hard to quantify. There is power, perhaps, in the mystery. Mayweather has called the publicity-shy Haymon “The Ghost.’’

Prediction: Ghosts will get quoted more often than Haymon.

Opinion: Pacquiao will have to restore some lost confidence after getting a majority decision over Marquez in fight he halting called “not so happy.’’ He also has to find a way to solve troublesome leg cramps, which he says affected him in victories over Shane Mosley and Marquez. The fractured confidence should be easy enough to repair for the Filipino Congressman and lieutenant colonel. But the cramping is another issue. It might be a sign, an early symptom, of a fighter one step past his prime.

Prediction: Pacquiao beats Tim Bradley, then Miguel Cotto in a rematch and gets promoted to major general.

Opinion: World Boxing Council chief Jose Sulaiman is issuing statements and clarifications faster than interim titles. This time, he’s trying to say he didn’t really mean to tell the Filipino media that “beating a lady … it is not a major sin or crime.” In a subsequent statement, he said that he “developed female boxing.’’ Memo to women who hold one of the WBC’s lime-green belts: Do what Riddick Bowe did in 1992 and dump it in the nearest garbage can.

Prediction: Sulaiman will say something stupid.

Opinion: We’re just beginning to see how good Ward can be. With news that he beat a Carl Froch with a left hand fractured in two places, we’re also beginning to see how tough he is. A reported audience of fewer than 500,000 watched his victory on Dec. 17 over Froch in Showtime’s final of the Super Six Tournament. That was disappointing.

Prediction: After the hand heals, he’ll win two in 2012, pushing his record to 27-0. This time, more than 500,000 will watch his patient, yet sure path to pound-for-pound contention.

Opinion: Questions loom as to whether Canelo-Chavez Jr., will ever happen because Chavez Jr. a junior-middleweight, is said to be at about 180 pounds at opening bell. If Chavez Jr. is too heavy for Canelo, he’s too heavy for Miguel Cotto. The weight issue might force Chavez Jr. into a fight with Sergio Martinez late in 2012.

Prediction: Martinez wins a late-round stoppage.

Opinion: People close to Antonio Margarito have urged him to retire. Even if his surgically-repaired eye can withstand further punches, the tissue around it cannot. After years of sustained punishment, it doesn’t take much for it to lacerate and swell. That was evident early in his loss on Dec. 3 to Cotto.

Prediction: A defiant Margarito continues to fight, bleed and lose in Mexico.

Opinion: Referees struggled throughout 2011 to get it right. Russell Mora missed 11 low blows in Abner Mares’ first victory over Joseph Agbeko. Joe Cortez was looking away, toward the timekeeper, when Mayweather dropped Victor Ortiz, whose hands were down and his eyes on Cortez. Joe Cooper took two points from Amir Khan for pushing off Peterson. If Cooper warned Khan, it was only evident after careful review of the tape long after Khan’s loss on the scorecards was announced. Cooper’s penalties were the difference.

Prediction: More instant replay. It works in the NFL. Nobody has a tougher job than boxing’s lone ref. Let technology be his ally.

Opinion: Top Rank and Golden Boy, Bob Arum and Oscar De La Hoya, will continue to exchange insults instead of letting their respective fighters exchange punches.

Prediction: A year from now, we’ll be talking about whether Pacquiao-Mayweather will happen in 2013.

Floyd Mayweather’s Jr.’s 90-day sentence on reduced charges was the battered game’s last significant headline in 2011 and sadly an appropriate wrap –a plain, brown paper bag, please — for a year best forgotten.

Speculation in twitter time already is making the rounds about whether a Mayweather fight with Manny Pacquiao is in jeopardy or possible in late 2012. Who knows? In frustration, I’m tempted to say: Who cares? But that would be dishonest. It’s still a fight I’d like to see.

But it all hinges on what nobody has ever been able to predict and that’s Mayweather, himself. Barring a successful appeal, there’s just no way to know what jail time will do to him.

In reading Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Melissa Saragosa’s sentence in a plea deal that allowed Mayweather to avoid a felony trial for his role in a 2010 case of domestic abuse, there was a warning that jumps out of the legalese. Mayweather has to avoid trouble for one year. I hope he can, but I have my doubts.

Behind bars, he’s a target for taunts and worse from wannabes of every stripe. From rent-a-cops to Larry Merchant, Mayweather reacts badly to anything he interprets as a lack of proper respect. He won’t be getting any of that from jailhouse guards.

Once out, there will be more of the same on the street. There have been times when Mayweather has shown composure. It was there when the corners indulged in a ring riot during his 2006 victory over Zab Judah. A cool Mayweather stayed out of it. He’s going to have to stay out of a lot more during the next year.

QUOTES, ANECDOTES AND COUNTERS
· You know what they say about karma. Can’t help but guess that Victor Ortiz thinks it was at play in Mayweather’s sentencing. Ortiz was knocked out by a combination in September when his hands were down and his eyes on referee Joe Cortez instead of Mayweather. The combo was called a “legal cheap shot.” In striking a plea agreement and reserving Las Vegas’ MGM Grand for a May 5 fight, Mayweather behaved as though he believed he would never go to jail. Mayweather must feel as if he has been hit by another kind of “legal cheap shot.”

· Questions about a vanishing scorecard and an altered card in Amir Khan’s controversial loss to Lamont Peterson should be enough to get Washington D.C.’s attention about the need for a federal commission. After all, it happened there. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer said Tuesday in a conference call that the International Boxing Federation’s master sheet vanished. About 10 days later, according to Schaefer, it suddenly re-appeared like a suspicious ballot cast in south Florida during the 2000 presidential campaign. There must be some hanging chads on the original.

· Controversy about Mayweather, Khan-Peterson, referees and judges take away from the good in 2011. There’s Andre Ward, this corner’s pick for Fighter of the Year after a brilliant decision over Carl Froch. There’s Ward’s cornerman, Virgil Hunter, choice for Trainer of the Year. There are also Miguel Cotto and Juan Manuel Marquez. Neither figure to be included in year-end awards. Yet, both were the working definition of class — poise under pressure. On Dec. 3, Cotto displayed it throughout his disciplined attack in avenging a 2008 loss to Antonio Margarito. On Nov. 12, a composed and reasonable Marquez disputed the decision that went against him in another loss to Pacquiao. Marquez did so without rancor after proving all over again that Pacquiao is beatable. It’s hard to believe Marquez has never been voted Fighter of the Year, either by The Ring or the Boxing Writers Association of America. Someday, that will be seen as a terrible oversight.

AZ NOTES

· Top Rank plans a busy 2012 for junior-welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez, Jr., an unbeaten 19-year-old who begins the year on Feb. 3 at Wild Horse Pass & Casino in Chandler, a suburb of his hometown, Phoenix. “Eight, maybe nine fights,’’ Benavidez’ dad and trainer, Jose Sr., said.

· And what would have been a nasty trial in civil court has been averted. Phoenix Hall of Fame junior-flyweight Michael Carbajal and his estranged brother Danny reached an out-of-court settlement. Michael was suing Danny for 12 parcels of real estate that Michael said Danny, his former manager and trainer, bought with ring earnings stolen from him in a fraudulent scheme. Danny was released from prison last summer. Under terms of the agreement, Michael gains ownership of the property surrounding his boyhood home in downtown Phoenix. The trial had been scheduled to begin in early January.

Reasons for the many controversies of 2011 are plentiful. Pick one. Pick a handful. In part, however, it appears to be symptomatic of a passing generation. Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. have only each other to fight and nobody seems to know today anything more than they did two years ago about whether that will ever happen. The bad blood of the last few years is getting old and tired. Maybe, it’s time to just move on to another name, a fresh face for the sagging game.

Andre Ward has the look of somebody who could fill that frame, although his chances of doing so hinge in large part on his Super Six finale Saturday night against dangerous Carl Froch in the climax of Showtime’s super-middleweight tournament.

Ward has been hanging around the fringes of the pound-for-pound debate for at least a year. Depending on the ranking, Ward is in the second five, poised to make a real claim on a spot that Pacquiao and Mayweather have exchanged, argued over, yet never fought for. Maybe, they will fight in 2012. Yeah, maybe Donald Trump and Barack Obama will be running mates.

No matter what does or doesn’t transpire, Ward figures to do what he has always done: Stay busy in the proud, workmanlike fashion of a personality that often sounds aloof, yet remains thoroughly intriguing for a consistency defined by 14 years without a loss, amateur and pro.

Luck? Maybe But everybody gets blindsided once, twice or thrice over the course of nearly a decade-and-a-half. There are cheap shots, head butts, unseen punches and judges who see what they want to see. Ward has managed to beat them all. If you’re seeking luck, buy a lotto ticket. Ward seeks victory with an unerring eye for detail.

There have been questions about whether he will be able to deal with Froch’s strength, especially on the inside where the Brit is lethal. But Ward trainer Virgil Hunter counters that the 2004 Olympic gold medalist knows how to fighht in the physical, head-banging style he might encounter Saturday in Atlantic City.
“Before Andre was a boxer he was a fighter,” said Hunter, who predicts Ward will win by knockout. “He would fight his way to victory. If you’re going to win a gold medal in the Olympics, you’re going to have to adapt to the amateur and point system and learn to win that way. He’s had to adapt through training and repetition. But the fighting never left him. And I think that is one thing that surprises people about his fighting ability.

“Carl has said Andre hasn’t fought in any exciting fights. Well, it takes two to make an exciting fight. When one guy is dominating, it’s not going to be exciting. When you’ve got two guys busting each other up beside the head, yes, from the fans’ perspective and the media’s perspective, that’s exciting. His fighting ability has always been there. The power of that fighting ability is that he knows when to use that strength against you and he knows when to use his opponents’ strength against him. That’s what makes up Andre.’’

Translation: There’s a lot more to Ward than anybody, even Froch, knows. At the Athens Olympics, few saw him on the Games’ final day when he won America’s only gold. Media and fans already were gathered at the Stadium for closing ceremonies when he stood on the victory stand’s top pedestal. Britain’s Amir Khan, the Game’s designated star, had already won silver. The international media had moved on or gone home. Even promoters didn’t seem to care much. Ward signed for a reported $100,000. Twelve years earlier, gold medalist Oscar De La Hoya signed for seven figures.

Ward’s patient emergence since then might help restore value to Olympic gold. Ward has never said so, but the absence of big offers in 2004 was valuable for the motivation. Repeatedly, Ward talks about how he fights to prove people wrong. He personalizes it without demonizing his critics.

“You don’t just win these types of fights; you’ve got to take them,’’ Ward says in a tone that includes a lesson about respect.

Mayweather cries about getting enough of it; Ward commands it.

But Ward’s search for it starts with the fighter he sees every day, staring back at him from the mirror, while he shadow-boxes. Respect is just a meaningless golden oldie if not preceded by self.

“I’ve set out from day one to do things that I’ve been raised to do,’’ Ward said. “I’m not going to change for anybody. I’m going to be myself. You’d be surprised how many people outside of boxing have come up to me and said, ‘Hey, I appreciate the way you carry yourself. I’m going to have my son or daughter look to you as an example.’ That kind of stuff right there means a lot more to mean than gaining a few more fans or writers saying, ‘Hey, this guy is crazy and we love him.’

“If you look at a guy like Ricardo Mayorga, for example, he was a shooting star. He came in and made some noise. Then, he was gone. People take shots at him and say he’s ignorant. Then when you have a fighter who comes in and tries to carry himself the right way — not as a front or an act but just has a clean lifestyle, then that’s not accepted either.’’

Years from now, Ward says he wants his family to remember a fighter who makes them proud.

“When it’s all said and done, my children are going to look back on my career and I want to be able to point to my career and say, ‘Follow your dad. Do it the way he did it,’ ‘’ Ward said. “Once this is all done and I hang them up, the legacy that is there will be there forever. So that more important to me than a few pats on the back or for people to say you’re exciting outside of the ring.

“When you tell people you’re a fighter, they expect you to be ignorant and to act a certain way.’’

But not Ward, who has his own expectations and perhaps his own way at a pound-for-pound shuffle.

AZ Notes
The last fighter to beat Ward was Phoenix super-middleweight Jesus Gonzales. They were both 14-years-old then. Gonzales, who was known then as Ernie, was considered a better prospect than Ward, who once said he’s like to avenge the loss. The once-beaten Gonzales, who struggles to find fights, would love to give him that chance.

Phoenix junior-welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez Jr. continues to feel some pain in his right wrist, which was strained on Nov. 12 in a victory on the undercard of Pacquiao’s controversial victory over Juan Manuel Marquez. But the lingering pain is not expected to keep from the main event on Feb. 3 at Wild Horse Pass Resort & Casino in Chandler. The card was formally announced Wednesday at a news conference in downtown Phoenix.

And Showdown Promotions and Top Rank are planning a ShoBox card on March 9 for Casino del Sol in Tucson. The card promises to be one of several in an Arizona market that is on the rebound since the immigration controversy over proposed state legislation, SB1070, subsides.

Amir Khan is in a city where it is very hard to get any kind of a decision. Some would say it’s impossible. Washington D.C. is only a fight town if you’re a Republican, or a Democrat, or Barack Obama.

That said, I’m thinking Khan will get what no American politician can, even those who were anointed to sit on some budget committee that was called super. Or was that stupor? It’s a risk, of course. Allowing the junior-welterweight fight to go to the scorecards Saturday night for a decision in Lamont Peterson’s hometown is the kind of gamble that could go terribly wrong.

But there’s much to admire in Khan’s bold willingness to take on risk and then manage its dangerous dynamics. His desperate stand in the 10th round of a vicious assault from Marcos Maidana a year ago in Las Vegas is a sure sign that he knows how to prevail. It’s instinctive. It had to be then, because instinct was all he had after Maidana’s punches nearly separated him from consciousness.

Bernard Hopkins, in his role as a Golden Boy Promotions vice president, has warned Khan he has to pursue a stoppage. Khan will, of course. That almost goes without saying. But Peterson is nothing if not a survivor. He learned the survival arts on D.C. streets where he grew up with his brother, homeless without a dad and seemingly without a chance. Peterson has survived before at home. It’s hard to believe he won’t survive 12 rounds this time.

But Peterson’s inexhaustible resiliency and hometown support don’t figure to score enough points against the emerging collection of speed, skill and smarts possessed by Khan, who at 25 appears to be nearing his prime.

“I can’t afford to lose and get beat,’’ Khan has said in conference calls and at news conferences. “It’s going to take me from being a good fighter to be being a superstar. Hopefully, Lamont Peterson will make me one of the best fighters in the world.’’

Khan might still be a Tim Bradley and another weight class, welter, from super-stardom. But the stakes are as high as the risk in what could be his most dangerous fight since Maidana.

In an unexpected twist, Khan trainer Freddie Roach got an object lesson, up close and personal, in the danger posed by Peterson. Roach, an advisor to America’s 2012 Olympic team, was with Peterson, who sparred as designated training partners for the Olympic boxers.

For two rounds, Roach held mitts that Peterson pounded with punches that revealed their power. If there’s a weakness in Khan, it is a fragile chin. Despite his desperate stand in the victory over Maidana, it’s been there ever since Breidis Prescott stopped him in the first round of a stunner.

Since then, Khan has learned to employ his evident quickness and long jab to stay away from the inside brawling that opponents are sure to employ in an attempt to test that chin.

Intrigue rests in how Khan uses and mixes the elements in his versatile array of skill. The guess here is that he will have to do exactly that and perhaps more in a story on scorecards that will say a lot about him.

QUOTES, ANECDOTES
Congratulations to the 2012 Hall of Fame class of Thomas Hearns, Mark Johnson, Freddie Roach, Al Bernstein and especially retired boxing writer Michael Katz, whose words from ringside always said it better than anyone.

Life imitates art: Max Kellerman and Larry Merchant will do in fact for the HBO telecast of Khan-Peterson what they did in film a few years ago as a fictional broadcast team in the Rocky Balboa movie.

Lieutenant Colonel Manny Pacquiao has rank enough to command a Filipino battalion, yet still has no command of what Juan Manuel Marquez does to him.

AZ NOTES
Hall of Fame junior-flyweight Michael Carbajal of Phoenix applauds Johnson for getting into the Hall.

“I’m happy for him,’’ Carbajal said.

Johnson, of Washington D.C., and Carbajal were once mentioned as potential opponents.

“I would have fought him, but I lost to Jake Matlala,’’ said Carbajal, who lost a ninth-round stoppage to the South African in 1997. “If I’d beaten Matlala, that was the plan. We were talking about Mark Johnson. But I got beat.

“Johnson was a great boxer, really quick. But I would have put the pressure on and kept that pressure on him.’’

A 2011, seemingly forgettable because of controversial refereeing, has a chance to get off the mat this Saturday and be remembered as the Year of the Rematch.

There’s a buzz on both coasts, impossible to ignore for the rest of us in fly-over country.

At Madison Square Garden in New York, there are super-welterweights Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito in a blood feud ancient Rome would have liked. At the Honda Center in Anaheim, there is Abner Mares and Joseph Agbeko in a chance to resolve the low-blow controversy that has haunted Mares in the months since referee Russell Mora didn’t penalize him.

Take your pick. I’ll take both.

It’s no surprise that Cotto-Margarito is getting most of the attention on an HBO pay-per-view card that includes another intriguing encore, middleweights Pavel Wolak and Delvin Rodriquez in a rematch of their wild draw.

Bad blood since Margarito’s 2008 victory in 2009 has been boiling, because of Cotto’s belief that Margarito used the same altered hand wraps that were found before the Mexican’s next fight, a 2009 loss to Shane Mosley.

Cotto calls Margarito a criminal. Almost as if he enjoys the role, Margarito smiles beneath eyes hidden behind ever-present dark glasses and long hair that create a menacing mask. Then, there was the licensing mess in New York, where the state’s athletic commission worried about the condition of Margarito’s surgically-repaired right eye before finally saying OK.

Add a potentially vulnerable target to an evident quest for vengeance in what looks to be a last-stand between fighters past their prime, and there’s unmistakable danger. For some, that transforms the bout into irresistible drama. For others, it’s just obscene. Hide the kids.

For the articulate Mares, there is none of the intense anger or hand-wrap suspicions that are worthy of a new television series. Call it CSI Boxing. But the bantamweight bout is every bit as significant for a young fighter on the cusp of attaining real stardom. Put simply, he has to prove he isn’t a dirty fighter. Only he can.

“I hope to win the right way so people will give me the credit I deserve,’’ Mares said at a workout a few days before the Showtime-televised fight.

Mares is smart enough to know that credit for his majority decision in August over Agbeko has eluded him no matter what is said by him or his Golden Boy promoters.

“It was more than robbery, it was Brinks,’’ said Agbeko promoter Don King, who didn’t specifically blame Mares for what Mora did or didn’t do, but also left no doubt about who he thought escaped.

The winners: Boxing in a December comeback with Cotto in a mid-to-late round stoppage after sustained blows to Margarito’s right eye and Mares in a unanimous decision with a versatile array of punches, all above Agbeko’s belt.

A COUPLE OF COUNTERS
Two words for sports editors whose newspapers have cut back on boxing coverage because they’re offended by the sport: Penn State. One more word for those same editors: Syracuse.

In an interview with RingTV’s Lem Satterfield, Bob Arum talked about how he finally convinced Cotto to agree to a fight with Margarito, a business partner whom he calls criminal. “Ultimately, money talks,’’ Arum told Satterfield. “I couldn’t have made this fight on normal terms. Just money. That’s enough.” For Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr., there’s much more than enough to believe it finally will happen in 2012.

ROACH AT THE MIKE
Freddie Roach’s honesty will get some air time Saturday as an analyst for the EPIX/EpixHD.com broadcast of the WBA belt-holder bout in Helsinki between heavyweights Alexander Povetkin of Russia and Cedric Boswell of Atlanta. I’m not sure about the fight. At 42, Boswell appears to be overmatched against the emerging and unbeaten Povetkin. But the tireless Roach makes it worth a look, or at least a listen.

Roach’s favorite ringside broadcaster?

“Jim Lampley, he’s a genius,’’ Roach said.

AZ NOTES
In a postponement, junior-welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez is scheduled for a bout on Feb 3 at Wild Horse Pass Resort & Casino in Chandler, a suburb of Phoenix, Benavidez’ hometown. The card, promoted by Showdown and Top Rank, had been scheduled for Jan. 7. Benavidez’ appearance on the card is still subject to how his right wrist recovers from an injury suffered in a victory on the undercard Nov. 12 of Manny Pacquiao’s controversial decision over Juan Manuel Marquez at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. Benavidez, considered Top Rank’s brightest prospect, was scheduled to see the doctor on Saturday.

Once-beaten Phoenix super-middleweight Jesus Gonzales has taken to social media in an attempt to lure Kelly Pavlik into a fight. Gonzales has called out Pavlik on his Facebook page. But it’s still not clear what Pavlik’s plans are. He is expected to resume training in Oxnard, Calif., after Christmas. There’s talk about him fighting Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. But it’s not clear whether he would fight a tune-up before then. If so, Gonzales hopes for a shot at him. Pavlik’s manager is Cameron Dunkin, Gonzales’ former manager. That could be a complication.

Brinksmanship equaled salesmanship in Bob Arum’s extraordinary fight to keep the Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito rematch on Dec. 3 in New York. Arum pushed all the right buttons, created all of the available leverage, in moves that figure to multiply the pay-per-view rewards in a way that traditional promoting could not have.

Even a conference call, usually ho-hum, now looks like an ingenious piece of marketing a few days after Cotto said Tuesday he would fight only in New York, a comment that led to Arum’s abrupt end to the call. Cotto surprised Arum, yet helped him put further pressure on the New York State Athletic Commission in a battle that kept the Madison Square Garden fight from being moved. Denver and Phoenix were the alternate sites, a couple of options that added up to leverage at the box office. New York didn’t want to lose the business to another city.

None of this is to say that Arum, who had plenty of his own business at risk, had a blueprint for each step in the fast-moving chain of events.

Nobody could have, especially in the contentious wake of Manny Pacquiao’s majority decision over Juan Manuel Marquez on Nov. 12 and then promotional work the following week before Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.’s victory over Peter Manfredo in Houston. For conspiracy fans who believe Arum plots every move, please go back to your home on the grassy knoll.

In the end, Arum simply reacted shrewdly, countered when he had to, with money and smarts that left the New York commission with no choice but to license Margarito after reviewing medical recommendations, which were unanimous that Margarito’s surgically-repaired right eye was in no danger of permanent damage. It’s anybody’s guess as to what the messy process will do to the fight itself.

At the first sight of injury near an eye so terribly battered by Pacquiao more than a year ago, and it could be over. Expect heightened vigilance from the referee, ringside physician, New York commissioners and Margarito’s corner, especially in a fight that already includes an element of revenge.

Cotto continues to believe he was beaten by Margarito in 2008 by loaded hand-wraps discovered before Margarito’s loss to Shane Mosley in 2009.

In both HBO’s 24/7 and aforementioned conference call, Cotto used the word “criminal” in talking about Margarito.

“If you have another way to explain that, please, tell me what words to use,’’ he said.

When asked if he would target the eye, Cotto said:

“I’m going to use any advantage I think I have. I’m going to fight like always. I’m going to do my work.’’

Leave it to somebody else to argue whether Margarito should be allowed to fight at all after the hand-wrap scandal. The rematch comes with an edge that Cotto is seeking his own kind of justice. I can’t say I’m comfortable with the vigilante tone or the potential for another injury to Margarito’s eye. But I’ll be watching nonetheless, like so many others who won’t admit it, yet won’t be able to resist a drama that is part guilty-pleasure part blood-lust, unmistakably dangerous and thoroughly compelling.

AZ NOTES
· If New York said no, the Arizona State Boxing & MMA Commission planned to license Margarito. “We were prepared to, but it wasn’t 100 percent certain,’’ said Arizona commission executive Dennis O’Connell, who received Top Rank’s medical documents on Margarito’s eye on Friday, Nov. 18, the same day that Top Rank contacted US Airways Center about the possible move. O’Connell had a Phoenix ophthalmologist review the documentation. If the NYAC-appointed doctor had found problems in his examination, Arizona would have had to conduct its own exam.

· Phoenix as an option for Cotto-Margarito II is another sign of the re-awakening of a market gone dormant during the immigration controversy involving SB1070, state legislation that turned the Arizona desert into no-man’s land for Mexican fighters and sponsors for a couple of years.

Notes, quotes and random anecdotes in the turbulent wake of Manny Pacquiao’s majority decision over Juan Manuel Marquez:

· A Pacquiao fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. will be easier to make than Marquez-Pacquiao IV if Marquez insists that it be in Mexico. In his initial frustration at the loss Saturday at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand, Marquez seemed to say a fourth fight would have to be in his home country. In an angry response to a reported insult from Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum, World Boxing Council chief Jose Sulaiman also said a fourth chapter would have to happen in Mexico. Since then, Marquez has backed off, ruling out Vegas and saying only that the location would have to be neutral. Los Angeles? Dallas? Houston? Forget Mexico. Chances that Pacquiao would say yes to Mexico City are the same as any chance that Marquez would agree to Manila.

· Sulaiman will have a hard time believing this, but Arum has been the only reasonable voice in a frenetic push to get a deal done for either Pacquiao-Mayweather or a third rematch with Marquez. Arum hasn’t shut the door on any option. What’s the rush? For one thing, it’s not even known how seriously Pacquiao was cut in an apparent head butt in a later round. He reportedly needed 28 stitches for the wound suffered over his right eye. That might take some time to heal.

· Memo to Pacquiao: The next time you fight — be it Mayweather, Marquez or Tim Bradley, get a haircut. A key argument in favor of Marquez was that his punches were more solid. From a ringside seat, the impact might have been exaggerated by long hair that bounced and flew wildly every time Marquez landed.

· From this corner, there has always been a sense that even Mexicans have been slow to give the ever resilient Marquez his due. Leave it to somebody else to rank him among Mexico’s all-time greats. Yet even in his return home, Marquez can’t win a majority decision from some of his countrymen. A complaint was filed with Mexican authorities over a political logo worn by Marquez Saturday night, according to the Associated Press. Marquez had PRI on his trunks. That’s the acronym for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico for 71 years. The Democratic Revolution Party, PRD, complained that the logo violated a ban on premature campaigns. It looks as if Filipino Congressman Pacquiao wasn’t the only politician in the ring.

· A friend, a Mexican-American and an ardent fan of Mexican fighters, watched HBO’s pay-per-view telecast of Marquez-Pacquiao at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay. She scored it a draw. From ringside, I scored it 115-113 for Marquez. I was one of many with the same score. It would be interesting if there was another poll of the same ringside writers after they watch the HBO replay this Saturday (10:30 p.m. ET/PT). The camera often provides a much different look.

No fracture in Benavidez’ hand injury
Phoenix prospect Jose Benavidez, Jr. was relieved to learn he did not suffer a serious injury to either hand last Saturday in a unanimous decision over Sammy Santana of Puerto Rico on the Pacquiao-Marquez undercard. X-rays in Phoenix on Sunday showed he had strained his right wrist. The 19-year-old Benavidez, unbeaten (14-0, 12 KOs) as a junior-welterweight, was in evident pain. There also was swelling on a bruised middle knuckle of his left hand. But only the right gave him trouble.

“It’s good news,’’ said his dad and trainer, Jose Benavidez Sr., who has decided against a bout in mid-December. “Now, we’re just going to do what’s needed to take care of it, get healthy.’’

If the rehab goes as planned, Benavidez Sr. said he is considering a fight on a card planned for Jan. 7 at Wild Horse Pass Hotel & Casino in Chandler, a Phoenix suburb. His son fought there in June, scoring a fourth-round stoppage of Corey Alarcon while suffering from the same injuries. The senior Benavidez said he will consult a hand specialist. He also said he will re-consider how his son’s hands are taped.

“I’ve been taping them, but if we need somebody else, that’s what we’ll do,’’ he said. “Whatever’s necessary.’’

Photo By Chris Farina/ Top Rank

LAS VEGAS – The bell echoed mournfully throughout the MGM Grand Garden Arena. It was boxing’s haunting version of Taps for an old soldier. That’s what Joe Frazier really was. He was the soldier with scars from old battles, yet an undiminished memory that reminded him of who he was and often what he still wanted to be.

Frazier always wanted to fight on. That was appropriate on a night when Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez fought on and on, from round to riveting round in the third chapter Saturday of a trilogy that ended in a way that demanded more than three.

Frazier always wanted a fourth fight against Ali. Maybe, Marquez will get his fourth after losing a majority decision loudly booed by the crowd of more than 16,000, yet probably cheered by Floyd Mayweather Jr.

On a night when he was an overwhelming favorite, Pacquiao’s mixed performance probably improved chances that Mayweather will finally say yes to the one fight few ever thought would happen, although Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum said he will try to put together Pacquiao-Marquez IV for May 2012. Pacquiao didn’t look as if he would be much of a threat to Mayweather. At least, he didn’t against Marquez, whom Mayweather beat easily.

But that’s another story for another day. Whatever happens, Marquez and Pacquiao honored Frazier as much as those 10 bells mourned his passing. They would not retreat from the stubborn ferocity that has marked their rivalry through three different weight classes and eight long years. After three fights, there’s still an argument about who is the better fighter. It’s an argument that Frazier never quit making, even though he had lost two of three to Muhammad Ali. Neither Arum nor Don King could ever put together a fourth Frazier-Ali fight.

If Frazier had been in the crowd, it’s safe to say he probably would have been cheering for Marquez. He would have identified with the determined Mexican, whose tactical skill lands punches yet has been no match for Pacquiao’s charisma and celebrity.

For Frazier, there was always that impossible fight against Ali’s own celebrity. It was the one thing for which had absolutely no counter. But who did?

There were others who tried. One sat quietly in the Grand Garden Arena crowd. Earnie Shavers arrived about an hour before opening bell. He was surrounded by fans rushing to their seats. Nobody recognized him. Shavers was just another forgotten contender from a generation of heavyweights known for an Ali who needed Frazier, George Foreman, Ken Norton and even an Acorn to help him define his time.

Shavers was nicknamed the Acorn. Not because he ate them. He looked like one. He also had enough power to crack one wide open with single punch. Ali knew that. Shavers nearly stopped him on what could have been a fateful night for him, for Ali and perhaps even Frazier.

But Shavers couldn’t do what Frazier did once in three fights, the first in his trilogy. He beat Ali.

“A good man, Joe was a really good man,’’ Shavers said as he walked through the turnstiles and for the third chapter in another trilogy four decades and so many punches after the one that has become a standard, the reference point for what a rivalry should be.

And on a night when he was remembered, Joe Frazier was also a really good lesson about how great history never dies. It just gives us another trilogy.

LAS VEGAS – Nothing other than perhaps the crowd was bigger than expected.

Middle-aged men wrapped in the Mexican tri-color, moms with babies napping in strollers and kids of every age stood in line for more than six hours to watch Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez step on and off a scale Friday in the formal weigh-in for the third chapter to their trilogy Saturday at the MGM Grand.

There were no surprises. Both Pacquiao and Marquez were lighter than the 144-pound limit. At 142, Marquez looked bigger than what the scale showed, yet was still two pounds lighter than the contracted weight and one pound lighter than Pacquiao, who at 141 looked like the same fighter who has conquered everyone and everything in front of him for the last few years.

If a surprise is forthcoming, it will have to be sprung by Marquez, whose reconstructed upper-body had yet to convince gamblers that he has a chance. Odds about an hour after the weigh-in Friday favored Pacquiao by an astonishing number, 10-to-1. The third Pacquiao-Marquez fight, an HBO pay-per-view bout, was scheduled because there were lingering questions about the first two, a draw and Pacquiao victory by split decision.

But the betting public doesn’t have any questions. Follow the money. It says that the first two fights don’t matter anymore. Perhaps, that’s because Marquez (52-5-1, 38 KOs) looked so ponderous in his only other fight at a weight heavier than 140 in his one-sided loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. Or, perhaps, it’s because Pacquiao (53-3-2, 38 KOs) has looked so dominant over his last few fights. Or, perhaps, it’s the difference in age. At 38, Marquez could be a few birthdays beyond his prime. At 32, Pacquiao is still there.

“The betting line doesn’t bother me,’’ Marquez said. “I respect the audience. I respect the people who make the betting lines. It’s good for me. It’s going to be a surprise.’’

It would be a shock to Pacquiao’s fellow Filipinos, who dominated the crowd of about 5,500 at the weigh-in. They cheered their Congressman’s every move. For a while, it sounded as if the weigh-in site at one end of the MGM Grand Garden Arena could have been another Filipino province. They waved Filipino flags and mocked Floyd Mayweather Jr. with T-shirts that referred to the long-running soap opera of failed negotiations by saying: Run Floyd.

In the halls outside of the Grand Garden Arena, it was Manny mania, Manny all the time. There was Pacquiao perfume for sale. You can smell like a Congressman, too. There was Pacquiao Produce. Eat broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, and you can make weight, too.

Before stepping onto the scale, a large image of the Manilla Bulletin newspaper’s front page was displayed above the stage. In one huge headline, it asked: Pacquiao For President?

Apparently, a victory over Marquez is a foregone conclusion. Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach often talks almost as if it is. He believes that Marquez’ heavily-muscled upper-body will eventually work against the resilient Mexican, who worked with a controversial strength coach named Angel Heredia when he admitted to a grand jury during the BALCO case that he had supplied performance enhancers to Olympic medallists Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery.

Roach’s argument is that Marquez has sacrificed speed and his ability to counter, his most effective weapon. He also has said that Pacquiao’s acquisition of a powerful right provides a punch and balance that Marquez never saw in the first two bouts, when the Filipino was essentially a one-handed – left-handed – fighter.

Pacquiao, Roach said, also has his own point to prove. He was insulted by Marquez T-shirts at a Filipino press tour that proclaimed that he, not Pacquiao, had really won those first two fights.

“Respect is the most important thing for me, the most important thing for both of us,’’ Pacquiao said.

For each, there is a version of respect at stake in Chapter III.

LAS VEGAS – Jose Benavidez Jr.’s days as a prospect means time as an understudy. There was a lot to study Thursday. At the top of the lesson plan, there were examples of what-to-do, what-not-to-do at a news conference that ended in a profane, trash-talking exchange between Tim Bradley and Joel Casamayor.

“it’s crazy, I’m just not that kind of person, not someone who wants to be talking back and forth,’’ said Benavidez (13-0, 12 KOs), a Phoenix junior-welterweight who faces Puerto Rican Sammy Santana (4-4-2, 0 KOs) in a scheduled six-rounder on a Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez undercard that includes Casamayor and Bradley for the World Boxing Organization’s junior-welterweight title. “I’d just rather stay quiet, show what I can do in the ring. I just don’t think people like hear all of that stuff.’’

Whether anybody wanted it or not, they got an earful Thursday. It started with Casamayor, who ordered Bradley to sit down. He ordered once, twice, three times. Casamayor was just getting started. When Bradley refused, Casamayor, a black man from Cuba, screamed a racial epithet, the N-word, at Bradley, an African-American. Even in a sport where almost anything goes, it crossed a line.

The 19-year-old Benavidez witnessed from a seat in the second row on a makeshift stage in a ballroom at the MGM Grand. One day, that could be him. Top Rank is betting he will be a star. He is perhaps their most prized prospect. If he fulfills those expectations, it is all but inevitable that he will face one the trash-talkers of his time in face-to-face encounter.

“Hopefully, I will be a world champion and get an opportunity like that,’’ he said. “When I was an amateur, I had some moments like that. I wear glasses, so guys would get in my face. But it doesn’t really faze me much. It just actually motivates me more to show what I’ve got.

“But it’s lesson. Oh yeah, a good lesson.’’

Benavidez’ most significant lessons of late have been in sparring at the trainer Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood with Amir Khan. Benavidez said he has spent a lot of time working on his jab and body punches. Meanwhile, he’s in no hurry. He likes being a student.

“It’s important not to rush things, because if I do, if I don’t learn all this basics, I won’t ever be that world champion anyway,’’ said Benavidez, the student who often sounds like a teacher.

AZ NOTES
· After Saturday at the MGM Grand, Benavidez’ next fight is expected to be in February. Day and place have yet to be determined.

· Boxing will be a Thanksgiving appetizer in Phoenix on Nov. 23. A card promoted by Iron Boy and Estrella is scheduled for El Zaribah Shriners Auditorium at 552 North 40th Street. Super-bantamweight Alexis Santiago is scheduled for the main event on card scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

LAS VEGAS – Floyd Mayweather Jr. calls Leonard Ellerbe his advisor, but Manny Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach calls him a go-fer, whom he likens to Pacquiao’s longtime friend and assistant trainer, Restituto Fernandez, nicknamed Buboy.

“Who’s Leonard Ellerbe?’’ Roach said Thursday during a roundtable with the trainers in the build-up to Saturday’s third fight between Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand. “He’s the go-fer guy. He’s Buboy. Where’s Floyd Mayweather?’’

Translation: Roach didn’t believe Ellerbe last week when he said that there’s a good chance the long-awaited Pacquiao-Mayweather fight will happen on May 5.

Roach called Ellerbe’s comment a big tease. Actually, Roach used more colorful language than that. But you get the idea. For Roach, there’s no fight until he sees Mayweather, hands taped and gloves on, step through the ropes and answer an opening bell.

In what ranks as a mild surprise, Roach’s rhetorical slap at Ellerbe was one of the few references this week to the Mayweather-Pacquiao possibility, which has dominated — ad nauseam — the boxing conversation for the last couple of years. Perhaps, talk about Mayweather has subsided because a few people are beginning to give Marquez a real chance in this second rematch.

Marquez’ confidence is as evident as his rebuilt upper-body, which has sparked controversial speculation about his strength coach, Angel Hernandez, who went by a different name, Angel Heredia, when he admitted in testimony involving BALCO that he supplied performance-enhancers to Olympic track-and-field medallists Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery.

Marquez believes he was robbed of victory in a 2004 draw and a 2008 loss by split decision in the first two bouts. He has the style to beat Pacquiao, he says. But style can be fickle. It’s in the eyes of the beholder, or in his case the judges. Style also changes. Neither Pacquiao nor Marquez is the same fighter either was three years ago. But the basics are still there, says Marquez trainer Nacho Beristain. It’s in their personalities.

“Pacquiao is a guy who comes to fight,’’ said Beristain, who didn’t say – and didn’t have to – that Mayweather would not engage him in the kind of the battle he prefers in a 2009 loss. “In Pacquiao, he has found a guy with a willingness to fight.’’

But Roach is confident Marquez will regret what he encounters this time, in part because he has added weight and in part because he angered Pacquiao with T-shirts at a media stop in the Philippines proclaiming that he won the first two bouts.

“Manny has been a little meaner to his sparring partners,’’ Roach said. “He didn’t take well to those T-shirts Marquez wore to the Philippines. He won’t say anything. But I can tell by his work ethic that he has a little more fire in him.’’

In adding muscle, Roach believes Marquez is sacrificing quickness and abandoning his best weapon, the counter-punch.

“You don’t add muscle to counter-punch,’’ said Roach, who forecasts that Marquez will pursue an early stoppage. “He feels he wants to exchange with Manny. I would’ve gone back the other way, back to the counter-punches that gave Manny trouble.’’

A lot already has been said about Pacquiao’s acquisition of a powerful right hand since his last meeting with Marquez when he relied on his left.

“His right hand is my baby,’’ Roach said. “I said I’ll only be satisfied if it is as good as his left. And it is.’’

Another difference, perhaps more subtle, might be critical. It’s in Pacquiao’s feet. In his last few fights, he has moved across the canvas, at times almost like a spinning top.

“Manny’s footwork is the key to the fight,’’ Roach said. “He has improved immensely with his footwork. Thing is, you don’t whether he’s coming or going. He’s hard to judge.’’

Hard to beat, too, although Marquez has other ideas.

LAS VEGAS – Juan Manuel Marquez’ strength coach has been called controversial. He’s been called a couple of other things too, including two different last names, once Heredia and now Hernandez. He’s always been Angel, yet with a devil in his past. He testified during the BALCO scandal that he supplied performance enhancers to Olympic track-and-field medalists.

The guess was that he was hiding behind an alias.

But guess what? He wasn’t hiding at all Wednesday. Hernandez or Heredia or none of the above was front and center at the most public of places, a formal news conference at the MGM Grand for the third Marquez fight with Manny Pacquiao Saturday night.

Marquez even introduced him, or at least thanked him.

“Memo Hernandez” Marquez called him as stood at the podium and gestured toward the strength coach’s seat near the stage and suddenly in the spotlight.

Memo to everybody else: Marquez is forthright and open about working with the coach of many names and controversies. Perhaps, it’s an attempt to erase the speculative cloud about whether something more than pumping iron went into the bodywork that has re-defined his appearance. The Marquez camp is acting as if it has nothing to hide. It’s the smart move, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the speculation will subside. It never does. Ask Lance Armstrong.

“I want to make clear I have done a clean preparation for this fight, like I always have done,’’ Marquez said in Spanish translated into English by his promoter, Fernando Beltran.

In terms of integrity, Marquez’ record is unquestioned. But circumstances have created an almost inescapable web. Boxing fans and conspiracy theorists are almost one and the same. Without conspiracies, the game’s history just wouldn’t be what it is.

The contracted weight for Saturday is 144 pounds. Marquez has been at more than 140 pounds only once and that was in a one-sided loss by decision to a bigger Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2009. He says he trained the wrong way to get ready for the jump up in weight. It left him sluggish. He then fought at 133 pounds, 134 and 138 in victories over Juan Diaz, Michael Katsidis and Likar Ramos.

Then, the work began for Pacquiao, who took a split decision from him at 130 pounds in 2008 and fought him to a draw at 126 in 2004. Marquez said he would train differently for the third fight against Pacquiao, his second attempt at fighting at a weight north of 140. Enter Hernandez, who was Heredia when he testified that he gave performance enhancers to Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery.

The controversy erupted when Victor Conte, who went to prison for his role in the BALCO, spotted him on HBO’s 24/7. In a tweet, Conte, who works with Nonito Donaire and Andre Berto, revealed that Hernandez had another name and links to the scandal.

Hernandez, who has a degree from Texas A&M, said Wednesday that he is suing Conte for defamation. He also ripped Conte, calling him a hypocrite.

“The guy has not only been convicted,’’ Hernandez said. “He’s a liar. It’s obvious he’s jealous. Because I’m part of boxing today, I guess he feels I’m competition again. His athletes could wind up being mine. He’s always been jealous.’’

Hernandez theorized that his college degree might a reason for that jealousy.

“He doesn’t have a degree,’’ Hernandez said.

Marquez said the strength training designed by Hernandez has involved weight-lifting, but in variety of ways and at changing weights. The idea is to retain his quickness while adding power.

Hard to do, says Pacquiao. Maybe impossible, says Pacquiao’s surprised trainer, Freddie Roach.

“I thought he’d come in at 135 and use his speed and counter-punching against Manny,’’ Roach said. “They moved in a different direction by getting bigger.”

If he has added muscle and sacrificed speed, Roach suggests Marquez will be in trouble against Pacquiao, who has added a potent right hand to power that dropped Marquez three times in the opening round of their first fight.

“I don’t think he’s going to be able to get up from this Manny Pacquiao punch,” Roach said.

A one-punch knockout from Pacquiao might be the only answer to any of the drug questions floating around in the dwindling days before opening bell. But Marquez, an astonishing 7-to-1 underdog late Wednesday, says it won’t happen, in large part because of the work he did with Hernandez. Or is that Heredia?

“My name is this,’’ Hernandez said as he tried to explain the name game in HBO 24/7. “My name is very long. My first name is Angel. I have a middle name, which is Guillermo. But in Mexico, they use ‘Memo,’ which is my nickname. Heredia, for some people, it’s very difficult for them to catch up.

“You can ask anybody here in the media sometimes they call me Heredia. Dr. Heredia. For some reason, I told you guys Hernandez, and it was easier for you guys to write it down.”

Next time, we’ll write it down with a pencil that comes with a very eraser at the opposite end. You never know when it’s going to change.

LAS VEGAS – Bob Arum threw a combination as only he can, first by praising Home Box Office for its work in the build-up to Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez and then ripping the network for its documentary, Thrilla in Manila, a look at the Joe Frazier-Muhammad Ali rivalry that HBO will replay Thursday and Sunday in honor of the late Frazier.

“That documentary, I find is disgusting,’’ Arum said Wednesday after HBO senior vice-president Mark Taffet announced the scheduling during a formal news conference for the third chapter in the Pacquiao-Marquez trilogy Saturday at the MGM Grand.

The 2009 film tells a story about the Muhammad Ali-Frazier rivalry through the eyes of Frazier, 67, who died Monday from liver cancer. Through most of his life, Frazier was bitter at the way he was treated by Ali, who called him “ugly”, a “gorilla,’’ and an “Uncle Tom’’ during their heavyweight trilogy.

Arum remembered Frazier as a great fighter, yet he was angry at the film’s portrayal of Ali.

“I’m 80,’’ said Arum, a former Ali promoter. “I was there. It is an unfair attack on Ali. Watch it. But don’t believe a word that is said.’’

The 90-minute documentary is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. (ET/PT) on Thursday and 5:30 p.m. (ET/PT) Sunday.

A contentious conference call full of questions about Juan Manuel Marquez’ hiring of a controversial strength coach linked to performance-enhancers included an offer that represents an opportunity for Manny Pacquiao.

“Whatever testing they want to do, blood or Olympic, I am ready to do it,’’ Marquez said. “We’ll do it, no problem, as long as he does it too.’’

Memo to Pacquiao: Say yes. Call the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. Schedule the test.

It’s hard to know if Marquez was serious or just bluffing Wednesday when — in an exasperated tone – he made the comment after another question about how he met Angel Hernandez and what he knew about his past, which includes testimony during the BALCO case that he provided PEDs to disgraced Olympic sprinter Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery when he had a different name, Angel Heredia.

It almost sounded as if Marquez just wanted to move beyond the controversy and back to the day-to-day business of preparing for his second rematch with Pacquiao on Nov. 12 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. Can’t blame him, but the questions won’t go away easily, in part because of Hernandez or Heredia or whatever his name is this week. An alias, if that’s what it is, is a way to hide. At least, BALCO founder Victor Conte, who unlike Heredia-Hernandez did time in prison, didn’t change his name to Vinnie Barbarino before he started working for Nonito Donaire and Andre Berto.

In the short-term, an Olympic-style test would alleviate some of the suspicions that threaten to erode anticipation for a third fight expected to settle the debate about whether a draw and a split-decision for Pacquiao should have been scored in favor of Marquez.

In the long-term, it would eliminate any further debate about whether Pacquiao has agreed to the tests demanded by Floyd Mayweather Jr. Negotiations for Mayweather-Pacquiao fell apart in late 2009 over the issue. According to Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum, Pacquiao has agreed to random testing.

“Manny Pacquiao has said for two years that he will accept Olympic style testing, so that question is absolute nonsense,” said Arum, also exasperated at continuing talk about an issue that wouldn’t matter much if Marquez upsets the Filipino.

Nevertheless, Mayweather advisor Leonard Ellerbe told ESPN.com that the fight might happen on May 5. Drug-testing has been resolved, said Ellerbe, whose timing was interpreted by the Pacquiao camp as a grandstanding attempt to take away attention from the Marquez rematch.

But Mayweather, himself, has had more elusive moves for questions about Pacquiao’s reported agreement to random testing than Angel Heredia-Hernandez has names. During a news conference after his controversial stoppage of Victor Ortiz, Mayweather simply ignored them.

Now, however, there’s a chance to eliminate more of the same old talk with a test. Take it, Manny.

An awkward reunion
Friends aren’t supposed to fight, but that’s what super-middleweights Lucian Bute and Glen Johnson will do Saturday night at Quebec City’s Pepsi Center in a Showtime-televised bout. They grew to like each while sparring.

“When Glen and Lucian would spar, everyone in the gym would stop training to watch them fight,’’ Bute trainer Stephan Larouche said. “I thought, ‘If this is a sparring session, what would a fight be like?’ Saturday, we all get to find out.”

It’s intriguing on several levels. If Bute and Johnson can put aside their friendship for maybe as long as 12 rounds, it could be a heck of fight.

AZ Notes
Junior-welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez, Jr. (13-0, 12 KOs) of Phoenix returns to boxing’s biggest stage on the Pacquiao-Marquez undercard. He is scheduled to face Gary Bergeron (12-8, 7 KOs), a Louisiana fighter who has lost his last three. The agile, talented Benavidez should be ready.

He has been sparring with Amir Khan, who faces Lamont Peterson on Dec. 10 in Washington D.C. Sparring sessions with Khan a couple of years ago helped Benavidez gain some quick fame a couple years ago when they were seen on YouTube.

Timothy Bradley has lived with criticism, but hasn’t been able to make a living off of it. It’s a subtle distinction, perhaps. But it’s a lesson that Bradley accepted and then spun into simple wisdom that led him away from Gary Shaw to Top Rank.

“Criticism doesn’t pay the bills,” Bradley said.

A shot at Manny Pacquiao would. That’s not necessarily where his new deal with Top Rank’s Bob Arum will take him. But go ahead and connect the dots. A lot of people already have. Bradley has a better chance at Manny money now than he ever had while his career languished in Shaw’s never-never limbo.

Bradley’s fight against left-handed Joel Casamayor on the Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez undercard on Nov. 12 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand puts him in line, another possibility for the left-handed Pacquiao if chances at finally securing a date with Floyd Mayweather Jr. fall apart all over again.

Despite all of the inevitable questions about Mayweather, Arum said there has been no talk about Pacquiao’s plan after the third chapter in his trilogy with Marquez, who has posed more problems for him than anybody in his rise to stardom.

“As to whom Manny fights, that’s ultimately a decision made by Manny,’’ Arum said Thursday during a conference call with Bradley. “Do I make recommendations, proposals? Of course, I do. That’s my job as a promoter. But I have never discussed with Manny about an opponent after Marquez.

“Marquez is a very difficult opponent for Manny, as he proved twice, because of his style. Manny has his hands full, I think, with a new, improved Marquez, who physically looks like a much bigger guy. You know, when Manny fought him the first two times, Marquez wasn’t knocking anybody out. Now, he has a whole string of knockout victories. Obviously, he’s sitting down on his punches. He’s just a very dangerous opponent. So, until after Nov. 12, I don’t know who Manny is going to fight.’’

But the possibilities are there if Mayweather isn’t and Arum doesn’t believe he will be. At least, he didn’t on Wednesday. That’s when Arum told ESPNLosAngeles before a Pacquiao media workout at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood that the Mayweather fight would “never, ever happen.’’

If not, there has to be options. Arum already has mentioned Mike Jones and Brandon Rios. Add Bradley to the list, despite complications. He faces a breach-of-contract suit from Shaw and co-promoter Ken Thompson. Further legal action is said to be a possibility. But attorneys told him and Arum to go ahead and sign.

That’s all he needed to hear. There was frustration, sitting idle for 10 month since a forgettable victory over Devon Alexander in an empty Silverdome near Detroit .There were few prospects and only those critics as company. What’s more, there’s another mouth to fight, a baby daughter, Jada, who was born in July. It was beginning to look as if the Bradley, unbeaten (27-0, 11 KOs) at 140 and 147 pounds, was doomed to spend his prime on the shelf. He had an opportunity at a reported $1.4 million against Amir Khan last summer. Why would he turn down that opportunity when it appeared to be the only one?

Had he fought Khan under his former promotional banner, it might not have widened his appeal, made him better-known. His fight against Alexander was supposed to have been a major step to stardom for Bradley. But it was a fight remembered more for head butts and empty seats in a forgotten arena.

“Top Rank brings that kind of exposure,’’ Bradley said of marketing that he says wasn’t there with Shaw. “A fight with Amir Khan through Top Rank, I think will be huge because you’ve got the top promotional company advertising it, doing what they’re supposed to – spending the money to make money and turning their fighter into a super-star.

“Kicking back and thinking about it, we made the right choice.’’

And maybe some big money.

AZ Notes
· Phoenix super-middleweight Jesus Gonzales is still waiting to hear if he’ll get a shot at Kelly Pavlik, who at last report is moving on to a new trainer and a different lifestyle, Oxnard, Calif., instead of Youngstown. If he can’t land a bout with Pavlik in January, Gonzales says he hopes to fight in December.

· Promoter Michelle Rosado put together an entertaining card of four-rounders in downtown Phoenix a week ago with hometown super-bantamweight Emilio Garcia (4-0-1, 1 KO) fighting behind a precise, body-to-head jab in a unanimous decision over Miguel Armendarez (0-5-1) of Mexico.

· And Hall of Famer Michael Carbajal did not, as expected, face his estranged brother Danny in a Phoenix courtroom last Friday. Carbajal’s attorney told him to stay away from a proceeding that is part of the preparation for a civil trial scheduled to begin Jan. 8. Danny Carbajal got out of prison in July after serving a sentence on fraud charges related to the theft of about $2 million dollars from Michael. Danny Carbajal is representing himself in his brother’s suit to claim ownership of 12 pieces of property that Michael said Danny bought with the money he earned in the ring. The trial will pit brother-against-brother in a divided family. It could get very ugly.

It’s a reach to make too much out of one punch. But we can hope, can’t we? I’m talking about Nonito Donaire, whose second-round thunderbolt in February dumped Fernando Montiel into a shaking heap and created an aura about Donaire.

There was more than just power. There was anticipation.

“Before I went in the ring I explained to each and every one of them how it was going to end,’’ Donaire said of a forecast he made in his dressing room.

No lie, Donaire trainer Robert Garcia said.

“He called it,’’ Garcia said during a conference call before Donaire’s bantamweight title defense against Omar Narvaez at the Madison Square Garden Theater in New York. “We’re not making this up or exaggerating. That’s just the way it happened.’’

If one left hook – the biggest punch in what thus far has been a forgettable year – says something about Donaire’s timing, maybe he can deliver some timely relief from a mind-numbing succession of confusion, controversy and disappointment.

Given what’s just happened, it’s reasonable to be skeptical. No, amend that. Fans should remember what Victor Ortiz forgot in September when he was knocked out by Floyd Mayweather Jr. Protect yourselves at all times.

On the scale of things nobody expected, there was Mayweather’s left-right combination at an Ortiz who left his hands at his side and didn’t keep a wary eye on the threat in front of him. What else could happen? Plenty.

Crazy turned bizarre in Los Angeles last Saturday when Chad Dawson’s shoulder did more apparent damage in the second round than any of his punches, dropping Bernard Hopkins, who must have felt like Michael Vick after an encounter with a defensive end.

By now, everybody has their own spin on what happened. From this corner, it still looks as if Dawson’s TKO victory should have been ruled NC, as in No Contest. But the absence of any real discussion in mainstream media indicates apathy, as in WC. Who Cares? Some controversy sells. Mayweather’s stoppage of Ortiz did, in large part because HBO’s Larry Merchant’s wish that he was 50 years younger so he could kick Mayweather’s ass.

But too much controversy creates exasperation, then boredom, the real peril. This is a year that began with Tim Bradley’s technical decision in January over Devon Alexander in an empty Silverdome near chilly, rundown Detroit. It continued with Shane Mosley’s retreat into defeat in May against Manny Pacquiao. Then, there was David Haye stubbing his toe, apparently injured, in a July loss to Wladimir Klitschko and Abner Mares’ majority decision over Joseph Agbeko in an August bout marred by low blows. Haye announced his retirement last week. A lot of fans, all with healthy toes, might join him this week, especially if any of them heard about an insulting post-fight news conference in the wake of the Dawson-Hopkins mess.

Dawson, who says he doesn’t trash-talk, talked nothing else, perhaps because Hopkins was in the hospital for a reported shoulder separation. Dawson mocked Hopkins for claiming to be a gangster. A gangster, Dawson said, would not have quit. Huh? Since when have gangsters been known to be courageous? A gangster would have let his boys, guys in the hallway with hidden nunchucks, continue the fight.

Then, there was a question about whether customers at Staples Center and in HBO’s pay-per-view audience should get their money back.

“Let Bernard take his paycheck and refund everybody,’’ Dawson promoter Gary Shaw said through a predatory grin.

Translation: Suckers.

All of this is a round-a-bout way of getting back to Donaire (26-1, 18 KOs), a likeable Filipino-American. By all accounts, he is expected to score a dominant victory over Narvaez, who has an impressive record (35-0-2, 23 KOs), yet is mostly unknown in the Northern hemisphere. But he is from Argentina, which is enough reason for Donaire to beware. Sergio Martinez, 2010’s Fighter of the Year, is from Argentina. So is Marcos Maidana, who was an unknown Argentine with an impressive record in 2005. Ask Victor Ortiz about him.

“I really believe that Nonito will be a major star,’’ said Top Rank’s Bob Arum, who has reunited with Donaire after a nasty battle eight months ago when Donaire tried to jump to Golden Boy Promotions.

The year needs one desperately. If Donaire’s timing is as good as many think, Saturday in New York is the perfect time and place to begin.

AZ Notes
Phoenix promoter Michelle Rosado stages her third card Friday night at Madison Events Center with eleven bouts, eight pro and three amateur. Super-bantamweight Emilio Garcia-Colon is scheduled for the main event. First bell is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. (PST).

Former Phoenix junior-flyweight Michael Carbajal, a Hall of Famer, expects to see his brother and former trainer Danny Carbajal for the first time since Danny went to prison in 2008 on fraud charges related to the theft of an estimated $2 million. A hearing is scheduled for Friday morning in downtown Phoenix. Michael is suing to recover property purchased by Danny, who was released from prison in July.

LOS ANGELES – Chad Dawson held up his gloved hands in celebration. Bernard Hopkins held his left shoulder in pain. Fans, an endangered species, held their noses. It stinks.

Stinks all over again.

Within one month after the controversy over the when, where and motivation for the Floyd Mayweather Jr. combination that knocked out Victor Ortiz while Ortiz wasn’t looking or defending himself, boxing has to explain another pay-per-view fight that ended in boos.

Dawson was credited for a victory, although it wasn’t clear whether it would stand. Here’s why: At 2:48 of the second round of a fight for Hopkins’ World Boxing Council light-heavyweight title at Staples Center, Dawson went under a right from Hopkins and picked him up like a linebacker. Dawson dropped him on the canvas, on to his left shoulder and under a bottom rope. He got more than a sack. Instead, referee Pat Russell gave him a victory.

Russell ruled that Dawson won by technical knockout.

“It was not a foul,’’ Russell said. “It’s a TKO. He could not continue because of injury.’’

Russell could not continue either. Pat Dodd of the California State Athletic Commission ordered him to shut up.

“At this time, it’s a TKO, for now,’’ said Dye, who didn’t need an interpreter to tell everybody that this fight’s result has yet to be decided.

A frustrated Hopkins didn’t need to look at the film. His opinion was immediate.

“It should have been no contest,’’ the 46-year-old Hopkins said. “He asked me if I could continue. I said, yeah, with one arm.

“They want me to leave boxing. This is one way to do it.’’

Dawson behaved as though he hopes he never sees Hopkins again. In the crazy aftermath at the center of the ring, Dawson walked toward Hopkins corner, pointed at him and shouted insults.

“I’m sorry for the disappointment for the fans,’’ Dawson said. “B-Hop disappointed a lot of fans. He’s been running from me for three years. He likes to run around and talk like he’s a Philadelphia gangster. He’s no gangster. Gangsters don’t quit.

“He wouldn’t fight. I gave him the shoulder.’’

For fans, it was a cold shoulder. Another one.

If you want to know why it’s called blood sport, download a photo of Jorge Linares (31-2,20 KOs) after a loss to Mexican Antonio DeMarco (26-3-1, 19 KOs) for the World Boxing Council’s vacant lightweight title. Linares’ face is there, somewhere, behind all that blood. It dripped from a deep wound at the bridge of his nose and from one above his right eye. Both were suffered from blows seemingly uninterrupted from round to round. It ended, perhaps, because Linares, of Venezuela, could bleed no more. He led on all three score cards when Raul Caiz Sr. stopped it at 2:32 of the 11th round..

Philadelphia junior-welterweight Danny Garcia (22-0, 14 KOs) improved his chances at a title shot with a split decision over Kendall Holt (27-5, 15 KOs) of New York in a WBC/IBF title eliminator. Garcia employed a thorough array of punches – head to body, body to head – in winning a fight that was curious only the scorecards. “I got out-hustled,’’ said Holt, who must have been surprised to hear that one judge, Wayne Hedgepeth, had him winning, 115-113.

The card’s first televised bout included Paulie Malignaggi, who is in a battle to get back into the welterweight picture. His battle almost ended when it started. Malignaggi ((30-4, 6 KOs), of Brooklyn, N.Y., was rocked by Mexican Orlando Lora (28-2-1, 19 KOs) in the first round. Malignaggi staggered, yet held on long enough to rally in the second and score often enough in the remaining nine rounds for a victory by unanimous decision.

In the final bout on the non-televised portion of the undercard, junior-featherweight Manuel Avila (5-0, 2 KOs) of Fairfield, Calif., scored a third-round knockdown, dropping David Reyes (2-1) of Los Angeles with a beautifully-executed left hook. Avila needed it. He won a split decision.

Dewey Bozella, wrongfully convicted of murder in 1983, won a unanimous decision over Larry Hopkins in a four-round cruiserweight bout on the Bernard Hopkins-Chad Dawson undercard.

Bozella, released from New York’s Sing-Sing Prison in 2009 after serving more than 20 years, fought for decades to pro his innocence. He needed only a couple of rounds to prove he was a fighter than Hopkins (0-4) of Houston.

“I used to lie in my cell dreaming about this,’’ Bozella said. “My dream came true.’’

The 52-year-old Bozella, who got a call from President Barack Obama and was awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, looked nervous and stiff in the opening round. The quicker Hopkins rocked him with right hands. But Bozella employed the patience and determination he had acquired over his two-plus decades in prison. He walked forward, hitting Hopkins with body punches and just about anything else he could throw. Hopkins began to tire. In the fourth, he was done.

Hopkins spit out his mouthpiece five times. He was penalized point for the second time. He tried to catch it in midair as it popped out of his mouth for the first and final time. As he juggled it, Bozella rocked him with a right hand. Call it a punch for freedom.

If Nick Casal of Niagara Falls, N.Y., needed target practice, he got some in the third round of a welterweight fight, the third on the card, against Michael Anderson of Newark, N.J. Casal (22-4-1, 17 KOs) dropped Anderson (11-1-1, 9 KOs) once with a left-right combination and again with another combo before referee Ray Corona stopped it at 2:54 of the round and Anderson hanging on the ropes.

In the card’s second bout, a body shot from Mexico City junior-middleweight Freddie Hernandez put Luis Collazo, of Brooklyn, N.Y., onto one knee in the eighth round. Collazo (31-5, 16 KOs), best known for losses to Andre Berto, Shane Mosley and Ricky Hatton, looked like he was praying. His prayers weren’t answered. The more aggressive, quicker Hernandez (30-3, 20 KOs) won a unanimous decision.

Middleweights Donyll Livingston and Kurtis Colvin were the warm-up act, one of eight before Bernard Hopkins and Chad Dawson entered the ring Saturday night for the main event at Staples Center.

Livingston’s speed, perhaps a good sign for Dawson, prevailed.

Livingston (6-0, 3 KOs), of Palmdale, Calif., started fast, staggering Colvin (6-1, 5 KOs) with right hand in the closing moments of the first round. But Colvin, of Austin, Tex., held on, recovered and rocked Livingston with some wicked uppercuts in the fourth and again in the fifth. But when he needed the speed, it was always there for Livingston, who in the end finished with six-round victory by unanimous decision.

LOS ANGELES – Bernard Hopkins kept it light. He also kept his sunglasses on. Then again, it was Hollywood and he is the designated star for his fight Saturday night against Chad Dawson at Staples Center, just a few freeway miles from the scales Friday at Ripley’s Believe It or Not.

Hopkins, always more Captain Defiance than Father Time, was at 173.4 pounds, nearly two pounds under the light-heavyweight limit. Middle-aged men are supposed to struggle with their weight. But 46-year-old Hopkins doesn’t. He has only the age and none of the middle so common to most in his generation.

Dawson (30-1, 17 KOs) has fewer years and nearly one more pound than Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KOs). Dawson, who is 17 years younger than Hopkins, tipped the scale at 174.2 pounds. Will it matter after opening bell? Probably not. But it was good theater on a warm afternoon at Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, where a Hopkins has been memorialized in wax.

Waxed, of course, is what each intends to do to the other in a bout for the World Boxing Council title that Hopkins won in rematch victory over Jean Pascal in May. Differing style have generated some worry that the HBO-televised fight could be deadly dull. Hopkins’ best chance is believed to be on the inside against the swift Dawson, who swift feet and boxing tactics could keep him on the perimeter.

“I want you to bring the best out of me,” Hopkins said to Dawson Wednesday at the formal news conference. “I am challenging Chad Dawson to try to knock me out. I want to see the best Chad Dawson.’’

The Dawson who Hopkins wants to see, however, might not be the smartest Dawson, whose youthful energy and proven endurance might be his best weapon over the scheduled 12 rounds. But the calculating Hopkins has talked other opponents into a lot of traps over the many years. Dawson doesn’t say much, so it’s hard to know if any of Hopkins words are about draw him into another one.

“I just want prove I’m the best light-heavyweight in the world,’’ Dawson said. “It was Bernard Hopkins. But now it will be me.’’

Undercard weights

Antonio DeMarco 134.4 pounds versus Jorge Linares at 134.6 for the WBC’s vacant lightweight title.

Kendall Holt 139.4 pounds versus Danny Garcia 139.4 in a junior-welterweight eliminator for the WBC/International Boxing Federation titles.

Paulie Malignaggi 147.4 pounds versus Orlando Lora 147.5 in a welterweight bout.
Dewey Bozella 190.6 pounds versus Larry Hopkins 192.5 in a cruiserweight bout.

It’s hard to know what to expect from Bernard Hopkins and Chad Dawson. Don’t blame Hopkins for that. After 23 years, we know Hopkins, mostly because he knows himself. He’s comfortable with what and who he has become. But the book on Dawson is an unfinished manuscript, an unresolved mystery. Who is he?

Nobody seems to know, perhaps because he doesn’t.

Dawson has gone through trainers the way Hollywood celebrities go through shrinks. From John Scully, to Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, to Floyd Mayweather Sr., back to Mustafa Muhammad, to Emanuel Steward, and now back to Scully. Only Dr. Phil hasn’t been in the mix.

The confusing map includes many moves, yet no apparent destination. Dawson seems to be searching for an identity more than a trainer.

“Scully is going to make a difference,’’ Dawson said at his media workout in Los Angeles. “The last two or three fights, I haven’t truly been myself.

Maybe, just maybe, Dawson (30-1, 17 KOs) is back at the beginning of what and who he was. If so, yeah, he can spring an upset of Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KOs), the World Boxing Council’s light-heavyweight champion, Saturday night in an HBO televised bout at Los Angeles’ Staples Center. Everything else adds up to a measurable chance for him. Dawson is 17-years younger than the 46-year-old Hopkins. His hands are fast. His feet are quick. The fight’s promotional label, Believe It Or Not, could take on new meaning. Believe It Or Not, Dawson could win.

But there’s still that uncertainty about whether he has figured out how to truly be himself. Ordinarily, that might not be much of a factor. Dawson’s superior skill set would prevail, has prevailed against everybody but Jean Pascal. But against Hopkins, it matters. Hopkins is the oldest in history to win a major title because of a keen, predatory eye. It’s what allows him to survive against a younger generation with physical skills, but none of his smarts. If at any moment Hopkins senses doubt in Dawson, the fight will belong to the old man.

In a conference call a few weeks ago, Dawson made a startling admission, which in part was his way of trying to explain away his loss to Pascal, whom Hopkins beat in a rematch in his last outing.

“I became a bored fighter,’’ Dawson said. “I got bored.’’

Hopkins has said a lot of things, but he’s never said he was bored. The day he does, I suspect, is the day he’ll announce his retirement. A bored fighter is about to become an ex-fighter, or at least someone who is thinking about doing something else. In the later rounds, I’m guessing Dawson will wish that he was.

Hopkins by unanimous decision.

Moving on up
Nonito Donaire (26-1, 18 KOs) will be at bantamweight for the last on Oct. 22 at New York’s Madison Square Garden against Omar Narvaez (35-0-2, 19 KOs) of Argentina in the first defense of the titles he took from Fernando Montiel last February with a sensational second-round knockout.

“Definitely, this will be my last fight at 118,’’ Donaire said Thursday during a conference call. “122 is something we’re looking forward to.’’

AZ Notes
· Phoenix super-middleweight Jesus Gonzales is waiting to hear if Kelly Pavlik has any interest in a tune-up against him. Gonzales has been saying for months that he wants a shot at Pavlik, who is anxious for a comeback after he abruptly withdrew from a Top Rank card a couple of months ago. Gonzales hopes to hear from Pavlik by Oct. 22.

· Arizona promoter Michelle Rosado continues to re-ignite a dormant market with a card on Oct. 21 at the Madison Event Center in downtown Phoenix. Hometown super-bantamweight Emilio Colon-Garcia (3-0-1) is scheduled for the main event. First bell is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

Bernard Hopkins will show up in wax next week. It ought to be granite. He’s been indestructible.

Hopkins’ defiance against time and his victories over opponents young enough to be his son continue like the clock that never seems to catch up with him. It will, of course. Nobody knows that better than Hopkins, who was wise enough to say this week in a conference call that he won’t still be fighting when he’s 50, yet he will be there for another opening bell on Oct. 15 against Chad Dawson just three months before he turns 47.

Like the graybeard he is becoming, he was philosophical, at times almost wistful, in a call that preceded his fight at Staples Center in Los Angeles where Ripley’s Believe It Or Not will unveil his wax figure. He couldn’t say when or where he’d answer his last bell.

“Can’t think about winning and retiring at the same time,’’ said Hopkins, who will defend the light-heavyweight title he won in a rematch against Jean Pascal.

But he was thinking about history, which he promised would include another chapter about a victory over the under-achieving, yet dangerous Dawson. In the end, history means a judgment, which is as inescapable as retirement. How will he be remembered?

Within the ropes, there won’t be much argument from anybody other than perhaps Joe Calzaghe. Calzaghe beat him on the scorecards in March, 2008, leaving Hopkins with one of his five losses. Calzaghe retired, unbeaten at 46-0. But 10 years from now, who will be remembered as the better fighter in history’s pound-for-pound debate, Calzaghe or Hopkins? I’ll argue that Hopkins will win that one every time. With no apologies to Floyd Mayweather Jr., Hopkins is the real face of boxing, which is more about conquering adversity than it is an unscarred record. Hopkins’ life is a boxing story, an American story which includes prison and a loss in his first fight.

In perhaps a sure sign that retirement is near, he now has arrived at a stage where he wants to be remembered for more than boxing.

“Boxing is what he did, but boxing is not who he is,’’ Hopkins said.

A healthy serving of self-promotion has always been part of the Hopkins personality. Some are offended by that. Many media colleagues are also offended by his racial comments. There was one last May directed at former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb. More notorious, perhaps, was the one he shouted at Calzaghe in the middle of a crowded media room in Las Vegas before Mayweather’s 10th-round TKO of Britain’s Ricky Hatton in December, 2007. He told Calzaghe that he would never let “a white boy” beat him.

I wasn’t there for the McNabb controversy when Hopkins, while training for the Pascal rematch, was reported to have suggested that McNabb, now with the Minnesota Vikings, wasn’t tough enough because he wasn’t black enough. But I was there for the Calzaghe exchange, which was pure theater in the hype leading up to their fight.

In one moment, Hopkins was joking with a circle of British writers, telling them that they had better health care in the UK than the U.S.

“Then again, you all drink a hell of a lot more than we do,’’ Hopkins said.

Then, he spotted Calzaghe. He raced across the MGM Grand’s ballroom, shifted his vocal chords from joking to angry and screamed “the white boy” comment at him. It was all in the setting and tone, yet media reports included none of that context. With only the quote, it appeared to be a racial insult.

In meeting with some media before Amir Khan’s victory over Zab Judah in July, Hopkins talked about how it might have affected the judging in his split-decision loss to Calzaghe

“I lost that fight when I called him light-skinned,’’ Hopkins told a circle of reporters, many of whom were light-skinned.

Be careful of what you read. Hopkins doesn’t take himself that seriously. When he is approaching 60 a decade from now, I’m not sure how he will look at himself. But boxing obviously will be the biggest piece in a fascinating puzzle. Still, priorities always change and it is beginning to look as if Hopkins is too.

Hopkins trained in Philadelphia with Dewey Bozella, who will fight on the Oct. 15 undercard. Bozella was convicted and imprisoned in 1983 for a murder he did not commit. He served 26 years before his conviction was overturned in 2009.

“His life is bigger than the sport …bigger than anything I’ve ever done,’’ said Hopkins, whose record of convictions as a 17-year-old led to a five-year sentence in Pennsylvania’s notorious Graterford Prison. “You don’t get a second life. I went into jail because I did something. I wasn’t innocent. He was innocent.

“That’s a difference, a big difference.’’

A wise one, too, from somebody who hasn’t defied time so much as he used it, evolved with it.

AZ NOTES
· As expected, Phoenix junior-welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez Jr. is scheduled for the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez undercard on Nov. 12 at Las Vegas MGM Grand. Gary Bergeron (12-8, 7 KOs) of Chalmette, La., is the scheduled opponent. But expect changes. Benavidez (13-0, 12 KOs) does. There were three to four changes before his last victory, a first-round stoppage, on Sept. 17 in Parker, Ariz. Bergeron, loser of his last three fights and 2-6 over his last eight, is also scheduled for a bout on Nov. 11 in Australia, which means he would have to book a seat on the Space Shuttle to get to Vegas in time for opening bell.

· And while Kelly Pavlik considers a tune-up or two in an attempt to get his career back on track, Phoenix super-middleweight Jesus Gonzales continues to lobby for a shot at the former middleweight champ. Gonzales turned 27 on Monday. When asked what he wanted for his birthday, Gonzales said: “A fight with Kelly Pavlik. That’s better than a Grand Slam from Denny’s.’’

Boxing needs another ruling body like the U.S. needs another downgrade, but if news from the amateur World Championships in Azerbaijan are an indication, Olympic boxing’s administrative acronym (AIBA) is rehearsing for a role on a scrabble board already crowded with the WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO.

First, there was an announcement that AIBA, an International Olympic Committee subsidiary, would investigate a story about bribes for gold medals at the 2012 London Games. The BBC reported that the Azerbaijanis paid $9 million to the World Series of Boxing (WSB), an AIBA subsidiary, to ensure that the former Soviet bloc country would win at least two gold in the London ring.

Then, there was a subsequent story about how each one of Azerbaijan’s nine boxers were seeded among the top eight in their respective weight classes at the World Championships, a qualifier for next summer’s Olympics.

Predictably, the two stories were linked, perhaps more by coincidence than fact. It’s a common practice in a variety of sports to reserve a spot among the top seeds for a host-country’s athletes. Call it a home-court prerogative.

But the allegations, denials, acronyms, subsidiaries and investigations are all too familiar. An interim belt must be in there somewhere.

Olympic boxing has never been able to move beyond the documented fix that robbed Roy Jones Jr. more than two decades ago. Bribery allegations send the sport tumbling back into infamy and the fraud that turned Jones’ gold into silver at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

In this corner, there always has been a theory that all of boxing has suffered from what happened to Jones so long ago. It robbed the pro ranks of an important developmental stage for prospects who in increasing numbers have since decided to forego the Olympics. Why risk it?

AIBA might be following the trend, or at least the young fighters who generate attention and money. The Swiss-based governing body wants to stick its toe into the alphabet soup with pros in 2016 at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

The plan, announced in early August during the U.S. Olympic Trials in Mobile, Ala., would begin with an international schedule for pros in 2013. One year in the proposed program would allow them to augment their income with Olympic medal.

Medals, AIBA President Wi Ching-Kuo of Taiwan said, would help enlighten “the lives and dreams of many boxers.’’

Not so fast, 2012 U.S. Olympic coach Joe Zanders said.

“It’s a little deflating to hear that,’’ Zanders said.

Zanders said the AIBA plan would eliminate an opportunity for young boxers, who often learn their craft in patchwork of rundown gyms in impoverished neighborhoods. Instead, it would favor marketable pros, already rich and well-known.

“What about us?” he asked.

Good question.

“For me, the troubling part is for the poor citizens who have used the Olympics as a step to improve themselves,’’ said Zanders, a longtime amateur coach from Long Beach, Calif., and a 30-year veteran as a youth counselor for the state’s Department of Juvenile Justice. “I guess, we’re going to have find another Greek version of Games for amateurs.’’

But it’s not as if professionalism is new to the Olympics. Pros have been competing in other sports for at least 20 years. U.S. basketball, the so-called Dream Team, is a virtual NBA All-Star team. Track-and-field medallists compete for money on the European circuit. American swimmer Michael Phelps got a $1-million bonus from his sponsor, Speedo, for his seventh of eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games.

Zanders knew that eventually boxing would be next. An initial step was the WSB, a team concept that allows amateurs to get paid and now is a centerpiece to a five-member panel’s investigation of alleged bribery.

Eventually, Zanders knew that boxing would be next.

“I expected it, but I’m just surprised that it happened so quickly,’’ said Zanders, who has famed pro trainer Freddie Roach working with him as a consultant for the 2012 team.

Still, Zanders wonders what has become of the old, perhaps quaint ideal of what it is to be an amateur.
“What makes you an amateur?” he asked.

Speculation about U.S. pros at the Olympics began to circulate many years ago when American teenagers started losing to older, more mature Cubans. It was boys-against-men. Without a desperate escape from the Fidel Castro’s island, however, the Cubans had only the amateurs as an option.

“But this is America,’’ Zanders said. “You can choose to be an amateur for as long as you want. Then again, they’re going to give you a saliva test if you decide to stay an amateur until you’re 34.’’

There’s a different kind of test awaiting AIBA, however, if the controversy continues and the acronym starts collecting sanction fees instead of investigating alleged bribes. It’s called a lie detector.

A Pavlik possibility

It’s no surprise that Kelly Pavlik is desperate to get back into the ring. It was predicted here after he abruptly withdrew from a tune-up last month because he was unhappy with his reported purse for a proposed bout with Lucian Bute.

It also was reported here that Jesus Gonzales, a once-beaten Phoenix super-middleweight, might be a leading possibility for Pavlik’s first fight after the flap.

Gonzales, a Pavlik sparring partner before his loss to Sergio Martinez, was quick to say he was available after hearing ESPN’s report about a chastened Pavlik asking for another chance.

“I think Pavlik is a great fighter,” Jesus Gonzales said in an e-mail. “I know I can beat him and I think he knows it, from sparring with him. I would love to fight him, it would be a great win for me.”l

AZ Notes
· Gonzales continues his good-guy commitment to his hometown with an appearance at a Phoenix car wash for Rick Favela, an ex-Marine and Phoenix city employee who suffered a brain hemorrhage. The fund-raiser is scheduled from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. at La Barquita Restaurant, 2334 East McDowell Road. Junior-welterweight Jose Benavidez Jr. will also be there.

· And every time I see Jorge Arce win — which has been often lately, I can’t help but think about how good Phoenix Hall of Famer Michael Carbajal really was. As the 34-year-old Arce avenged a loss to Simphiwe Nongqayi with fourth-round stoppage Saturday in Mexicali, I recalled Carbajal, long past his prime, stopping a young Arce in the 11th round of a 1999 fight in Tijuana. It was Carbajal’s last fight.

Try as one might, it is impossible to escape the yada yada about Floyd Mayweather Jr., Victor Ortiz, Joe Cortez and Larry Merchant. I’ve tried. Trust me, I’ve tried. Just when you think you’ve heard every argument echo from pillar-to-post, however, there’s another one. There’s no final word, I suspect, simply because there’s some truth in all of them.

Yeah, Ortiz’ head-butting was dirty. Yeah, Mayweather’s punches were legal, yet cheap. Yeah, Ortiz was foolish not to be vigilant with hands up and ready instead of down and helpless. Yeah, it appears Cortez was negligent when he apparently signaled the fight to resume, yet looked the other way when Mayweather threw a left and then the right that knocked out a defenseless Ortiz with one second left in the fourth round. Yeah, Ortiz got what he deserved.

Yeah, Mayweather behaved like a punk when he attacked Merchant’s professionalism with an expletive-laced tantrum at the 80-year-old HBO commentator. And, yeah, Merchant might have crossed a journalistic line when he involved himself in the story by countering that 50 years ago he would have kicked Mayweather’s immature rear.

But there’s one thing I haven’t heard: What would we be saying this week if Ortiz had been carried out on a stretcher? Would the tone of this argument be different if Ortiz was in hospital bed, still unconscious, five days after he was knocked out by a punch he never saw?

Mayweather’s punches have been called un-sportsman-like. No, they weren’t. They were dangerous.

Any punch is, but none more dangerous than one not seen. That inherent danger is the reason for the boxing cliché and commandment about protecting oneself at all times. Ortiz forgot that one. But Mayweather, who unlike Ortiz pays attention to detail, knows about that danger better than anyone in his generation.

He has often said that it is “not cool” to endure punishment. With his brilliant defense, he has eluded the painful damage suffered by so many others in what Mike Tyson called the “hurt business.’’

He knows what that right hand could have inflicted. He’s lucky – we all are – that it didn’t result in the lethal potential that lurked in a punch that could have been thrown when the chaos had cleared. Then, Cortez would have been watching. Then, Ortiz would have no doubts about whether the fight had resumed.

Then, Mayweather would have won without argument.

Mayweather-Ortiz, Part II
Here’s something else I didn’t hear: Instead of attacking Merchant, Mayweather could have used the opportunity to tell fans that he was sorry the fight had to end the way it did. He could have explained that he had to finish it then and there, because of the danger he faced from further head butts from Ortiz. Instead, he storms out of the ring.

For casual fans who don’t know or understand boxing’s ancient code of conduct, Mayweather behaved like a motorist who hits a jaywalker and then angrily says he was within the letter of the law because the guy wasn’t in the crosswalk. OK, but at a gut level it still doesn’t feel right.

AZ NOTES
· After pushing his 140-pound record to 13-0 with 12 knockouts on Sept. 17 in Parker, Ariz., Phoenix prospect Jose Benavidez, Jr., might make his next appearance on the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez undercard Nov. 12 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. The plan is to have Benavidez fight for a junior world title sometime next year.

· Former super-featherweight champion Jesse James Leija showed up Tuesday at Central Boxing, an old gym in downtown Phoenix where he was training hotel-and-motel proprietors for a charity event in Las Vegas. Leija’s take on Mayweather-Ortiz was similar to that of other fighters. Ortiz set himself up for retaliation with the head butts, Leija said. “I was pulling for Victor, but he got what he deserved,’’ Leija said. “Mayweather did what he had to. I would have done it, too.’’

LAS VEGAS – LAS VEGAS – Don’t ever say sorry to Floyd Mayweather Jr. He’ll make you feel sorry, very sorry, if you do.

Victor Ortiz found out just how sorry Saturday night at the MGM Grand.

Mayweather had no apologies for the way he knocked out Ortiz and no apologies for a tantrum he threw after a question asked by HBO’s Larry Merchant in the aftermath of a crushing left-right combination that caught Ortiz as he was looking at referee Joe Cortez at the end of the fourth round.

“You don’t know shit about boxing,’’ Mayweather screamed at Merchant, who must have felt like Mayweather’s dad, Floyd Sr. “HBO should fire you.’’

Merchant was at ringside before the 34-year-old Mayweather was born. He knows boxing. He also knows enough about good manners and sportsmanship to realize when a line has been crossed. Mayweather was way beyond it.

“If I was 50 years younger, I’d kick your ass,’’ the 80-year-old Merchant said.

Only Merchant didn’t have to say sorry. No apology was necessary for his counter, the best of the night.

It all happened as Mayweather (42-0, 26 KOs) was beginning take control of the bout for Ortiz’ WBC welterweight title. Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KOs) tried to get more aggressive late in the fourth round. He threw a flurry of punches at Mayweather, whose back was on the ropes. In stepping inside, Ortiz threw his head in attempt at a butt. Cortez stepped in and penalized him a point.

Ortiz appeared to reach over and plant a small kiss on Mayweather’s cheek. As they then moved toward the center of the ring, Mayweather and Ortiz touched gloves. Cortez looked toward the scorer’s table when Mayweather threw a long left that landed with Ortiz’ gloves down and still at his side. Ortiz then looked at Cortez. That’s when Mayweather threw a right that landed like a baseball bat on a stationary baseball.

Ortiz went down, knocked out at 2:59 of the fourth. After he regained some of his consciousness, Ortiz smiled with the look of a victim who had to ask about had just hit him. A few days ago, Ortiz trainer, Danny Garcia, had called Mayweather a dirty fighter. After the bizarre ending, Garcia stood behind his fighter, smiling almost as if he couldn’t believe at how right he was.

At the post-fight news conference, Garcia seemed to blame Cortez more than Mayweather. According to the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Cortez said “Box.” Ortiz said he never heard him.

“He made a mistake as a result of Joe Cortez’ instructions,” Garcia said in Spanish translated into English by Ortiz manager Rolando Arellano. “Floyd took advantage of that.”

However, Garcia also said that he believes the fight-ending blow will prove to be illegal.

“But we have to review the tape to make sure,” said Arellano, who apologized for Ortiz’s attempted head butt.

Mayweather was as unapologetic a few days ago as he was Saturday night when told about Garcia’s accusation that he was dirty, Mayweather shrugged his shoulders. He countered that boxing has always been a dirty business.

“I got hit with a dirty shot,’’ Mayweather said of Ortiz’ attempted head butt. “He does something dirty. We don’t have to talk about what he did dirty or I did dirty.’’

Sorry, but somebody does. At least, Merchant tried, making him the only winner on a sorry night.

Erik Morales (52-7, 36 KOs) was in against a substitute, somebody named Pablo Cesar Cano (22-1-1, 17 KOs) instead of Lucas Matthysse, who withdrew because of a shoulder injury. But there was no substitute for what Morales faced in winning a TKO after 10 rounds.

Blood stained Morales’ white trunks like butcher cloth. Blood poured from a cut above his left eye, suffered in the seventh. But blood and guts are what have always defined Morales. That’s why he is called Terrible and that’s what he was all over again in the ninth and 10th rounds of a fight for a vacant and controversial 140-pound title.

But the WBC’s version of the championship doesn’t matter much. It’s just tinsel. But Morales is not. He’s still the stubborn, dangerous fighter he has always been, regardless of opponent and no matter what the title. In the middle rounds, Morales looked as if he was in trouble. But then it was clear that he been there, done that. He rocked Cano, a fellow Mexican, with a wicked left hook in the ninth. He busted a cut wide open above a Cano eye with a thundering right in the tenth.

Morales looked at the gushing blood, looked at referee Kenny Bayless and knew it wouldn’t go on much longer. It didn’t. Cano’s corner ended before the 11th.

Las Vegas junior-welterweight Jesse Vargas (17-0, 9 KOs), a Mayweather Promotions fighter, escaped his first loss and retained his prospect status with a split decision over Josesito Lopez (30-3, 17 KOs) in the first televised fight Saturday night on a card featured by Floyd Mayweather Jr.-versus-Victor Ortiz at the MGM Grand.

Lopez, of Riverside, Calif., appeared to be much stronger than the much-hyped Vargas, who began to back away after the first two rounds. For the next few rounds, Lopez delivered body shots and a wicked right hand without much resistance from Vargas, whose punches appeared to have no effect on a California fighter trained by former Oscar De La Hoya cornerman Robert Alcazar.

In the eighth of 10 rounds, Vargas threw a low blow. It appeared to be intentional. It might have been out of frustration. Whatever caused it, it cost Vargas one point, a penalty assessed by referee Tony Weeks. But Vargas began to mount a rally in the ninth and backed up Lopez with an uppercut in the 10th. Apparently that was enough for two judges, who scored it 96-93 and 95-94 for the hometown fighter. The third judge had it 95-94 for Lopez.

Floyd Mayweather’s trainer and uncle, Roger, began his day with a defeat. Oklahoma City welterweight Carson Jones (32-8-2, 22 KOs) won a TKO over the Mayweather-trained Said Quali (28-4, 20 KOs) when the fight ended after the seventh round with Quali still on his stool. Jones knocked down Quali, of Las Vegas, in the fourth. Then, stinging uppercuts from Jones for the next rounds turned Quali’s face into a bloodied, twisted mess.

Super-middleweight Dion Savage (10-2, 6 KOs) had Free Dion on the belt of trunks that were prison-like – black-and-white stripes. Canadian Adonis Stevenson (15-1, 11 KOs) freed him from having to go through eight punishing rounds. Stevenson dropped Savage with a right uppercut about 90 seconds after the opening bell. At 1:57 of the first and Savage hanging on the ropes, referee Tony Weeks stopped it for a Stevenson victory by TKO.

British lightweight Anthony Crolla (22-2, 9 KOs) of Manchester had a dollar sign on his trunks and some luck with him against Juan Manuel Montiel (6-5-3, 1 KO) of Mexico City. With a solid hook, Crolla split open a cut above Montiel’s right eye. Montiel fought through the blood, rallied late in the seventh round and throughout the eighth, but was left with a loss by split decision.

About six hours before Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Victor Ortiz were expected to step into the ring, Marco Antonio Periban and Dhafir Smith were there to answer a first bell that echoed through an arena as vacant as a foreclosed home.

The seats were empty.

Then again, there wasn’t much to see.

Periban (15-0, 10 KOs), a super-middleweight from Mexico, walked forward and almost over Dhafir Smith (24-22-7, 4KOs) of Upper Darby, Penn., to win a decision Saturday at the MGM Grand in an 8-round matinee on a card that would end at night with Mayweather and Ortiz for the World Boxing Council’s welterweight title.

Periban celebrated his country’s Independence Day by raining shots off Dhafir’s body and head with little resistance. Dhafir tried to back away behind a long jab. Other than a spot under a row or two of empty seats, there was nowhere to hide.

He had the name and an offer. But when it was over, Las Vegas junior-lightweight Cassius Clay still had the name, but a defeat instead of an offer. A contract possibility with Mayweather Promotions was lost in Kyrone Butler’s four-round victory by unanimous decision. Clay couldn’t seal the deal, because he couldn’t overcome the quickness possessed by the shorter Butler (1-0), also of Las Vegas.

LAS VEGAS – Devon Alexander introduced his intentions Friday and made them official Saturday morning with a formal announcement that he has left Don King for Golden Boy Promotions in a move that also signals a move up in weight, from 140 pounds to 147.

“One-forty-seven is where I’ll take over,’’ Alexander said at a news conference that included Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, his trainer Kevin Cunningham and manager Drexel Stith. “I know Richard will put me in a position to do what I’ve got to do at 147. That’s why I made this transition.’’

Alexander’s jump from King to Oscar De La Hoya’s company was evident Friday at the MGM Grand when he was introduced before the weigh-in for Saturday night’s Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Victor Ortiz fight, a Golden Boy promotion.

Schaefer said the negotiations were conducted over two to three weeks.

“It was very easy,’’ Schaefer said. “We wanted him to come to Golden Boy and they wanted to come to us.’’

The signing of Alexander adds further depth to the quality of Golden Boy’s fighters at junior-welter and welterweight. Schaefer said he would approach Showtime and Home Box Office next week about the possibility of staging tournaments at 140 and/or 147. There is a wide-range of possibilities at either weight, he said.

However, it will have to be at 147 for Alexander, who says he won’t fight again at 140. Alexander (22-1, 13 KOs) lost a technical decision in January to Timothy Bradley and won a controversial split decision in June over Lucas Matthysse, has struggled to make the junior-welterweight limit.

Schaefer says the heavier weight could transform Alexander the way it did Ortiz against Andre Berto in a dramatic win that earned him the shot at Mayweather.

“Victor was more aggressive,’’ Schaefer said. “We are convinced Devon will make some noise in the 147-pound class and also become a world champion at 147.’’

There already has been some noise. More of it was heard Saturday several hours before opening bell for Mayweather-Ortiz. Welterweight Paulie Malignaggi, a Golden Boy fighter, sat in the back of the room. He and Alexander already have been involved in a trash-talk exchange via Twitter. It continued Saturday in person.

“I’m not a trash-talker,’’ Alexander said.

Malignaggi, who has never ignored a chance to talk, countered: “You started it. If you don’t want to trash-talk, let sleeping dogs lie.’’

But it sounded as if Alexander wanted to sidestep rhetoric that might be the prelude to an actual fight.

“I’m at the top of my game; he’s on the downslide,’’ Alexander said. “I want to fight the best. He’s not at the top of the division.’’

Alexander said he hopes to fight for the first time under the Golden Boy banner in either December or January. Schaefer mentioned Berto as one possibility. As Schaefer talked early Saturday, he could only wonder whether another one might emerge later that night.

“If Ortiz would lose, then that would be a possibility,’’ he said.

LAS VEGAS – On and off the scale, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Victor Ortiz played their assigned roles. Ortiz was where he was supposed to be and who he was supposed to be. Then, there was Mayweather, light on the scale, yet heavy in every other way.

The heavily-favored Mayweather attempted to intimidate Ortiz with some heavy-handed tactics Friday before and after he weighed 146.5 pounds in front of lively crowd at the MGM Grand’s Events Center.

Actually, one hand said it all.

Mayweather put his right hand around Ortiz’ throat as the two stood, nose-to-nose, in what was supposed to be the traditional stare-down at the end of the formal weigh-in. Mayweather’s gesture summed up what he believes will happen in the scheduled 12-round bout for the belt, the World Boxing Council’s welterweight title, possessed by Ortiz.

Throughout the build-up, Mayweather (41-0, 25 KOs) has suggested that Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KOs) will choke.

The 24-year-old Ortiz is a relative newcomer to all of the attention, media, hype, distractions and antics attached to a major fight. The 34-year-old Mayweather isn’t.

Mayweather has been there often throughout a 16-year career without defeat. He often acts as if he owns the big stage. Maybe, that’s why he treated Ortiz with such disdain at the weigh-in. He looked at Ortiz as though he was trespassing. He acted as if he wanted to throw Ortiz out onto the street, if not into a dumpster.

But Ortiz only smiled, before he was at the 147-pound limit and after Mayweather let go of his throat. Ortiz leaped like a kid, threw his hands over his head and flashed the telegenic grin that has captured the camera’s focus and much of the public imagination in the HBO series, 24/7.

“It’s a big joke,’’ Ortiz told a publicist as he left the stage while an estimated crowd of 4,000 roared. “It’s funny.’’

Funny, but not always comedy. The tension surrounding Mayweather always seems to be there, under the surface and dangerous. Both fighters have estranged fathers. Ortiz says his dad abandoned him when he was 7-year-old kid in Kansas. He said he tried to reconnect with his dad, Victor Sr., but failed. He’s moved on. Meanwhile, Mayweather’s relationship with his dad, Floyd Sr., is an ongoing series, also captured ad nauseam on 24/7.

In the latest chapter Mayweather Jr. and Sr. are estranged all over again. The senior Mayweather, who hadn’t been seen since the last blow-up a couple of weeks ago, was spotted on the floor at the weigh-in. A Tweet was attributed to him, although there was skepticism about whether Floyd Sr, even has a Twitter account.

“Can you believe that I ain’t even being invited to the Floyd Mayweather fight tomorrow?” the Tweet said. “The man who he owes everything to isn’t wanted there.”

If the Tweet didn’t come from Floyd Sr., the message has. In so many words, he has said exactly that many times.

There’s no word on whether Floyd Sr. will show up at the fight on his own. If he does, it’s safe to say he’ll watch from some seat far from his son’s corner. Then, there’s the potential for a twist that’s bizarre by even boxing standards. There continues to be speculation that Floyd Jr. has invited Ortiz’ dad to the fight. There’s even been talk that Victor Sr. will be invited to accompany Floyd Jr. into the ring along with former Ortiz trainer Robert Garcia and longtime rival Brandon Rios.

It’s funny only if you like sick comedy.

But Mayweather’s notorious gamesmanship has no limits. His uncle and trainer, Roger Mayweather, was not on the stage for the weigh-in. There wouldn’t have been much room for him anyway. Instead, a large entourage followed Floyd Jr., who paced and chewed gum. After both fighters stepped off the scale, some of the Mayweather followers went to work on Ortiz with taunts and trash talk. Hey, Mayweather can’t do everything.

But Ortiz walked away from the scene looking almost as though he were a fighter with little to lose. That might be his biggest advantage, although he’s confident he can win a title that would not be shared. Only one can be the first to beat Mayweather.

Before the weigh-in, Ortiz got a call from former heavyweight champ George Foreman. Four years ago, Ortiz won a fight in Houston, Foreman’s hometown. After the victory, Ortiz met with Foreman, who gave him a copy of his best-selling book, By George. Inside the cover, Foreman wrote “One day, you’re going to be a champion.’’

Ortiz reminded him of that Friday.

“You were right,’’ he told Foreman.

But now he faces a much tougher task. Against Mayweather, he has to prove that nearly everybody else is wrong.

Finding an opponent for Phoenix prospect Jose Benavidez Jr. is little bit like searching for a blind date. You never know who’s going to show up.

A roulette wheel of possibilities for a Benavidez foe Saturday night at BlueWater Resort & Casino in Parker, Ariz., appears to have finally stopped on Dedrick Bell (6-9, 4 KO’s) a junior-welterweight from Memphis, TNwho got the call after a couple of other opponents fell through.

Bel steps in for Adrian Hernandez who stepped in for Mexican Jorge Pimentel, who was forced off the FOX-televised card by an Arizona State Boxing & MMA Commission rule that disqualified him because he was stopped in his last three bouts within the last 12 months. Pimentel had been a replacement for Puerto Rican Angel Rios, who lost a decision last Saturday to Terence Crawford in Atlantic City.

Schedule changes are part of the learning process for any young prospect. The 19-year-old Benavidez (12-0, 11 KOs) has yet to encounter one that has dropped him from the head of the class. After a change before his last fight in June, he remained unbeaten with a stoppage of Corey Alarcon in Phoenix.

Against Bell) in a scheduled 6-rounder, Benavidez is expected to work on the lesson plan he continues to pursue in sparring at trainer Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym with Shane Mosley, Paulie Malignaggi and Mercito Gesta (22-0-1, 12 KOs), who faces Manuel Perez (16-6-1, 4 KOs) in the main event of at BlueWater. Seven fights are scheduled for a card put together by Top Rank and Showdown Promotions. First bell is set for 5 p.m. (PST).

LAS VEGAS – Referee Joe Cortez’ job of being in the ring yet out of the spotlight Saturday night for Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Victor Ortiz at the MGM Grand got tougher with further comments from Ortiz trainer Danny Garcia, who Thursday called some of Mayweather’s tactics illegal.

Some unwanted attention on Cortez promises to be there in the wake of Garcia’s complaints about Mayweather’s sharp elbows. Garcia also asked that Cortez not step in to break up the action when Ortiz, as expected, tries to fight on the inside.

“The elbow, that’s illegal,’’ said Garcia, who at a formal news conference Wednesday called Mayweather “a dirty” fighter. “The elbow can hit him, cut him, can break his nose.’’

Predictably, Mayweather’s trainer and uncle, Roger sneered at Garcia’s complaints about the alleged elbow, many of which apparently were thrown in Mayweather’s 10th-round stoppage of Ricky Hatton in a 2007 bout worked by Cortez.

“Using elbows? What are you talking about?’’ Roger Mayweather said in the second session of a media roundtable. “He didn’t knock out Hatton with an elbow. He knocked him out with that check hook.’’

Hatton’s corner complained that Cortez did not allow the popular Brit, a notorious inside brawler, to put enough pressure on Mayweather. A consequence, according Hatton’s corner, was that Mayweather used his speed and had enough space to throw counters.

Pressure is believed to be the only way to beat the undefeated Mayweather (41-0, 25 KOs). He needs some room to land the counter-right, his most lethal punch.

“Inside will neutralize Floyd’s right-counter, his best punch,’’ Garcia said.

But be very careful of what you ask for. What if Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KOs) is permitted to close the distance, eliminate that room? At times, Hatton seemed to do just that, yet Mayweather appeared to respond in kind with brawling blows that, according to Garcia, came at the end of an unprotected elbow instead of a gloved hand.

“Obviously, my nephew finds a way to win,’’ Roger Mayweather said. “He’s found 41 ways to do it.’’

It sounds as if Garcia has studied Cortez almost as much as Mayweather. Cortez’ work in Amir Khan’s dramatic victory last December over Marcos Maidana represents a precedent that concerns Garcia, who mentioned Cortez’ role in the 2010 Fight of the Year.

Somehow, Khan survived a series of concussive blows from Maidana in the 10th round. He did, Maidana complained, because Cortez allowed him. He stepped in to break up the action just when it looked as if Khan would succumb.

“Look, I like Joe Cortez,’’ Garcia said. “He does a pretty good job. But he is like any other man. He makes some mistakes.’’

In perhaps another alert, Garcia said Mayweather should not be allowed to turn his back on Ortiz.

“The ref should know, if he turns his back, the punches are coming,’’ Garcia said.

The shoulder roll is one of Mayweather’s patented moves. It looks as if the familiar tactic limits the size of the target. Instead of a full upper-body — framed from shoulder to shoulder, an opponent sees only a narrow side. It is one element that makes Mayweather so elusive. But, Garcia says, Mayweather often rolls the shoulder so much that the opponent sees his back.

“Covering up from punches with his back, that’s not boxing,’’ Garcia said. “That’s not good defense.’’

Feuding families in every corner
Garcia’s comments about Mayweather’s tactics and Cortez’ role might be another attempt at gaining an edge in a welterweight fight full of gamesmanship from every angle.

Here’s the latest one, a rumor Thursday out of the Mayweather camp:

Ortiz’ estranged father, Victor Sr., has been invited to the fight by Mayweather, who said Wednesday that Ortiz is lying when he says his dad abandoned him when he was 7-year-old in Kansas. Mayweather advisor Leonard Ellerbe didn’t deny it.

“You never know,’’ Ellerbe told Lem Satterfield of Ringtv, The Ring magazine’ on-line edition produced by Yahoo. “We’ve got a lot of surprises for him. We’re working on a lot of things. Victor could look around the arena and see a lot of people. He could see anybody from his past. And that’s the truth.”

Ex-Ortiz trainer Robert Garcia, Danny’s brother, and Ortiz longtime rival, lightweight champion Brandon Rios, already have been invited to the welterweight fight by Mayweather, who tentatively plans to have both walk with him into the ring.

Danny and Robert Garcia are neighbors, yet won’t talk to each other.

“He’s my brother and I love him,’’ Danny said Thursday. “Robert can say anything he wants. But in this business he’s doing bad things.’’

Now, there’s a rumor that Ortiz’ dad might join the parade. Victor Jr. tried to reconnect with his dad not long ago. But his attempt failed. He has moved on.

If Ortiz Jr. has heard the rumor, maybe he should throw a counter and invite Floyd Mayweather Sr. to accompany him into the ring. Mayweather’s estranged dad has not been seen since the two got into an expletive-filled shouting match on HBO’s 24/7.

Photo By Claudia Bocanegra

LAS VEGAS – An experienced opponent for prospect Jose Benavidez, Jr., Saturday night at BlueWater Resort & Casino in Parker, Ariz., was forced off the FOX-televised card Wednesday because he suffered successive stoppages in his last three bouts.

Benavidez’ trainer and father, Jose Benavidez Sr., was told Wednesday as he was traveling to Parker that Jorge Pimentel would not be able to fight his 19-year-old son. Benavidez’ dad said Top Rank was searching for a new opponent.

An Arizona State Boxing & MMA Commission rule knocked Pimentel, a Mexican journeyman, off the card. Commission executive director Dennis O’Connell said it prohibits a boxer from fighting in Arizona if he has been stopped three straight times within a year.

“It’s clear,’’ O’Connell said.

Pimentel (23-12, 17 KOs) was stopped in eight rounds at Panama City on Nov. 30, in two rounds in Mexico on April 2 and in three rounds in Carson, Calif., on July 9.

The third of the three came at the hands of Mercito Gesta (22-0-1, 12 KOs), who is featured at BlueWater in a 10-round main event against Manuel Perez (16-6-1, 4 KOs) of Denver.

Benavidez (12-0, 11 KOs), a junior-welterweight, had to wait on a late change in opponents for his last victory, a fourth-round stoppage of Corey Alarcon on June 11 in Phoenix, his hometown.

Benavidez has returned to trainer Freddie Roach’s famed Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Calif., after training for several months in Phoenix. He has sparred with Gesta, Shane Mosley, Rey Beltran and Paulie Malignaggi.

“The sparring with Gesta brought us back to the top,’’ the senior Benavidez said of recent sparring that became a YouTube hit.