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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Frustration said it all in a conference call.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Steward is hopeful, yet cautious.

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

But here’s the caveat and perhaps the frustration:

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

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

AZ might be Margarito’s next stop

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So who is he?

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

I have no idea.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.