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

Didn’t think so.

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

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

So what’s the problem?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New York – Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez took to New York City as part of their three city tour to announce their upcoming showdown set for December 8th in Las Vegas. This would be their fourth time meeting each-other in the ring. All three of their bouts were closely contested and hotly debated, with two of the fights being fight of the year candidates.

To put things into perspective, combining all of the judges’ scorecards from all three fights, Pacquiao has a slight advantage on points over his rival by a margin on 1024-1017.

On Wednesday at the Edison Ballroom in Times Square, Pacquiao took to the podium and stated, “I’m looking forward to winning impressively and to make the fight as short as possible. We need to get back to the aggressiveness and hunger from when I was twenty-five years old.”

In his always improving English, Marquez stated, “December 8th I have a new challenge again. I don’t need to prove nothing, because I won the last three fights!.”

Kerry Davis took to the podium to briefly announce a the ongoing strategic alliance between HBO and ESPN, and to stay tuned for more in the future.

Promoted by Top Rank, in association with MP Promotions, Zanfer Promotions, Márquez Boxing, Tecate and MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, tickets to Pacquiao-Márquez 4 will go on sale Friday, September 28 at 1:00 p.m. ET / 10:00 a.m. PT. Tickets are priced at $1,200, $900, $600, and $400 and are limited to 10 per person. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster (800) 745-3000. Tickets also are available for purchase at www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

The Pacquiao vs. Márquez telecast, which begins at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT, will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, former world champion Rafael Marquez has pulled out of his October 6 showdown with fellow former champion Wilfredo Vazquez Jr.

“Rafael Marquez is facing health problems and working on some personal issues and will not fight against Wilfredo Vazquez Jr.,” said Vazquez promoter Peter Rivera. “Now, we are going to make Vazquez Jr. against Oquendo, a fight long awaited by Puerto Rican fans.

LAS VEGAS – Only prizefighting, among all sports, is able to induce a vicarious sensation so near to personal tragedy one’s mind, in a headlong rush for homeostasis, begins to tamper with its stimuli, misreading moments and writing them in memory more creatively than truthfully. To see a man so large in what gorgeous violence he perpetrates on another suddenly diminished, panicked, desperately swimming towards his foe like a drowning child after pool’s edge, is to witness sport extended to its legal limit.

That is what happened Saturday in the final two minutes of 37-year old Argentine Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez’s successful defense of his lineal middleweight championship against 26-year old Mexican titlist Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at Thomas & Mack Center, a match Martinez won by lopsided unanimous-decision scores after being forced to the blue mat twice in its 12th round.

There was “Maravilla” in the final 80 seconds, eyes big, body failing, fright both overwhelming and accelerating his exhaustion – the man who boasted before training camp that in his matches “99 percent is studied” beforehand; every wink, every straightening of his trunks, every shoulder shimmy, every smile, every word, all of it, devised in his downtime, planned in his training, executed by a tyrannical actor/director who does not abide improvisation on the set after a bell calls Action. Then none of it was planned.

Felled as much by fatigue as Chavez’s short left hook, a punch that hadn’t found a meaningful mark more than a pair of times in Chavez’s 34 1/2 minutes of winging it, Martinez emoted a confused panic even he didn’t know was in his theatrical range. Martinez rose and tackled Chavez, causing a second knockdown ruled a slip because it didn’t matter how it was ruled because the scorecard never mattered a whit to Chavez. Entirely unconscious of himself or strategy or script, Martinez fought a just-exhausted-enough Chavez off him in a minute that Martinez’s curious mind and creative memory will now stretch to a width most hours of his life will not rival for duration or anxiety.

Anxiety was the large part of that extraordinary final minute. After a 10th round that saw Chavez cast his fourth and fifth urgent and nearly hopeless glances at referee Tony Weeks, beseeching him to do something about Martinez’s low punches or dangerous head, the Argentines in the arena began to serenade their champion and each other. They filled Thomas & Mack with song. A Buenos Aires fútbol rally in the middle of a city that was once Mexico, on the weekend of El 16 de Septiembre: ¡Pinches argentinos, hijos de la Chingada!

After the 11th, a round that saw Chavez land his most meaningful right hand of the evening then see another rally extinguished by Martinez’s sense of the moment and its augmentative, momentum, the aisle in section 112 began to fill with well-dressed Mexicans stomping up the stairs towards the exit. There was no suspense at the end of the 11th, and let no one tell you otherwise.

The suspense happened when the bell to begin the 12th rang and Chavez remained on his stool. Martinez raised both hands above his head, certain he’d beaten “Son of the Legend” yellow on the eve of Mexican Independence Day. Then Chavez, that child of privilege and man of an eccentric nonchalance almost goofy, showed Martinez his mouthguard and hopped off his stool.

When Chavez’s left hook came home and Martinez’s wondrous legs finally failed him moments later, an energy coursed through Thomas & Mack Center like no other. It was a catharsis whose pursuit is the very reason any self-respecting experientialist pays his airfare to Vegas and endures its gauche price-gouging ways – to experience a mindless union with 18,000 others, a burst of something so chemically pure the body hates it, an intensity unendurable for more than a few seconds. The moment could not have been improved upon; its potency was a product of surprise: “Maravilla” in an instant diminished, worn, fragile, spent, withered, more miserable than he’d made Chavez in a half hour of smacking his face with knuckles.

Does it detract from the moment to price it? Surely it does, but that’s why it’s called prizefighting after all. The most terrifying moment of Sergio Martinez’s career will be the one that makes him a much wealthier man. He is now damaged and old, more likely to find underestimation than over. Somewhere from Floyd Mayweather’s fighting soul – the sacred part of him as yet unsullied by “Money” – there must today be a voice that says, “You’re gonna tell me I gotta avoid a guy Little Chavez had out?”

And while Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., right now, knows just how physically ruinous Martinez’s 300 flush blows were to his young body and younger brain, Mexicanismo will ensure he forgets posthaste: “¿Qué haría tu papá, Júnior?”

Whatever he said about it afterwards on Saturday night, his head still thrumming with concussion and ears throbbing each beat of his heart, Sergio Martinez is too introspective, too gentle-spirited, not to have doubt. “Maravilla” is not delusional and does not wish to become so. He fought Chavez perfectly Saturday, just enough playfulness and just enough clean striking and just enough macho, and came within a punch of drowning. It will not be lost on him what will come if he fights imperfectly in a rematch.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Boxing isn’t back. It never left.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shot, counter-shot. The beat goes on.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dad always gets the message, Julio Jr. said.

At least, he does now.

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

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

About what?

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

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

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

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

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

It was a lesson then.

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

OAKLAND, Calif. – Last week’s fight headquarters were at Marriott City Center in the middle of this recovering town. Friday night Andre Ward sat in its lobby area, his back to the window, a white baseball cap pulled over his eyes. His face was darker than it appears on television, and meaner too. It was the first glimpse of a Ward that any unknowing stranger would avoid out of instinct. Ward wasn’t that playful chap taking his kids to school for HBO’s camera; he was a man concentrated on the manifestation of another’s pain.

In that lobby, with his dark and oblivious scowl, Ward was severed entirely from the dot-com millionaires who once made Porsches more ubiquitous than Hondas, 50 miles south of here. Ward was not, either, a delicate San Francisco artisan returned from complementing an hour in the SFMOMA collection with a crabmeat salad at Fisherman’s Wharf. He was not Silicon Valley or Bay Area. He wasn’t even East Bay. Ward was Oakland.

That portended the very worst for Connecticut’s “Bad” Chad Dawson, a unified light heavyweight world champion who fought Ward for his unified super middleweight championship Saturday at Oracle Arena. Whatever violence Dawson saw as a youth in New Haven, Conn., it was qualitatively different from the Oakland brand Ward showed him Saturday. Dawson, discomfited from the moment Ward’s short left hook dropped him in round 3, succumbed entirely at 2:45 of round 10 – when he rose from a spot on the mat Ward’s left hand put him, and gave referee Steve Smoger tacit approval for a TKO stoppage.

Ward and Smoger were and are a lovely combination, the one most likely to lead Ward, with his mauling and grappling and pressuring, into pleasing aesthetic spectacles. Another ref would have broken Ward and Dawson endlessly, Saturday, and it would have set a precedent that ruined everything – for when a fighter knows every clinch brings an officious ref leaping to the rescue, he does more of it, because even for a prizefighter not-fighting is easier than fighting. And this brings obvious choices whose consequences do not get tabulated till the next morning when that fighter reads about what a dullard he was, in Sunday’s paper.

Ward churns his feet in a clinch. That is his secret. He does not merely push and pull with his upper body, content only to throw a completely open punch at a completely open chin, as so many fighters today do. Ward continues to dig and bend, pivot and tilt, certain that waxed human flesh licked with perspiration is too slippery to hold still for long. He frees his hands with his legs. He sincerely wishes to sink knuckles in flesh, too, making the volume-puncher’s compact: I will hit you anywhere you let me, and let the art critics go to hell.

Writing of which, and continuing a theme of this city’s pleasant surprises – including a number-five placing on The New York Times’ “45 Places to Go in 2012” list – downtown Oakland plays host to the Bay Area’s most surprising art collection: Oakland Museum of California (OMCA). Located atop a history floor and another dedicated to science, OCMA’s paint collection features works by or about Californians. It is exhaustive and fantastic. It is not quite the de Young Fine Art Museum but is at least good, and in every way more accessible, as San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

The less-artful compact Ward made with Dawson Saturday saw Ward follow every landed right cross with a chopping left hand. It was an ugly, barely legal punch that offended Dawson’s sense of decorum. It also took his balance and ruined him in the 10th round.

Poor Chad Dawson; he simply has no mean streak. He’s a superb athlete. But were he in the NFL, he’d play wide receiver, not tight end; in the NBA he’d swish gorgeous fall-away jumpers but never drive the lane; if hockey were his game, he’d be a perennial contender for the Lady Byng. There were numerous exchanges Saturday that told this tale: Dawson is an athlete who makes money fighting, but Ward is a prizefighter. Dawson was longer, taller, and ostensibly the harder puncher. And yet, when he hit Ward he got lunged at, and when he got hit by Ward he took a step backwards and showed Oracle Arena a look that said: “It’s cool, guys, I know he hit me, but we quashed all that and things are good between us now.”

Nobody in Oakland respected Dawson’s nonbelligerent stand. Frankly, they wanted to see him beaten for it. Attendance was announced at 8,500 but felt like more – with some local newspaper scribes estimating 10,000 or even 12,000. Imagine, an announced boxing gate that felt underestimated! Knockouts are louder, though, because they bring persons leaping upwards at once. Standing, shouting, high-fiving, fist-pumping men bring a force of feeling disproportionate to their number. There were plenty such men, and women too, Saturday, and the audience was darker-complected than most major boxing crowds. A splendid thing, that, and one that speaks to the authentic, and therefore sustainable, fanbase Ward is building in his hometown.

Andre Ward is becoming a professional sports franchise in Oakland, this pleasantly surprising place with a mean streak. Nobody has trod a fairer path to local acclaim than Ward. No prizefighter deserves acclaim more. And so, on nights like Saturday, in the roiling bodies and noise, for an hour at least boxing can feel like a meritocracy.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

OAKLAND, Calif. – Saturday Andre Ward made the most impressive showing of his career, stopping lineal light heavyweight world champion Chad Dawson in round 10 before an impassioned hometown crowd. Impressive, Ward’s performance certainly was. Whether it was enough to make him the superstar some aficionados feel he deserves to be, though, remains to be seen.

“I’m here to see Andre Ward,” said Bay Area resident Devon Donahue, standing at a table in the lower concourse of Oracle Arena during the undercard. “This is my first fight.”

Ward has suffered, unfairly in the opinion of many, a lack of exposure. He has been on premium cable, winning Showtime’s “Super Six World Boxing Classic” most notably, and he fights in a relentless fashion, oblivious of style, a fashion that should appeal widely to the folks in this town. And Ward does appeal, partially.

“First Ward fight,” said Oakland resident Anthony Brown before the main event. “I just want to see a good one.”

Ward is known by aficionados, and respected if not beloved. There is a momentum building, with attendance figures climbing each time he does his punching in the East Bay. But he is decidedly not yet the draw of, say, Floyd Mayweather – even in his hometown.

“Mayweather is established,” said Donahue. “A lot of people here don’t know about Andre Ward. Yet.”

Ward is an Olympic gold medalist, the only current American champion able to make that claim. He is undefeated as a professional. He is a model citizen outside the ring. What, then, does he need to do to become a bigger draw?

“He needs to talk a little shit,” said Elija Holcomb, an East Bay resident whose allegiance to Ward took him to Atlantic City for Ward’s last fight, a decision victory over Carl Froch in December. “We were arguing about that on the way over, would it make a difference? Mayweather is an event. People tune in. I might not like Mayweather, but I watch him.”

There were some billboards on I-880, the interstate East Bay commuters take southwards, this week, and there were banners hanging on Broadway outside the City Center Marriott that hosted fightweek personalities, downtown, but promotional materials for Ward-Dawson were hardly ubiquitous.

“Man, they should have shoved this down their throats,” continued Holcomb, in a lower-concourse booth, pre-fight. “The guy who cuts my hair used to cut (Ward’s) hair. He didn’t – my point is, Ward’s a little invisible. He’s a little invisible.”

In his comportment, both before and after fights, Andre Ward is a gentleman. He believes that if he can continue to fight and beat the very best men in the world, he will eventually become a beloved figure.

“Against the better competition,” Ward said after whupping Dawson, Saturday, “I rise to the challenge.”

Ward’s next challenge will likely be selling himself as a pay-per-view attraction.

Photo by Alexis Cuarezma

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA — In another virtuoso performance, unified super middleweight champion Andre Ward thrilled his local following in dismantling reigning recognized light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson with a tenth-round stoppage at the Oracle Arena on Saturday night. With the win, and the way in which he claimed it, Ward must now be considered the obvious choice to eventually succeed Floyd Mayweather Jr. as the pound-for-pound king.

After a calculated first round, Ward (26-0, 14 KOs) of Oakland completely took over the fight by the end of round two. At the close of the second stanza, Dawson (31-2, 17 KOs) of New Haven, Connecticut walked back to his corner with a cut over his right eye – the result of a headbutt.

Early in the third, Ward, 168, landed a right lead, followed by a short left that dropped Dawson, 168, for the first of three times in the fight. Dawson got up and began to return fire immediately. Ward landed a couple more hard shots, before Dawson offered back.

Though Dawson looked to have a clear head as the third came to a close, a left in close early in the fourth dropped the WBC Light Heavyweight titleholder again. Though Ward tripped, referee Steve Smoger correctly ruled the knockdown on Dawson. Ward unloaded a heavy arsenal, pressuring Dawson around the ring, but the glassy-eyed light heavyweight champion managed to make it out of the round. Ward may have been a bit winded just as Dawson was ready to go, but it would end up being a moot point.

Dawson looked almost refreshed by the end of the fifth, but Ward punctuated the round with another awkward hard left. Ward opened the sixth back behind his jab, walking down Dawson. The world’s leading 175-pounder could only manage to throw one at a time, which will never get you back into a fight with Andre Ward.

After taking some of the seventh round off, Ward punished Dawson in the seventh, most notably landing two left uppercuts that looked to have knocked some brain matter out of the left hander’s mouth, while the Oakland native had his back to the ropes.

Ward again staggered Dawson in close early in the eighth. Dawson came back with two lefts, one an uppercut, but the wind was clearly out of the southpaw’s sails. When the bell sounded to end the round, Dawson slowly walked back to his corner a defeated-looking fighter.

With the writing on the wall at the end of the ninth, Dawson’s corner opted to send their man out for round ten, rather than call it a night. The move just allowed Ward to land another hard left at range, followed by a right hand. The combination touched off a flurry that dropped Dawson for the third time. Referee Steve Smoger took his time and gave Dawson a good look. Reportedly, Dawson told Smoger, ‘We’re done.’ Smoger waved off the fight at 2:45 of round ten. With the win, Ward retained his WBA and WBC 168-pound titles and opened the door to numerous, mouth-watering possibilities.

In a shockingly quick performance, Antonio DeMarco (28-2, 21 KOs) of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico successfully defended his WBC Lightweight title with a first-round stoppage over WBC #15 ranked John Molina Jr. (24-2, 19 KOs) of Covina, California.

DeMarco, 134 ½, landed a stiff jab that managed to send Molina, 134 ½, reeling across the ring, eyes unclear. Sensing his man was in some trouble, DeMarco pressed Molina into a neutral corner and flurried him into a hunched over position. Instead of making the decision to take a knee or fire back, Molina simply covered up in an unprotected posture, which really left referee Jack Reiss no choice but to stop the fight. Time of the stoppage was 44 seconds of the opening round.

In the last fight before HBO went on the air live, Malik Scott (35-0, 12 KOs) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania scored a rare stoppage due to an injury to the left arm of Bowie Tupou (22-2, 16 KOs) of Los Angeles, California by way of Nukualofa, Tonga in a fight the Philadelphian controlled from minute one.

Unsurprisingly, Scott, 226, kept his distance in the opening round, staying behind his jab and keeping the shorter-armed Tupou, 260, out of his own punching range. Try as he might, Tupou kept looking for openings as the fight progressed into the middle and late rounds, but the defensive-minded Scott refused to open up or give him a sizeable target. Seconds into the eighth and final round, Tupou complained of pain in the area of either his left elbow or bicep and referee Ray Balewicz waved off the fight at 52 seconds.

2000 U.S. Olympian Ricardo Williams Jr. (20-3, 10 KOs) of Cincinnati, Ohio kept breath in his up-and-down career with a six-round majority decision over Anthony Lenk (14-2, 7 KOs) of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Williams, 143 ½, really deserved a unanimous score as he was clearly the harder and more effective puncher throughout the fight. The game and durable Lenk, 143 ½, must have won over one judge with his heart and determination to earn an even card.

After boxing his way through the first three rounds, Williams ramped up and seemed to hurt Lenk in the third. By the start of the fourth, Williams felt comfortable enough to stand and trade in spots with the still forward-moving Lenk.

At the end of the fifth, the former Olympian really sat down on his punches and had Lenk in some trouble as the final bell sounded. Perhaps frustrated by the the direction of the fight, Lenk let one go after the bell that did not seem to bother Williams. Though he was not really in the fight, Lenk had one of his better rounds in the sixth, but it was too little too late for the Nevadan. In the end, two judges had the fight 58-56 twice for Williams and one even at 57-57.

Franklin Lawrence (18-2-2, 13 KOs) of Indianapolis, Indiana remained busy, but failed to impress the slow-arriving crowd with a stoppage win over journeyman Homero Fonseca (9-6-3, 2 KOs) of Pearsall, Texas. Lawrence, 233 ½, pecked and jabbed his way through seven full rounds, but never really committed to making a statement in the night’s opening contest. Fonseca, 253, winged the occasional hook, but was never really in the fight. With swelling around his left eye and no hope really in turning around the contest, referee Edward Collantes opted to stop the bout just before the start of the eighth round.

In the first of two walkout bouts, Tony Hirsch (13-5-2, 6 KOs) of Oakland pleased the group of Bay Area fight fans that stuck around with a free-swinging four-round unanimous decision over tough Roberto Yong (5-6-1, 4 KOs) of Sacramento, California.

Hirsch, 157, who must have been inspired by what Ward had just accomplished before him, came out and seemed to want to put Yong, 158 ½, on his back. However, Yong has continually proven to be a tough cookie for everyone he has shared a ring with and Saturday proved to be no different. Just to let Hirsch know he was in a fight, Yong landed a hard right just before the final bell. However, all three judges had the fight for Hirsch, 39-37 and 40-36 twice.

In a fight that deserves more space than can be afforded to a walkout bout, Randy Guerrero (0-0-1) of Gilroy, California and Juan Urbina (0-0-1) of Santa Ana, California slugged it out with all they had for four rounds en route to a majority draw. Guerrero, 124, seemed to take round one with his early apparent edge in power. Urbina, 119, came right back in round two and landed some hard shots that likely took round two. Over the next two rounds it would be hard to choose who did the most damage, as both did plenty. In the end, one judge had Guerrero ahead, 39-37, but was overruled by the other two who had it even, 38-38. Though the hometown crowd wanted a Guerrero win, it was the type of fight no one deserved to lose.

Photos by Alexis Cuarezma

Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at ortega15rds@lycos.com

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – There is a mythical pound-for-pound crown that hangs precariously on the head of 35-year-old Floyd Mayweather Jr. Considering “Money May’s” age and his ever present out-of-the-ring distractions, the next wave must all be chomping at the bit to pick up where Mayweather will eventually leave off. Two fighters that have openly looked up to Floyd as their careers have progressed will have their chance at stepping into the heir to the throne role, as Andre Ward defends his 168-pound titles against current 175-pound titleholder Chad Dawson tomorrow night at the Oracle Arena in Oakland. Fighters for the HBO-televised event weighed-in outdoors Friday afternoon at the Oakland City Center.

Dawson (31-1, 17 KOs) of New Haven, Connecticut entered a hostile environment, much like the one that awaits him Saturday, on a much larger scale of course, as he took to the scale. Dawson enters Saturday’s contest off one of his biggest wins in name, as he reclaimed the WBC Light Heavyweight title he dropped in 2010 to Jean Pascal with a less than thrilling twelve-round majority decision over Bernard Hopkins in April. Though Dawson is coming down in weight, “Bad Chad” had campaigned as low as 160-pounds early in his career and was a super middleweight until early 2006. Dawson weighed in at the super middleweight limit of 168-pounds, his lowest number since November of 2005.

Ward (25-0, 13 KOs) of Oakland enters Saturday’s twelve-round contest on one of the better two-year runs in the recent history of the sport. Ward shocked nearly everyone outside of the Bay Area with his WBA title win over Mikkel Kessler in November of 2009 and has since disposed of two reigning or former champions, one multiple-time title challenger and one perennial contender in Allan Green. Ward’s last win over Carl Froch in November unified the WBC and WBA 168-pound titles he defends against Dawson on Saturday. Ward looked comfortable at the scale, weighing in at 168-pounds for his fifth title defense at the weight.

When two champions with records like the ones that stand next to the names Ward and Dawson meet up, the talk surrounding the fight almost always involves the often debated pound-for-pound title. A few years back Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, one of the many trainers to walk in and out of Dawson’s revolving doors, guaranteed to the media at a San Francisco press conference that his newest charge would be atop the pound-for-pound heap within two or three years time. Muhammad, who had taken over for Floyd Mayweather Sr. on Dawson’s team, has since been replaced, but with a win on Saturday, his prophecy would be closer than ever to coming to fruition.

With the recent struggles of Manny Pacquiao and even Sergio Martinez to a degree, it would be hard to envision a way to keep Ward out of that number two position behind Mayweather with a win over Dawson on Saturday. Yes, Dawson has given up the few pound advantage he would have had at light heavyweight, and yes the fight is in Ward’s hometown. But those are the perks that come with being a bona fide ticket seller, which Ward has proven to be and Dawson never has.

In the televised co-feature, Antonio DeMarco (27-2, 20 KOs) of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico aims to defend his WBC Lightweight title for the second time this year against John Molina Jr. (24-1, 19 KOs) of Covina, California in a twelve-round bout.

Aided by the intelligent handling by their respective promotional teams, both DeMarco (promoted by Gary Shaw Productions) and Molina (handled by Goossen Tutor Promotions) have impressively rebuilt their careers following major setbacks in the last three years. Back in February 2010, DeMarco was utterly dismantled by the late Edwin Valero in his first attempt at a major title. DeMarco is 4-0 since against a strong crop that included his come-from-behind, title-winning effort over Jorge Linares last October. DeMarco weighed-in at 134 ½-pounds Friday.

After his upset loss to Martin Honorio back in November of 2009, Molina reeled off two quick wins before stepping in to upset previously unbeaten Henry Lundy in July of the following year. Mostly biding time for the right opportunity since, Molina has finally signed on for his first crack at a world title. The WBC #15 ranked lightweight Molina, who figures to have a strong supporting crowd making the trip up from Southern California, weighed in at 134 ½-pounds.

In undercard action, long undefeated heavyweight Malik Scott (34-0, 11 KOs) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania steps up to one of the tougher challenges in his slow-progressing career against big Bowie Tupou (22-1, 16 KOs) of Los Angeles, California by way of Nukualofa, Tonga in a bout scheduled for either eight or ten rounds.

Scott, who scaled 226-pounds, was one of the sought after prospects after the 2000 Olympic Games, but has gone nowhere in a hurry. Saturday’s fight with Tupou marks Scott’s third fight this year after a three-plus year hiatus. Tupou, who came in at 260-pounds, has not exactly been on the face track either, but has reeled off two solid wins against Manuel Quezada and Donnell Holmes in the last fourteen months.

In other heavyweight action, surprising contender Franklin Lawrence (17-2-2, 12 KOs) of Indianapolis, Indiana will keep busy in an eight-rounder against Homero Fonseca (9-5-3, 2 KOs) of Pearsall, Texas. Lawrence, who scaled 233 ½-pounds, raised some eyebrows with back-to-back stoppage wins over Lance Whitaker and Jason Estrada to claim minor titles. Fonseca, who came in at a soft 253-pounds, is 1-3-1 in his last five, but only one of those bouts were scored unanimously against him.

The rollercoaster career of 2000 U.S. Olympian Ricardo Williams Jr. continues against once-beaten Anthony Lenk (14-1, 7 KOs) of Las Vegas, Nevada in a welterweight bout scheduled for either six or eight-rounds. Williams (19-3, 10 KOs) of Cincinnati, Ohio strung together nine consecutive wins after regaining his freedom from imprisonment before running into eventual title challenger Carson Jones last December. Looking to rebound from that fourth-round stoppage defeat, Williams takes on the unproven Lenk. The only really recognizable name on the ledger of Lenk accounts for his only defeat, a hard-fought six-round decision loss to Jessie Vargas when each fighter had less than six pro fights. Both Williams and Lenk scaled 143 ½-pounds Friday.

Longtime Andre Ward sparring partner Tony Hirsch (12-5-2, 6 KOs) of Oakland gets a rare chance to fight at home against a tougher-than-his-record foe in Roberto Yong (5-5-1, 4 KOs) of Sacramento, California in a middleweight bout scheduled for either four or six-rounds. Last seen taking a tough fight on less than 24 hours notice all the way up at 180-pounds, Hirsch scaled a fit-and-trim 157-pounds on Friday. Yong, who weighed in at 158 ½-pounds, has never been stopped and was unlucky to only get a draw against previously unbeaten DonYil Livingston back in August of last year.

Carrying the pressure of his famous last name, Randy Guerrero of Gilroy, California embarks on his pro career against fellow first-timer Juan Urbina of Santa Ana, California in a four-round super bantamweight fight. Guerrero, the brother of world champion Robert “The Ghost” and a standout amateur in his own right, weighed in at 124-pounds. The equally confident-looking Urbina scaled only 119-pounds, which seemed to raise an eyebrow with members of the California State Athletic Commission, but the fight is officially set.

Tickets for the event, promoted by Goossen Tutor Promotions, Gary Shaw Productions, Antonio Leonard TNT Promotions and SOG Promotions, are available online at Ticketmaster.com.

Quick Weigh-in Results:

WBC Super Middleweight Championship
WBA Super Middleweight Championship, 12 Rounds
Ward 168
Dawson 168

WBC Lightweight Championship, 12 Rounds
DeMarco 134 ½
Molina Jr. 134 ½

Heavyweights, 8 or 10 Rounds
Scott 226
Tupou 260

Heavyweights, 8 Rounds
Lawrence 233 ½
Fonseca 253

Welterweights, 6 or 8 Rounds
Williams Jr. 143 ½
Lenk 143 ½

Middleweights, 4 or 6 Rounds
Hirsch 157
Yong 158 ½

Super Bantamweights, 4 Rounds
Guerrero 124
Urbina 119

Mario Ortega Jr. can be contacted at ortega15rds@lycos.com.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another future will have arrived.

Saturday evening in Oakland, Calif.’s Oracle Arena super middleweight world champion Andre Ward will defend his title against light heavyweight world champion Chad Dawson. I will be there, I’m happy to report, and eager to make the trip. What follows is an opinion-laden exploration of why.

Ward-Dawson will be a match between the world’s two very best prizefighters between 161 and 175 pounds. That is enough for the purist in me to make the trip from South Texas. It is a rarity anymore the best fight the best, regardless of popular demand, or its absence, and when that happens, it merits a celebration oblivious of subjective or aesthetic concerns.

Oakland’s Andre Ward is a chance to see a better version of a young Bernard Hopkins. Ward does nothing spectacularly but everything quite well. He hasn’t chloroform on either fist but keeps stronger men the hell off him. His footwork is steady, not inventive. He is confident more than stylish. He is self-conscious in the best sense of the term; thousands of concentrated hours have taught him how to keep comfortable in a fight, and the man who can discomfit him has yet to be found (a boy in his 12th year, Jesus Gonzales, was the last to do it, in 1996). And Ward likes to smoke where another man lives, as Joe Frazier put it, to fight on an opponent’s chest – a singularly endearing quality.

Today’s Bernard Hopkins apologists, kids who were usually too young to know or care about Hopkins when he stopped Segundo Mercado 17 years ago and began his middleweight title reign, have little interest in Ward. He is not confrontational enough. He is a careful father rather than a reformed crook. He does not fill a three-minute answer with five minutes of self-aggrandizement. He conforms to the system rigidly, and the system takes care of him. Nothing dangerous there. He is a professional who, by his own estimation, took boxing training too seriously in his youth and now, as he matures, has learned to remand it to a less dominating place – consider for a second how different from the average prizefighter’s career trajectory that is. Ward is not particularly charismatic, and there is little to discover about him outside the ring: Loving dad, religious devotee, proud man, disciplined citizen. Yawn.

Connecticut’s Chad Dawson is less knowable still. Surely there are a few dangerous corners in New Haven, Conn., and Dawson was right to avoid them as a teenager, but there is an element to the Dawson biography, as told by HBO anyway, that feels effortful. Not Victor-Ortiz effortful, of course, but effortful just the same.

Dawson is not a bad guy. Ward is not a bad guy. Both are excellent fighters, the very best in their divisions, and that is not enough? For me it is. I did not believe Ward was at all special when the Super Six tournament began. I expected Mikkel Kessler to prove how meaningless an Olympic gold medal is these days – meaningless as the advisors of each member of our last two Olympic teams did, and will, tell us. But the very opposite was true, wasn’t it? There is a reason Andre Ward is both our country’s last gold medalist and very best prizefighter over 154 pounds.

Ward is a winner. He has a sense of exactly where he stands in relation to another man and where their performances stand in relation to one other. The day a man bests him, Ward will know it and likely concede it, publicly. Chad Dawson does not have this sense. Dawson is talented enough to beat anyone put in front of him, and beat him convincingly, but Dawson does not know how good he is. He does not trust himself or the roster of trainers hired over the years, and how could he? They tried to make him what he is not, he laments. It is hard to imagine Andre Ward mouthing those words.

I am going to the Bay Area, in part, for the same reason I went to Michigan 20 months ago for Bradley-Alexander: as a silent challenge to the black community to support its fighters. In conversations with black boxers and trainers, there is a confidence, or conceit, that relies on a belief that, at any time in the last century, one of their own was the best prizefighter in the world, recognized or not. That’s a conceit I share. But if black men, as a community, are not supporting boxing’s ecosystem, will it always be so? Timothy Bradley does not touch your souls, OK; I do not understand that but accept it. If a community turns away from Bradley, Ward and Dawson to celebrate Floyd Mayweather’s comic-book id or Adrien Broner’s hairbrush, though, that’s another thing entirely, one that raises a question of perspective.

I am also going to the Bay Area because, culturally, it is one of our country’s richest places. I spent two years there as a young, overpaid, Silicon Valley software developer during the dot-com boom and haven’t been back since 2001. There’s a nostalgia for those lovely, hopeful times.

No, this is not a full-throated or objective endorsement of Ward-Dawson, which is why I chose to write it in the first person. I do not expect a great fight. I expect each man to employ his very best technique, and for those techniques to offset each other. I expect Ward to win by using his head – make of that what you will – but think Dawson is uniquely qualified to upset him. Yet I am nearly as excited about seeing Oracle Arena, Saturday, as Thomas & Mack Center seven days after. Call it wanderlust.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One is the weight class.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – The long-running fight series at the Four Points by Sheraton San Diego ends the summer with a bang as it plays host to a promising six-fight card tonight. In the main event, light welterweight prospect Jonathan Garcia hopes to continue to build towards something meaningful as he goes up against tough Pedro Arcos in a six-rounder. Fighters weighed in Thursday at the hotel.

Garcia (8-0, 6 KOs) of Watsonville, California returns to his home state three fights into his 2012 campaign and looks to be taking a modest step up against Pedro Arcos (8-2, 6 KOs) of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Garcia, who scaled 139-pounds Thursday night, was last seen dropping Leo Martinez en route to a decision win in Columbus, Ohio in late May. Arcos, who also came in at 139, has fought outside of his native Mexico only once and it accounted for one of his two losses.

The supporting card features some promising young talent from mostly out of town in four-round attractions. Unbeaten Eduardo Rivera (7-0-1, 3 KOs) of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico makes his U.S. debut against longtime journeyman opponent Adolfo Landeros (22-26-2, 10 KOs) of Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico in a four-round super featherweight bout. Rivera, who scaled 132-pounds, was last seen in a scheduled eight-rounder, as he stopped 10-0-2 Luis Solis in six. Landeros, weighing in at 133-pounds last night, scored a rare win two fights back against 4-10 Cesar Garcia on June 28th. However, any thoughts of a winning streak were dashed by 18-0 Horatio Garcia, who scored a ten-round decision over Landeros just two weeks later.

In the most competitively-matched bout on the card at least on paper, Oscar Godoy (7-2, 3 KOs) of Watsonville, California will take on 2009 U.S. Championships bronze medalist Richard Hargraves (3-0-1, 2 KOs) of San Francisco, California in a four-round welterweight bout. Godoy thrilled area fight fans in defeat, as he traded knockdowns with Joshua Marks at the Gonzalez Sports Academy in nearby Chula Vista in January. Hargraves is coming in off of a big road win against fellow former national amateur standout Michael Faulk via six-round unanimous decision in Minnesota in June. Both Godoy and Hargraves scaled 147-pounds.

Co-promoter Jorge Marron has imported two of his fighters from Columbus, Ohio for this event as light heavyweight Donald Anderson and debuting light flyweight Jesus Rojas will see action in separate four-round bouts. Anderson (1-0, 1 KO) will take on Jose Jesus Hurtado (3-5, 3 KOs) of San Ysidro, California. Anderson, who turned pro in May with a first-round KO, scaled 175-pounds. Hurtado, coming off of a first-round stoppage to Rudy Puga Jr. last November, weighed-in at 177-pounds.

Rojas meets Christian Salgado (1-3) of Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico to open the event. Rojas, making his debut many miles from the comforts of home, weighed 107 ½-pounds Thursday. Salgado, who had the unenviable task of going up against prospect Matthew Villanueva in his third pro bout, weighed-in at 110-pounds

Scheduled to hit the scales at noon today, Emmanuel Robles (4-0-1, 2 KOs) of San Diego by way of Coyuca de Benítez, Guerrero, Mexico will take on career opponent Jaime Orrantia (26-27-5, 14 KOs) of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico in a four-round light welterweight bout. Orrantia had not yet arrived in town by the time of Thursday’s scheduled weigh-in. Orrantia has lost three straight, which accounts for his entire 2012 campaign. Robles will be returning to the site of his first three professional bouts.

Tickets for the event, promoted by Don Chargin Productions in association with Bobby D. Presents and Jorge Marron Productions, are available online at SanDiegoFights.com.

Quick Weigh-in Results:

Light Welterweights, 6 Rounds
Garcia 139
Arcos 139

Super Featherweights, 4 Rounds
Rivera 132
Landeros 133

Welterweights, 4 Rounds
Godoy 147
Hargraves 147

Light Heavyweights, 4 Rounds
Anderson 175
Hurtado 177

Light Flyweights, 4 Rounds
Rojas 107 ½
Salgado 110

Light Welterweights, 4 Rounds
Robles*
Orrantia*

*will weigh-in at noon tomorrow

Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at ortega15rds@lycos.com.

Javier pulls open the matte-gray door and sees the fresh black and yellow paint and so much heat. The gym’s heat is palpable, visible even. The heater’s flat hum leans on the beeping timer as three sounds pierce the haze of summer South Texas humidity. There is a deep stench of old perspiration and new latex sealant.

“He wanted it bad the other night,” Javier says to himself, “now we’ll see what the little bitch’s got.”

He snickers at the formality of gloving-up, headgear, vaseline. His first three overhand rights push Enrique backwards, landing: shoulder, shoulder, collarbone. But the little guy straightens and raises his gloves, white mouthpiece protruding.

Javier’s hands weigh 40 pounds each now.

The timer beeps thrice, someone calls “Tiempo!” and Javier spits his bloody mouthpiece out the ring and bites down on the top of his left glove, gnawing and tugging.

“C’mon, dude,” Enrique says, “we’re just starting to move around.”

*

Javier starts at how full the gym is inside. There must be 10 guys for every car in the lot out back. He recognizes no one but everyone looks familiar. No one talks. A few take terse instructions – “yab, gancho; no upper” – from a round coach with thick, prickly black hair. He squirts water in their mouths.

There is little sound except smacking, rope on rubber, wet leather on wet leather.

Soon as both gloves are tied tight round Javier’s wrists, his left palm starts to itch. The little brown guy who puts one strip of tape over his laces smiles and shrugs. Then he theatrically slaps the knuckles of each glove and says, “Listo!”

The bleeding parade down the four steps from the ring is embarrassment tempered by exhaustion, and shaking legs underneath a forehead enveloped by unnatural heat, the veins in his temples throbbing hundreds of times that minute.

*

Javier pauses at the top of the ramp to reminisce on the smacking sound it made when he cuffed Enrique behind the ear outside Bar Cielo last Thursday morning round two. One of Enrique’s crew, tatted on the neck with a sleeve to his left wrist, stepped between Javier and the putito.

“Vamos al gimnasio, mejor,” he said.

“Que sea, cabrón,” said Javier. “Tuesday, don’t be late.”

Javier feels stung and even a little concussed by Enrique’s left hook. Those gloves looked so round and soft, shapeless and dumb, till Enrique put the center of the left one on Javier’s right nostril.

Yup, that’s what blood tastes like. Warmer’n you’d think.

Mostly Javier feels fatigue. His hip bones hollow-out and everything below, clear to his heels, starts to shake.

*

Javier strides down the ramp, eyes fixed on the table with piles of headgear and 16-ounce gloves. So old, used and putrid, that gear, smack-faded red and sweat-yellowed white. The leather spokes atop the headgear were gone years ago, and got replaced with elastic bands that say “why bother?”

Get in quick. That’s how you do at Bar Cielo. Then go all maníaco on him. Hit him till the bouncers pull you off. Make him take the steps back. Just beat him down, it don’t matter where, but go for the head. It ain’t gonna last but five minutes. Hold and smack. Make him bleed, take a souvenir of shirt collar or something. Shake it at las pollitas, show’em what you did to their man.

*

Javier likes that nobody stirs when he gets to the table. Nobody shows him his respect. You’re just making it worse for your bitch, he thinks. Enrique and his boy are there, but neither does more than tip his forehead slightly upwards. Settle this like men?

“You are ready, or you want the warm-up?” says a little brown guy in a white t-shirt, worn green sweatpants and scuffed oxblood penny loafers. “I hit you the pads, yes?”

“Just put the gloves on,” Javier says. “Nice shoes.”

“I go to the work after,” the little brown guy says, and he shrugs.

Javier doesn’t bother to touch gloves when the bell rings. He flies at Enrique. First three rights land somewhere. Easy work.

*

Javier climbs the blue-painted steps on the opposite corner of the ring. It’s elevated a little. He pushes through the narrow space between the third and top ropes. He sees Enrique use the space between the second and third. Use my height, he thinks.

Wherever he puts his head, now, Enrique smacks it. Javier points his face at the gray mat and pulls his palms against the headgear. Just make myself tiny, he thinks. So Enrique smacks Javier’s gloves.

Javier comes out his crouch and lashes at Enrique with a right haymaker. But Enrique is evasive, now, without moving. There is no available air. Javier’s eyes bulge. Enrique nearly fits three knuckles of his left glove in Javier’s mouth.

The little brown guy in the penny loafers smiles, shakes his head and waves at Enrique’s friend in the other corner.

“Basta, ya,” he says, and he pulls the strip of blood speckled medical tape from round Javier’s left wrist. “Ya.”

*

Javier notes how rough-taped the ropes are, like shaking strings with full rolls of shiny white and red wrapped their lengths. Give him a burn when I mash him against them, he thinks.

He is sure they extended the round on him. He was so strong that first minute. Chasing Enrique, smacking him. They extended the round, los cabrones!

There had to have been five minutes, then, before that single beep made the little brown guy yell “30 segundos!”

Everyone looks at Javier, shaking and scuffing up the ramp to the matte-gray door. None of them says a thing.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

FAIRFIELD, CALIFORNIA – Welterweight prospect Alan Sanchez survived some tense moments but kept his impressive recent run rolling with a tenth-round stoppage of fading Manuel Leyva in the Telefutura Solo Boxeo main event at the Fairfield Sports Center on Saturday night.

Sanchez (11-2-1, 5 KOs) of Fairfield gave Leyva (21-8, 12 KOs) of Downey, California by way of Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico more respect than was likely necessary in the fight’s opening rounds. With all the glove-touching at the start, during and conclusion of each round, one would think these were two old amigos engaging in a friendly sparring session.

Finally when Leyva, 147, got the gumption to press the action midway through the fight, the usually freer-swinging Sanchez, 146, turned up his aggression to match. When Sanchez eventually pressed Leyva back the Fairfield resident left an opening for a counter to his midsection. At one minute of the sixth round, the more natural 140-pound Leyva landed perhaps the hardest shot he could to Sanchez’ body which nearly folded the fan favorite in half. The left hand came from long distance, but hit its target just right.

Sanchez protected his body as much as possible as Leyva swung away, hoping to catch that same sweet spot he had found moments earlier. Once he could figured he could not find Sanchez’ body again, Leyva landed some clean head shots that if he had any power at welterweight could have posed a more serious problem for his opponent.

With Sanchez still nursing a sore body, the Fairfield resident managed to come back and turn the tables, catching Leyva with some stiff head shots while pressing him around the ring. Leyva had obviously missed his one opportunity at turning the fight in his favor, and just like that Sanchez took over.

With the battle-weary Leyva quickly losing steam, Sanchez was no longer struggling to figure out his opponent’s southpaw style and began bringing the type of fight that has made him such a gate attraction in his adopted hometown. By the end of the seventh, Leyva was cut on the forehead and finding it hard to stay on his feet.

After wearing down Leyva to a nub of the fighter that entered the bout, Sanchez landed a clean right counter over the top that forced the Mexican import to a knee against the ropes. Referee Dan Stell, who had kept close watch during the preceding flurry, leaped in immediately and stopped the bout. Time of the stoppage was 1:46 of the tenth and final round.

In the televised co-feature, super bantamweight prospect Manuel Avila (9-0, 3 KOs) of Fairfield gave one of the better performances of his career with a third-round stoppage of previously once-beaten Vicente Alfaro (5-2, 1 KO) of Northfield, Minnesota.

Avila, 122, still seems to neglect his defense in spots, but looked like a much more complete offensive force as he scored two official knockdowns of Alfaro, 120.5, en route to the technical knockout. In the second round, Alfaro’s glove grazed the canvas after an Avila power shot. In the fourth, Avila forced one of Alfaro’s knees to touch the mat, according to referee Edward Collantes anyhow. From a distance Alfaro looked clear-headed, but Avila rushed in and went for the kayo with a flurry, prompting Collantes to leap in and save the Minnesotan from any further punishment. Time of the stoppage was 2:04 of the third.

Avila, who had just fought on the July 28th undercard of Robert Guerrero-Selcuk Aydin in San Jose, California, will return to the ring on September 22nd as the main event of a Telefutura Solo Boxeo emanating from the Woodland Community Center in Woodland, California.

In a wholly unnecessary rematch, Paul Mendez (9-2-1, 3 KOs) of Delano, California scored a second victory over the always game journeyman Loren Myers (8-17-1, 2 KOs) of Fresno, California – this time via corner stoppage.

Mendez, 168.5, had just fought the last weekend of July and thus was much sharper than the first time he and Myers, 170, met back last October. Mendez was also six pounds lighter than in their first meeting and much closer to his long planned weight division. Myers, who has a reputation for having a strong chin, seemed to handle Mendez’ power but at no point was he in the fight. After three one-sided rounds, Myers’ manager Andy Nance informed referee Dan Stell he had seen enough and the fight was stopped.

Mendez, pegged for Telefutura date on September 22nd in Woodland, California, had won every round on every card of his initial six-round encounter with longtime friend and fellow Central California resident Myers last year in Salinas, California.

Jonathan Chicas (6-0, 3 KOs) of San Francisco, California worked his way through a wide four-round unanimous decision over Mexican import Jose Mendoza (7-6, 3 KOs) just before Telefutura went on the air.

There was some good back-and-forth throughout the four rounds, but Chicas, 139.5, was clearly the winner of each. In the second it looked as though Chicas may have scored a knockdown, but referee Edward Collantes decided that Mendoza, 139, had slipped. Scores read 40-36 three times for the undefeated Chicas. For Jamay, Jalisco’s Mendoza it was his sixth consecutive defeat, but his first in the stretch to not come by way of a stoppage.

Knockout artist Joe Gumina (3-1, 2 KOs) of San Bruno, California was taken the distance but took a clear four-round decision over Sacramento, California’s Payton Boyea (0-2) in the opening bout of the night.

Gumina, 188.5, rushed out and pounded Boyea, 191.5, in the early going. The Sacramento native managed to weather the early storm and settled in as Gumina slowly calmed down his attack in the latter moments of the round.

The two exchanged strong hooks midway through the second, but it was clear Boyea’s shot did not bother Gumina, while the opposite was not so true. Gumina stunned Boyea again with a hard jab late in the third round that started off and offensive rally which resulted in a cut left eye. The cut was ruled to be from a headbutt, but the end result was unchanged by the ruling.

A one-two from Gumina early in the fourth seemed to stun Boyea again, but the San Francisco favorite failed to follow up on the moment. Boyea mounted a short burst of offense, but Gumina shrugged it off and swung back. After a brief respite, Gumina fired away at the ten second warning as the fight came to a close. Scores read 39-37 and 40-36 twice.

Photos by Stephanie Trapp

Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at ortega15rds@lycos.com.

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA – One would have to think coming so close to a crack at a world title and coming up just short would be the end of things for many a fighter in the same place in life as longtime light heavyweight contender Otis Griffin. Financially stable outside of boxing and with little left to prove outside of winning the big one, Griffin is not ready to walk away just yet. World ranked for many of his eight-plus years as a professional, Griffin looks to take a small step back towards the top of the heap at 175-pounds against journeyman Adam Collins in the eight-round main event tonight in his adopted hometown at the inaugural fight night for the DoubleTree Hotel. Most fighters for the six-bout card weighed in Thursday afternoon at Sandra Dee’s Bar-B-Que & Seafood.

Having clawed his way back up the rankings after some terrible decisions, Griffin (23-10-2, 9 KOs) of Sacramento moved his way into a world title eliminator against Yusaf Mack in September of last year. It was not Griffin’s night, as Mack took a twelve-round split decision and the crack at IBF Light Heavyweight titleholder Tavoris Cloud. Unfortunately for Griffin, the loss to Mack touched off a four-fight skid marred by even more horrific scoring, namely in fights against Shawn Hawk and Cedric Agnew.

Putting those unfortunate road losses in the rearview, Griffin is back at home in Sacramento and finds himself beginning again in many ways against Collins (11-7, 8 KOs) of Ironton, Ohio. Collins with some of the best prospects in the division over the last year, but admittedly not fared very well. After his recent run of bad luck, it would be hard to blame Griffin for not taking on the stiffest test out there, especially for a homecoming return. Despite his record, Collins looked the part of a legitimate contender at the weigh-in, scaling a fit-and-trim 173 ½-pounds. Griffin, always in shape, scaled 176 ½-pounds.

The rest of the card, the first offering from upstart promoters O.P.P. Presents, features local area fighters in four-round bouts. Debuting light welterweight Juan “Chico” Martinez of Sacramento will take on Alonso Loeza (1-6-1, 1 KO) of Gilroy, California. Martinez, a fighter promoter Mark Nanney has high hopes for, scaled 142 ½-pounds. Loeza, who has a deceiving record considering most of his defeats came against well regarded prospects on short notice, weighed-in at 145-pounds.

In a pairing of debuting super featherweights, Alberto Torres of Sacramento takes on Sun Valley, California’s Christian Silva in a four-rounder. Torres weighed in at 128-pounds on Thursday afternoon, while his opponent Silva came in a pound lighter at 127.

Hot local ticket seller John Abella (1-0) of Sacramento will take on Misael Martinez (0-5) of Los Angeles, California by way of Managua, Nicaragua in a four-round super bantamweight bout. Abella impressed with drawing power and his performance in his debut four-round decision over Johnny Mancilla in Sacramento this past June. Martinez looks to have a tough road to hoe, as he is coming up in weight and ending a three-year layoff. Abella scaled 123 ½, while Martinez came in at 121 ½-pounds on Thursday.

Jose Alvarez (2-1) of Sanger, California will take on Gregorio Viramontes (0-2-1) of Woodbridge, California in a four-round super middleweight bout. Alvarez, who went all the way up to 178-pounds for his last fight, is back down where he belongs at super middleweight. Viramontes, who is coming off of a kayo loss to Sacramento’s Mike Guy, weighed-in at 168-pounds, as did Alvarez.

Rounding out the card was supposed to be Sacramento’s Mike Ortega (2-0, 1 KO) against Sacramento product Velvet Malone in a four-round light middleweight bout. However, Malone suffered a training injury earlier in the week. Taking his place on short notice is battle-tested Cleven Ishe (3-8, 1 KO) of Long Beach, California. Ortega, ending a layoff of over a year, weighed-in Thursday at 156-pounds. Ishe, who just fought two weeks ago, arrived into Sacramento late on Thursday and will weigh-in at the California State Athletic Commission’s office at noon today. Ishe must weigh no more than 162-pounds.

Tickets for the event, promoted by O.P.P. Presents, are available by calling 925-787-9586 or online at OPPBoxing.com.

Quick Weigh-in Results:

Light Heavyweights, 8 Rounds
Griffin 176 ½
Collins 173 ½

Welterweights, 4 Rounds
Martinez 142 ½
Loeza 145

Super Featherweights, 4 Rounds
Torres 128
Silva 127

Super Bantamweights, 4 Rounds
Abella 123 ½
Martinez 121 ½

Super Middleweights, 4 Rounds
Viramontes 168
Alvarez 168

Middleweights, 4 Rounds
Ortega 156
Ishe*

*will weigh-in at noon today

Photos by Stephanie Trapp

Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at ortega15rds@lycos.com.

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

A few more guesses:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FORT WORTH, Texas – Our beloved sport continues its mid-year recess, a deserted time before the mania of September. There were no fights here Friday or Saturday. There will be none here next weekend. What is here, though, are collections – those of The Modern, Kimbell Art Museum, and Amon Carter Museum of American Art – so detailed, well-presented and complete, only an ambitious, energetic fool would traverse them in seven hours’ time.

But indulge anyway, why not, because you must attend works of art the same way you must attend fights. A piece of fruit tastes nothing like a picture of a piece of fruit. There are art books and exhibition catalogues galore, works of careful photography and prose, but they encourage what literary critic Harold Bloom termed “misprision” – a sort of fundamental misreading that, if imitated, will cause an original interpretation. Original interpretations by dilettantes are mostly rubbish.

How many trainers in how many American gyms have seen dilettantes’ original interpretations of Floyd Mayweather, recently, and of Roy Jones before him, and of Muhammad Ali before him? These are the artistic equivalents of one who sees the works of a single artist in a book, goes to a supply store, and begins hurling paint that same afternoon.

Much contemporary American art, like much contemporary American prizefighting, looks haphazard and improvised, when seen upclose, like the work of people trained by people who watch videos but never put themselves in the loneliness of a ring with another man then consign themselves to a week alone on a heavybag to solve technical problems. It is a derivative of a derivative; a shallow misreading of another’s shallow misreading of an original style.

These are what thoughts happened as I walked through a different collection – Dallas Museum of Art’s abstract expressionism – Saturday. Works by people more concerned with being artists than making art; persons who sought the straightest possible line to acclaim, men who suffered from a want of solitude, seeking companionship and affirmation at every turn – with a work by their patron saint, Andy Warhol, supervising the entrance.

There was a Warhol self-portrait, too, at The Modern, thirty miles west of Dallas. It was neon, lineless, loud and famous but suffered a genuine misfortune: It hung outside this city’s astounding new exhibition of Lucian Freud’s portraits. Warhol and his t-shirt-ready screen prints of Marilyn and Jackie look insubstantial set beside a contemporary like Freud’s works (if perhaps not Freud’s early, is-that-a-Modigliani efforts).

Walking round Saturday, I thought of Marco Antonio Barrera, as I often do. I thought of the rarity of what he did to “The Prince” Naseem Hamed in 2001 and the three years and seven fights that separated Barrera’s second loss to Junior Jones and only loss to Erik Morales – the solitude of those matches in Caesars Tahoe and Fantasy Springs. I thought of his stylistic overhaul in the three fights between Morales and Hamed, the solitude of New Orleans Arena or an opponent like Jesus Salud. Then I thought of how, after undressing the astonishingly overrated Hamed for a half hour, Barrera summoned the fury of those years in the woods to ram The Prince’s goofy face in a turnbuckle, risking disqualification, caring not a whit.

The careless chance-taking of a master craftsman; that is what one sees in Freud’s 1997 work “Sunny Morning – Eight Legs,” hung expertly at The Modern adjacent to 1993’s “And the Bridegroom.” In both paintings, a dressing screen stands in the background, and when one looks at the way the middle of the piece is protuberant while its floor and ceiling distend, one sees what Freud was after: He is behind the screen, painting what is reflected by a large, convex mirror. In Freud’s work one sees a thing most rare in contemporary paint: a direct link to Van Gogh and his collapsed space between foreground and back; the Spanish master, Velazquez, and his use of mirrors; the Italian master Caravaggio and his genius for human form; and the German master, Durer, and his compulsion for movement. The grandson of another and more famous genius, Freud had the influences and resources and talent to absorb masterworks then retreat to solitude, puzzle them out, and repeat their techniques. Only then, his toolbox complete, did Freud set about going where the daemon took him.

Great artists fail. One sees dreadful works by Cezanne and worse by Picasso. Failure in boxing is different from losing, just as artistic failure is sometimes subjective. There are informed critics who see genius in Pollock’s works like “Cathedral,” which hangs at Dallas Museum of Art; but if one has been to Museum of Fine Art, Houston, and seen young Pollock’s attempts at more academic painting, he can be forgiven for saying “That’s why he evolved to drizzles and splatters.”

Barrera’s failures were not his knockout loss to Jones in 1996 or Manny Pacquiao in 2003 or unofficial loss to Rocky Juarez in 2006. Barrera’s failures were his too-cautious performance with Juan Manuel Marquez in 2007 and his cash-on-delivery, rematch showing against Pacquiao seven months later.

But indulge anyway. Attend the fights; attend the canvases. You can see a prizefighting masterpiece on television no better than a Rembrandt in a book, after all. Plan trips. Do not worry about outcomes. A master’s failure is ever more informative than a dilettante’s triumph.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

Warriors Boxing Promotions presented Miami Warfare II at the Miami Airport Convention Center in Miami tonight and the crowd was treated to a delight of a card which was headlined by a very entertaining bout between hard hitting Colombian Breidis Prescott 26-4(18KO)and Bronx native Gato Figueroa 20-5-1(13KO).

Prescott is often noted for handing Amir Khan his first shocking knockout loss and has been since dubbed as the Khanqueror. However, the tall and lean Prescott had not followed up strong; he was 5-4 in his last 9 fights. Figueroa the former NABF Welterweight champion, recently faced tall and very tough opposition in dynamite fisted Randall Bailey and rangy brawler undefeated Alex Perez. The slick southpaw found himself with another taller strong fighter tonight.

Prescott started strong in the first round and was firing heavy shots where he knocked an off balanced Figueroa down twice. Gato returned the favor in round five with a straight left hand that deposited the Colombian to the canvas. Where the much taller rangier Prescott set the pace winning the early rounds it was a hard charging Figueroa who came on strong late to keep it competitive and interesting. The two tangled often with the bigger Colombian fighter leaning on and holding the Puerto Rican, Figueroa pushing him down trying to work his legs. A deep cut was caused to the back of Gatos head by some sort of an elbow while engaging the typical entanglement often seen in a southpaw orthodox skirmish. Figueroa came on strong at the end of the fight, he was catching the tiring taller fighter with straight lefts however Prescott used his feet to stay out of reach for follow up punches. The final judges’ cards were 79-71, 77-73, 78-71 all for Prescott.

In the Co-main event prospecting slowly turning contender super featherweight Rances Barthelemy 17-0(11KO) knocked Mexican Alejandro Rodriguez 14-7(7KO) down in the first round in what appeared to be an easy and quick night for the Cuban fighter. In turn, the iron chinned Rodriguez made him work for it over hard fought 8 rounds where Barthelemy earned a unanimous decision. Rodriguez showed a ton of heart as he was hit with everything often and kept coming with true Mexican pride. In the final two rounds Barthelemy toyed with Rodriguez with his hands down slipping punches, more impressively would have appreciated a stoppage. With his perfect record now growing I would assume Barthelemy will start stepping up the competition to get closer to the titles.

In the opening bout of the night Cuban fighter Leosvy Mayedo 3-0(2KO) made easy work of Altantas’ Joseph Benjamin 3-22-2(3KO). Mayedo dropped the over-matched Benjamin in the first and last round however was unable finish off his opponent. Mayedo was clearly looking for a knockout as he was reaching with big punched rarely throwing more than one or two and usually all power punches. More boxing to set up the power punches could have yielded the KO in this fight.

Malcom Stimthil 1-0 dissected Tampa based Cassius Clay throughout a four round entertaining welterweight bout and looked very composed for a debuting fighter. Stimthil rocked Clay often and cut him over his left eye in the second stanza. Stimthil who had 28 amateur bouts, fights out of Palm Beach Boxing in West Palm Beach and is trained by Adam Bram. All three cards read 40-36

Light Heavyweight Radivoje Kalajdzic 7-0(6KO) from Zenica Bosnia went right to work on Jerrod Caldwell 2-1-1(1KO) from Gainesville Florida and scored a blistering first round TKO. Kalajdzic landed a pair of laser fast straight right hands followed by an unanswered flurry that prompted Sam Burgeos to step in and call it a night at 1:49 of the first round.

Middleweight Roberto Acevedo from Puerto Rico improved to 6-0(4KO) with a convincing unanimous decision win over Pnesacolas’ Donald Clark who fell to 2-3(1KO). The card read 60-54 twice and 59-54.

Cuban Super Bantamweight Hairon Socarras, fighting out of Miami, scored a four round unanimous decision win over southpaw Socarras DeWane “The Pain” Wisdon from Indianapolis, IN. The Pain kept it competitive and was caught in the third round in which the tide turned slightly, however not overly impressive and Wisdom did a great job defensively to avoid the big punches from the Cuban fighter, who seemed to be loading up on hopeful punches one at a time, never really putting a meaningful combination together. The cards read 39-37 and 40-36 twice.

In the final bout of the night, Light heavyweight Yunieski Gonazlez improved to 9-0(5KO) with a long and hard fought ten round unanimous decision win over tough, tested and iron willed, Jermaine Mackey 18-6(14KO) fighting out of Nassau Bahamas. Gonzalez threw his heaviest punches at the feisty southpaw Mackey who refused to go away. The two brawled to the fans delight at the end of the fight, leaving this animated Miami crowd begging for more. All three judges saw the fight 100-89.

CLICK TO ORDER THE FIGHT CARD
Joel Diaz 130 – Guillermo Sanchez 129
Glen Tapia 159 – Franklin Gonzalez 159
Patrick Farrell 217 – Wayne Hampton 263
Joey Dawejko 238 – Dorsett Barnwell 248
Thomas LaManna 157 – Yolexcy Leiva 155
Anthony Gangemi 151 – Jimmy Ellis 150
Tyrone McKenna 143 – Anthony Morrison 145
Tyrell Wright 202 – Dennis Benson 249
Tioka Kahn Klary 132 – Jamil Winfield 132

VENUE: Ballys Atlantic City
PROMOTER: John Lynch’s Pound for Pound Promotions
1st Bell: 7:30 pm
Live Broadcast on www.gfl.tv

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He didn’t start out as most in the boxing business but Vinny LaManna has accomplished a lot in his twenty-plus years in boxing.

LaManna, who now resides in Toms River, New Jersey wasn’t even particularly a sports fan until he walked into a bar in Northern New Jersey and was captivated by what he saw what was playing on the television.
“It was the 1988 Seoul Olympics and they were showing a fight involving (eventual Gold Medalist) Ray Mercer and thought to myself wow what an exciting athlete and from there my love and passion for the sport was born”, said the forty-eight year old father of three.

LaManna then became friends with Greg Pessolano who was an agent with Triple Threat boxing who just happened to be the management company of Mercer.

Through the mutual friends, LaManna was introduced to Mercer and that sparked LaManna’s interest in getting into the business.

“Any fool with $20 can get a managers license” and then LaManna preceded to manage a Light Heavyweight named Anthony Sutton.

“Sutton lost his first fight with me and he never fought again”

That didn’t deter LaManna as he has gone on to manage over forty-plus fighters that included His only world champion, IBF Cruiserweight champion Imanu Mayfield, Leo Loiacano, Michael Covington, Derrick Graham, and his influence into boxing Ray Mercer.

“I have done shows with the biggest names. We have been involved with fights with Don King, Bob Arum, Goossen, you name it”

Mayfield, who was LaManna’s only champion was actually brought to him after his manager Curtis Ford had a brain aneurysm.

Loiacano was big ticket seller in North Jersey so that brought LaManna a name in his home area.
Graham was the one that LaManna could have been great as he said that he had all the talent but never took the sport serious.

“Mercer and Mayfield were able to make handsome livings”

LaManna has had his battles and detractors over the years but has mostly good things to say about the business.

On the present New Jersey Boxing Commission “Larry Hazzard knew the sport and currant Aaron Davis is a fair man and because of his regulating we have seen an increase in live events”

LaManna has been at the championship level but now he is involved in his most personal project in managing his own son, Twenty-year old undefeated Jr. Middleweight Thomas “Cornflake” LaManna.

“I don’t have to be as careful and he is learning more and more. All of my decisions are business and the fights we make, I have to take the mindset that he was any other fighter that I have managed”

The younger LaManna will be back in the ring this Saturday night at Ballys in Atlantic City (www.gfl.tv -$9.99 at 7:30 pm) when he takes on Yolexcy Leiva in a bout scheduled for six rounds.

LaManna has seen some distract changing in the game in his two decades in the business.

“There are some bad people and the sport needs to be regulated. There are too many people running around the business who don’t understand it and that leads to lots of fighters getting screwed”

Like everyone else, LaManna has his own opinion of the continued failed negotiations between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

“They should just be able to come to some kind of fair split when you are talking hundreds of millions of dollars. To me it just looks like two guys making excuses not to fight each other”

“Being from New Jersey, I am big proponent of the State Title. I think it’s a great way to promote and give fighters on the way up an opportunity to fight for a title”

LaManna took matters into his own hands when he and longtime Philadelphia cutman/promoter Joey “Eye” Intreri formed the BAM (Boxing Association of Machismo )

“It’s a title for kids to fight for something, it’s more of a trophy but the winners of these fights get belts and there are no sanction fees. When we feel two guys want to step up in an era when nobody wants to fight each other, we try to reward those fighters”

LaManna, also runs and operates Starwaste Service, which is a large sanitation company in New Jersey

CLOVIS, CALIFORNIA – Tonight at the Table Mountain Casino in Friant, California, two longtime rivals square off in what is being billed as the last fight for both, as Christy Martin aims to defend her WBC Light Middleweight title against Mia St. John in a rematch of their memorable 2002 encounter. Fighters for the five-bout event weighed-in Monday at the Bod-e² Shop in nearby Clovis.

Martin (49-6-3, 31 KOs) of Orlando, Florida is going for elusive win number fifty as she caps what has been perhaps the most important career in the history of women’s boxing. Martin’s first attempt at the big 5-0 came in June of last year, as she took on Dakota Stone in Los Angeles, California. Martin had defeated Stone to claim the WBC title two years prior and was on her way to a points win in the rematch. However a broken hand forced referee David Mendoza to award the fight to Stone, despite the fact the fight had reached the sixth and final round.

Martin’s difficulty in defeating St. John back in 2002 led some to question what she had left in the tank way back then. Martin has been less than active in the years since for a variety of reasons, but the lady that put the sport on the map is not too concerned with her naysayers. “People have said all kinds of different things,” explains Martin. “I have been on the downslide since I started. I don’t care what the commentators or sports writers have to say. My job is to go out there and fight my hardest and that’s what I am going to do. I am going to go out there and be entertaining to the crowd like I’ve done for almost sixty fights now.”

St. John (46-11-2, 18 KOs) of Oxnard, California has kept much more active in the years since their 2002 meeting and proven herself to be a top notch fighter, having taken on some of the best opposition in and around her weight division. Few would have likely predicted that St. John would have had as successful a career as it has turned out to be back when she was fighting in four-rounders on pay-per-view undercards. “I went into the first fight with people thinking I would get knocked out in the first round and obviously that didn’t happen,” recalls St. John. “I went on to fight the best women in boxing. I fought Holly Holm, Jessica Rakoczy and the list goes on. I fought them all. People know by now that I am not just a novelty. I can walk away from the sport knowing the truth. I know I wasn’t the best female boxer in women’s boxing, but nor was I the worst. I was damn good. I know the truth, because I have fought the worst, the mediocre and the best, so I know where I stand. I don’t regret any move in my career. I feel that I did what was right.”

An issue before their first fight and again heading into the rematch was weight. The fight is for the WBC’s 154-pound title. The last recorded weight for St. John was 137 ¼, so right away it is easy to see who the naturally bigger fighter is going to be. “There is still a huge weight difference,” said St. John. “There is a bigger weight difference now than there was ten years ago. That doesn’t bother me because I feel that she is going to be bigger and stronger, but I am faster and a better technician. I feel the better boxer prevails. Not always, but in this case that will be true.” Martin weighed in at 150.2-pounds Tuesday, while St. John scaled 146.6.

In undercard action, Former amateur standout Luis Villagomez of Fresno is still on the bill and will take on Manuel Ortega (1-4) of Seattle, Washington in a four-round featherweight bout. Villagomez, who scaled 125.4 on Monday, has a quickly improving record. His pro debut, which ended on a cut, was recently changed from a loss to a no contest, based on the finding that a headbutt was the original cause of the laceration. Ortega, who came in at 126.2, has lost four straight, but did go the distance with prospect Randy Caballero.

Yoshi Fuji (2-3-1, 2 KOs) of Fresno ends a five-year layoff against Jose Garcia (0-2) of Santa Ana, California in a four-round lightweight bout. Fuij, who scaled 132-pounds, has fought at Table Mountain Casino twice before. He hopes to begin his return with a victory that would end a three-fight skid. Garcia, who came in at 131.8, has gone the distance in both of his two pro bouts, which each took place last year.

In a four-round lightweight affair, Aaron Acevedo (1-0-1, 1 KO) of Moreno Valley, California will take on Angel Torres (2-10-2, 1 KO) of Yonkers, New York. Acevedo, who scaled 132.2, fought just over a month ago, earning a draw against debuting Daniel Martinez. Torres, who weighed-in at 133, has been stopped four straight times.

Fleshing out the card, David Barragan (1-0-1, 1 KO) of National City, California will take on Beau Hamilton (0-2) of Montague, California in a four-round middleweight fight. Barragan, who weighed 157, comes in off of a draw with Marquise Bruce in March. Hamilton, who scaled 156.8, was last seen going the distance with debuting Antonio Tarver protégé Juan Reynoso in June.

Tickets for the event, promoted by Roy Englebrecht Events, are available online at Tmcasino.com.

Quick Weigh-in Results:

WBC Light Middleweight Championship, 12 Rounds
Martin 150.2
St. John 146.6

Featherweights, 4 Rounds
Villagomez 125.4
Ortega 126.2

Lightweights, 4 Rounds
Fujii 132
Garcia 131.8

Lightweights, 4 Rounds
Acevedo 132.2
Torres 133

Middleweights, 4 Rounds
Barragan 157
Hamilton 156.8

Photo by Marty Solis/California Advocate

Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at ortega15rds@lycos.com.

Back in December of 2002, the two most well-known faces in women’s boxing at the time squared off in a crossroads bout of sorts, as Playboy cover girl Mia St. John squared off against Sports Illustrated cover girl and long respected fighter Christy Martin before a pay-per-view audience. To the surprise of many, St. John proved she could hang with a top level fighter as she boxed well but lost a wide decision. Both women have had their ups and downs professionally and personally, but still remain two of the most recognizable faces in the history of their sport. Another thing remains the same – neither seems to like the other all that much. The two meet this coming Tuesday at the Table Mountain Casino in Friant, California with Martin’s WBC Light Middleweight title on the line.

Martin (49-6-3, 31 KOs) of Orlando, Florida was the heavy favorite going into their first encounter. Martin was the fighter and St. John was supposed to be the novelty act. However, by lasting the distance with Martin and winning a handful of rounds, St. John (46-11-2, 18 KOs) of Oxnard, California legitimized herself as a solid pro and used the showing to launch the rest of her fighting career. Fast forward to the present day and Martin seems to give little credit to St. John for how well she performed back in 2002.

“I don’t think that the [first] fight was competitive, but she did take some great shots,” says Martin. “I was convinced in my mind that I was going to knock her out with a body shot, so that’s what I did. For ten rounds I worked on her body and stayed on her body. Whether or not she had on something under her clothes, I don’t know, but that is what I tend to believe. I didn’t hear a little moan or groan from Mia when she took those body shots. I hear that from my male sparring partners, that I have good body shots. So to see no reaction from Mia, makes me wonder what she had on.”

Under armor theories aside, Martin has seemed to forget that late in their first fight, it was “The Coal Miner’s Daughter” that asked her corner who they had winning the fight, not St. John. “Clearly she knew she was not easily winning the fight,” said St. John when that moment from their first fight was brought up. “I have a style that Christy does not do well with and many fighters don’t do well with. I’m a mover and I use a lot of angles, very difficult to land a clean punch. This is why I have only been knocked down once in my career and that was by a southpaw.”

It is almost hard to believe it took nearly ten years for a promoter to put together the rematch, as Roy Englebrecht has done. Both fighters spoke as though it was a fight they have wanted to make, and one that they look forward to. “This has been ten years in the making,” St. John said. “I am excited about it. I feel like I outboxed her in the first fight. And now that I know her even better, I feel that not only will I outbox her again, but I will actually stop Christy Martin and I will retire with the WBC belt.” Martin seemed extra juiced to be coming to California for the rematch. “It has been ten years in the making,” said Martin. “I am excited to have the opportunity to beat her again and this time in front of her hometown fans.”

A theme throughout the telecast of their initial encounter was how both Martin and St. John dealt with complications relating to the promotion of their first bout and how it could have affected them on fight night. “The first time around, there were a lot of distractions with the fight being scheduled and rescheduled,” Martin recalled. “It was going to happen. Then it was not going to happen. The day before I found out I was not going to be paid and I was going to have to sue the guy. My trainer at my time was my ex-husband, who was more interested in making sure that Mia got paid than I got paid. It was a bunch of bullshit basically.”

Admittedly both fighters have dealt with their share of distractions in the lead up to Tuesday’s rematch. The fight had been scheduled for earlier in the year, but with Martin still dealing with the legal entanglements surrounding the vicious attack by her ex-husband, the fight was postponed. Meanwhile St. John dealt with the grief of losing her mother to illness. Despite the hardships, both fighters seemed to have put their issues in their proper place and focused on the task at hand.

“We both went into that first fight not being able to spar and not being able to train,” recalled St. John. “We both had distractions having to do with the promoter of the first fight. With this fight, it is no different. She’s had distractions and so have I. My mother spent all of 2011 battling lung cancer and passed away five months ago. So we both have had major distractions in our lives, but at the end of the day we are fighters and that’s what we do. It is not going to be any different. None of that stuff is going to matter once the bell rings.”

Martin gave similar sentiments relating to her issues. “This time is altogether different,” says Martin, comparing the distractions before fight one and two. “I am training in Las Vegas with Miguel Diaz, a number one quality trainer. I am getting great sparring, so I will be more than prepared and ready to go. I am 100 percent. All the injuries from being shot and stabbed were all healed before I got in the ring last year. I broke my hand in nine places, but it is all healed. The doctor released me months ago, and I am ready to try it out on Mia’s head.”

Tuesday’s fight has been billed as “Final Victory.” Both St. John and Martin have kept in the tradition of their male counterparts, having both had more than one “final fight” in their career up to this point. However, it does seem like they recognize Tuesday’s fight at the Table Mountain Casino provides them a chance to go out with a bang, so maybe this will be it for them. Maybe.

“I know that when I win, she is going to want a rubber match,” said St. John, offering a scenario that could see her return to the ring another time. “Her ego is too big to let her just say ‘Mia beat me, I’m retired.’ She won’t do that. I will be willing to give her a rubber match, but I won’t fight anybody else, so stop calling me out. That is going to be it.”

Martin left the door slightly less open to another fight beyond August 14th, “I’m 99.9 percent sure of retirement at the end of the fight, win, lose or draw,” said Martin. “I’m a fighter, so it is hard to say 100 percent that I am done. But the end is definitely very, very near.”

Tomorrow’s undercard was originally meant to feature local Fresno-area fighters from top to bottom, but some late pullouts left the promotion scrambling to piece together the supporting card. Former amateur standout Luis Villagomez of Fresno is still on the bill and will take on Manuel Ortega (1-4) of Seattle, Washington in a four-round super featherweight bout. Yoshi Fuji (2-3-1, 2 KOs) of Fresno will end a five-year layoff against Jose Garcia (0-2) of Santa Ana, California in a four-round lightweight bout. Aaron Acevedo (1-0-1, 1 KO) of Moreno Valley, California will take on Angel Torres (2-10-2, 1 KO) of Yonkers, New York in a four-round lightweight bout. Rounding out the card, David Barragan (1-0-1, 1 KO) of National City, California will take on Beau Hamilton (0-2) of Montague, California in a four-round light middleweight fight.

Tickets for the event, promoted by Roy Englebrecht Events, are available online at Tmcasino.com.

SAN ANTONIO – Saturday saw the return of national figures and national Spanish-language television, Telefutura this time, to the northernmost fraction of Alamodome, a pastel-highlighted and becurtained area called Illusions Theater. Seven undercard matches whose blowouts were either unexpected or presented local prizefighters doing the blowing-out rallied an enthusiastic Alamo City crowd for what was an entertaining main event.

Rugged Texan Brian Vera decisioned crafty Sergio Mora, a national figure who won the first “Contender” program and briefly held the WBC’s light middleweight title in 2008. The judges’ decision was correct, if unfairly wide in two cases, and Mora stormed to his dressing room and had a conniption. As neither Vera nor Mora, nor their rematch, provided new insights about prizefighting, it should prove more constructive to examine local shows and the promoters who host them.

One needn’t cover the sport of prizefighting for a decade to see his first dozen promoters fail. The pattern becomes familiar: A man successful in some other venture decides his hometown’s consumers have not been adequately tapped. He has an angle of some kind, often an assumed familiarity with his city, a familiarity whose supposed lack caused other promoters’ previous failures. Occasionally his angle is a direct line to a stable of talented local prospects, and in the best scenarios it is access to a prizefighting grandee.

The new promoter sets out to make his first card a conquest. He leases the talent and services of a national outfit or at least a well-regarded matchmaker. He rents a noteworthy venue. He begins to employ what salesmanship made his other venture a success. Everything runs crisply. Press releases get released. Open workouts open on time. Promotional events promote relentlessly. Advance ticket sales advance. The local promoter loses between $20,000 and $40,000.

But the debut gets good reviews. He has already promised to do a minimum of five shows or more because he understands the importance and finickiness of momentum – even if his burn rate has already trebled startup estimates. His second card goes much like the first. The local promoter approaches a crisis stage and thinks maybe conjuring a reliable audience for prizefights is not as his initial calculus concluded.

Boxing is filled with local freelancing operatives who haven’t succeeded at previous business ventures but believe, on the strength of their betrothing common observations and uncommon vocal cords, boxing is where a fortune, their fortune, can be made. If it’s not an impossible scenario, it’s neither a probable one. The promoter turns to these freelancers for enthusiasm if not advice because optimism is at least infectious.

For his third card, the new promoter decides he’s learned much about the business from national outfits as he’s likely to. He cuts PR costs dramatically, though keeps the matchmaker and venue. Reviews are not raved as before, but of course expenses are lower. He stocks the card with local talent – the national guys, after all, sell television licensing (which their national promoters keep), not tickets – and maybe attempts affiliation with his city’s thriving amateur scene. Keep things homegrown and intimate.

But even small events are more expensive than they feel to attendees. Members of the local media, wary of a diminishing infrastructure they’ve seen before, lose some interest. They’ll be there fightnight, perhaps, but no longer have an impetus to act as tools in the promotional apparatus. This brings a capitulation stage, wherein the local promoter leaves boxing, feeling in no small part bamboozled, and tries his luck with amateur MMA or writes-off entirely his errant undertaking.

Leija-Battah Promotions, by all appearances, approached a crisis stage after its second show, a small Cinco de Mayo event that drew a reasonable crowd to the bullring of a large San Antonio dancehall but nevertheless featured talent more national in price than notoriety. Then came a kickoff press conference in June for its third show, Mora-Vera II, a press conference made complete by an appearance from the Golden Boy himself, Oscar De La Hoya, beside his one-time rival and new promotional partner Jesse James Leija. Locals reasonably anticipated future Golden Boy sightings. But the June press conference – despite promises of a Thursday “meet & greet” and Friday weighin at 1 PM – was the last De La Hoya was seen in South Texas. His June affair was about selling the event to Leija-Battah Promotions.

Friday’s weighin was inexplicably moved to 3 PM, Thursday night, which did not correspond to blue-collar dads’ lunch breaks. Saturday’s card featured a media section nothing like the first Illusions Theater configuration Top Rank’s Lee Samuels arranged in March. Rather than two consecutive rows of tables, there was one row, restricted mostly to television personalities who never materialized, and a second table well back of it. Between the two tables were five or six rows of “media seating” that featured black cocktail dresses in lieu of notebooks – which was good because had these credentialed writers brought so much as a pen with them, they’d have had to balance the reports they scribbled on their spectacular, shapely knees.

The card itself left one hopeful, nonetheless. It showcased local talent like Adam Lopez, Javier Rodriguez, Steve Hall and Benjamin Whitaker. The main event was excellent too. There were 17 amateur bouts before the professional show, and each of those amateurs was tasked with selling 25 tickets. Attendance was estimated above 3,000, and while it is not likely so many tickets were sold, seeing more than 1,500 people gathered for boxing in a local venue is always edifying.

What comes next for the promotional partnership between local businessman Mike Battah and local hero Jesse James Leija is unknowable. Being a prizefighting promoter, a profitable one, is unlike any other venture.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

Dan Rafael of espn.com reports that Lamont Peterson will be able to keep his IBF Jr. Welterweight belt after a failed test for elevated Testosterone.

“I’m thankful and I’m thrilled with the IBF’s decision,” Peterson said in a statement. “I want to thank my manager, Barry Hunter, for all of his support throughout this ordeal. There were a lot of naysayers out there, but Barry and the rest of my team never doubted me. My team fought non-stop to ensure that I was cleared.”

“After concluding the review of all the documentation provided by Peterson’s camp and the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the physician determined that the testosterone levels noted in the VADA report are consistent with the therapeutic use of the hormone and not for the purpose of performance enhancement.

“Therefore, these levels would not have enhanced Lamont Peterson’s training for or performance during the bout on Dec. 10, 2011, nor for his training for the bout that was scheduled for May 19, 2012, as a specimen collected by VADA on April 13, 2012 tested negative on May 2, 2012.”

“I’ve known Lamont his whole life and always had faith in him,” said Peterson’s manager/trainer/ father figure Barry Hunter. “We were certain that when all of the details were reviewed, Lamont would be cleared and allowed to move on with a title defense and his career. We never stopped training. Lamont looks great and we’re looking forward to a great fight once we work out the details with Judah and his team.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Valenzuela came home and quickly went pro.

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

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

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

QUOTES, ANECDOTES

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

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

Photo by Stephanie Trapp

Super featherweight prospect Diego Magdaleno continued his run through the lower rungs of the division with a fourth-round stoppage over faded trial horse Antonio Larel Davis in defense of his NABF title at the Texas Station Gambling Hall & Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday night.

Magdaleno (23-0, 9 KOs) of Las Vegas, who once had a streak of nine consecutive decision wins, scored his second consecutive stoppage, but over an opponent in Davis (29-8, 13 KOs) of Atlanta, Georgia that had been stopped in each of his last four defeats.

Magdaleno, 130, made sure to put in his work to the 40-year-old Davis’ body in the early going. At first, Davis, 130, seemed to take the shots well, but quickly it became apparent the damage was accumulating. By the fourth round the writing was on the wall. Magdaleno fell back on his jab and pried an opening for a right uppercut that badly rocked the weary Davis. Magdaleno ran in for the finish, pummeling Davis around the ring.

With their guy taking punishment, Davis’ corner began to inch up the ring steps, but it would be referee Joe Cortez that ultimately ended the onslaught as Magdaleno swung away. Official time of the stoppage was 2:59 of round four.

A member of Top Rank informed 15rounds.com that Magdaleno is in the running for a shot at the WBO 130-pound title recently vacated by Adrien Broner. Apparently former champ Roman Martinez will meet Miguel Beltran Jr. in an eliminator in September, with the winner a possible match for Magdaleno.

Already 16 fights into his career and mega prospect Jose Benavidez Jr. (16-0, 13 KOs) of Phoenix, Arizona has yet to fight a live body as a professional. On Saturday, Benavidez took care of business over novice styled Javier Loya (7-1, 6 KOs) of Phoenix via fourth-round stoppage.

Loya, 143, was unorthodox and routinely came rushing in with his head up and defense relaxed – a terrible plan of attack against any fighter, especially a schooled former amateur star. Bendavidez, 143 ½, took and early opening to score a knockdown with a left hook in the first round.

Somewhat surprisingly that would be the only knockdown for Bendavidez, but the end would come in the fourth with a series of unanswered blows that forced the hand of referee Tony Weeks. Official time of the stoppage was 1:41 for Bendavidez, who is definitely ready for a fairer fight.

Another Top Rank prospect was fed well, as Notre Dame alum Mike Lee (10-0, 6 KOs) of Chicago, Illinois pasted journeyman Tyler Seever (13-12-1, 11 KOs) of Saint Joseph, Missouri inside of two rounds.

After a nondescript opening round, Lee, 177 ½, let his hands go and landed a combination punctuated with a chopping right that dropped Seever, 175, down hard. When action resumed, Lee rushed in and landed a thunderous one-two combination that sent Seever backwards. With the Missouri native in trouble, referee Russell Mora opted to end the mismatch at 1:36 of the second round.

Lee is slated to return to the ring on September 15th on Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.-Sergio Martinez bill at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

Photos by Stephanie Trapp

Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at ortega15rds@lycos.com.