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By Norm Frauenheim-

Top Rank’s December agenda has been about finding new stars, resurrecting a couple of old ones and creating business possibilities in 2016, the beginning of what could be the post-Manny Pacquiao era.

As of Thursday, the promotional company was still waiting to hear on whether Pacquiao will fight Terence Crawford or Timothy Bradley or some name we’ve yet to hear. The repeated postponements make you wonder whether the Filipino Congressman has some other running mate, — or alternate plan — in mind for what is believed to be his April farewell.

But, as it must, the business moves forward, especially at a time when the changing-of-the-guard is moving at a rapid rate. There is heavyweight Wladimir Klitschko’s loss to Tyson Fury. There are continuing assurances from those close to Floyd Mayweather Jr. that he is happily retired and has no desire to come back.

It’s a game looking to re-load.

Over the last month, Top Rank has strung together – week after week, night after night– reasons to be optimistic about the New Year.

First, there was unbeaten junior welterweight and 2012 Olympian Jose Ramirez in a gritty decision on Dec. 5.

Then, there was lightweight Felix Verdejo, Puerto Rico’s heir apparent to Miguel Cotto, in a definitive second-round stoppage on Dec.11 on a San Juan card that included former Fighter of the Year Nonito Donaire in tough, yet back in the 122-pound title mix with a rugged decision.

The following night in Tucson, two-time Mexican Olympian Oscar Valdez was back in his boyhood home with a dramatic third-round stoppage that stamped him as legitimate contender.

The fourth item in Top Rank’s run-up to next year is now in the dangerous hands of Nicholas Walters, who like Donaire is trying to re-capture the momentum he had in October 2014 after a powerful stoppage that sent Donaire’s career spinning into recession.

Walters’ task Saturday night in Verona, N.Y., on HBO After Dark (10:15 p.m./ET/PT) looms as the toughest against Jason Sosa at 130 pounds, four heavier than the featherweight mandatory he failed to make in relinquishing his title in June before beating Miguel Marriaga. Walters won a decision over Marriaga, but it was forgettable, so much so that he was too, despite an unbeaten record (26-0, 21 KOs).

“Looking to fight the big fights,’’ Walters said Thursday during a conference call.

He hopes for three or four of them in 2016, including perhaps one against Ukrainian prodigy Vasyl Lomachenko.

First, however, there is Sosa (18-1-3, 14 KOs), a Camden, N.J., fighter who remains a relative unknown despite a run of 17-straight victories, including 13 successive stoppages, since 2012. Sosa, who had only three amateur fights and lost two of them, appears to be a late bloomer. His relative anonymity in terms of international rankings and network appearances is among his greatest assets.

“Anytime you don’t know much about a fighter, that’s a dangerous fighter,’’ said Walters, a wise man.

The buzz is about Sosa’s power. At 27, it looks as if he has learned how to use it in every lethal way. That, perhaps, helps explain why 13 of his 14 stoppages have come over the tail end of 17-fight run during the last four years.

His promoter, Philadelphia Russell Peltz, believes that Walters has never felt a punch with the kind whack Sosa can deliver. Peltz also argues that Walters’ unbeaten record and world-class pedigree can be overrated.

“There are undefeated fighters on every street corner and that means they haven’t fought anybody,’’ Peltz said.

However, Walters, a smart and entertaining Jamaican, enters the ring Saturday understanding the stakes and determined to get fans talking about him again. He’s pursuing a big stoppage.

“Knockout of the Year,’’ he says.

Then, he says he can pursue opportunities at junior-lightweight (130) and featherweight (126).

“It’s not like I was at 128, or 129 the last time,’’ Walters said. “I was at 127. I can make 126. There are a lot of possibilities at 130. In 2016, anything is possible.’’

More so, it seems, than in any recent year

By Bart Barry-

SAN ANTONIO – From a suite at AT&T Center, home of the fivetime worldchampion Spurs, boxing looks like nothing so much as the jiggling tattoos on Chris Arreola’s back.

The media section far below is three tables deep. Behind it are another seven or eight rows of seats of tickets sold as ringside, or more likely given away to valued sponsors of the promoters’ primary businesses. Three press tables deep for a card in an arena whose capacity exceeds by 2,000 MGM Grand’s. Few media tables as there are, the majority of those situated in the media section bear the nervous salesy look of the publicist, the favordoer, the tweetdeck profiler.

Omar Figueroa’s imperfections are heavier than his weight. The seriousness of his craft is the imperfection most notable – increasingly notable as the seasoning of his opponents increases. Figueroa is a high-school dropout’s Juan Diaz, or Juan Diaz if he’d spent 11th grade goofing round with his buddies at allnight diners instead of studying for midterms. Diaz hit no harder but committed more fully, and that commitment improved his balance, and Diaz, notetaking at the classroom’s front, not penning poetry to lasses in the back, understood where his feet belonged and where his shoulders best complemented those feet.

Figueroa has no meaningful jab – a bit like sending a young poet in the world without he memorizes the alphabet. Because Figueroa did not learn to jab, he makes a nervous sort of waggle with his cross, when he’s orthodox, and then he crossesover, rightfoot behind righthand, and finds himself a southpaw – discovers, really; it doesn’t look altogether premeditated – and begins waggling his now-southpaw jab, squares his feet, and hopes to harass an opponent to enervation.

Antonio DeMarco, battered six years ago by Edwin Valero, razed simply by Adrien Broner in 2012, and plying his craft more than three years removed from a victory over anyone you know, is decisioned by Figueroa on Saturday, yes – outbusied but not beaten down. DeMarco, in fact, bears the relaxed countenance throughout of an old mechanic; he knows his role, knows his wage, and knows his craft too well to let a bursting valve spray him with harmfulness. There isn’t a moment DeMarco experiences peril during Figueroa’s 36 minutes of assault.

The match is not suspenseful. Behind me, the suite fills with spirited and lubricated realty talk – the roomful of alpha gorillas sorting out what’s what in homepricing, homebuilding, tiling, carpeting, and expiring childsupport garnishments. It’s a pleasant distraction, frankly; theirs is the perfect comportment for a match that hasn’t 30 seconds’ suspense, and it makes me wish such conversations were allowed on pressrow, the sacred gathering spot for a species uncannily aware of its coming extinction.

There’s nothing serious about our sport as a PBC presentation. It is staged. The production quality in the arena is fantastic; a team of graphic artists and video specialists (and venture capitalists) in search of a subject. The digital glistening of a yellow lightsource hitting a reflective black surface, over and over and over, distracts my eye during rounds in which everyone knows what will happen.

The official attendance number comes in above 5,000. From a suite above every occupied seat – the upperdecks wear black curtains, as does the back quarter of AT&T Center’s 18,581 seats – my guess is 3,500. The suite’s salesman estimates 10,000, and the suite’s veteran trainer says 2,000. The official number is inflated, then, but not garish. Attendance figures are guidelines, but public gatherings are relative and reflexive things; performers affect and reflect congregants’ collective enthusiasm as something often called “energy” – which is decent a contemporary catchall as any. The energy of AT&T Center is measurable in flickers so few and slight they get tallied by hand. Despite diverse musical interludes, plenty of flashing indicators, and a backlighting stage that glows enormous, the South Texas crowd, one likely comprising someone who knows someone who boxes or boxed, in every occupied seat, is not roused.

The walkout bout outdoes itself. Even before US Olympian Terrell Gausha, who is decidedly awful, decisions a helpless lad named Said El Harrack, the arena is emptied. If there are 300 persons still within AT&T Center by the third round of Gausha-El Harrack, it’s only because arena staff’s hourly, not salaried.

I arrived at 7:09 PM, 21 minutes before NBC took the air, and there were hot music and cool lights and no boxing and less interest. Confirmation bias is possible: If the PBC survives, I forecast, it will be as a made-for-television spectacle conducted in venues no more authentic than Hollywood backlots. PBC contractors will compose what press there is – a great seat, and $50 for a night of Facebooking – the 2,000 seats visible by cameras will contain rafflewinners and gymrats and locally stationed military, and two undefeated fighters will not be matched.

“The reason NBC is here is because now everybody wants in boxing,” says a guy from suiteback.

The statement pierces the area’s otherwise cacophonous and sincere speechmaking about estate commissions and bargain rates for squarefeet of tile, and it does so with a sincerity of its own: If prizefighting means more to you than entertainment, if it is a fever that defines some part of your identity, the PBC’s timebuying is not ineffective. You derive affirmation from your sport’s presence on network television; your coworkers still ignore your passion, sure, but the PBC at least makes them channelsurf round it, which is greater mind than they’ve paid boxing since the 1980s.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

By Norm Frauenheim-

TUCSON, Ariz. – Jose Benavidez Jr. agreed to pay unknown Brazilian Sidney Siqueira $2,000 Friday after he was more than four pounds heavier than the contracted weight for a featured bout Saturday on Unimas’ Solo Boxeo series.

The fighters’ corner men and officials from the Arizona State Boxing & MMA Commission met a couple of times in a busy ballroom during the weigh-in at the Tucson Community Center, finally striking an agreement that saved the bout from getting scratched from a card featuring featherweight prospect Oscar Valdez (17-0, 15 KOs) against Filipino Ernie Sanchez (15-6-1, 6 KOs).

Valdez, a two-time Mexican Olympian when went to grade school in Tucson, was at 127.6 pounds. Sanchez was 127.4 for a 10-round bout on a card scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. (MST)

The $2,000 will come out of Benavidez purse, estimated to be $10,000, according to his father and trainer, Jose Benavidez, Sr., who said the contract mandated that neither be heavier than 148 at the formal weigh-in.

“The fight is on,’’ said the senior Benavidez, who said his son couldn’t make the weight because of the flu. “He got sick. But we knew this fight was coming and we felt it was important.’’

Benavidez (23-0 16 KOs), who holds a WBA junior-welterweight title, tipped the scale at 152.4 pounds. Siqueira (21-9-1, 13 KOs), who last fought at 135 pounds, was 145.6.

“I got sick about a week ago,’’ said Benavidez, whose 140-pound title won’t be at stake. “When I got sick, I was at about 154. But I had to eat while I was trying to get over the flu. That’s why I couldn’t get down to 148.

Benavidez is lobbying for a shot at reigning Fighter of the Year Terence Crawford, a junior-welterweight who is still on Manny Pacquiao’s short list for what is supposed to be the Filipino Congressman’s final fight in April. Pacquiao also is considering Timothy Bradley. He was supposed to announce his choice Friday night, but he postponed the decision.

Meanwhile, Benavidez, of Phoenix, called out Crawford during a media workout Thursday in Tucson.

“I want Crawford,’’ he said. “Let’s make it happen. I’m undefeated, young and ready. Let’s see if he accepts the challenge.’’

By Norm Frauenheim-

Oscar Valdez, one of the brightest reasons to be optimistic about boxing’s prospects in 2016, re-introduces himself Saturday to Tucson, a city that never really got a chance to know him when he first answered an opening bell.

A lot has happened since Valdez was just another restless 8-year-old who wandered into one of southern Arizona’s many gyms as if it were a playground.

Who knew that few hours of running across a mat, bouncing off ropes and toying with a speed bag would lead to two Olympics, a perfect pro record (17-0, 15 KOs) and a chance at big-time money?

It has.

In the years since leaving Tucson for Nogales on the Mexican side of the border, the 24-year-old Valdez fought at the Beijing and London Olympics, won a bronze medal in the 2009 World Championships and returns to where it all began amid a buzz about what he might do next year.

The featherweight’s Unimas-televised bout against Filipino Ernie Sanchez (15-6-1, 6 KOs) at the Tucson Community Center (first bell/7 p.m. MST) on a card including Phoenix junior-welterweight Jose Benavidez Jr. in a non-title fight is a significant step in the process from prospect to potential stardom. Valdez figures to win. The key is in how.

If he can follow up on his sensational fifth-round stoppage of ex-contender Chris Avalos last September in Las Vegas, he creates further momentum for a world-title shot in 2016.

“I am really looking forward to this fight,” said Valdez, whose mom, Gloria Fierro, still lives in Tucson. “I will have family, friends and people who have supported me since the start of my boxing career. I do feel like I am coming home and want to give them all a great fight.

“I’m ready to close out the year with a great performance.’’

Like any young prospect, Valdez is hopeful and confident he’ll get a chance to fulfill the dream he has had since he first started racing around those Tucson gyms. But he’s also patient. If the prospect stage is an apprenticeship, Valdez is approaching it like the student he was so long ago at the Manzo Elementary classrooms, which are just few city blocks from the ring where he’ll fight Saturday night.

“Of course, I’m ready for world champions, but I want to finish this year first and then, whatever comes, I’ll gladly take on,’’ said a student in a tone that also says he paid attention at Manzo and in the gym.

NOTES: Weigh-in for the Top Rank/Iron Boy promoted card is scheduled for Friday at 4 p.m. (MST) at Tucson
Community Center’s Apache Room. …Benavidez (23-0, 17 KOs) has a WBA 140-pound title, but it won’t be at stake against Brazilian Sidney Siqueira (26-10-1, 17 KOs). The bout is scheduled to be at welterweight (147). Siqueira lost a 10-round decision for Brazil’s lightweight (135) title in August, his last outing. …Phoenix Hall of Famer Michael Carbajal is scheduled to make his debut as a pro trainer on the undercard. He’ll be in the corner for Phoenix flyweight Johnny Tejerina, who is making pro debut. Carbajal has an old-school legend at the top of a list of trainers he most admires. “Eddie Futch,’’ he said.

By Norm Frauenheim-

In another sign of Arizona’s rebounding market, Phoenix welterweight Abel Ramos is one of three fighters from the state who will appear in bouts televised nationally this weekend.

Ramos (14-0-2, 9 KOs) faces prospect Regis Prograis (15-0, 12 KOs) Friday night in the main event of a Houston card televised by Showtime’s ShoBox (10 p.m. ET/PT).

On Saturday, featherweight prospect and two-time Mexican Olympian Oscar Valdez, who grew up in Tucson, and Phoenix junior-welterweight Jose Benavidez Jr. will be featured on a Tucson card televised by Unimas’ Solo Boxeo (11 p.m. ET/PT).

“I couldn’t be more ready or happy with my preparation going into Friday’s fight against Regis,’’ said Ramos, who is coming off a victory in September at Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix. “This is my first fight with DiBella Entertainment and I am already headlining on ShoBox. I think that is a testament to what they see in me and the talent that I have.’’

“…We are expecting a tough fight, the best Regis Prograis has to offer. We expect him to be very active and throw a ton of punches, and that’s what we have prepared for all camp long. I don’t know exactly how the fight ends, but I am winning it, there is no doubt about it.’’

“Mechanism-based approaches are generally dangerous. The problem is that the goal of such studies is mimicry rather than true understanding, and these studies can easily degenerate into the writing of programs that do no more than mimic in unenlightening ways aspects of human performance.” – David Marr, Vision

Tuesday morning the announcement came Peter Nelson will be the new leader of HBO Sports, an outfit that still represents the most prestigious, if no longer the most powerful, influence in boxing. Nelson first accomplished prominence in our sport as a writer and aspiring Freddie Roach biographer. He is smart, scrupulous and navigationally adept. His promotion was expected.

What, then, could the passage above be about? David Marr was a brash psychology professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who, before his 35th birthday, had as many original ideas about the visual component of machine learning as the artificial-intelligence community has spawned in its 35 years since. Marr fearfully anticipated exactly what has happened: Instead of programming machines to teach themselves, technicians would make machines faster, program them with existing knowledge, and convince the laity machines were self-taught.

Two questions: Is Nelson’s professional success a product of true understanding or mimicry? And will it make a difference, either way, in his new role?

Reading Tuesday’s reports of Nelson’s promotion was unpredictably dreary work. They were mostly copy+paste jobs with written-round commentary, weblog style, and nearly no reporting that wasn’t provided by HBO itself. There were a few exceptions to this – childishly exuberant ones.

Nothing new, one says, perhaps rightly, though a tiny alarm might ring for this: Peter Nelson was a writer, and he communicates with writers, and reads them, and often pays them mind. Boxing is generally populated, or was anyway, by greedy eccentrics, men whose theories are selfaggrandizing and whose stories are entertaining as they are embellished. Nelson found partial refuge from this world in men who purported to what journalism survived in 2011 when Nelson, who’d already been a part of HBO’s selfcoverage machine, officially joined the network.

He was not hired by his boss, who left the network in 2013, or the man he now replaces; he was hired by a man who outranked both, which must’ve been a touch awkward for those involved. Nelson now reports to the man who hired him four years ago, completing a (insert cosmic modifier here) ascent that ends the Hershman Era in the same low key that defined it.

Stretching as it did to create a celebratory tone, HBO’s press release mentioned Nelson’s youth and education and a tiny increase in 2015 viewership that, one is to infer somehow, happened in correlation with the network’s featuring Gennady Golovkin and Roman Gonzalez on pay-per-view in the fall. Golovkin and Gonzalez are now HBO fighters because of Nelson’s spearheading sagacity. Golovkin and Gonzalez attracted a tiny number of pay-per-viewers in October because the previous regime was wanting, and those men are now replaced. If it doesn’t make sense particularly, it’s not supposed to; television is a flexible and fun medium about hot emotion, not sobriety.

This is the spot in a column where a writer is supposed to tap his brakes, mention the brilliance of some television folks, toss in a silly garnish about educational television, and assume an authoritative air about a medium, television, he neither understands nor takes very seriously – all in the hopes of ongoing mediacenter access to celebrity analysts, at least, and a job of his own in television someday, at most. It’s not a sensible tack for a few reasons, and the largest is this: Television is an ecosystem that knows its own, intuiting tiny markers, sending and receiving honest signals, and it knows most writers are not its kind.

It marked Nelson immediately as its kind, though, and that may bode well for the Nelson Era at HBO Sports.

At a certain level in any corporation, promotions are political happenings – the inexperienced lament this, believing as they do in what hagiographic and entrepreneurial biographies of entrepreneurs they see in bookstore windows as they walk to the cinema – and the experienced do not lament this, knowing as they do how very little actually happens above a certain paygrade. If Nelson is not now in that paygrade, he’s just below it. You read it in the sincerity of his language about collaboration; he genuinely believes the folks he now manages are uniquely talented and his job is to help them succeed. Nothing wrong with that, any talented person would cherish a boss with such qualities, but it’s altogether more political than visionary, isn’t it?

Enter Bill Simmons, a man who, if he will or will not report to Nelson, surely was not hired by Nelson. Simmons’ talents are marked by journalistic achievement more than political acumen; in telling a truth about the NFL commissioner he set a spotlight’s glare on the incestuous and interests-conflicted relationship shared by Simmons’ former employer, ESPN, and the league it pretends to cover in an objective way, and that got his employment publicly terminated and his creation, Grantland.com, vindictively dismantled.

HBO has long wanted for journalistic integrity, and a Simmons-Nelson collaboration can bring that by making Simmons something of an on-air ombudsman: Borrowing the technology with which flattering tweets are shined below the action on various networks, HBO should try a Simmons chat window somewhere on the screen during its boxing telecasts. If we’re honest, there’s nothing about Soviet-bloc fighters annihilating 20-1 underdogs that cries out for an unofficial scorekeeper anyway – how many different ways can Harold Lederman say “120 to 108, Jim!”? – and since there’s no reason to forecast any end to mismatches in the next few years, why not put Simmons in the Lederman seat and let him describe what the rest of us are already thinking? Simmons wouldn’t even need to be sarcastic or critical: When a match is awful as we already know it is, his use of, say, “. . .”, in lieu of an actual commentary, would turn the trick just fine.

Enough with the helpful suggestions. Boxing is rather diminished from what it was when Peter Nelson joined HBO. Nelson’s career already evinces navigational expertise above all. There will be no catastrophic mistakes in the Nelson Era, which means the era may well be a long one. Let us hope it navigates our beloved sport to a more fruitful place.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

With the recent vacancy of of the IBF Bantamweight title, the Bantamweight division could be wide open for a new star.  Enter 25 year-old Nikolay Potapov.

Potapov of Podolsk, Russia just recently made his American debut with a 10-round unanimous decision over Pedro Melo on October 29th in Brooklyn, recently signed with rising promoter Salita Promotions.

The win over Melo comes on the heels of an impressive 12-round unanimous decision over IBF number-nine ranked Jason Canoy of the Philippines.

Previous to that fight, Potapov won an impressive decision over tough Mexican Martin Casillas.  With those victories, Potapov is ranked number-eight at Bantamweight.

“Nikolay is a guy that people in the states will get to know quick,” said promoter Dmitry Salita.

“After Caballero missed the weight, the division opened up in the here in the United States.  Nikolay will have the platform here in America and in New York to raise his profile.  He has already shown that he can compete with the best in the world and now he just needs the opportunity and we would love a fight with Lee Haskins.  If we have to go to the United Kingdom, we are ready.”

By Bart Barry-

Saturday in Germany, England’s Tyson Fury became the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world by decisioning Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko by official scores of 115-112, 115-112, 116-111. What few American aficionados could be bothered to interrupt their Saturday afternoons with the live telecast expressed nearly universal disgust for Klitschko’s iffy comportment and Fury’s very existence. This reaction did little but solidify the heavyweight championship as a European estate, and if it must be that, frankly, Fury’s victory brings an intriguing improvement to the terrible dullness of Klitschko’s sovereignty.

We’ve been led by a machine for 10 years. Why not try a madman?

Let’s begin with a confession: I’ve not made it to the end of a Wladimir Klitschko fight since he pattycaked his way to a ban from Madison Square Garden 7 1/2 years ago. In that forgettable match, Klitschko, four inches and 20 pounds larger than Sultan Ibragimov, moved like a man weighing with his adversary’s every twitch the primal choice between flight or fight. It was nearer an embarrassment than any defense of a heavyweight title I’d theretofore seen, and I pledged to avoid such queasiness again. Surely I’ve written about Klitschko since, boxing’s schedule being emptied as it was, is, will be, but I’ve not made it to the end of his fights.

A bit more about the choice of queasiness: There’s something perfectly awful about the way Klitschko fights. He is enormous and scared, subverting most of his inevitable advantages in size with a buttersoft chin and a tiny heart. To those who claim any man stepping between the ropes is a paragon of courage, there’s this: When Klitschko stepped between the ropes against Eddie Chambers in 2010, he enjoyed a preposterous, five-inch, 35-pound advantage and still needed 35:55 to finish Chambers. To call that courageous is to stretch the word to snapping.

Odder yet were the pound-for-pound lists that included Klitschko, as if, stripped of his extraordinary natural size advantages, his timid, jab-jab-flee-jab gambits would hold up against a dynamo like Manny Pacquiao or a time-and-space master like Floyd Mayweather – both of whom spent their primes fighting men structurally much larger than themselves. The assumption, of course, was boxing would never unearth a man big as Klitschko who could fight even a little bit, and who was not brother Vitali, allowing the myth of Klitschko as an all-timer, and it nearly happened like that.

Bless Tyson Fury for what he did Saturday. Fury is not a good fighter – that is, shrunken to, say, Miguel Cotto’s dimensions, Fury’s fighting skills wouldn’t have allowed him to turn pro – but he is a very good modern heavyweight. As a matter of fact, he’s now the very best heavyweight fighter in the world, a phrase begging to be followed by an emoticon like 🙂 or 😀

Fury is also a fighter, in the modern-British sense of the word. He wants to mill, the way Ricky Hatton and Carl Froch did, even while being less athletically gifted than his tenacious, smaller countrymen. Saturday’s match, then, featured a very limited fighter against an enormous and handsome robot programmed with a logic loop like: IF condition=perfectly safe THEN feint with jab ELSE retreat and flail. It was a wonderful exclamation point on the Klitschko Era, one that banished heavyweight prizefighting from America’s collective consciousness, enchanting only those whose passion for precision machinery brought tingles of pleasure every time their giant robot dismantled grossly overmatched untermenschen without jarring its shaky CPU.

Setting aside patriotic and ethnic enthusiasms, Klitschko, in the tradition of young and stat-obsessed fantasysports fans, pleased best those who value most being right. To borrow a tasty thing American comic Doug Stanhope once said about New York Yankees fans, cheering for Wladimir Klitschko was like going to a casino and cheering for the dealer (and then browbeating fellow spectators about how good you are at calculating probability). Klitschko was most beloved by those who entirely miss the point of competition, if not fighting itself.

Back to Great Britain. The BBC has a motorsports program, Top Gear, that is perfect as television can be. Its three hosts brazenly test and often undo very expensive automobiles, while hatching fantastic driving analogies such as: “It’s like trying to do a crossword puzzle while being eaten by a tiger!” A few years ago Top Gear featured the McLaren MP4-12C, an extraordinary engineering feat that, in every scientifically measurable way, was superior to any car you’ve likely heard of, including a Ferrari. But as host Jeremy Clarkson noted: “There’s no zing.” For all its perfection, it wasn’t fun to drive, or at least not fun as it should have been; obsessed as it was with perfection, it verily suffocated the human element, the sort of messy vitality that marks life’s richest experiences and sells Lamborghinis.

Tyson Fury is a 6-foot-9 stack of messy vitality. By his own admission he is at least manic and perhaps berserk – an abusing product of abuse no sane person should wish to see angry or drunk. He is amusingly tacky, like many things British, and relentlessly selfpromoting. But he is also selfaware; he is not a polished fighter and doesn’t try to be. Too, he enjoys the same surfeit of confidence as his countryman Froch: Until Fury stood a meter from Klitschko’s raised fists and danced with his gloves behind his back, Saturday, few had seen a delta between talent and confidence to rival the Nottinghamshire Cobra’s. But there it was.

Legend has it, winning a title makes a prizefighter 20-percent better. But Fury didn’t just win a title; he won the title. He is now the undefeated, undisputed, unified heavyweight champion of the world. That ought to make him at least 30-percent better, which should make his reign engrossing if not majestic.

Follow all the action from Quebec City, Canada when James DeGale defends the IBF Super Middleweight title against former world champion Lucian Bute.  The action begins at 9 PM ET / 6 PM PT  that will feature a Light Heavyweight elimination bout between Isaac Chilemba and Eleider Alvarez-AUTOMATIC BROWSER REFRESH

Round 1 DeGale lands an over hand left

Round 2 Bute lands a body shot..body shot..DeGale counters..Good body shot..left..body shot..shot to head

Round 3 Nice jab from DeGale..Bute lands an uppercut…Good exchange in the middle of the ring

Round 4 Right from Bute..Counter left from DeGale..Cuffing left and uppercut..Left from Bute..left..

Round 5 DeGale cut around his right eye..Bute lands a right hook…Right uppercut from DeGale..

Round 6 Cut caused by accidental headbutt..Jab from Bute..left from DeGale..left uppercut..3 rights..right hook..

Round 7 Right uppercut from DeGale..hard right..right..Left to body from Bute..Jab from DeGale..Body work..jab..Bute lands a left..

Round 8 Trading jabs…Right hook from DeGale..Nice left-right..right…

Round 9 Bute trying to work the body..right to body from DeGale..short right..nice body work..body ..counter right from Bute..

Round 10 Degale lands a combination..Right uppercut…good body work..up-jab..Left From Bute..Good Counter from deGale

Round 11 Nice Jab from DeGale..Straight left from Bute..Left from DeGale..Left from Bute…

Round 12 Trading jabs..body work from DeGale..big over hand left from DeGale..right..

116-112, 117-111, 117-111 JAMES DEGALE

Round 1 Good right from Alvarez…2 nice jabs

Round 2 Alvarez lands a right..Jab from Chilemba..Trading right hands

Round 3

Round 4 Left from Alvarez..Left..Jab..Combination

Round 5 Alvarez working the body..Chilemba lands a counter left hook..Flurry from Alvarez

Round 6 Right from Alvarez..Jab..Right..Chilemba lands a jab…Combination to body

ROUND 7 Right from Chilemba..Counter right from Alvarez…Jab from Chilemba..Jab..left hook..Alvarez wokding the body..Exchnage jabs…Counter right from Chilemba

Round 8

118-110, 115-113 Alvarex…114-114

Round 1 Granados lands a left and left to body…Imam lands a left and a jab…HUGE RIGHT AND DOWN GOES GRANADOS…Big right..Right to head..left to body..left and right…Granados in trouble..Counter right from Imam..Right from Granados

Round 2 Right from Granados…4 punch combination..4 jabs from Imam..Good right

Round 3 Uppercut from Imam..2 rights from Granados…Good body shot with the left from Imam..Sharp right..Chopping right

Round 4 Right and left from Granados. Combination from Imam…4 punch combination from Granados..3 punch combination..2 rights from Imam…

Round 5 4 Punch combination from Imam..2 punch combination..Granados working..Body from Imam..Head shot from Granados..right from Imam..Granados lands a right that backs Imam up..left from Granados..

Round 6 Combination from Granados..6 punch combination and a uppercut…Hard 1-2…Good left..Good counter right from Imam..combination…5 punch combination from Granados

Round 7 3 rights from Granados…Left to body from Imam..Left from Granados..Good combination..Blood on the face of Imam..Left from Granados..

Round 8 Granados lands a right…Imam looks tired….BIG COMBINATION ON THE ROPES…AND THE FIGHT IS STOPPED

Round 1 Abell lands a left to the head..Right to body from Rivas..Counter left from Abell

Round 2 Left and right from Rivas…Hard combination AND A RIGHT AND DOWN GOES ABELL AND THE FIGHT IS OVER

Follow all the action Live as IBF/WBA/WBO Heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko defends his titles against undefeated Tyson Fury.  The fight begins at 4:45 PM ET / 1:45 PM PT / 9:45 PM in England / 10:45 PM in Germany-AUTOMATIC BROWSER REFRESH

National Anthems Done

Round 1 Fury fighting at a distance..Fury lands a jab..

Round 2 Klitschko lands a jab and a jab to the body..Fury gets in a left..Klitschko lands a left

Round 3 Fury goes southpaw…and holding hands behind his back…

Round 4 Fury being more aggressive..Right from Klitschko and a left

Round 5 Klitschko cut under his left eye…Fury lands a body shot..Right..

Round 6 Fury lands a jab…

Round 7 Fury gets in a right..

Round 8 Good jab from Fury..Good jab from Klitschko..Another good jab..

Round 9 2 hard rights from Klitschko…Little left from Fury..2 body punches..Big left hook..Klitschko cut from the forehead..Little right from Klitschko

Round 10 Jab to body from Klitschko..

Round 11 Fury lands little shots on the inside..Body shot…head shot..Klitschko outside his right eye..Big left hook..POINT DEDUCTED FROM FURY FOR RABBIT PUNCHES

Round 12 Hard left from Fury..Good right from Klitschko…Left hook…leaping left hook..left hook

115-112, 115-112, 116-111 FOR THE NEW CHAMPION TYSON FURY

By Norm Frauenheim

It’s hard to know where talks are headed for a Canelo-Gennady Golovkin fight, the biggest on boxing’s board of possibilities. But there are signs that Canelo will make demands, including a problematic one about a 155-pound catch weight.

Why? Because he can.

If and when the respective parties get to the table, we’ll know HBO’s pay-per-view numbers from Canelo-Cotto. At midweek after the Nov. 21 bout, it was reportedly tracking at about 900,000. That’s a long way from the 1.5 million that Canelo promoter Oscar De La Hoya had projected. But it’s still very good.

It adds up to leverage, all on Canelo’s side of the table. In Golovkin’s only PPV venture – an Oct. 17 victory over David Lemieux, the PPV number was reported to be 150,000.

The difference between 900,000 and 150,000 adds up to 750,000 reasons for Canelo to get his way, in much the same manner that Mayweather did. Mayweather bragged about the perks and power he had. Like it or not, he used them, too.

Canelo might not brag about his newfound role on the A-side. But he’d be fool not to make full use of them.

There already have been a few preliminaries. GGG’s representative, Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions, went to Canelo’s post-fight party and congratulated the World Boxing Council’s new middleweight champ Saturday after his unanimous decision over Miguel Cotto at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay.

“Gennady thought it was great performance by Canelo,’’ said Loeffler, who said GGG was in the arena for the fight.

If GGG-Canelo were to happen in May, Golovkin, first or second in pound-for-pound ratings, would be favored. With the victory over Cotto, Canelo has climbed into the debate’s top 10, but he’s in the second five.

It’s a sign, perhaps, that the 25-year-old Mexican, who won the WBC’s 160-pound title at a 155-pound catch weight, still needs more experience at middleweight.

Truth is, he has yet to face a real middleweight with first-class skill. Cotto has the skills, but he’s never been a middleweight, despite the WBC title stripped from him because he didn’t pay the sanctioning fee.

At 153.5 pounds, Cotto was half-a-pound under the junior-middleweight limit at the weigh-in. At opening bell, his trainer, Freddie Roach, said he was at 159, one pound under the middleweight limit.

As it should, GGG’s corner argues that Canelo is more of a light-heavyweight than a middleweight at fight time. He was at 170 to 175 pounds against Cotto, says GGG trainer Abel Sanchez. That’s a guesstimate, because declined at step on HBO’s scale the night of the fight. But it’s reasonable.

For now, however, the 155 mark on the day before the bout is a sure sign that Canelo is ready. Rafael Mendoza, his former advisor and manager, said that if he is a pound or two lighter, it’s a sign he weakened himself in a battle to make weight.

A pound or two heavier than 155 pounds, and he figures to be sluggish, according to Mendoza, a Hall of Famer. Canelo doesn’t have foot speed anyway. If he hits the 155 mark, however, it’s a sign that he’s in shape to move his upper body and head throughout 12 rounds. He did that, effectively and consistently against Cotto.

In the immediate aftermath of his victory of over Cotto, Canelo said he’s willing to fight GGG, yet he sidestepped the question about a 155-pound catch weight. He might have been waiting to hear the pay-per-view. That’s when he’ll really know how much power he has as boxing’s new A-sider.

By Bart Barry-

Saturday at Mandalay Bay, Mexican junior middleweight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez widely decisioned Puerto Rican junior middleweight Miguel Cotto to become the lineal middleweight champion of the world. If there were any surprises during the pay-HBO telecast, they came on the undercard – Guillermo Rigondeaux finally fought old as he looks, and Francisco Vargas and Takashi Miura made an incredible match – because nothing unexpected happened during the main event.

It’s the ferocity that counts with Canelo, and until an aficionado has been within earshot of a Canelo fight, he doesn’t know that. After four rounds in which Cotto and Canelo appeared to land an equivalent number of blows, on television anyway, analyst Roy Jones was not hesitant in his analysis: Canelo was clearly the more effective man in the match. Jim Lampley turned to big data – his buddies’ ringside Twitter scorecards – and learned they had Canelo winning every early round.

That announcement brought guffaws of disbelief from my viewing party, a group about inversely proportionate to the Mandalay Bay crowd – we had five Puerto Ricans and two Mexicans and a token white guy – with a curious exception among the guffawing Puerto Ricans: The one guy who’d been a few rows back of ringside when Canelo decisioned Austin Trout agreed absolutely Canelo was handling Cotto from the opening bell.

By round 6 it was apparent to all but Coach Freddie th’t Cotto needed a plan b, and when Coach Freddie returned Cotto to the blackmat armed only with a double-jab idea a few minutes later, a bad idea Canelo blasted crosses over, at will, Cotto decided to treat Canelo like the sort of overmatched b-level guy Cotto feasts on (excepting only Trout, a b-level guy Cotto did not feast on, Cotto’s losses come to a-level guys [or a b-level guy with an a-level equipment advantage {allegedly, allegedly!}]), and when that approach endangered Cotto’s consciousness, Cotto returned to Coach Freddie’s plan, which, in its perspicacity and nuance and adaptability, bore a frightening resemblance to Coach Freddie’s masterplan for Manny Pacquiao’s lame effort against Money May, and the only suspense that remained after that concerned the question of Canelo stopping Cotto, which Canelo simply was not good enough to do. Simply.

That’s a terrible thing to write, of course, on this, the second day of the Cinnamon Era, but aside from his impressive physicality and ferocity, Canelo is not that spectacular. And straining one’s throat to make it so will not make it so. Canelo is much, much better than anyone else Cotto fought during his rehabilitation – a vivacious union with Coach Freddie in which Cotto whispered to Coach Freddie sweet nothings about how much better things might have gone for the starcrossed men if only they’d met sooner, and Coach Freddie whispered sweet nothings to reporters and HBO cameras about the houses he’d bet on Cotto (how does one do this at the sportsbook?) – and Canelo revealed the quality of the Cotto rehabilitation almost deftly as Juan Manuel Marquez once revealed Coach Freddie’s actual improvement of Manny Pacquiao’s footwork.

If that’s ungracious, it’s also written without a hankering for a cinéma-vérité sequel to “On Freddie Roach”: The depth of Roach’s craft has not gotten shallower so much as it has splashed its way from training to marketing. Coach Freddie no longer improves his prizefighters so much as their purses; during training camp Roach sold the certainty of a Cotto victory far better than he assured it. Quite a few times Saturday, in fact, Cotto resembled no previous version of himself so much as the man anxiously scrambling away from Antonio Margarito seven years ago: face swelling, mouth agape, leadhand lowered, backhand alternately wiping and bracketing his face, four steps back-sidewaysback for every one step forwards. Aside from the obvious advantage Margarito may have had over his firehaired countryman, when they confronted Cotto, he also had this: Margarito never misspent a second of his career proving he could avoid a smaller man’s punches.

Because he couldn’t? Well, yes, but. Or perhaps, yes, and.

Margarito was an embodiment of the puncher’s compact: You hit me, and I’ll hit you, and we’ll do this until one of us is unconscious, and I don’t much care which. Had Canelo taken his gumshield more fiercely betwixt the molars and entered the same compact Saturday, there’s a very good chance he would have stopped Cotto, who showed nervous energy, ineffective nonaggressiveness, as it were, from the match’s opening minute.

There’s something like a “geometry of boxing” – Roach’s phrase – that did not fail to favor Canelo every round Cotto committed to stepping round him. More precisely put: Cotto’s circles got wider and wider as the fight progressed, which mightn’t have been a damnable thing if it were the plan, which it could not have been. If a man sets out to make as many laps possible with as little energy expended, that man should choose shorter laps and not longer ones. Cotto’s early steps-around became walks-around became skips-around became laps-around. Frankly, it’s a testament to the conditioning enhancements Wild Card fighters discover at Coach Freddie’s rejuvenating gym that Cotto stayed fresh as he did, working at a rate so much more frantic than Canelo’s.

Now we are told to ready for an epic stripping, if, according to HBO and the other handlers of the network’s middleweight champion, in the next two weeks Canelo fails to agree to open conceivable preliminary negotiations in principle for a potential fight possibly to come in the future with the undisputed HBO middleweight champion. It bears repetition: Not in this universe or the next will a sanctioning body in Mexico City strip Mexico’s most popular fighter of his middleweight title. Call it corruption or greed or scrofulous roguery, whatever, but vague as the WBC’s requirements appear, by ordering Max Kellerman to fetch his gloves in Saturday’s essential postfight interview, Canelo undoubtedly just satisfied Mexico City’s negotiation mandate, even if he shamelessly goes on to make consecutive defenses against the likes of Marco Antonio Rubio, Martin Murray and Willie Monroe Jr.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

Follow all the action as Middleweight champion Miguel Cotto battles Canelo Alvarez in a Mouth watering Middleweight title bout.  The card begins with at 9 pm ET / 6 PM ET with a 3 fight undercard featuring a world title bout between Takashi Miura and Francisco Vargas

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Round 1 Body shot from Canelo..right from Cotto..Jab from Canelo..Jab from Cotto..Hook from Cotto..Hook from Canelo..Hard right to body..Body shots from Cotto..quick left hook…Right and left hook from canelo..Left to the body..

Round 2 Right from Cotto..Jab…Jab..Good counter and jab and left hook by Canelo…Sneaky right from Cotto

Round 3 Canelo lands a body shot..straight right..Good right…Straight right..Right from Cotto…Counter left and jab from ALvarez..Good jab from Cotto and another…Hard right from canelo…

Round 4 Right from Canelo…1-2..Cook lands 1 left hook to body and 2 to the head..Left hook from Canelo…trading body shots..

Round 5 Good right from Canelo..Hard left..Flurry from Cotto..Over hand right from Canelo..Hard left uppercut by Canelo..Hard right..

Round 6 Sharp right from Canelo..Good combination..Good body shot from Cotto..Good body shot..

Round 7 Hard body shot from Canelo…Good hook from Cotto..Great counter uppercut from Canelo..Cotto lands a left inside..

Round 8 Left uppercut from Canelo..Good body from Cotto..they are trading..Hard shots..Uppercut from Canelo..Hard right..Good hook from Cotto..Big right to the body from Alvarez..right to body from Cotto..Left…

Round 9 Straight right from Cotto..Trading rights..Trading left to body…3 jabs from Cotto..Hard left from Canelo..Cotto lands a uppercut..Cotto lands jabs..Quick left hooks from Canelo…and another..

Round 10 Body shot from Cotto…Good body shots from Canelo..Hard right from Cotto..3 punch combination from Canelo

Round 11 Combination from Cotto..Right from Canelo…Good left..Cotto lands a jab..

Round 12 2 big shots from Canelo and a body shot..Right hand..good body shots..Cotto lands a jab..Cotto cut around his left eye..2 more rights from canelo..left hook from Cotto..Hard shots hurt Cotto..Combination from Cotto…

117-111. 119-109, 118-110 for CANELO ALVAREZ

Punch stats:  Cotto 129-629       Canelo 155-484

Round 2  Vargas cut under right eye…Vargas lands 5 power punches..Good body shot from Vargas..Good body shot from Miura..Good right from Vargas..Good body shot..

Round 3 Miura lands to the body and head..Hard right hook..

Round 4 Straight left…Hard right from Vargas…Body shots from Miura…sTRAIGHT LEFT AND DOWN GOES VARGAS..

Round 5 Miura outworking Vargas…body shot…Right from Vargas…Body shot from Miura…Good combination from Vargas…Thudding right hook from Miura..

Round 6 Vargas coming out firing…Body shot..Good body shot from Miura…Straight from Vargas..2 lefts from Miura..Right from Vargas..

Round 7 Good left from Miura

Round 8 Left from Miura…Good body shot..and another..Right from Vargas…Hard left buckles Vargas..Punishing combo at the bell

Round 9 HUGE RIHJY AMD DOWN GOES MIURA..Vargas rocking him all over the ring..Big Body shot..BIG RIGHT ROCKS MIURA’S HEAD BACK AND THE FIGHT IS STOPPED

Round 1 Hard left from Rigondeaux..Hard body shot

Round 2 Body shot from Francisco..Quick left from Rigondeaux

Round 3

Round 4 Fans beginning to boo..Straight left from Rigondeaux

Round 5 Francisco lands a left hook

Round 6

Round 7 Rigondeaux lands a left

Round 8 Rigondeaux controlling the action

Round 9

Round 10 Hard right from Francisco

97-93, 100-90 twice for Rigondeaux

Punch stats:   Rigo 72-347    Francisco 42-228

Round 1 Rios working the body..straight right..body shot..Velez lands a left to the head..

Round 2 Hard right from Rios followed by 2 body shots..Velez lands a body shot

Round 3 Good right from Rios..Counter from Velez..Good left hook..Right from Rios..Good jab

Round 4 Rios warned for Low blows..Another warning..

Round 5 Another low blow and Rios docked a point…Good left and right from Rios..

Round 6 4 left hooks to head from Rios…Hard left hook..Good hook from Velez..Hard right..

Round 7 Hard left from Rios

Round 8 Rios lands a right to the body…Big left…

Round 9 Big right from Rios...

Round 10 Good uppercut from Rios and another..Good left hook

97-92, 95-94 and 96-93 for Ronny Rios

By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – Measuring interest in a fight isn’t exactly a science. It’s more a haphazard adventure. Either a so-called buzz is there, or it isn’t. For a couple of days, media prospectors were sifting though all the events surrounding Miguel Cotto-Canelo Alvarez, searching for one.

For days, not much was there. Echoes instead of real noise created doubt about the pay-per-view hopes and suspicions about fans staying away from Mandalay Bay Saturday night because of skepticism left over from the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao mess in May.

But the empty echoes were suddenly gone Friday. Instead, there was a buzz that filled three ballrooms from crowds of fans who waited in line for three to four hours to watch the Cotto-Canelo weigh-in.

The buzz was off-the-scale amid sudden optimism about pay-per-view numbers for an HBO telecast (6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET) that Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya has said could approach 1.5 million.

That expectation might still be too high. But a buzzing crowd at the weigh-in indicated that a very good PPV audience is likely. Latino fans – Puerto Rican for Cotto (40-4, 33 KOs) and Mexican for Canelo (45-1-1, 32 KOs) – jammed one ballroom for the live weigh-in and two adjacent ballrooms to watch the telecast.

Both made the catch-weight, 155 pounds, for a 160-pound, middleweight title that the WBC stripped from Cotto on Monday after he refused to pay the $300,000 sanctioning fee. A sculpted Canelo was right at the agreed-upon weight. Cotto was at 153.5, which is a half-pound lighter than the junior-middleweight limit. This is a middleweight fight in name only. But it doesn’t matter.

The anticipation is real for a classic, cut straight out of the rich tradition of the Mexican-Puerto Rican history.

“They are here because they think they are about see a war,’’ De La Hoya said.

The war parallel is little tired and probably too much, especially these days with all that is going in France and Syria. But boxing without hyperbole is a fight without a buzz. Nobody would care.

At the weigh-in, the roar said — again and again — that a lot people care intensely about one fight that might take the business beyond Pacquiao-Mayweather.

The weigh-in included at least one disappointing moment. Unbeaten Randy Caballero was at 123.5, or 5.5 pounds too heavy for the 118-mandtaory in a scheduled defense of his IBF bantamweight title against the UK”s Lee Haskins. About an hour after the weigh-in, the Nevada State Athletic Commission said that the title fight had been cancelled.

Did it matter? No, not at all. If there were any complaints, you couldn’t hear them. You could hear only that buzz.

By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS — Unbeaten Mexican super-middleweight Gilberto Ramirez came to The Strip, hoping to land a shot at the Wold Boxing Organization’s 168-pound title.

Turns out, more than just a mandatory will be at skate Friday night when Ramirez (32-0, 24 KOs) faces Gevorg Khatchikan of the Netherlands (23-1,11 KOs) at The Cosmopolitan in a TruTV-televised bout (10 p.m. ET/PT).

Middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin plans to be at ringside in what might prove to be more than just a night out as a fan.

Ramirez promoter Bob Arum said he has talked to Tom Loeffler, the executive director of K2, Golovkin’s promoter.

Arum said they have discussed a Ramirez-GGG bout next year.

“But it will only happen if Gilberto can win tomorrow night, thus preserving his mandatory challenge for the world title, and then beating WBO world champion Arthur Abraham,” Arum said Thursday in a Top Rank news release. “That’s a lot of pressure to put on most fighters’ shoulders, but Gilberto seems to thrive on it. He has said all along that he only wants to fight the best, even if it means fighting Abraham and Golovkin back-to-back.”

By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – Guillermo Rigondeaux is a master craftsman, yet there’s no market for his craft. He’s unbeaten and unpopular, an unlikely combination and a dilemma for promoters fascinated by his talent, yet still not able to sell it.

Yet, that talent still beckons, so much so that Rigondeaux has a second opportunity — perhaps a last chance — in a career that thus far hasn’t generated much income for him or anybody else.

The shy Cuban, a two time Olympic gold medalist, is a late addition to the Miguel Cotto-Canelo Alvarez card Saturday night at Mandalay Bay. Rigondeaux left Caribe promotions and signed with RocNation, which was looking for somebody to fill a vacancy left by Andre Ward’s withdrawal because of a knee injury.

The announcement that Rigondeaux had been added to the HBO-televised card against Filipino junior-featherweight Drian Francisco (28-3-1, 22 KOs) elicited a familiar reaction. To wit: Yawns from the crowd that had already experienced that nap.

Fair or not – and who ever said boxing was fair? – Rigondeaux is another word for dull. Early on, his name got re-written, Rigondull instead of Rigondeaux. No matter what,he did, he couldn’t escape the damning tag. Go 15-0, and fans still yaw. Score 10 stoppages, still yawns. Get mentioned in the pound-for-pound debate, more yawns.

But at 35 he’s still around, still an intriguing bundle of possibilities.

At the undercard news conference Thursday, HBO’s Peter Nelson mentioned Rigondeaux by saying his “virtuosity is unrivaled in the sport.’’

Virtuosity is nice to have. But it doesn’t buy much. Ask a starving artist, which is what Rigondeaux’s fate might be if this attempt at collecting more than applause fails.

The question has never been whether he can fight. It’s whether he can excite.

“I love Rigondeux,’’ said Bernard Hopkins, the ageless warrior and Oscar De La Hoya’s associate in Golden Boy’s joint promotion with RocNation of Canelo-Cotto. “I’just love him as fighter.’’

But can he become a reliable draw? Rigondraw instead of Rigondull?

“I think so, I really do,’’ Hopkins said. “Listen, his job is to do only one thing. His job is to kick ass.

It’s the promoter. It’s the manager. it’s the networks. We have to promote the kind of fighter who needs to be pushed out there and glorified.

“It’s up to us to say: ‘Look, this is the guy.’ If somebody says no, that’s OK. But we keep pushing. It is up to us to find the right guys for him to fight. It’s up to us to be his mouthpiece.’’

Hall of Fame promoter Don Chargin, who has helped Golden Boy promote Canelo, agrees with Hopkins. A key in trying to market a shy fighter without any evident charisma, he says, is often in how he’s matched. Find the right business partner, Chargin says and you might be able to turn him into an attraction.

“It’s tough, but you’d be surprised,’’ Chargin said.

In part, the challenge with Rigondeaux is his Cuban pedigree. He grew up within the tightly-controlled Cuban system. It creates great amateurs. With the notable exception of former lightweight champion Joel Casamayor, however, it doesn’t allow for the kind of personality that sells in the American boxing market, which always been part skill and part theater.

“Yeah, he is shy,’’ Hopkins said. “But that’s the crazy thing about it. Rigondeaux is your worst nightmare in the ring. A lot of times, it just depends on who the dance partner is. If he he’s got a dance partner who doesn’t step on his feet, then he can prove he’s as good as we all know he is.

“We’re only as good as who we fought.’’

And maybe only as good as the promoter who markets and match-makes.

By Alejandro Echevarria

Whether or not the WBC Middleweight Title is on the line this Saturday’s match between Miguel Cotto (40-4-0, 33Ko’s) and Saúl “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1, 32Ko’s) will decide who the lineal middleweight champion will be. If all the pieces fall in place, it will also decide who fights Gennady Golovkin for recognition as the best middleweight on the planet. That is one of the many aspects that make this fight interesting. The storied rivalry between Mexican and Puerto Rican boxers and the fact that both fighters are at (or close to) the peak of their popularity also adds to the significance of the bout.

With that being said, what makes this fight appealing to many boxing fans and insiders is that the match-up of styles suggests this will be a war. Both fighters are good boxers but both are fighters. They are usually willing to trade, they both have power and both have shown to have a fight instinct instead of the flight one.
Canelo brings more stopping power to the fight but Cotto’s recent displays as a middleweight suggest he can also hurt bigger fighters. Similarly, Canelo proved he can use his strength and aggression to overcome a more skilled boxer as he did against Lara. It is easy to imagine that Cotto’s edge in class is offset by Canelo’s youth and physical advantages leaving us with a very even playing field.

Even though odds makers have the young Mexican as a 3 to 1 favorite, boxing analysts see this as a much more even fight and I agree. I do believe that whoever wins the fight will probably do so in a convincing fashion but that will be more because of the way these fighters carry themselves in the ring than because there will be a significance difference between them as fighters. Both of them will leave everything in the ring and, as happens to most fighters who fight this way, when they lose they will do so in spectacular fashion.

Most agree that for Miguel to win he has to use his well timed jab, foot work and not a small amount of body work. Canelo should be looking to press the action. If he can impose his size and strength on Cotto, who has had problems with this in the past, he should be able to get a stoppage in the second half of the fight. This same fight plan could instead prove deadly for Saúl if Cotto is able to disrupt his momentum with jabs and footwork as this would eventually lead to openings for left hooks to the body.

Regardless of who is ahead on the scorecards after the sixth round, the manner in which these initial rounds are fought will probably determine the outcome of the fight. Canelo has to land some big shots. Otherwise he will succumb to frustration and be worn down by Cotto’s left hand. Cotto needs to avoid punishment and must conserve his energy. If he doesn’t, his 35 year-old, battle-ravaged body will not hold up for twelve rounds.

With Freddie Roach in his corner, the four-division Puerto Rican champion seems revitalized. Whether this is just a mirage or he has really regained part of the physical prowess that made him so dangerous early in his career is up for discussion but the fact that he believes it doesn’t seem to be. I expect to see a very confident Miguel Cotto use his timing and footwork to stop Canelo from putting combinations together. Alvarez will have his moments and will probably win some of these rounds but at too high a cost. Cotto’s jab will be there at all times zapping Canelo of the necessary confidence to press the action and if left hooks are landing, his stamina may very well be diminished before the twelfth round. It’s not impossible for Cotto to get a late stoppage but I don’t think it will happen. More likely we will see a Cotto, ahead on the score cards, do enough to win a unanimous. Canelo will prove too strong to go down.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Quality of opponents – Within their last five fights, both fighters shared two opponents. They both lost against Floyd Mayweather while Alvarez defeated Austin Trout to whom Cotto lost. Against “Money” Mayweather, Cotto looked better and was more efficient but he was clearly beat by Trout whom Canelo knocked down en route to a unanimous decision victory.

Canelo looked impressive in his two stoppage victories against Alfredo Angulo and James Kirkland. Of these two, the Kirkland victory stands out because it was fought the way the “Mandingo Warrior” wanted, that is to say it was a slugfest, and still Canelo won with a “Knockout of the Year” candidate.

Regarding his split decision win against Erislandy Lara, many thought this fight could’ve gone either way. Canelo had trouble dealing with the lateral movements and angles Lara presented but nonetheless came out with a victory. In this fight, Canelo proved that he can press enough and has enough hand speed to deal with slicker boxers.
On his side, since losing consecutive fights against Mayweather and Trout, Cotto has stringed three stoppages in a row. He outclassed and out gunned an over matched Delvin Rodríguez then challenged linear middleweight champion Sergio Martínez. Martínez had gone down in his last three fights, was almost knocked out against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (after which he needed surgery on his knee) and squeaked by Martin Murray in a fight that could’ve gone either way. Still, Cotto looked sharp and powerful in his first fight as a middleweight.

Against Daniel Geale, a former middleweight beltholder, Cotto again looked impressive until Geale quit after going down twice in round four. It must be noted that Geale looked drained the day of the weigh-in where a catch weight of 155 pounds was set but not met by Geale.

These recent fights offer a bit of an insight into the fighter’s strengths and weaknesses. Cotto’s two losses came at the hands of slick boxers and before his switch to training with Freddie Roach. His three victories came against foes that were either not on his level or not in their prime. Canelo’s loss to Mayweather and struggles against Lara show that he also has issues with angles and speed. His victories against a diminished Angulo and a James Kirkland without Anne Wolfe in his corner were impressive but not unexpected.

If we look back at their entire records, Cotto’s is more impressive. He’s faced more undefeated fighters, more past and eventual champions and more A-level opponents. He’s also come up short on his two biggest matches (Mayweather and Pacquiao) but his experience will serve him well. Still, I believe Canelo has a slight edge based on his victories over Lara, where he edged an opponent with a wrong style for him, and Kirkland where he fought his opponent’s fight and still came out with the win. In a sport where the saying “what have you done for me lately?” is so important, Alvarez has made a statement with his three most recent victories.

Defense and Chin – Neither fighter is a defensive master. Cotto may hold a slight advantage because his footwork is more polished and effective than Canelo’s but Alvarez is definitely the stronger more resilient fighter. It helps Canelo that he is quite fresh despite having 47 fights under his belt and has not been through the wars Cotto has endured. Even though Cotto has not been cut or badly bruised in his last fights, he hasn’t been hit by a big puncher in some time.

Both fighters have been hurt by single punches in the past. Cotto against the likes of Ricardo Torres, “Chop Chop” Corley and Zab Judah and Canelo against Jose Cotto but those all seem to be in the distant past. If this becomes a give and take fight, Canelo will probably have more resilience down the stretch and that may prove to be the difference maker.

Skill an Technique – In terms of pure skill and boxing technique, it is Cotto who holds the upper hand. A decorated amateur and Olympic boxer, Cotto has proven he can outbox almost everybody (his victory over an almost prime Shane Mosley being the best example of this) when he is sharp. His well timed jab is a very disruptive weapon and carries enough pop to stun and stop the momentum for many fighters (he’s even floored several of his opponents with it).

Canelo has very good hand speed and when he feels comfortable in his stance, he can let those heavy hands go in good multi-punch combinations. Still, he has issues with moving targets and angles which Cotto could very well use to his advantage. If he freezes against Cotto, the Puerto Rican’s jab and left hook could prove deadly to whatever Canelo’s fight plan is.

At the end of the day, if Cotto could box for 12 rounds and avoid a give and take fight, he would probably come out on top.

Strength and Power – Here is another category where one of the boxers holds a clear advantage. Even though they both started at the welterweight limit, Canelo is the naturally bigger guy and seems to have a bit more pop in his punches. In his victories against Carlos Baldomir, Alfonso Gómez and most recently James Kirkland, The Mexican proved he can hurt opponents with single shots. Cotto usually needs to break down opponents before he can get his stoppages.

Both fighters can hurt each other but Canelo has a bigger opportunity of landing a single punch or combination that can determine the course of the fight. Cotto hasn’t been hurt by a single punch in some time but, has also not been hit by a big puncher in some time as well. Were they to trade punch for punch, Canelo would have a clear advantage.

Miscellaneous and Intangibles – As the name suggests, there are other aspects to consider. The last time Canelo was in a fight of this magnitude he lost and seemed frustrated by the end of the fight. Will the memories of the Mayweather fight haunt the young boxer and keep him from performing at his best? Is Cotto’s resurgence real or just the by-product of great matchmaking? Will Canelo’s lengthy training camp result in over training and drain him of the necessary explosiveness he will need to come out victorious? Can Cotto take the kind of shots that Canelo has landed on the likes of Angulo and Kirkland? And most important, are we in line to see a true classic? Out of all these questions, the one I would like most to be answered in the affirmative is the last one.

By Norm Frauebheim

LAS VEGAS – The World Boxing Council’s middleweight title belt almost looked like an item at a garage sale Wednesday during a news conference for the Miguel Cotto-Canelo Alvarez bout Saturday night at Mandalay Bay.

It was at the end of long table next to WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman, seemingly on display, but not wanted by its former owner.

“I don’t need another belt,’’ Cotto said to a group of writers before the news conference started in a nearby theater.

His wardrobe is full of them. He has won titles in four weight classes over more than 14 years. Make no mistake, another one would be nice, but not at $1.1 million, the total he would have had to pay out of his purse for the right to defend the title against Canelo.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Negotiations with the WBC fell apart Monday night and perhaps took some buzz off of the HOB pay-per-view production. Cotto said he would have been willing to pay $125,000 to the WBC for the sanctioning fee. But Sulaiman said no, which is why the belt was parked like used car at one end of the VIP table Wednesday.

The rest, $800,000, was reported to be the amount Cotto agreed to pay Gennady Golovkin. Call it a step-aside fee. For six figures, Golovkin, the WBC’s No. 1contender, reportedly agreed to step aside for Canelo so the fight with Canelo could be made in another bout in the rich Puerto Rican-Mexican history.

But there are still questions about whether Golovkin will get that reported money.

“There are legal issues,’’Cotto attorney Gabe Penagaricano said Wednesday.
Translation: You’ll probably only see a Cotto-GGG fight in court. GGG’s best shot at unifying the 160-pound title will happen if Canelo wins the now vacant WBC version. There’s a good chance that Canelo will. The popular Mexican was about a 3-to-1 favorite Wednesday.

The always-reticent Canelo had little to say about the circumstances that transpired in the financial shuffle that that took the title out Cotto’s possession.

“It doesn’t change anything,’’ Canelo said. “I am prepared to fight the best Cotto.’’

From Cotto’s perspective, there are no regrets about his old belt. No worries, either. He shook hands with Sulaiman, who after the news conference had the belt slung over a shoulder. The flap won’t affect the fight, Coto said. that generated a few headlines. The public, Cotto said, doesn’t care about ruling bodies that charge sanctioning fees for interim belts, and silver belts in countless weight classes.

“We are bigger than the organizations,’’ said Cotto, who didn’t need to say more.

By Bart Barry-

Saturday at Mandalay Bay, Puerto Rican middleweight champion Miguel Cotto will swap blows with Mexican junior middleweight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in a main event that should mark 2015’s best pay-per-view match. The broadcast will happen on pay-HBO, a network whose commentators surely will invoke, in tones alternately awestruck and threatening, the name of the Kazakh fighter who holds the HBO middleweight title, reminding viewers Canelo-Cotto happens at a catchweight, 155 pounds, and that its unlucky winner will have fewer than two weeks to savor his victory before a Mexican sanctioning organization promises to strip that fighter of its belt and award the garish green tchotchke to HBO’s undisputed middleweight champion – as if the WBC ever would strip Canelo Alvarez.

The best outcome for aficionados is a Saturday match so even, violent, and robust, fans rise in a single, stentorian voice to demand a Cinco de Mayo rematch. The best outcome for HBO’s champion and at least one of his copromoters, of course, is that one man, probably Canelo, wins lopsidedly and then, in hotblood, gets goaded by Max to say he wants to fight the HBO middleweight champion next.

Among the many things about Latino prizefighters that should enchant aficionados, there’s this: An apparent obliviousness of American media manias. A man like Saul Alvarez lives in a selfsufficient country where, whatever his handlers might say when a contract gets signed, he doesn’t think about HBO or the opinions of its commentary crew or, best of all, its current exuberance for fighters from the former Soviet Union. However it gets broadcasted, the Saturday match between Alvarez and Cotto is not an elimination bout for a chance to face HBO’s middleweight champion; Canelo-Cotto is a prizefight in which each man will face an opponent many, many times better than anyone the HBO middleweight champion of the world has fought.

The winner of Canelo-Cotto, HBO tells us in a chorus with its champion’s official promoter, will have some arbitrarily chosen span of time before the winner has to declare he will face HBO’s middleweight champion or else risk ongoing banishment from HBO’s Gatti List and Fight Game List. Banishment from both lists ripples banishments across social media as a force multiplier, including possible banishments from the ESPN list, Pinterest, a number of influential Twitter polls, and a carefully chosen plethora of whatever apps teenage girls mindlessly refresh at Starbucks. The stakes aren’t merely high for the Mexican and the Puerto Rican, in other words: They’re nigh insurmountable.

Fortunately for both Canelo and Cotto, neither of them cares a jot for the subjective hierarchies that consume an everdwindling number of impoverished wouldbe aficionados who instead came of age in the List Era . . .

We now interrupt this hopeless column to hear from Saturday’s promoter and participants:

“Miguel, you have had an illustrious career, you are one of the marquee names in Puerto Rican fight history, you have fought a number of great fighters, you are one of my favorite fighters – one of the fighters I most enjoy hearing myself talk about, a fighter I can say dynamic, crushing, extraordinary, phenomenal things about – you are a Puerto Rican and a champion, Miguel, how do you feel about our certainty you will lose to the HBO middleweight champion, a man who began his career 20 pounds heavier than you began yours, if ever you find within yourself a fraction the courage required to fight him?”

“Miguel Cotto does not care about HBO middleweight champion.”

“Canelo, when people like me think about Mexican fighters, we think of names like Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Salvador Sanchez, Pancho Villa, Finito Lopez, the Aztec emperor Cuauhtémoc, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos – I can go on but I won’t because what I want to know, and what I think we’ve convinced others they want us to know, is this: Do you have trouble sleeping at night when you think about agreeing in principle to fight the HBO middleweight champion within 15 days of your possible victory over Miguel Cotto?”

“No, no, para nada. Lo que los comentaristas de HBO dicen sobre su campeón no me importa. Vivo en México, y ni sé quienes son – ni quien eres tú.”

. . . when mankind’s understandable if wholly absurd desire to impose order on an unpredictable and violent world married itself to a simplified form of written expression, the list, that required no transitional sentences, no spiraling thoughts, and considerably less craft than its predecessor forms.

Saturday’s match is not likely to disappoint. Canelo is best when his adversary attacks him, and Cotto knows he is best when attacking intelligently, stepping forward in an offensive flow. What both Cotto and Coach Freddie know is that if the match becomes a contest of offensive improvisation, where each man’s conditioning allows him to engage the other intelligently and at a comfortable pace, Cotto will have more depths from which to fetch, more opponent tricks he’s solved, more tricks he’s introduced to opponents, all of it, than Canelo will have. It’s not experience’s quantity so much as its quality – the fencer’s jab Cotto used against Shane Mosley in 2007, as an example, is an offensive adaptation of which Canelo, in 47 prizefights, has yet to prove himself capable. All other likely developments favor Canelo. He is younger, bigger, more physical, and most importantly, possessed of a right uppercut onto which Cotto will almost certainly drop himself.

This match will fulfill violent expectations – with Cotto lasting slightly longer than his detractors expect but considerably shorter than his supporters hope. I’ll take Canelo, TKO-10.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

By Norm Frauenheim

Floyd Mayweather Jr. must love all the attention he’s getting this week. He’s retired – or so he says – and yet he’s still generating the kind of controversy that would inevitably erupt during the week before one of his fights. Oscar De La Hoya and Adrien Broner have gone Ronda Rousey on him.

It’s hard to figure, other than to say it’s just another chapter in social media’s voracious need for content. Say what you want about Mayweather, but he is TBE at using and maintaining his prominence in social-media.

His mastery of all the digital platforms propelled him to the GDP-like purse he collected for the pay-per-view blockbuster in a victory over Manny Pacquiao that will be remembered more for the number of tweets than the number of punches.

Broner’s profane rant on YouTube isn’t exactly a surprise. It’s also a redundancy to use profane and rant next to Broner’s name. Sorry for that. Still, it’s almost comical to see Broner — angry at Mayweather’s criticism of his October victory over Khabib Allakhverdiev — go off on his ex-hero. Broner did everything but flush TMT T-shirts and TBE caps down the same toilet that was a receptacle for some of his cash a few years ago. Maybe, that’s the sequel.

The surprise was De La Hoya’s letter in the latest issue of Playboy. It was honest. It was forthright. It was funny. De La Hoya summed up what so many are thinking: The business is better off without Mayweather. But why now? Why publish the dismissive farewell to Mayweather at the very time De La Hoya is promoting a Canelo Alvarez-Miguel Cotto on Nov. 21 at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay.

De La Hoya has a fight that has the potential to say a lot more to Mayweather than any letter in Playboy could ever say. It’s a real chance for the business to get beyond the deflating hangover that still lingers from the public dismay over Mayweather-Pacquiao. Perhaps, the timing is just a result of the magazine’s publishing schedule. Deadlines can do things that writers don’t intend. It would have bee nice if De La Hoya had simply written: Mayweather? Who’s he? But that would not have been enough for Playboy, which is seeking a different kind of content these days. The magazine announced it wouldn’t publish nude photos anymore. About 10 days before Canelo-Cotto, however, I’d prefer a centerfold to De La Hoya’s letter.

Once the headlines subside, perhaps the business will be better for De La Hoya’s rhetorical swipe at his old rival. And, maybe, this is the opening salvo in a promotional rivalry that could evolve into the modern version of Bob Arum-versus-Don King. Arum-King was as entertaining and intense as anything that happened within the ring. It helped fuel the 1980s, one of the game’s best eras.

For now, however, I can only think that Mayweather has won another one. Inside and outside the ropes, he has always been able to dictate pace, style and timing. He’s doing it again. We’re talking about him when we should be talking about Canelo-Cotto.

Jose Benavidez Jr. fights for titles. Fights to stay unbeaten.

Fights to stay busy, too.

He’s been pretty good at the first two, but staying busy has eluded him at an age when the young junior-welterweight needs fights like a talented student needs consistent challenges on a long lesson plan.

The 23-year-old Benavidez (23-0, 16 KOs) hopes to eliminate that problematic idle time, beginning on Dec. 12 in Tucson when he fights for only the second time since winning a controversial decision over Mauricio Herrera for a WBA interim title on Dec. 13, 2014, in Las Vegas.

“I was supposed to fight in November, but it didn’t happen,’’ Benavidez said Thursday before a Top Rank news conference in Tucson announcing a Unimas-televised card that will also feature emerging featherweight Oscar Valdez. “I was supposed to fight a couple of times.’’

Both times, Benavidez was mentioned as a possibility for Terence Crawford, the 2014 Fighter of the Year. But Crawford bypassed Benavidez, winning both — first in March over Thomas Dulorme in his 140-pound debut and then Dierry Jean in October.

Benavidez is still a possibility for Crawford. Top Rank’s Bob Arum mentioned him again during the weigh-in last
Friday for Timothy Bradley’s victory over Brandon Rios In Las Vegas.

“I’d love to fight Crawford, absolutely’’ said Benavidez, who in May scored a 12th-round stoppage of Jorge Paez Jr. in Phoenix, Benavidez’ hometown.

It looks as if Benavidez is an alternate for Crawford. Manny Pacquiao is reportedly interested in career ending fight against either Crawford or Bradley. If the Filipino opts for Bradley, Benavidez might the next man up for Crawford. Viktor Postol is another Benavidez possibility.

“Anybody, I’ll fight anybody,’’ said Benavidez, who title will not be at stake on Dec. 12 when he is scheduled to fight Brazilian Sidney Siqueira (26-10-1, 17 KOs), perhaps at a catch weight between 140 and 150 pounds.

Meanwhile, Benavidez is staying busy. He has too. Boxing is the family business. He’ll be with his brother, David, (10-0, 9 KOs), an 18-year-old light-heavyweight who fights Mexican Felipe Romero (19-9-1, 13 KOs) Saturday night on ShoBox card (Showtime 10:45 p.m. ET/PT) at Las Vegas’ Hard Rock.

“Oh, yeah, I have to be there for my brother,’’ Benavidez said. “We train together. Always have. He keeps me ready. We spar and, man, he beats the bleeping bleep out of me.’’

Nothing bleeping busier than a sibling rivalry.

By Norm Frauenheim

Featherweight Oscar Valdez moves seamlessly between English and Spanish. He needs no interpreter for what he’s saying and what he’s doing. From amateur to pro, he understands where he’s been and where he intends to go.

Another step in that process takes place on Dec. 12 in a city he knows.

Tucson is a beginning for the two-time Mexican Olympian.

“It’s really where I began to box,’’ Valdez (17-0, 15 KOs) said Thursday before a Top Rank news conference at Tucson Community Center where he faces Filipino Ernie Sanchez on a Unimas-televised card in an arena just a few city blocks from where he went to school, Manzo Elementary “I was 8-years-old. My dad would take me to these gyms. Then, me and my friends would go to gyms around town and I’d tell them that one day I’d be a professional boxer. That’s kind of how all of this got started.’’

After grade school, Valdez moved to Nogales, a Mexican border town, and continued to work on what began in Tucson. Today, a kid’s dream is reality. It has taken Valdez, now 24, to Beijing for the 2008 Olympics and London for the 2012 Games. It has taken him from prospect to potential contender in a division as competitive as any. It has brought him back to the beginning, Tucson, where his mom, Gloria Fierro, still lives.

It looks as if the Tucson bout might be his last before he steps up to world class. His first challenge for a major title could happen in 2016. Valdez has been mentioned as a possibility for Top Rank prodigy Vasyl Lomachenko. For now, however, he’s still the student, which means another lesson plan against Sanchez (15-6-1, 6 KOs), who is from General Santos City, Manny Pacquiao’s hometown.

“Whenever Top Ranks tells me, I’ll be ready,’’ said Valdez, who lost to Lomachenko in the 2009 World Championships in Milan, Italy. “Hopefully, it will be next year.’’

By Bart Barry

Saturday in a Thomas & Mack Arena that was not sold out, American welterweight Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley and his new trainer, Teddy Atlas, combined to retire American Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios after dropping him twice, in round 9. The fight happened on HBO, a network that completed its three-year and 180-degree perspective-pivot on Bradley by celebrating Bradley’s new choice of trainer and Bradley’s new trainer with the enthusiasm of a rookie talent recruiter selling a prospect to Google.

Yes, the makeover is exaggerated, but let us play along for a couple reasons like: Tim’s a good guy, and we don’t have much of a choice because we’re going to be fed a Bradley-Atlas-union feast long after we push ourselves back from the table, hands waving in sated, otiose resistance.

If there’s a gigantic difference between the marketing of the Bradley-Atlas relationship and the Miguel Cotto-Freddie Roach relationship, it is not apparent. Both trainer narratives brought electrical charges to stalled products: Cotto, having been decisioned by Floyd Mayweather and Austin Trout, was out of the pay-per-view business unless something more than cosmetic might be done. A few more tattoos, a lot more hotpink, a goofy boy friend’s weightloss, an unknown handler from Cuba, improved English – these were insubstantial product improvements when set against knockout losses to Antonio Margarito and Manny Pacquiao and a two-fight losing streak. Enter Coach Freddie: what chemistry! what trust! what rediscovery of the left hook! my goodness!

Those enhancements, along with an opponent on the downside of a six-loss career, and the new and improved product was done with infomercials and ready to ship. Cotto then blazed through the tissuepaper of Sergio Martinez’s knee(s), became the linear middleweight champion of the world and perfected his pronunciation of an English phrase he learned early in ESL tutelage: “A-side.” (The ‘SL’ in ESL may be inaccurate, we now learn: the nurses in the Rhode Island hospital where apparently El Gran Campeón Puertorriqueño was born surely brought English to the young man’s ears early.) All the Cotto product relaunch lacked was a mandatory title defense against a hopeless opponent, a chance to remind viewers Cotto reminded them of anyone from Mike Tyson to Benny Leonard, old timers, in other words, who reminded us of the old Miguel Cotto – neither the guy who took a knee against Margarito nor the guy pulped by Pacquiao but the warrior who cracked Paulie Malignaggi’s face – and Daniel “Real Deal” Geale strode on the set in June.

That match brought the hundredth or so chance for viewers to squint for insights at a fight whose outcome not one aficionado doubted. Anymore, an engaged aficionado, an endangered mammal whose ranks continue thinning as its hungerstrikers perish from malnourishment, gets encouraged by broadcasters to watch fights the way an NFL scout investigates combines or a Major Leaguer stares at his radar gun. Since the matchmaking and broadcasting are universally ironic – in the rhetorical sense of meaning other than what they state – aficionados, uniquely endowed with the talent and opportunities for cynicism, cynically derive from results whatever they expect to see.

It would be tragic if it were not, in its way, an intriguing adaptation: As if lifelong basketball fans deprived of watching their favorite NBA teams play one another derived, instead, fantasy basketball teams assembled according to height and vertical leap and whatever glowing commentary Charles Barkley had about players, and then set these fantasy teams loose on high school playgrounds, where they regularly mauled their teenage opponents, leaving the financially interested broadcasters of these contests to say of LeBron James dunking over a 5-foot-3 schoolboy freshman, “Looking at that dominant performance by James, one immediately thinks of Dr. J in the 1983 finals against the Lakers!”

Would such a derivative league survive? Doubtlessly it would. Would it thrive? Doubtlessly it wouldn’t.

None of this describes, quite, what happened Saturday, so much as it describes what might happen in Bradley’s next match, which will not be against Canelo Alvarez, of all absurd suggestions. Bradley beat down Rios more effectively than anticipated. But here we go again: Was Bradley disproportionately improved, or was Rios, career property of promoter Top Rank and its peerless matchmaking, disproportionately spent before the bell?

A quick memory might be instructive. The first time I interviewed Bob Arum, in 2004, I asked him if Top Rank could select a prospect on one criterion alone, what that criterion would be.

“Does he dissipate between fights?” said Arum immediately.

Setting aside how much smarter that answer is than what Richard Schaefer or any of Al Haymon’s subsequent puppets might say, it underlines boldly how closely Top Rank considers its fighters between matches, which is a roundabout way of imparting how unsurprised Top Rank likely was by how helpless Brandon Rios looked Saturday. That is not an indictment of Timothy Bradley or his new trainer. It really isn’t. They prepared for a much larger version of the Brandon Rios who, in 2011, blitzed both Miguel Acosta and Urbano Antillon, surely, and Bradley did in fact look better.

It’s a partial indictment, though, of the silliness that happened during the telecast, the spiraling embellishment that seems modern broadcasting’s default reaction to the predictable unevenness of uneven contests. Couched in the false humility of the conditional tense – could it be? would it have been? were it possible . . . – the intended seeding of the idea finds its roots and caretaking in whatever follows the humblefeint, slipping right past the viewer’s lowered guard. It’s not meanspirited mischief, no, but neither is it disinterested.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

Follow all the action Live as Timothy Bradley defends the WBO Welterweight title against Brandon Rios.  The action begins at 9:30 PM et / 6:30 OM PT as Vasyl Lomachenko defends the WBO Featherweight title against Romulo Koaschia–AUTOMATIC BROWSER REFRESH

Round 1 : 2 hard body shots from Bradley..Hard jab..4 left hooks…Braldey looking MUCH quicker…Big left hook from Bradley…Another hard sweeping left hook

Round 2 Rios trying to crowd Bradley..Big right from Bradley..Left from Rios..Bradley working the body..Trading shots on the ropes..Left from Rios,,,

Round 3.Left from Bradley…

Round 5 Bradley rocks Rios twice…

Round 6. Uppercut from Rios…Double left from Bradley

Round 7 Bradley sneaks in a right…Body shot from Rios..left from Bradley..double jab..

Round 8 Hard right from Bradley sets off a 5 punch combination…Good right to the body..Jab,,straight right…

Round 9 Left from Bradley..body shot..good left..Bradley hitting and moving well..Body/Head combo with the left,,…LEFT HOOK AND DOWN GOES RIOS…MORE BODY SHOTS –DOWN GOES RIOS AND THE FIGHT IS OVER

Round 1 Lomachenko gets in a left..Jab  from Koasicha..right hook from Loamachenko.

Round 2 Straight left from Lomachenko..Combination from Koasicha..3 punches from Lomachenko..Hard right hook..straight left to the body…

Round 3 Lomachenko gets in a left to the body…Solid combination…Straight left snaps Koaschia’s head back..Right from Koasicha//Uppercut from Loamecnko…hard 4 punch combination..2 solid right hooks..

Round 4 Uppercut on inside from Lomachenko…Koasicha fires back with a left hook…Left uppercut from Lomachenko and another..a 3rd that was followed by a right hook..head combo..Straight left and right

Round 5 Lomachenko lands a combo on the ropes..jab..right hook..straight left…Lomachenko mocking Koasicha..Food right hook in the ropes…2 left hooks…Koasicha gets in a right…

Round 6 Right hook from Lomachenko..Right from Koasicha..Right hook from Lomachenko..Right hook and right to the body

Round 7 Lomachenko flicks the jab and comes behind with a right…ripping uppercut..Koasicha starting to swell around the right eye…Ripping left…right to head…left to bodyKoasicha lands a combo..Big left from Lomachenko..Big right hook to he head…

Round 8 Lomachenko lands a left and right hook..straight left..hard right hook..Koasicha gets in a small combination..

Round 9 Uppercut from Loamchenko..and another..Straight left,,,Koasicha lands a right..right uppercut..

Round 10 Lomachenko goes to the body…left to the body hurts Koasicha...HARD LEFT TO THE BODY AND DOWN GOES KOASICHA….HE STAYS DOWN FOR THE 10 COUNT

By Norm Frauenhim–

A corner is Teddy Atlas’ bully pulpit. He once sat on Michael Moorer’s stool after a round midway through a 1994 bout with Evander Holyfield. Moorer looked down at Atlas in disbelief. At the start of the next round, however, Moorer believed.

Believed enough to win a narrow decision and a heavyweight title.

The dramatic gesture is always there, an over-the-top move perhaps, yet a tactic played as well as any by Atlas. It doesn’t always work. The relationship between trainer and fighter is all about chemistry, a periodic table of personality traits and emotional elements. Sometimes, it just blows up.

Will it work between Atlas and Timothy Bradley? It’ll have to. There’s no chance to test it. Or if there was, Atlas and Bradley decided to forgo it and instead chose to march straight into harm’s way Saturday night at Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center against Brandon Rios, whose stubborn pressure and relentless energy are bound to subject the new found union to stress that can break it.

Atlas and Bradley said all the right things Wednesday in a conference call before their formal arrival at The Wynn, the home casino for the HBO-televised bout (9:30 p.m. ET/PT). Atlas preached and Bradley talked with the conviction of a welterweight who has been resurrected to be better than ever.

“A whole different animal,’’ said Bradley, who about two months ago split with Joel Diaz, his only pro trainer before he called Atlas.

Bradley, always likable and credible, was convincing. But a fair judgment awaits an opening bell and that first big punch.

“He’s going to tell you after the fight,’’ Rios trainer Robert Garcia said.

The deal between Bradley and Atlas is an acknowledgement of that reality. The two have a fight-to-fight agreement. There’s nothing long-term, not for them or – for that matter – Rios, who concedes his career is at the make-or-break stage.

Betting odds suggest that Atlas and Bradley will be together for more than just one training camp. When the fight was announced, Bradley was about a 5-to-1 favorite. The guess is that his overall skill will prevail against Rios, whom Bradley calls one-dimensional.

The question, however, is whether Bradley has seen his best days. He survived Ruslan Provodnikov’s concussive punches in the 2013 Fight of the Year. But at what price? Signs of possible wear and tear were there when he got wobbled in the final seconds of a one-sided decision over Jessie Vargas in his last outing.

But was that just a careless moment or another in a long succession of big punches at the end of Bradley’s career? Undisciplined or vulnerable? From Atlas’ perspective, it’s just been matter of absorbing too many big blows.

Atlas, ever the preacher, calls them mortal sins. Too many of them, and Bradley’s money-making days will be condemned to a premature end.

“He has to quit taking those big shots, quit committing those mortal sins,’’ said Atlas, the ESPN analyst who says he agreed to work with Bradley in part because the 32-year-old welterweight still wants to learn. “We can live with the menial ones.’’

By Norm Frauenheim

LAS VEGAS – Two tenths of a pound aren’t much, but they were enough to make a weigh-in last an hour longer than it should have Friday.

Brandon Rios stepped on the scale once, stripped off his shorts behind a strategically placed sheet and stepped on the scale again. Once, twice, shorts on, shorts off and he was still two-tenths heavier than the 147-pound mandatory for his welterweight bout Saturday night against Timothy Bradley at Thomas & Mack Center.

For the next 60 minutes, Rios found a bathroom, stood around a hallway outside of a ballroom at The Wynn and then headed back to the scale. Once, twice, shorts on, shorts off and this time the two tenths were gone, presumably flushed from the proceedings.

Actually, Rios said he could have saved everybody a lot of time had he been allowed an extra minute or two. In so many words and more than a few expletives, he said he was trying to get rid of the two-tenths when he was called off the stool and onto the scale.

“There was no drama,’’ Rios said. “I’m ready.’’

Rios’ face looked a little drawn after the weigh-in, which included Vasyl Lomachenko (4-1, 2 KOs) and Romulo Koasicha (25-4, 15 KOs) both at 125.6 pounds for a WBO featherweight title fight. He’s no stranger to off and on the scale controversies. As a lightweight, he missed weight twice. The move up to welter was supposed to make things easier.

But Rios has never been about easy.

On himself or anybody else.

With his career at a crossroads, Rios (33-2-1, 24 KOs) is expected to make things difficult for the favored Bradley (32-1-1, 12 KOs) in an HBO-televised bout (9:30 p.m. ET/PT) that was officially sanctioned as a World Boxing Organization title fight.

His tireless pressure figures to test Bradley, who was at a business-like 146 pounds. For Bradley, the bout is his first with trainer Teddy Atlas. Bradley had spent his entire pro career with Joel Diaz. They knew each other instinctively, almost like father and son. What happens when Rios lands his first big punch? How will Bradley respond to adversity when he sees a different face, Atlas instead of Diaz, in his corner?

That looms as the bout’s key question. If Bradley has the right answer, Rios will wind up flushing a lot more than just two-tenths.

By Bart Barry–

Saturday at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center, American welterweights Timothy Bradley and Brandon Rios will compete for a world title of some sort and, more importantly, for a chance to be their division’s premier b-side attraction – as friend and colleague Norm Frauenheim insightfully put it Friday. While neither guy sees himself as a gatekeeper – Bradley, in fact, has a loose argument for IBHOF induction someday – no one in the sport sees either guy as the world’s best welterweight, though, again, Bradley has a loose argument for that distinction too.

But finally, an honest prizefight. It has been that long, so long in fact this one almost misses us gazing desperately towards Canelo-Cotto while wondering how to compose a eulogy for Ken Hersman’s career at HBO. There has been, and will continue to be, a want of eulogizing for Hershman because, frankly, we’re not qualified to pen eulogies, little as most of us have minded his career at HBO. Consider this, then, an impressionistic portrait by a writer too uninterested to check dates and figures.

Hershman came to HBO sometime after Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander made a disappointment of a match in Pontiac Silverdome, then auditioning for world’s largest empty refrigerator, a disastrous show so poorly attended the HBO broadcast trucks, like the one racing at you in those intro cartoons, parked in the middle of the floor, and even by stuffing the fight in a back corner and closingoff the mezzanine, they still couldn’t make the arena look more than 1/10 full because it wasn’t 1/15 full. Legend has it a few HBO VIPs showed up for that disaster, and after recovering from frostbite set about a plot to fire the man who lost Manny Pacquiao to Showtime for a night (the one in which Pacquiao eradicated world poverty by wearing yellow gloves, historians will recall).

Uninspired to do more than rebuild slowly and cheaply, HBO hired Showtime’s guy, who had fought a marvelous insurgency in the preceding years and made Showtime the destination network for serious fans while HBO lazily tended its starsystem. Maligned as it was by misfortune and miscreants, Hershman’s Super Six tournament was a wonderful thing whose ultimate winners, Andre Ward and Ken Hershman and Carl Froch, did quite well for themselves immediately afterwards. Froch is now retired, Hershman is about to be retired, and Ward continues a halfassed comeback from semiretirment – so nothing, as the saying goes, is permanent.

But whatever innovative spirit Hershman had at Showtime, not an innovative thing was done during his time at HBO, unless discovering Eurasia 20 years after the Soviet Union’s collapse should be called revolutionary. Hershman fired Al Haymon and his lackey Richard Schaefer and Schaefer’s spokesman, Oscar De La Hoya, in a move more memorable for spite than creativity: Hersman did not clear away dead underbrush from the calendar, allowing bold, suppressed ideas to spring forth, so much as he avenged his predecessor and sent Haymon to a much wealthier benefactor with whose capital Haymon, a vindictive pacifist, has smothered boxing to critical condition. Hershman is not to blame for Haymon’s ascent; Haymon is a force of nature, where men like Hershman, and the guy who replaced him at Showtime, are lawerly bureaucrats, not entrepreneurs.

Perhaps HBO’s culture is to blame, in part, while we’re introspecting. Fighters, not fights, drive HBO’s starsystem, a philosophy that manifests itself as a panicked paralysis whenever anointed stars like Nonito Donaire get outclassed by men whose superior skills somehow elude HBO’s staff of talentscouts and matchmakers. Whoever replaces Hershman should move first to acquire a professional matchmaker or two – boxing guys, outsiders who drink too much and dress like slobs, not television guys, not aspiring runway models, not writers-cum-publicists, not lawyers from Harvard or Yale, but men with real contacts lists, real shortnotice talent, real chemistry with prizefighters of all skill levels, and decades, not months, of experience – and enable him- or herself to dictate intelligent terms to serious outfits like Top Rank and Main Events and K2, treating them as suppliers, not partners.

There’s a shortage of talent in prizefighting at this time, and HBO’s next generation of broadcasters should realize this and not hardsell us on historic championship runs like Wladimir Klitschko’s or Gennady Golovkin’s – runs even casual fans know are meaningless. Whoever replaces Hershman, s/he should dictate terms in the negotiation, request a bold budget, request increased latitude, request a brand new team, pause to accept whatever’s offered and not act merely thrilled to be picked. A person who does this likely will find s/he doesn’t jibe with HBO’s current culture and turn down the job. A few incidents like that and perhaps the culture will see a need to change, maybe even deciding our sport is not worth the hassle that broadcasting it brings. Boxing will find a way to struggle along, regardless.

Whatever hassles soon get brought, know this: Bradley-Rios deserves your viewership. These are two honest prizefighters who are, for once, evenly matched. Neither belongs at welterweight: Bradley moved up to make more money, and Rios moved up because his offseason diet makes weighing 135 pounds or 140 impossible. Both are worn by experience, both were fed to Manny Pacquiao for different reasons, and Bradley proved to be the considerably less-digestible dish. Bradley decisioned Pacquiao, and many have not forgiven him for it, despite his acquiescent performance in their rematch. Rios lost to Pacquiao more predictably and lopsidedly than anyone save Chris Algieri. Bradley is a better athlete and a better fighter than Rios, but then, so was Mike Alvarado a better athlete and better fighter than Rios, and Rios beat him down twice.

Bradley has a new trainer, the philosopher poet Teddy Atlas, but what Bradley needed and probably still needs is a technician who tells him to lower his chin and move his head, not a motivational speaker who steels his resolve in a crisis. Bradley manages crises better than anyone currently plying the craft; he needs help navigating round them, not navigating through them.

Still, I’ll take Bradley, SD-12, in an excellent and honest prizefight.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

By Bart Barry-

Saturday in Omaha’s CenturyLink Center, in what was probably another attendance record of some prepositional sort – in October, against a French speaker, after a Texas fight, under the rules of the WBO, within the American Midwest, without a doubt, beyond expectations – Nebraska junior welterweight Terence Crawford razed Haitian-Canadian Dierry Jean in 10 rounds. Before Jean was able to retrieve his check from the scorer’s table with a shrug, talk turned to Crawford’s next opponent: Manny Pacquiao, in his first last match, in April, on pay-per-view! And the shrugging commenced.

Anybody see Terence Crawford repeating as Fighter of the Year for 2015?

They can’t all be good twelvemonths, and to be fair, the exceptionality of Crawford’s 2014 was impossible in 2015, known forevermore in boxing annals as the year 0 AH (After Haymon), but Crawford, or at least his handlers at Top Rank, the incredible shrinking promoter, might have put in an effort slightly more inspired than what 2015 shined. There was the compulsory migration to a new weightclass, junior welterweight, that might’ve impressed if Crawford’dn’t already fought a better junior welterweight, Breidis Prescott, on no notice, in 2013 (2 BH). Then there was the inexplicable University of Texas venue in Arlington, on a campus even UT alumni needed to google, and a typically tough, hopeless opponent.

Saturday’s match, an achievement-award homecoming tilt, a way for Omahans to thank a fellow Nebraskan for excelling at some sport other than football, happened against a man not even fightweek festivities bothered embellishing. He was Dierry Jean, the Haitian-born Canadian smuggled out of Montreal to rehab Lamont Peterson in 1 BH, after Lamont got spincycled by Lucas Matthysse, just before Lucas got handled by Danny Garcia. Whatever the ratings boards say of Jean, and no, I don’t care enough to check, intuition says he’s roughly half the opponent someone of Crawford’s talent and pedigree should be confronting in his third match at 140 pounds, on HBO.

So bring on the Pacman!

That’s actually an uncharacteristically interesting fight if it happens in 1 AH, which it likely will not, because honestly, how often does anything genuinely interesting still happen in our oncebeloved sport? Faded as Pacquiao is, a return to 140 pounds – where he fought only once, stiffening Ricky Hatton in 6 BH – might quicken his movements some and make a fight entertaining enough to disarm the righteous rage aficionados feel about the performance, and postfight gracelessness, Manny and Coach Freddie staged against Floyd Mayweather in May. Disarm is perhaps a verb too far: Boxing is just beginning to experience the first sensations of the injury it suffered from The Fight to Save Boxing.

If the pay-per-view numbers are to be believed, and they never ever are, Mayweather took a 90-percent haircut, Pacquiao-to-Berto, and Gennady “Our Next Superstar” Golovkin didn’t do even half Mayweather’s new number, despite allegedly breaking Madison Square Garden attendance records not even the Empire State though to track till GGG’s invasion. The official model is probably broken, and adherence to it – basic cable to premium cable to PPV – almost assuredly will frustrate any who obstinately power towards it.

Bob Arum is not to blame. His legacy as a legendary promoter is assured by the company and fighters he built and the enduring changes he wrought (how do you think boxing got off free TV in the first place?), and he’s been semiretired, anyway, since Juan Manuel Marquez dangled Manny Pacquiao between life and death in 3 BH. What has happened to Top Rank since then is a descent that now accelerates.

There’s a chance all living systems follow the same spiraling pattern, and if they don’t, certainly boxing’s television model has: Disorder –> Negative Feedback (diminishing returns) –> Order –> Positive Feedback (increasing returns) –> Disorder.

The consolidation of broadcasting from many to few imposed an orderly system for exponentially increasing the revenues generated by select men like Mike Tyson and Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. This increased revenue summoned new agents, like Al Haymon, and disproportionately empowered a few men to move the sport according to their whims. And the more whimsically they behaved, the more revenue they generated till the order disintegrated in the spectacle of a network, HBO, despite having invested extraordinary resources in the promotion of two fighters, Mayweather and Pacquiao, being powerless to make them face one another.

The Fight to Save Boxing was not the beginning of disorder so much as its highest manifestation: A match no expert believed would please its consumers found the largest paying audience assembled in our sport’s history. What 30 years of splintering titles and feuding promoters and deteriorating talent pools could not do to obliterate boxing’s fanbase – decimate, yes, but not obliterate – May 2 did in less than an hour.

Aficionados’ hostility now makes them casual fans whose indifference ensures diminishing returns for every organism in the boxing ecosystem. Opponents of the truly talented are no longer talented enough to improve them, and the truly talented’s skills subsequently erode till they bore their audiences away or lose in matchmaking mishaps. Suddenly boxing is ubiquitous on free television, the last era’s Promised Land, and yet nobody cares at all. The negative feedback has begun in earnest, and while human technology ever has an acceleratory effect on its spirals, the last cycle took decades to complete and this one is barely begun.

Prizefighting, in the sense of men paying to watch other men bludgeon one another to unconsciousness, will endure, but prizefighting, in the sense of a match generating $500 million again, is finished for years, definitely, for decades, probably, and for a lifetime, possibly.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

Follow all the action as WBO Jr. Welterweight champion Terence Crawford defends against Dierry Jean.  The action begins at 9:30 PM ET / 8:30 CT

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