MACAO (June 25, 2013) – Tickets for the Saturday, July 27 Fists of Gold II event are on sale now. The exciting, multi-bout event at The Venetian® Macao’s CotaiArena™ features two-time Olympic gold medallist and three-time Amateur World Champion Zou Shiming returning to the ring in a flyweight matchup against Mexico’s Jesus Ortega. The spectacular fight card also features two world championship title fights – WBO/WBA flyweight champion Juan Estrada vs. Milan Melindo and IBF featherweight champion Evgeny Gradovich vs. Mauricio Muñoz, plus undefeated Hong Kong super flyweight Rex “The Wonder Kid” Tso in his Macao debut. Watching all the action from ringside will be Fighter of the Decade Manny Pacquiao, boxing’s only eight-division world champion, and former world lightweight champion Brandon Rios.

Promoted by Top Rank® and Sands China Ltd., in association with Tecate, Fists of Gold II tickets are on sale now at all CotaiTicketing™* box offices.

The fantastic night of entertainment ahead is the latest world-class sports spectacular from Sands China. The integrated resort developer’s multi-tiered entertainment strategy is aimed at diversifying Macao’s tourism economy through the varied offerings of its Cotai Strip Resorts, contributing to the city’s development into one of Asia’s top entertainment hubs and a world centre of tourism and leisure. April’s Fists of Gold event was a sold-out crowd pleaser, and was televised internationally to more than 30 countries, including to the U.S. via HBO2® and in China on CCTV5.

Fists of Gold II will once again reunite broadcasting icons Tim Ryan and Larry Merchant and former two-time heavyweight champion George Foreman for the international telecast where they will be calling the action from ringside. HBO2 will televise Fists of Gold II the same day in the U.S., beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET/PT

Sure to make a big splash during the multi-bout night of action is the six-round super flyweight non-title matchup between Hong Kong’s Rex Tso (6-0, 4 KOs), who will risk his undefeated record when he takes on battle-tested Rusalee Samor (20-4-2, 9 KOs), from Pattani, Thailand. The 25-year-old Tso is one of Hong Kong’s most popular fighters and already world-rated No. 17 by the WBC, capturing the WBC Asia Council Continental super flyweight title last December when he knocked out the vastly more experienced Timur Shailezof in the 10th round. Tso successfully defended the title on May 28, in front of a frenzied crowd of Tso fans in Hong Kong, knocking out Wandee Singwancha in the fourth round. Samor, 29, is a former IBF Pan Pacific flyweight champion. He captured the title in 2011 via a 12-round decision victory over Ryan Tampus and successfully defended it four times during his one-year reign before losing it to Ryan Ponteras in December. He returned to the winner’s circle in his last fight, April 14, scoring an impressive fourth-round knockout of Louis Leomoli.

Zou (1-0), from Guizhou, and trained by Hall of Famer Freddie Roach, won his professional debut April 6, via a dominant four-round unanimous decision over gritty Eleazar Valenzuela of México. One of the most popular Olympic athletes in China, Zou was his nation’s first Olympic medallist in boxing as well as its first boxing gold medallist in the World Amateur Championships and the Olympics. He signed with Arum’s Top Rank at a press conference in Beijing in January.

Moving up to the flyweight division, Zou will be graduating to a six-round bout when he faces Jesus Ortega (3-1, 2 KOs) from Hermosillo, México. A stablemate of world flyweight champion Juan Estrada, the hard-hitting Ortega is an exciting prospect who enters this fight on a roll, having won his last two fights – his most recent a third-round knockout victory against Arcadio Sanchez April 19.

In addition to Zou’s return, the event line-up includes an undercard highlighted by two 12-round world championship fights. WBO/WBA flyweight champion Juan Estrada (23-2, 17 KOs), of Hermosillo, México, will make the first defence of the titles he won from Brian Viloria April 6 at Fists of Gold. Estrada faces the undefeated Milan Melindo (28-0, 11 KOs), of Manadue, Philippines. Melindo, the number one contender and mandatory challenger, earned his shot at the title by knocking out once-beaten Tommy Seran in the fourth round on the April 6 card in Macao. Undefeated IBF featherweight champion Evgeny Gradovich (16-0, 8 KOs), a native of Russia, now fighting from Oxnard, Calif., makes his first title defence against No. 1 contender and mandatory challenger Mauricio Muñoz (26-3, 12 KOs), of San Juan, Argentina. Gradovich captured the world title March 1 when he dethroned defending champion Billy Dib via a split decision. Muñoz earned his title shot by defeating previously unbeaten contender Luis Franco in his last fight, October 13, 2012. The international telecast will open with a 10-round heavyweight rumble between undefeated contenders Andy Ruiz, Jr. (19-0, 13 KOs), of Mexicali, México, and Joe Hanks (21-0, 14 KOs), of Los Angeles.

The undercard also features undefeated Genesis Servania (21-0, 8 KOs), of Cebu City, Philippines, in an eight-round super bantamweight bout against Konosuke Tomiyama (23-5-1, 8 KOs), of Tokyo, Japan; Paul Fleming (18-0, 13 KOs), of Sydney, Australia, in an eight-round super featherweight bout against Chaiyong Sithsaithong (30-10-3, 21 KOs), of Sakon Nakhon, Thailand; and undefeated Dave Peñalosa (6-0, 4 KOs), from Cebu City, Philippines, in a four-round super bantamweight bout against Ngaotawan Sithsaithong (10-10-1, 5 KOs), of Bangkok, Thailand. Fleming and Peñalosa were both knockout victors at April’s Fists of Gold.

Ticket buyers to the mega-event have the option of purchasing the “Fists of Gold II” Package, starting at just HK$1,700**, to stay at the fabulous Cotai Strip Resorts on fight night – July 27, 2013 – and enjoy the following exclusive advantages:

· Two D Reserve tickets to Fists of Gold II
· Accommodation for two

Packages are also available with C Reserve, B Reserve or A Reserve tickets, ranging from HK$2,000-$3,000**, for stays at Holiday Inn Macao Cotai Central; Sheraton Macao Hotel, Cotai Central; or The Venetian Macao. Bookings are available now, on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to availability. To get more information, including full terms and conditions, visit www.venetianmacao.com/macau-shows/macau-events/zou-shiming-returning-to-macao/.

Tickets for the 5:30 p.m. July 27 Fists of Gold II event are on sale now at all CotaiTicketing box offices. They can be purchased in one of five categories: HKD/MOP 1,680 (Silver), 980 (A Reserve), 580 (B Reserve), 280 (C Reserve) and 80 (D Reserve). Packages with round trip Cotai Water Jet ferry tickets between Hong Kong and Macao are also available for HKD/MOP 1,768 (Silver), 1,068 (A Reserve), 668 (B Reserve) and 368 (C Reserve). Tickets can be booked online at www.CotaiTicketing.com, or by phone at +853 2882 8818 (Macao) / +852 6333 6660 (HK) / 4001 206 618 (China), and are also available at Tom Lee Outlets, K11 Select and through Hong Kong Ticketing (customer service fee applies), online at www.HKTicketing.com or by phone at +852 3128 8288.

# # #

About The Venetian® Macao-Resort-Hotel
Opened in 2007, The Venetian® Macao-Resort-Hotel is Macao’s first integrated resort featuring stunning replicas of the famous canals and architectural icons of Venice, Italy. The Venetian Macao features 3,000 suites, 1.2 million square feet (111,000 square metres) of convention and meeting facilities as well as a 15,000-seat CotaiArena™ designed for world-class sports events and electrifying entertainment. The Venetian Macao is also home to the unique, 1,800-seat luxury Venetian Theatre, hosting the best in international and Chinese entertainment; more than 30 renowned restaurants; MALO CLINIC Health & Wellness; the incredibly fun QUBE indoor playground and more than 300 retailers at Shoppes Grand Canal. Outdoor recreation areas include swimming pools and cabanas and a mini-golf course.

For more information, please visit www.venetianmacao.com.

About Cotai Strip Resorts Macao – Macao’s Integrated Resort City
Sands China Ltd. is the leading developer, owner and operator of integrated resorts in Macao. The befittingly named Cotai Strip Resorts Macao, situated on reclaimed land between the islands of Coloane and Taipa, is the one destination that provides a stunning array of experiences at the heart of Cotai. Cotai Strip Resorts Macao has transformed a gaming-centric day-trip market into an integrated resort city and international hub for business and leisure travellers.

Pulsating with life, both night and day, Cotai Strip Resorts Macao features an expansive offering of affordable luxury available nowhere else in Macao, with approximately 9,000 hotel rooms and suites, international superstar live entertainment, duty-free shopping with 600 retailers offering an unparalleled array of name brands, 1.3 million square feet (120,000 square metres) of meeting and exhibition space for Asia’s leading conferences and exhibitions, gaming excitement, transportation offerings and well over 100 dining options, including international restaurants, bars and lounges. Cotai Strip Resorts Macao is a must-see destination providing every guest with an unforgettable experience and unparalleled excitement.

Comprised of the The Venetian® Macao-Resort-Hotel; The Plaza™ Macao, featuring the Four Seasons Hotel Macao; and Sands® Cotai Central, featuring the world’s largest Conrad, Sheraton, and Holiday Inn hotels, Cotai Strip Resorts Macao is where Asia’s ultimate destination is all within reach.

Cotai Strip Resorts Macao….truly Macao Starts Here™. For more information, please visit www.cotaistrip.com.mo/en/.

LOS ANGELES, June 22 – It’s a night of legends on the Sunday, June 23 edition of Golden Boy Classics on FOX Deportes headlined by the ageless wonder of the fight game, Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins. Golden Boy Classics will preview the match-up on June 23 which will air on FOX Deportes at 5:00 p.m. ET/2:00 p.m. PT.

In the Classics main event, it’s a look back as Hopkins takes on then-undefeated Kelly Pavlik in a 2008 fight that shocked the boxing world. Plus, Manny Pacquiao meets Marco Antonio Barrera in their 2007 rematch in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Written off by many after his controversial loss to Joe Calzaghe, then 43-year-old Bernard Hopkins entered the ring at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on October 18, 2008 determined to shock then (34-0) Kelly Pavlik and he did just that. Hopkins put on a boxing clinic en route to a clear cut 12-round decision victory. “The Executioner” wouldn’t be underestimated again.

In November of 2003, an unknown Manny Pacquiao upset Mexican superstar Marco Antonio Barrera, but four years later, on October 6, 2007, Barrera got his shot at redemption and despite a spirited effort, it was Pacquiao who emerged victorious again, this time via 12-round decision.

For more information visit: www.goldenboypromotions.com, www.FOXDeportes.com
and follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GoldenBoyBoxing and www.twitter.com/FOXDeportes and visit on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing, and www.facebook.com/FOXDeportes.

MANILA (May 26, 2013) — The CNN Freedom Project documentary, “The Fighters,” which recently debuted on CNN International, is now available online, in its entirety.

Two years in the making, CNN had exclusive access to Fighter of the Decade and recently reelected Congressman Manny Pacquiao and activist Celia Flores-Oebanda, following their dramatic battle against sex slavery as they try to save the children of the Philippines who have become victims of human trafficking.

Warning: Due to the graphic nature of the following content, it may not be suitable for all viewers. http://www.cnn.com/ASIA/the-fighters/

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For CNN Freedom Project updates go to http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CNNFreedom and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/CNNFreedom

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com reports that Manny Pacquiao will be back in the ring on November 24th when he takes on former Lightweight champion Brandon Rios in Macau, China.

“People know what Rios brings to the table,” said Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said. “People want to see a real fight, and that is what you get with Rios. We’re building a business in Macau and China and these are the kinds of fights — real action fights — that they want to see.”

“I think it’s a good match. People who watch boxing have differing views of the sport,” Arum said. “Some like to see an artistic performance like Floyd Mayweather gave [against Robert Guerrero on Saturday night] and other people like to see two guys knocking the s— out of each other. Me, I love a match when the guys go after each other and throw bombs. That’s my preference. It doesn’t mean it’s the right preference, but this is one of those kinds of fights.”

“The two fights with Alvarado were both very close fights and either guy could have won either fight,” said Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz. “We looked at styles and Rios has the better style for Manny. He’ll come forward and throw a lot of punches. Whether it goes five rounds or 12 rounds, it is going to be entertaining for the fans, and that is what Manny wants. Rios was Manny’s choice after Marquez and [Timothy] Bradley turned it down.”

“Manny is definitely going to get his mojo back with this fight,” said Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach told ESPN.com. “Brandon Rios likes to fight in the pocket and exchange, and Manny is very good in the pocket, too. I think it’ll be an exciting fight but that Manny is going to land in the pocket at some point and knock this guy out somewhere along the way. Rios likes to exchange and his style is not really difficult to figure out, so Manny’s gonna hit him.”

“After Marquez and Bradley turned down our offers, Rios was next in line and he took the fight,” Koncz said. “Manny is happy to get back in the ring, so he’s looking forward to this, but right now his major focus is on politics.

Said Arum, “Bradley and Marquez preferred to fight each other and they didn’t really want to go to Asia. The only one that benefits from the fight being outside the U.S. is Pacquiao because an American like Bradley still has to pay taxes in the U.S., and for Marquez [he] still has to pay taxes in Mexico, where the rate is about the same as in the U.S. For Pacquiao, it’s a big deal because the tax rates in the Philippines are much lower.”

“What’s gonna happen with this fight and event will be monumental from the standpoint of economics in boxing,” Arum said. “We have a whole program of how to market pay-per-view in China, and we’re gonna go on a barnstorming tour of China. In the United States, we market essentially only through cable and satellite systems, but in China, where they have about 1.4 billion people, it’s all on the Internet, on iPhones, iPads and computers. If this thing works like we expect that it will, the boxing business will never be the same.”

Saturday Timothy Bradley, inactive since decisioning Manny Pacquiao nine months ago, will return from exile to defend against Russia’s Ruslan Provodnikov the burnt-maroon WBO welterweight belt Bradley took from Pacquiao in June. Provodnikov, with three more knockouts in his 23 prizefights than Bradley has in 29, might well be the wrong style for Bradley, slugger to volume puncher, but wrong styles is where Bradley has found himself since inciting the wrath of a public still naïve enough in 2012 to believe Pacquiao, if he could just keep getting decisions, might meet Floyd Mayweather in the Fight to Save Boxing.

Bradley has appeared on a conference call and a television show recently, as part of his promotional duties, and done a fairly good imitation of the late Joe Frazier declaring forgiveness for Muhammad Ali – which is to say Bradley is unconvincing when he says he is done thinking about what happened to him, and his career, and his family, after he decisioned Pacquiao. He isn’t, and he should not be.

What will they say about what we said about Timothy Bradley? That’s a question to ask ourselves the next time television convinces us to pile on the performance of an athlete like Bradley, the next time we are drafted like pawns in a network’s or promoter’s army of self-interest and profitability, the next time we are convinced something like our proper identities is staked on how well we proclaim the favored man in a superfight was wronged by public servants with nothing to gain by his wronging.

“There is a difference when you view it live and when you view it on TV,” Bradley said on Tuesday’s conference call. “Completely different.”

Completely right. One needn’t bore into the untrustworthy properties of projected images – though one is welcome to, if it will help – to understand how very different, how very unreal, the experience of watching a fight on television is, with its jiggering cameras, close no far no close no from the back oops he moved to the front no not the ref show the face no back up back up change the angle, and its self-interested commentators and self-referential, and self-reverential, scoring and wildly distorting choice of replays.

Each time television must choose between more realistic and more entertaining, it chooses the latter, yet its celebrants assure themselves it chooses the former – till in a crescendo of absurdity they demand actual participants and actual observers actually present at an actual event, not an image projected through myriad filters, review the filtered projection to find truth. If only Van Eyck and Leonardo could see this spectacle, the way the lenses they used for making glorious illusions have supplanted persons’ faith in eyewitnesses, how heartily they would chuckle.

Some bored postgrad might someday arrange an experiment like this: Project a piece of gray slate on a high-definition television and ask a subject seated in a dark, empty, silent room whether the color is nearer blue or purple, and record his answer. Then set headphones on his ears and ask him again after exposing him to this:

“Big blue everywhere! Blue, blue, blue. Another big blue! This is a historic show of blueness.”

“Now I know a few people out there might be saying ‘purple,’ but I just don’t see it.”

“Reminds me of some of the blues I use. Some of them blue-on-blues, son!”

“I have it scored: blue, blue, blue. Look, it’s a pure blue. Not a sky blue or a robin’s egg blue. It’s as blue as the bluest blue you’ll ever see. Three to nothing – all blue!”

It was the week that followed Bradley’s decisioning Pacquiao in June historians will find offensive. The way the proudest moment of a good man’s career was whitewashed by an entire industry, shouting down dissenters and boarding a promoter’s self-profiting vehicle beneath a streaming banner that read: “No need for a rematch, because we already know who really won!” Bradley is right not to forgive them, he is right to admit his devilish side still finds schadenfreude in Juan Manuel Marquez’s unequivocal leveling of Pacquiao six months later.

Bradley is what they used to call “good people”; he is dignified, serious, friendly and confident. He did not fight his best that night against Pacquiao, and he would win a rematch – which is why none was offered, or will be – because Pacquiao would be watched with different sets of eyes, this time noticing his footwork was sloppy and tangled as he swam over and around Bradley and connected solidly with fewer than one in five punches, a sloppiness made manifest by diminished reflexes, a diminishment that later made openings enough to make Marquez, the master gambler, bet his eternal soul on a right hand no amount of promotional prestidigitation can now undo.

There’s a dramatic documentary here for ESPN to produce in 10 or 15 years, one that will say that although Pacquiao clearly lost the second half of his third fight with Marquez, folks still wanted to believe they saw him do things he simply did not do against Bradley, projecting an image of the man who blitzed Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales onto the one across from Tim Bradley seven months after Marquez asked stylistic questions Pacquiao could no longer answer.

“What they did to my son was wrong,” Ray Bradley, Tim’s father, will intone in a deep, stern voice. “He was undefeated, 28 and 0, and the worst he did was make a close fight with the world’s number one? They had no right.”

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

DALLAS – While the aficionados who peruse this column were dutifully enduring a first collaboration of Mayweather Promotions and Showtime, Saturday, one that worked better as prophesy than entertainment, after they’d already endured a week of contemplating another network switch certain to change the world once more – this time Floyd Mayweather following Manny Pacquiao to Showtime, or have we forgotten? – I was at American Airlines Center to see a hockey game between the Dallas Stars and San Jose Sharks.

The game was not very good, just as Mayweather’s May 4 welterweight fight with 2009 featherweight titlist Robert Guerrero will not be, but it did hold a moment at 8:21 of period 2, an instant of mutual malice satisfactorily resolved, that reminded me how rarely prizefighting brings such catharses anymore. The moment featured a face Mayweather flashes when he throws a punch with which he means to hurt, a contorted countenance that reminds you he is a fighter, a face both Sharks forward Joe Thornton and Stars forward Jamie Benn flashed as their fists and bodies crashed together, and that is what I will treat here.

Saturday’s epiphany: Ferocity of spectacle is what I have missed – a confrontation taken personally, the desire to hurt another man overcoming any fear of being embarrassed before 18,000 strangers. Thornton and Benn’s squaring-off brought a unique drama caused by two quite large professional athletes, neither of whom fights for a living but both of whom know how because one would not otherwise make his living the way they do. It held a tension most every prizefight will lack in 2013: Someone could be badly hurt quite suddenly, and neither man seems to care.

It was a ferocious face Joe Thornton wore as he went after Benn. Thornton, in his prime, now passed, was talented a player as the league had; at 6-foot-4, he moved as a much smaller man, with what balance and grace is expected of a centerman, though with four inches and 20 pounds more than tradition wears at the position. But his desire was questioned in Boston, where he was first pick of the 1997 draft, and then San Jose, where he has been captain for years.

Thornton’s is a finesse game of imaginative passing and awareness of the ice surface, done with what can feel like a complacent smirk; despite 328 career goals, he does not shoot often enough, and despite weighing at least 230 pounds – 235 according to Dropyourgloves.com – he rarely runs his body hard into another’s. In skates and full equipment Saturday, though, Thornton was a 6-foot-7, 240-pound man, nearly a Klitschko brother, under a burst of what sudden rage both Klitschkos avoid with a craftsman’s determination.

I was in row H, seven from the glass, in the zone where hostilities initiated. While any sport is best appreciated by its former practitioners, hockey is more decisively this way than others; because of its speed, and because of how poorly American cameramen, raised on football or baseball or basketball, anticipate plays, ever trailing the action or overcorrecting initial tardinesses, hockey – as separate from the bloodiest elements of its reputation – is rarely appreciated properly by those who’ve not played it. That is seldom a problem above the snow line, and never a problem in Canada, but things can get dicey in Texas.

Skating past, Benn speared Thornton in the groin, the soft fleshy part of the inner thigh where there is no protection, and Thornton reciprocated by chopping the blade of his stick precisely on the inch or so of Benn’s forearm that lay unprotected by the top glove and bottom elbow pad. A wrinkle happened across the ice, a surge in the game’s electrical grid; while most eyes in American Airlines Center followed the puck 20 feet away, those who played the game looked at Thornton and Benn in the instant before Thornton dropped his left glove and Benn shouted, “Let’s go!”

Thornton gently maneuvered one of the Stars defenseman out his way and began checking tape on his right wrist, to ensure his elbow pad did not slide downwards and soften any blow he landed. Benn glided backwards, ungloved hands at his side. The combatants began a large circle, the crowd took its feet with a ghoulish and shouted glee, and the officials backed away to allow space for a resolution. Thornton and Benn negotiated an agreement to remove their helmets, promising neither would break his hand on anything but the other’s bared skull.

Chinstraps undone and hats demurely removed and ceremoniously placed on the ice, the men raised their uncovered knuckles, squared up, circled once, Thornton took a deep breath, and they leaped at each other. The moment was packed to bursting with what chaotic rage the word “fight” should conjure. On a frictionless surface, each moved at the other much faster than two prizefighters would do.

“A fight is a fight” – those were what words happened in my mind. Whatever else these men were – masters in the balletic discipline of balancing on four razor’s edges at 25 miles per hour, careful teammates, loyal friends, fathers, sons – they were savages in the moment, rushing at one another in nearly formless rage, faces honestly contorted by the evil of wanting to hurt another man very badly. These were not, it must be reiterated, goons or enforcers putting on a rally-the-boys spectacle for violence-lusting Texans; these were skill players (Benn had a goal and an assist Saturday) under the spell of a genuine fury, the sort a man feels when he is wronged to requiring satisfaction.

The fight quickly devolved into the exhausting place hockey fights do, with Thornton holding Benn’s jersey with his left fist, yanking him into the jab, and landing a considerable right cross or two to Benn’s left temple – punches that pained both Sunday morning. Benn found Thornton with a right hand as well before both spun to their stockinged kneepads. By prizefighting standards, it was a mere brawl, a donnybrook, a wild-swinging matter of personal grievance with only fractional punching skill employed, which is what brought a catharsis prizefighting will too often lack in 2013.

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

The February 8 edition of ESPN’s Friday Night Fights presented by Corona Extra will feature undefeated Welterweight Kevin Bizier (19-0, 13 KOs) and former undisputed Lightweight world champion Nate Campbell (36-9-1, 1 NC, 26 KOs) in the 12-round main event. Friday’s show from Montreal will air live at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN2 HD, and will be available online through WatchESPN.com and on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app. The card will also air live on ESPN Deportes+, the new digital extension of ESPN Deportes, and will air tape delayed on ESPN Deportes at 10:30 p.m. The card is promoted by GYM.

Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas will be ringside at the Bell Centre describing the action for ESPN2 HD. Studio host Todd Grisham (@GrishamESPN) will present the latest boxing news and interview ESPN Deportes’ Delvin Rodriguez (26-6-3, 14 KOs) to discuss Rodriguez’s upcoming fight with George Tahdooahnippah (31-0-1, 23 KOs). That fight will be televised February 15, at 9 p.m. on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights. Alex Pombo and Rodriguez will call this week’s fights for ESPN Deportes’ Viernes de Combates (Friday Night Fights) with Leopoldo Gonzalez and Pablo Viruega in the studio. Bilingual reporter Bernardo Osuna (@osunaespn) will present live interviews and reports for both shows.

ESPN2 will present an encore telecast of Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez 4 at 8 p.m. leading up to Friday Night Fights. December’s HBO Pay-Per-View fight, which ended in a Marquez sixth-round KO of Pacquiao, was named ESPN.com’s 2012 “Fight of the Year” and “Knockout of the Year.” The fight was recently named 2012 “Fight of the Year” by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA).

Main Event:
Quebec’s Bizier is coming off a December eight-round unanimous decision win over Doel Carrasquillo, while Campbell a native of Jacksonville, Fla., will look to build momentum following an eight-round decision win over Krzysztof Szot.

Campbell enters Friday’s fight with big fight experience, having fought former and current titlists Danny Garcia, Victor Ortiz, Timothy Bradley Jr., Juan Diaz, Isaac Hlatshwayo, Robbie Peden, and Joel Casamayor.

Co-Feature:
Friday’s 10-round co-feature will pit undefeated Junior Lightweights Tyler Asselstine of Toronto (12-0, 7 KOs), against Montreal’s Baha Laham (10-0-1 4 KOs). Asselstine is coming off a first-round TKO win over Sandor Horvath, while Laham won an eight-round unanimous decision over Jose Saez in his last fight.

Follow ESPN’s Friday Night Fights on Twitter @ESPNFNF or like it on Facebook. Follow ESPN Deportes’ Viernes de Combates on Twitter @ESPNBoxeo. Also score the fights round-by-round with the “Live Friday Night Fights Facebook Voting App,” an application on the ESPN FNF Facebook page that allows viewers to score the fight round-by-round.

LAS VEGAS, NEV. (January 28, 2013) — Top Rank’s ultra-talented stable ran the table winning all the major 2012 awards from the Boxing Writers Association of America. The BWAA announced on Sunday that World Boxing Organization junior featherweight champion NONITO DONAIRE was the recipient of its Sugar Ray Robinson “Fighter of the Year” award. Donaire (31-1, 20 KOs) won all four of his world title fights last year, defeating Wilfredo Vazquez, Jr., Jeffrey Mathebula, Toshiaki Nishioka and Jorge Arce, the last two by knockout, to extend his 11-year winning streak to 30 bouts. Capping a career-best year, Donaire had already been named the 2012 Fighter of the Year by Yahoo! Sports, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, USA Today and many other websites and newspapers.

Donaire’s trainer, former International Boxing Federation junior lightweight champion ROBERT GARCIA, was named the Eddie Futch “Trainer of the Year,” for his work with the Filipino Flash as well as with newly-minted WBO featherweight champion Mikey Garcia and undefeated former World Boxing Association lightweight champion Brandon Rios.

“Nonito came into his own in 2012. He will do even greater things in 2013 and beyond,” said Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum. “He will become the next big pay-per-view star. Robert Garcia truly deserves the award as 2012 Trainer of the Year. As the best young trainer in boxing, his future is tremendous.”

“2012 was a text book year for Nonito,” added Top Rank president Todd duBoef. “Four fights against top division leaders and with decisive, impressive performances.”

Manny Pacquiao – Juan Manuel Márquez 4, which was co-promoted with Zanfer Promotions, was named the BWAA’s Muhammad Ali – Joe Frazier “Fight of the Year.” The action-packed battle, which was held at the sold-out MGM Grand Garden Arena and sold close to 1.2 million pay-per-views in the U.S. alone, featured excitement, drama and a one-punch knockout victory by the Méxican icon Márquez.

Trampler, a Hall of Fame matchmaker, is the co-winner of the Barney Nagler Award for “Long and Meritorious Service” to the sport of boxing.

The BWAA Awards Dinner will be held in New York this spring at a venue and date to be announced.

For more information on Top Rank and the BWAA, go to www.toprank.com and www.bwaa.org, respectively.

ESPN Deportes and ESPN2 will present an encore telecast of Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez 4, the HBO Pay-Per-View fight which took place December 8 and ended in a Marquez sixth-round KO of Pacquiao. ESPN Deportes will televise the fight on January 18, at 9 p.m. ET and January 26, at 10 p.m. ESPN2 will reair the fight February 8, at 8 p.m. On ESPN Deportes, Juan Manuel Marquez and Jorge Eduardo Sanchez will discuss each round between rounds throughout the fight. The bout was recently nominated by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) for its 2012 “Fight of the Year,” honors.

The first three fights between the two were all close and controversial. Pacquiao won a majority decision in their third fight in 2011, and a split-decision in their second fight in 2008. They fought to a controversial draw in their first fight in 2004.

The schedule:

Date
Time (ET)
Program
Network

Fri, Jan 18
9 p.m.
Pacquiao-Marquez 4
ESPN Deportes

Sat, Jan 26
10 p.m.
Pacquiao-Marquez 4
ESPN Deportes

Fri, Feb 8
8 p.m.
Pacquiao-Marquez 4
ESPN2

The June day Manny Pacquiao lost to Timothy Bradley began with a media breakfast in the airy, open interior of Wolfgang Puck Bar and Grill at MGM Grand, where the company generally outpaces the fare and certainly did that morning. Most of the writers you know were there, along with Harold Lederman and other HBO employees. All were gathered to meet a touted middleweight from Kazakhstan scheduled to fight a Russian, Dmitry Pirog, returning from a banishment he gained in 2010 by unmanning Danny “Golden Child” Jacobs.

Gennady Golovkin’s English that morning was limited mainly to “nice” and “happy” and a disarming smile he directed at his trainer, Abel Sanchez, who said several times his charge brought historic gifts of power and class. And experienced, serious writers, elders of the craft, did not joke about Golovkin’s bemusing interview either, serious as they were about what sources said about him.

Saturday Golovkin will make his second appearance on HBO, and his fifth defense of the WBA’s middleweight belt, against Philadelphia junior middleweight Gabriel Rosado, on a card they share with Mikey Garcia and Orlando Salido who will make a battle for the WBO featherweight title that makes even xerostomic curmudgeons salivate. Of the four fighters, Golovkin must win in a surprisingly spectacular way, which will be tricky because expectations of him are quite high. There’ll be no fooling aficionados this time, in other words, no trotting-out a short-notice Pole with an unpronounceable first name like Grzegorz Proksa then feigning shock or delight when Golovkin brings ruin to a very difficult opponent you’d never heard of.

Aficionados have heard of Gabriel Rosado, have seen him fight, and know he was knocked sideways by Alfredo Angulo 3 1/2 years ago at 154 pounds. Rosado benefits from geography, excellent promotion and doing the right thing, challenging for a middleweight title at 160 pounds, but none of those convinces anyone worth convincing he is more than a showcase opponent for Golovkin.

Golovkin is apparently boxing’s new most-avoided fighter, which is another way of saying his talent in the ring is disproportionate to his talent in the box office. Other fighters who wore this moniker – Antonio Margarito and Paul Williams – proved much less fearsome once they found a way to sell tickets, or in Williams’ case, HBO purses. Golovkin is rather friendly if not yet eloquent, but unlike Latino fighters about which the same can be said, Golovkin suffers a want of Kazakhstani journalists and ticket-buying enclaves; he may soon win fans with merit, but he is unlikely to do so with ethnic interest, or else his HBO debut in September would have been in New York, NY – like Saturday’s card – not Verona, NY.

Golovkin has HBO’s interest, though, and that is often more lucrative than interesting boxing fans. Golovkin’s debut on the network featured at times embarrassingly effusive praise from the usual suspects, abetted by fans’ general ignorance of who Proksa was. There will be no like abetment with Rosado, who has fought on NBC Sports Network, and whose limitations are well catalogued. That is why Golovkin must do better than look good, win an eventual stoppage or hope HBO’s promotional machinery can overwhelm viewers; Golovkin must do something that startles a universal consensus into declaring whoever wins Martinez-Chavez II must face him next.

Mikey Garcia will be under less performance pressure Saturday, if by performance pressure one means a need to be entertaining, not merely victorious. Garcia can afford to follow an adage-cum-cliché that goes “Win tonight, look good next time” because there is no known way to beat Orlando Salido without getting hit by him. Garcia, invincible looking till his last performance, has defense that is not impregnable and speed that is not invisible and can be both hit and defended. But that’s about the most that can be done with him, and one is made wretched by its doing. Salido can be hit, he is especially vulnerable to left hooks as he throws them, but he also tosses a blindman’s overhand right developed, in his career’s 53 prizefights, to punish the whimsy of fellow Latinos ether lazy to bring their jabs home or premature to cock their hooks.

The promotional idea Saturday is to test Garcia and get him a first world title. Garcia is ready; he may even have been ready more than two years ago when he undid Cornelius Lock at Laredo Energy Arena in an IBF featherweight eliminator. He will be tested in a new and thorough way by Salido, unless Salido’s two fights with Juan Manuel Lopez, and rigorous schedule, have aged him more than expected, which is possible. Promoter Top Rank would not have made this match with Salido – one of its signature trial horses – if it did not think Garcia was ready, but how much of that readiness is attributable to Garcia’s prowess and how much to Salido’s reduction remains to be seen.

Salido knows his role, or at least fights like a man who suspects his role and resents it. Every gainfully employed trial horse believes he can win; Salido is an uncommon case of one who does win, or at least scares the hell out of what thoroughbreds he races. Salido does a lot of things wrong, like touch his gloves before attacks, but Garcia will find striking Salido is the easiest part of fighting him. What happens when Salido soldiers through those strikes to blast Garcia with shots of his own will read for us Garcia’s fortune.

Saturday Golovkin will probably make the more spectacular fight, he has the opponent for it, but if Garcia is able to stop Salido, he will have redoubled aficionados’ belief in his potential in a way Golovkin’s opponent will almost certainly forbid the Kazakhstani from doing.

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

SAN DIEGO, CA –January 3, 2013 – WealthTV’s live boxing programming efforts for 2012 have been recognized by the Boxing Writers Association of America, BWAA, and by ESPN’s Dan Rafael, arguably the leading authority on boxing. The BWAA recently nominated six fights for Fight of the Year candidates. Two of the six fights were featured live on WealthTV, namely Brian “Hawaiian Punch” Viloria v. Hernan “Tyson” Marquez and Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez v. Juan Francisco Estrada. (Of the remaining four fights, one was featured on Showtime and three were featured on HBO, including the Manny Pacquiao v. Juan Manual Marquez IV fight.) The BWAA also nominated world champion Brian Viloria for Fighter of the Year. Viloria, who was featured on WealthTV’s Fight Night on November 17, unified the WBO and WBA Flyweight World Championship with a victory over Hernan Marquez.

According to Jack Hirsch, president of the Boxing Writers Association of America, “When people think about great fights they usually associate them with only HBO and Showtime. However, one look at the Boxing Writers Association of America’s ballot for the 2012 Fight of the Year should dispel that. Two of the six contests on the ballot (Roman Gonzalez – Juan Francisco Estrada and Brian Viloria – Hernan Marquez) were telecast by WealthTV.”

ESPN’s Dan Rafael, perhaps the most well respected authority on boxing, named two time WealthTV headliner David Price (15-0-0) as ESPN’s Prospect of the Year. Price, a 6’ 8”, 250 lb undefeated heavyweight has been featured twice in recent months on WealthTV. On October 13th the undefeated Price made blazing fast work of Audley Harrison – dropping Harrison in 82 seconds into the first round to finish the contest. Price returned on WealthTV on November 30th to put a potentially career-ending second round finishing loss on an outmatched Matt Skelton. Rafael’s pick for Prospect of the Year is highly anticipated by boxing fans for Rafael’s astute ability to pick young prospects. David Price joins a prestige list that includes past inductees Miguel Cotto, Amir Khan, Andre Berto, Canelo Alverez, among others.

Rafael’s naming of two-time WealthTV headliner David Price as Prospect of the Year combined with the BWAA recognitions, gives WealthTV reason to feel good about its boxing efforts in 2012. Dan Rafael of ESPN summed thing up, “With two Fight of the Year candidates and being the US outlet for Price, WealthTV had a great year.”

For 2013, WealthTV will be featuring 40 to 60 bouts according to network executive Charles Herring and the quality of the events is only improving. One of the first live events for 2013 will see undefeated British heavyweight David Price challenging one of America’s best heavyweights, Tony “The Tiger” Thompson. Thompson, a proven world Heavyweight title challenger is currently the No. 2 rated American by BoxRec. The fight, scheduled to take place on February 23, live and exclusively on WealthTV, has received the highest rating from BoxRec, earning five stars for the matchup. In addition to the Price v. Thompson bout scheduled for February, WealthTV has agreements in place for additional bouts featuring David Price.

“When WealthTV first announced it would telecast boxing events the consensus was that it would be an occasional show featuring no more than moderate talent. However, it is now quite obvious that WealthTV is a major player in the sport. WealthTV has consistently telecast some of the best fights and fighters in the world. It has delivered everything it promised,” stated Jack Hirsch of the BWAA.

“Our boxing staff has been searching the world for the best fighters, regardless of weight-class and nationality. We don’t feature or promote a small stable of boxers, but rather work with a number of promoters, seeking out the very best boxing events. We’re extremely proud that our featured boxers and fights have received recognition by the BWAA and Dan Rafael of ESPN,”,stated Charles Herring, president of WealthTV.

In addition to its world-class championship fights, WealthTV will be featuring the fast-paced and adrenaline pumping “Prizefighter: Welterweights III” matches on January 19th. WealthTV also shows first airings and encore fights every Thursday night at 10PM EST.

WealthTV’s Fight Night can be seen on WealthTV nationally on Verizon FiOS TV channel 169 and 669 in HD, AT&T U-Verse TV channels 470 and 1470 in HD, along with over 100 cable systems across the country as well as on line viewing on numerous connected devices and via www.wealthtv.com.

About WealthTV

WealthTV is the premier lifestyle and entertainment network —the destination for exclusive and original programming, simultaneously transmitted in high definition and standard definition. WealthTV delivers to informative shows to its viewers, providing invaluable insights on what every American dreams of – from travel secrets to fast cars, from outrageous homes to live events, and much more. The network fills a television vacuum by delivering intellectually stimulating, thought-provoking entertainment and always-unbiased news from an insider’s perspective. For more information, please visit www.wealthtv.com

Editor’s note: For part 1, please click here.

***

The moment Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez took Filipino Manny Pacquiao’s consciousness with a right cross on Dec. 8, chemistry was everywhere, and that won’t be forgotten. Arguments that it wasn’t, explanations that rely on genetics or diets or work ethics, begin their analyses, necessarily, in recent training camps – like a biography whose first page treats this morning’s breakfast.

To see little Juan Manuel Marquez, aged 36, running in the green mountains of Mexico, jerking volcanic rocks overhead and imbibing his own amber urine before a “welterweight” match with Floyd Mayweather in 2009 allowed no doubt of Marquez’s dedication, however much his physique resembled cinnamon candlewax more than sandstone. Whence Marquez’s enhanced build, at age 39, then: new genes? a switch from beef to chickpeas? better form on the military press? The change is a chemical one. That is not the indictment of Marquez’s character it may appear; many disinterested observers believe whatever science Marquez employed in his fourth fight with Pacquiao was science employed against Marquez in at least their last three. If a natural athlete fought a chemically enhanced one on even terms then switched to a regimen of chemicals, in other words, KO-6 is exactly the result oddsmakers might predict.

A week later, Donaire unveiled in Houston, conversely, the sort of long body athletes wore a generation ago. Donaire was finely conditioned, fit, and his natural reflexes were sensational, but he did not have what bodybuilders call vascularity – crinkled veins protruding in many places but most tellingly along the center of the biceps.

How much sports fans care about the PED debate, though, is best measured by an inverse of their enthusiasm for the NFL, in which 300-pound players have improved their presence 53,200-percent since 1970.

*

The moment Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez took Filipino Manny Pacquiao’s consciousness with a right cross on Dec. 8, Marquez made a generation of Mexican fans hopeful again, after it’d watched its best figures undone by Pacquiao, an offensive force whose historic ferocity was belied by its happy manifestation – smiles en route to the ring, jaunty bounces during attack, gloves thrust encouragingly above the head whenever any opponent scored him.

Marquez did to Pacquiao what no one else was able: Make him ignore trainer Freddie Roach. Once Marquez felled him with that sweeping right hand in round 3, he had Pacquiao in a place of carelessness, mindlessness even, where, so long as Marquez could withstand what rage he ignited, Pacquiao was bound to make mistakes both men knew he made bounding in, mistakes Roach was powerless to forbid. Even after Pacquiao’s best round, the fifth, Roach portentously, uncharacteristically, shouted over the chaotic din of his charge’s corner: “Manny, move your head!” If instead Roach had shouted on his way up the stairs in the last second of the sixth “Juan, my guy doesn’t move his head,” it could have been no clearer to Marquez, a predator already crooking his right elbow at just the angle to stick a middle knuckle square on Pacquiao’s face.

Donaire and Arce, six days later, smiled and laughed and hugged one another through their weighin. Ethnic pedigrees assured the folks gathered before a black-canvas backdrop at PlazAmericas Mall Saturday’s fight would be violent, but there was so little contempt to display, or hide, it was one more reminder how different was the rivalry at green-and-gold MGM Grand the week before.

*

The moment Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez took Filipino Manny Pacquiao’s consciousness with a right cross on Dec. 8 was a reminder, too, that Marquez traveled to the Philippines after their second fight to interrupt those islands’ celebration of their hero’s triumph and plead with Pacquiao for a rubber match. When that match did not come, Marquez made 2009’s fight of the year against Juan Diaz in Houston’s Toyota Center.

That was a reminder of the unfriendly terrain Marquez trod to become his country’s most celebrated prizefighter, what obscurity the generation’s greatest counterpuncher endured while his fellow countrymen, Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera, made their country’s most famous trilogy. The way Marquez solved Pacquiao all by himself from the seat of his white and red-striped trunks in 2004, frantically querying a database of openings and counters for some arrangement resembling the Filipino’s unorthodox attack enough to let the experimentation begin, experimentation that would evolve from hooking at the shoulder to ducking the left cross to skipping out of range to countering, finally – experimentation Marquez performed alone because, while Nacho Beristain could tell him what punch to throw and why, he could not tell Marquez when to throw it because at the championship level boxing moves too fast, with consequences too wicked, to trust any perception but one’s own.

After he retired Arce a week after Marquez left aficionados wondering if Pacquiao would fight another day, Donaire did what he could to remind folks he’d brought Filipinos solace. He had, after all, stretched a Mexican. But that Mexican was not Marquez, and he was not Pacquiao.

*

The moment Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez took Filipino Manny Pacquiao’s consciousness with a right cross on Dec. 8, Marquez brought vindication to himself, of course, but also to Mexican and Mexican-American fathers in the U.S. who told their kids, no matter the success of Pacquiao’s southpaw attack or the celebrity of Mayweather’s low lead hand, Marquez’s was the form they must emulate. He was not fast as those other guys, just as they weren’t, but he was perfect. His quiet mastery of a grim craft held within it, too, insights about their immigrant culture, just as what spite he showed men he combated imparted forgotten details about the conquest of New Spain.

This will be the year Nonito Donaire is remembered for escaping the long shadow of Manny Pacquiao, both for what Donaire did, and for the way Marquez shortened that shadow in Las Vegas.

For hosting our sport’s best fight and best fighter, in two different cities, the week that began Dec. 8 was 2012’s most excellent.

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

The moment Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez took Filipino Manny Pacquiao’s consciousness with a right cross on Dec. 8 brought a series of instants affecting as can be experienced in professional sport. One of those instants brought a deep, royal blue sense of Marquez’s vindication, reminiscent in its way of Antonio Margarito’s victory over Miguel Cotto at MGM Grand in 2008. Reminiscent, conjecture says, in a few ways.

There was a difference between the two moments, though, a difference uncaptured by television, that boasting, refracting medium that lies to congregants flatteringly enough they later find no irony in remanding events’ eyewitnesses to tapes of what television told them to see. Television, that extraordinary phenomenon, continues to affect boxing more than it covers it.

The difference between Marquez and Margarito lay in their reactions. Margarito, who had longer to process Cotto’s demise, was euphoric, dropping to his knees, blessing himself, spinning joyfully in his cornermen’s arms. Marquez was not surprised as anyone else. He’d the benefit of feeling the punch on his right knuckle, of course, but it was not entirely that. He was not containing a euphoria as he paced with his black gloves on the red waistband of his trunks, inching nearer Pacquiao to admire what he’d done, or when he ran across the ring – to a neutral corner, mind you – and mounted a turnbuckle to savor his vindication; he was acting out a conqueror’s script.

What happened on television was a single camera that showed Pacquiao regaining consciousness sooner than what happened at ringside, where split screens above the ring showed Marquez fixated on a proper celebration, ensuring his white Rexona sponsor’s cap was straightened, while Pacquiao’s wife sobbed, silently screamed and tried to swim to her facedown husband, promoter Bob Arum consoling her while looking inconsolable. It happened much slower at ringside; there was no one shouting about keystones or anticipating fifth fights: there was confusion marinated in fright, tempered by a need to record what transpired.

But memory is a funny thing, and what I remember best from those moments is Marquez’s unflinching seizure of them, while the Filipino journalist on my right worried Pacquiao might never stir. It was a confirmation of this: Were Marquez offered a choice in the last moment of the sixth round, told if he threw that right hand it might kill Pacquiao but if he didn’t he might lose another close decision, Marquez would throw the punch. Whatever other prizefighters tell you about themselves during promotions, know this: A willingness to kill in the ring makes Marquez unique.

Six days later in Houston, the mood was much lighter. It was the weighin for an inconsequential coronation: a crowning of Filipino Nonito Donaire as 2012’s fighter of the year, and a crowning payday for Mexican Jorge Arce. Donaire was a safer athlete to cover than Marquez.

Arce did some chemical experimentation in camp to make his upper body more muscular, in the laboratory of Marquez’s own scientist, but at worse, one suspected, the enhanced physique might extend Arce’s consciousness a round. The left hook Donaire doused Arce’s spirit with at Toyota Center was comparatively merciful. Arce went down, but there was little fright, as one sensed Donaire would drop on his knees and administer CPR if his friend were in genuine peril.

Somehow, strangely, illogically, knowing a man rendered another unconscious in an act of temporarily suspended affection, as Donaire did Arce, made it feel safer than what congealed indifference Marquez showed Pacquiao’s plight in Las Vegas.

*

The moment Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez took Filipino Manny Pacquiao’s consciousness with a right cross on Dec. 8 made their tetralogy a unique event in boxing history. In its asymmetry – Pacquiao dropped Marquez five times but will be remembered as the rivalry’s collapsed form on the blue mat – and its excellence, it entered our sport’s annals as something that may be approached or someday bettered but never matched: a rivalry whose first three fights were excellent enough to merit a fourth but inferior to the fourth.

What happened in the seven days that began Dec. 8th was unique and excellent, too, in this way: The fight of the year and the fighter of the year happened in a week together but 1,500 miles apart. Marquez-Pacquiao IV will be remembered as 2012’s best fight because of its superior composition of three elements, violence and craft and consequence – the winner was covered in his own blood when he made his opponent sleep with the same counter right hand he landed the round before, spinning Pacquiao sideways in the fifth, and with that right hand in round 6 Marquez brought the conclusion of an era.

Nonito Donaire will be declared 2012’s best prizefighter because of a superior composition of these three elements: Activity, craft and consequence. Donaire fought twice as often as his peers, and he fought actual opponents in actual weight classes, gaming none of them with the scale, and by subjecting himself to VADA testing he put the lie to most athletes’ claims and exerted pressure on everyone including his own team.

*

The moment Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez took Filipino Manny Pacquiao’s consciousness with a right cross on Dec. 8, Marquez had been the slower man in the fourth fight as he’d been in the first and second and third. He was able to offset Pacquiao’s unique attack with “inteligencia” – a word Marquez uttered in every interview he conducted after their second fight before their third after their third and before their fourth.

Marquez and his trainer Nacho Beristain welcomed the more conventional Pacquiao they saw in fight three; so long as Pacquiao’s punches came from familiar angles, no matter their speed or forcefulness, Marquez and Beristain did not fear them for the same reason a major league hitter does not fear a 120-mph fastball twice thrown over the plate at belt level. One doesn’t get in the major leagues without being able to hit a fastball, no matter its velocity, and one doesn’t get out of a Mexico City gym without being able to sustain any punch he sees coming.

The scariest moment of Dec. 8, then, was not the Pacquiao left hand that knocked Marquez onto the knuckles of his left glove but instead the crazily executed, left-foot-off-the-mat, right-hand chop Pacquiao landed a few seconds after he put Marquez on the canvas. That was the punch that stiffened Marquez’s right leg and sent him in frantic retreat till the ropes’ touching his back made him swing at Pacquiao savagely because that is what Marquez does when cornered.

After the fight there was an odd little moment when Marquez and Beristain, no sore winners they, alternately led the MGM Grand media center in a rendition of “Happy Birthday” for Bob Arum and a heartfelt hug for the elderly promoter and rival whom Beristain flatly accused of ruining the sport while they shared a Mandalay Bay dais after Pacquiao-Marquez II in 2008.

Arum’s appearance, six days later, at a Houston mall, where he briefly posed for pictures with Donaire and Arce, was perfunctory – like everyone else’s.

***

Editor’s note: Part 2 will be posted Wednesday.

***

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

Editor’s note: For part 1, please click here.

***

The night American Timothy Bradley decisioned Manny Pacquiao to become only the second man to beat the Filipino in 13 years, Bradley offered a review of Pacquiao’s recent stamina needs and a preview, truthfully, of what would have befallen him against Marquez had Pacquiao remained conscious after the sixth round of their fourth match. Pacquiao’d deteriorated steadily, not greatly, since stopping Miguel Cotto at the end of 2009, and while Bradley, a junior welterweight champion, did not do well as expected in his career’s second fight at 147 pounds, he was not imperiled by the first three or four punches in any combination Pacquiao threw. Only in the congressman’s maniacal and red-gloved flurries, regressions as well to an earlier form, did Bradley sometimes wither.

Accustomed as they were to Pacquiao’s stunning men considerably larger, consenting ringside observers missed in November what poor footwork accompanied Pacquiao’s fatigue against Marquez – how many more steps he took to make late rounds close – and did not notice, subsequently, how few of Pacquiao’s punches, acrobatic things thrown by a man overshooting his target in a wraparound compromise between power and agility, affected Bradley, once felled in the opening round of a 140-pound title defense.

Next Saturday all the hallmarks of Chavez Jr.’s character deficiencies were on display when, sluggish and cramped from acute weightloss before his middleweight title match with Lee, Junior played punchingbag to the light-hitting Irishman till regaining his mobility in round 3, a mobility Sergio Martinez would not let him find till the 34th minute of their middleweight championship match three months later.

That Chavez Jr. wanted character was unknown to no one. That Chavez Jr. moved from mascot to contender was unsurprising to no one. Anyone later jolted by footage of Chavez’s unconventional roadwork, in pink, or uncovered choice of supplements, in green, was not previously attentive to Chavez, and was not to blame for that choice either.

*

The night American Timothy Bradley decisioned Manny Pacquiao to become only the second man to beat the Filipino in 13 years, both men said decent things about the other afterwards. Whatever their differences of opinion about the judges’ verdict, Bradley was appreciative of the opportunity Pacquiao afforded him and Pacquiao was unbothered by the honest if not particularly ferocious match Bradley gave him – along with another payday, four parts reward for each part risk. Pacquiao did not stomp from the ring to conduct a naked interview in his dressing room the way Marquez did after their third fight, he did not call for an investigation, he did not ask his promoter to petition local politicians or pester them haplessly about the outcome. (He didn’t need to.) Instead Pacquiao smiled gently, took questions generously and said pleasant things about his host city in a way that reminded some media-center habitués how differently, sheepishly, he’d behaved after his official victory over Marquez in November.

Writing a report for the AP is a feat of organization more than creativity: 250 words five minutes after the close, 500 words 10 minutes after that, 700-800 words within a half hour of the event’s conclusion. The very promotional outfit that joined a loud chorus of those who’d like to know what three credentialed idiots scored Bradley-Pacquiao for the winner, Saturday at ringside, then passed my name to an AP editor on Tuesday – in case anyone wonders why writers have a preference for Top Rank.

Chavez-Lee was nothing historic, but it led to 2012’s most suspenseful 90 seconds, 89 days and 11 rounds later.

*

The night American Timothy Bradley decisioned Manny Pacquiao to become only the second man to beat the Filipino in 13 years tore from our discourse its diaphanous veil of civility. Emboldened by the very consensus they rabidly sought, persons gathered ostensibly for a sporting event turned into boisterous misanthropes, people who got along with no one who had not seen things exactly as they did. Businesses, too, said someone had to be sacrificed to ensure the drawing power of boxing’s best prizefighter was not lost, and that someone was Timothy Bradley. If Bradley and his people did not realize it at the moment, they surely won a fair inkling when the following week’s replay was accompanied by a talkshow feature called “The Smoking Gun” that introduced viewers to the delightful spectacle of a televised fight sans vocal track, while proving none of its conspiratorial implications.

What Chavez showed shortly after that spectacle was chin and a willingness to prove it against the onslaught of a lesser puncher’s blows. It was, again, a preview: Chavez for all his want of character would not hesitate to rise from his stool after 11 hopeless rounds in which he was struck by more than 300 of the world middleweight champion’s punches. He was a spoiled brat and a flake, in June as in September, but not a punk.

*

The night American Timothy Bradley decisioned Manny Pacquiao to become only the second man to beat the Filipino in 13 years was the last time Bradley fought in 2012. Pacquiao would forsake the rematch Bradley promised him because, again, everyone knew he’d won, and choose instead a higher-paying match with a nemesis that put him on ice.

Chavez fought Lee as no one in Kronk’s yellow and red accoutrement had, gladly conceding skill and reflex to the Irishman if it meant a chance to hit often as he was hit-by. Lee did not fight again in 2012, and instead, four months later, helped bury Manny Steward, a man who in their time together was much more than a trainer crushed by what happened in Sun Bowl Stadium.

From the result of Bradley-Pacquiao to its subsequent fallout and what charms El Paso held as host of Chavez-Lee, I remember the week that began the night of June 9 as 2012’s most interesting.

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

The night American Timothy Bradley decisioned Manny Pacquiao to become only the second man to beat the Filipino in 13 years concluded a week of diminished electricity at MGM Grand, one with considerably less voltage in Las Vegas than previous Pacquiao fight weeks. Bradley fans didn’t travel from Palm Springs, Calif., or if they did composed such a small band their presence was less noticeable in Nevada than Michigan 16 months before. The disappointment of another Pacquiao fight that didn’t include Mayweather, this one a month after another Mayweather fight that didn’t include Pacquiao, and a malaise born of testing requests and accusations and midnight conference calls, draped itself soggily over a fight no one requested.

The reevaluation of Pacquiao’s two-year run had yet to begin, too many and too much invested in calling Pacquiao undiminished, but may examine someday the explanatory narratives of four fights – “Calf cramps”; “Marquez ever a stylistic problem”; “Everyone knows he beat Bradley”; “Lucky punch in a fight he was winning” – and see them for what they are: crestfallen pitches in lieu of sober analyses.

What startled in the week that began with Pacquiao’s loss to Bradley on June 9 was a public need for consensus, insecure as it was intense. No doubt was brooked. When a search for conspiracy uncovered nothing – calculus itself couldn’t conduct three crooked judges disagreeing on six rounds of a championship fight they meant to fix for an unpopular underdog – the volume got raised: Those with dissenting tallies for Bradley-Pacquiao probably never watched a fight in their lives! Except that what three credentialed media sat ringside and joined two official judges in scoring the fight for Bradley had been ringside for at least 1,000 fights between us.

Then it was time to ignore the result. Postfight promises of an immediate rematch, the timeworn remedy for any championship lost in controversy, were undone by the following Thursday in hot, dusty El Paso: Even Bradley knew he lost, and so why rematch?

Two days later Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. beat up Irish Andy Lee in Sun Bowl Stadium, and a September match with Sergio Martinez got announced. El Paso surprised and impressed its visitors.

*

The night American Timothy Bradley decisioned Manny Pacquiao to become only the second man to beat the Filipino in 13 years, there was reflexive disbelief in the MGM Grand media center afterwards, disbelief that fed on itself and colored its reporting. Maybe Pacquiao did lose to Juan Manuel Marquez in November, the concessions went, but if that decision was Pacquiao’s and the congressman looked better tonight, why, this was a robbery.

Bradley, in a black hat with teal lettering, afterwards took questions from a wheelchair, one or both feet and ankles rendering him gimpy early and late in a fight whose championship rounds he won officially 5-1. It was a point lost on most, distractedly searching as they were by then for any unobvious explanation, that Bradley, hobbled by bad feet and ankles, had not merely survived a 15-minute onslaught from the world’s best prizefighter but unanimously beaten him in their final three minutes together.

Weeks before, El Paso, a west Texas city that tried to lure tourists with museums instead of golf courses, was declared too dangerous by an operator in Austin to host a prizefight with alcohol vending so near Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. There were snipers on the roof at University of Texas El Paso’s football stadium when Chavez Jr. made his ringwalk, after Mayor John Cook sang the national anthem.

The Associated Press did not have a boxing writer in the vicinity. I wrote the Chavez-Lee story for them, with lots of help from a local crime reporter on hand to cover sightings of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera’s familiars or misbehaving soldiers. There was none of either, and our crime reporter instead collected vulgar and masculine quotes from Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. about his son’s next opponent, quotes the AP did not use.

*

The night American Timothy Bradley decisioned Manny Pacquiao to become only the second man to beat the Filipino in 13 years, Bradley was a 28 year-old prizefighter with a record of 29-0, a winner with a spectacular obsidian physique who beat every man he was matched against, occasionally rising from the blue mat to do it. He was an excellent ambassador for the sport, politely asserting he did not feel he robbed Pacquiao or was party to a robbery of Pacquiao, and in so doing committed a sin as yet unpardonable to most: He did not declare Pacquiao the match’s victor and apologize in behalf of the judges.

A fight, the winner of whose rounds three professional scorers did not agree about 50 percent of the time, was declared the clearest victory, for its official loser, by folks universally quick to cite a conclusion reached by the groupthinking employees of a cable network whose fortunes rose and fell with what revenue Pacquiao could generate in a match against Mayweather. For those previously inexperienced with it, the onslaught of drunken outrage that happened across the internet, multiples larger than anything expressed by writers at ringside, was jarring – herd animals risen on their hind legs and hoarse with boasts of objectivity.

El Paso, with a free art museum empty of visitors but full of masterworks – Canaletto, Ribera, Murillo, Zuburan and Van Dyck – was such a pleasant and quiet departure from what Las Vegas had been, underpromising and overdelivering in a manner the Strip could never understand, that answering what few polite emails floated like lovely debris atop a flood of digital spite was an apropos way to pass time in the comfortable lobby of Double Tree El Paso Downtown.

In the opening round of his fight with Chavez Jr. at Sun Bowl that Saturday, Irishman Andy Lee outboxed the Mexican so very easily, following the late Manny Steward’s blueprint so exactly, it was indeed a surprise to see Chavez, who in a preview of his September match with Sergio Martinez did not land a meaningful punch in four minutes, suddenly taunt Lee, plow through his punches, and arrogantly stalk him.

***

Editor’s note: Part 2 will be posted Wednesday.

***

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

LOS ANGELES, December 21 – This holiday season, get ready for a gift all boxing fans will love, as Golden Boy Promotions teams up with FOX Deportes to re-air classic fights for four days and nights of epic fights featuring current and future Hall of Famers, world champions and rising stars engaging in some of the most pivotal bouts of their careers.

Included in these marathons are “The Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd “Money” Mayweather, Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao, Julio “JC” Cesar Chavez, Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker, Erik “El Terrible” Morales, Marco Antonio “Baby Faced Assasin” Barrera, Miguel Cotto, Sugar Shane Mosley, Canelo Alvarez, Abner Mares, Ricky “Hitman” Hatton and Danny “Swift” Garcia, just to name a few.

The action begins this Saturday, December 22 at 3:00 p.m. ET/12:00 p.m. PT with the following lineup:

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Pernell Whitaker – 3:00 p.m. ET/12:00 p.m. PT

Manny Pacquiao vs. Marco Antonio Barrera I – 4:00 p.m. ET/1:00 p.m. PT

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Shane Mosley I – 5:00 p.m. ET/2:00 p.m. PT

Erik Morales vs. Pablo Cesar Cano – 6:00 p.m. ET/3:00 p.m. PT

Israel Vazquez vs. Rafael Marquez III – 7:00 p.m. ET/4:00 p.m. PT

Miguel Cotto vs. Shane Mosley – 8:00 p.m.ET/5:00 p.m. PT

Floyd Mayweather vs. Victor Ortiz – 9:00 p.m.ET/6:00 p.m. PT

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Felix Trinidad – 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT

The next day of classics begins on Tuesday, December 25 at 1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 a.m. PT with 10 more bouts:

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Ike Quartey – 1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 a.m. PT

Shane Mosley vs. Ricardo Mayorga – 2:00 p.m. ET/11:00 a.m. PT

Julio Cesar Chavez vs. Oscar De La Hoya – 3:00 p.m. ET/12:00 p.m. PT

Floyd Mayweather vs. Ricky Hatton – 4:00 p.m. ET/1:00 p.m. PT

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Fernando Vargas – 5:00 p.m. ET/2:00 p.m. PT

Israel Vazquez vs. Rafael Marquez II – 6:00 p.m. ET/3:00 p.m. PT

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Felix Trinidad – 7:00 p.m. ET/4:00 p.m. PT

Amir Khan vs. Marcos Maidana – 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT

Canelo Alvarez vs. Ryan Rhodes – 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT

Canelo Alvarez vs. Mathew Hatton – 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT

On December 29, it’s a Saturday night doubleheader featuring:

Abner Mares vs. Vic Darchinyan – 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT

Danny Garcia vs. Nate Campbell – 11:00 p.m. ET/8:00 p.m. PT

Finally, on Saturday, January 5, it’s another marathon of elite level boxing action with the following bouts:

Rigoberto Alvarez vs. Austin Trout – 6:00 p.m. ET/3:00 p.m. PT

Lamont Peterson vs. Victor Ortiz – 7:00 p.m. ET/4:00 p.m. PT

Amir Khan vs. Paulie Malignaggi – 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT

Floyd Mayweather vs. Shane Mosley -9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Felix Trinidad – 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT

For more information on Golden Boy Promotions, visit www.goldenboypromotions.com, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GoldenBoyBoxingor visit us on Facebook at Golden Boy Facebook Page. For more information on FOX Deportes visit www.FOXDeportes.com, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/FOXDeportes or visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FOXDeportes.

How will 2012 be remembered? For a single punch from Juan Manuel Marquez that ended the Manny Pacquiao era? For questions about performance-enhancing drugs? For controversial scorecards? For Emanuel Steward’s death?

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

In the end, however, the year is most noteworthy for a changing of the guard. Pacquiao, Marquez and Miguel Cotto are moving off center stage and toward retirement. Nonito Donaire, Andre Ward, Canelo Alvarez, Brandon Rios, Abner Mares and Danny Garcia are poised to succeed them. The Pacquiao era was a rich one, even without a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. It might be hard to duplicate, but that’s up to an emerging generation which is bound to spring its own surprises and create its own drama.

A look back with a 10-count:

Fighter of the Year: Donaire. He’s doing it the right way by staying busy and showing leadership in the face of mounting questions about PEDs. Donaire undergoes rigorous testing, 24/7, beyond the outdated procedure mandated by state commissions. Marquez is a deserving candidate. Without undergoing the same tests, however, he loses votes. Fair? Not really. But that’s the state of the game these days. Donaire understands that. More important, he addresses it

Knockout of the Year: Marquez. Pacquiao may never recover from the right hand that Marquez threw at the end of the sixth round with the tactical brilliance he employed throughout the four-fight rivalry. Despite all the suspicions, Marquez’ test with the Nevada State Athletic Commission was clean. He didn’t need PEDS to knock out Pacquiao anyway. Marquez set it up and Pacquiao set himself up for it.

Promoter of the Year: Bob Arum. At 81, he continues to put together fights that surprise and dominate. Pacquiao’s crushing loss to Marquez on Dec. 8 seemed to sadden him on the night his birthday. But for drama it was a huge hit. He promoted Rios’ seventh-round stoppage of Mike Alvarado in October in a bout that looked as if it was a lock for a Fight of the Year. Just when it looked as if nothing could surpass Rios-Alvarado, Arum pulled off a show-stopper in Marquez-Pacquiao.

Comeback of the Year: Mike Tyson. No kidding. He’s taking his one-man, Broadway show on the road early next year. He was on stage for the Pacquiao-Marquez weigh-in at the MGM Grand in early December. He looked happy and, above all, beyond all the demons that nearly destroyed him a decade ago. Who would have ever predicted that? Not even he would have.

The Rodney Dangerfield Award: Timothy Bradley. Okay, maybe we’re kidding a little bit here. But what does Bradley have to do to get some respect? He didn’t judge the fight that gave him the controversial decision over Pacquiao in June. If anything, he exposed a decline in Pacquiao that perhaps had something to do with the Filipino’s loss in December to Marquez. Whatever you believe, Bradley didn’t deserve to be almost exiled by the business and fans.

The Karl Rove Award: Duane Ford and C.J. Ross. The two Nevada judges favored Bradley over Pacquiao on scorecards that are the equivalent of a Fox News poll, which still has Mitt Romney beating Barack Obama.

Most Bizarre Post-Fight News Conference: Bradley-Pacquiao. Bradley, with injuries to both feet, showed up in a wheelchair. In a sport that has seen it all, it had to be the first time that the guy in the wheelchair was the winner.

Most Intriguing Newcomer of the Year: Fifty Cent. The rapper, otherwise known as Curtis Jackson, displayed some real smarts and likability in his emerging role as a promoter. He’s more visible and willing to deal with the media than Al Haymon, the elusive advisor. He has a better chance to awaken the dormant African-American audience more than anyone.

Most Inspiring Story of the Year: Paul Williams. The former welterweight and middleweight showed up in Las Vegas a day before the dueling cards featuring Sergio Martinez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Canelo Alvarez-Josesito Lopez on Sept. 15 and a few months after a motorcycle accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. Williams was upbeat and even said he hoped to fight again one day. His body was broken. Nothing about his spirit was.

Slacker of the Year: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. He nearly scored a knockout in the final round of a one-sided fight dominated by Martinez. Imagine what Chavez, who tested positive for marijuana, might have done if he hadn’t trained haphazardly with workouts that started at 1 a.m., or 2 a.m., or whenever he decided. We know that traces of cannabis showed up in that post-fight drug test. We’re sure that no trace of maturity did.

HOUSTON (December 13, 2012) The World Boxing Association (WBA) super bantamweight championship fight between undefeated defending champion GUILLERMO “El Chacal” RIGONDEAUX and former world champion POONSAWAT KRATINGDAENGGYM has been canceled from this Saturday’s card at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. Rigondeaux vs. Kratingdaenggym was scheduled to be televised live on HBO® as the co-main event to the NONITO DONAIRE vs. JORGE ARCE World Boxing Organization (WBO) junior featherweight title fight. Donaire vs. Arce will go on as scheduled, televised live on HBO, beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT. The telecast will open with the exclusive replay of last week’s Fight of the Year — MANNY PACQUIAO vs. JUAN MANUEL MÁRQUEZ 4.

“The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation notified us today that they would not issue a license to Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym,” said Bob Arum, CEO of Top Rank®. “I feel very badly for both fighters who trained very hard. Top Rank’s matchmakers are working with HBO to returning Guillermo back to the ring as soon as possible.”

Remaining Tickets to the Donaire vs. Arce World Junior Featherweight Championship event doubleheader, priced at $200, $100, $60 and $30, plus additional fees, can be purchased at the Toyota Center box office (Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.), online at www.HoustonToyotaCenter.com, by phone at 866-4HOU-TIX (866-446-8849) and select Houston area Randalls stores. This prestigious event is promoted by Top Rank®, in association with Zanfer Promotions and Tecate.

For fight updates go to www.toprank.com or www.hbo.com/boxing.

CHICAGO, IL (December 12, 2012) Adrian “EL Tigre’ Granados is finalizing his preparations for his showdown this Friday night, DECEMBER 14 with Antonio “Aztec God Of War” Canas at Cicero Stadium but was thrilled to see his mentor Juan Manuel Marquez knockout Manny Pacquiao this past Saturday night in their fourth fight.

Presented by 8 Count Productions and Round 3 Productions, the Granados/Canas CROSSTOWN RIVALS junior welterweight clash headlines WINDY CITY FIGHT NIGHT 23.

“I know how much it meant to Juan Manuel, he was so disappointed after each of the first three bouts. To have it end the way it did on Saturday night brought a great deal of satisfaction to him” said the 23-year-old Granados. “He’s the best Mexican fighter of his time, better than Barrera or Morales and right after Chavez Sr. all-time.”

“I trained with Juan Manuel and his brother Rafael in Mexico City for a little over a year beginning in the spring of 2008. Juan Manuel was preparing for his fight with Joel Casamayor and then later for his first bout with Juan Diaz.”

“For me it was like going off to college, the school of boxing. Working with Nacho Beristain and the brothers taught me so much about becoming a world class professional fighter and the preparation and training involved.”

A highly decorated amateur, the Cicero native first met legendary trainer Beristain at Cicero Stadium when his then charge and current world champion Abner Mares defeated Angel Priolo on April 20, 2007.

“I met Nacho and Jaime Quintana that night and they invited me to train in Mexico City with the brothers and Abner.”

About his upcoming fight against Canas, Granados couldn’t be more excited, “This is a dream come true for me to headline in Cicero. For years I’ve gone to the fights with my Dad at Cicero Stadium and Hawthorne Race Course, always wanting to fight in a main event.”

‘I’m very happy to face a young, undefeated rugged fighter headlining at Cicero Stadium, I never thought it would come to this.”

Looking ahead to 2013 Granados does see a couple of fights that he’d like to pursue, “Certainly a rematch with Frankie Gomez and also I’d like to test myself against guys like Jose Benavidez or Jessie Vargas who I fought in the amateurs. Those are the guys considered the best prospects so that’s who I want to fight in 2013.”

Granados lost a very close majority decision to Frankie Gomez in August 2011, an eight round war that was broadcast internationally on SOLO BOXEO TECATE.

Advance tickets for WINDY CITY FIGHT NIGHT 23, priced at $100, $75, $50 and $30 may be purchased by calling 312-226-5800. Cicero Stadium is located at 1909 S. Laramie in Cicero, Illinois, 1.5 miles south of the Eisenhower Expressway. Doors will open on the night of the event at 7PM with the first bell at 8PM.

ABOUT 8 COUNT PRODUCTIONS/ROUND 3 PRODUCTIONS

8 Count Productions, HOME OF THE BEST IN CHICAGO BOXING, was started by Dominic Pesoli in 1998 and has consistently presented the highest quality professional boxing events in Chicagoland.

Joining forces with Frank Mugnolo’s Round 3 Productions in 2011, their partnership is currently among the premier boxing promotional firms in the United States.

Fighters currently under the 8 Count Productions/Round 3 Productions banner include; IBO Light Heavyweight World Champion Andrzej Fonfara, super middleweight contender Donovan George, world class junior welterweight prospect Adrian Granados, former world title challenger Edner Cherry, super middleweight prospect Paul Littleton, middleweight prospect Viktor Polyakov and welterweight prospect Jaime Herrera.

For more information on 8 Count Productions/Round 3 Productions please visit their new website, www.8countproductions.com. Follow them on Twitter at 8_Count and Facebook at “8 Count Productions”.

LAS VEGAS – The keyboard of this laptop is covered in papery brown pistachio skins and shell dust. There’s a black plastic bag of Wonderful Pistachios just to the left, one of hundreds placed along press row before Saturday’s card, in what passes for swag in this eroding business. Wonderful Pistachios were Filipino congressman Manny Pacquiao’s latest marketing hustle, the tasty green nuts he whacked from a speedbag swivel hook in countless loops on the screen above Saturday’s ring.

There’s no occasion for reading creatively yet, the metaphor is right here: After what Juan Manuel Marquez did to him in the final second of the sixth round of their fourth fight, Pacquiao’s career is now in as many pieces, and filled with as much promise, as the pistachios that coat this keyboard. “Marquez KO 6” – their fight’s official line – hardly approaches it. Pacquiao will fight on, partially out of pride, partially out of financial necessity, but mostly because he’s the one person who was in MGM Grand Garden Arena that holds no recollection of what was done to him Saturday.

It was Juan Manuel Marquez’s night, the crowning act of vindication in a late career marked by its spiteful pursuit, but the entire spectacle felt more like a treatment of Manny Pacquiao. The comatose posture on the apron, his head under the bottom rope, his body perfectly still, his hands folded passively and unnaturally beneath him – testifying to a brain’s communication severed well before it could recognize, much less send notification, his face was in a freefall to cover each of the 66 inches between his metallic blue boots and raven hair.

Folded is how Pacquiao looked, tidied up and put away, resting peacefully in an oblivious place that might be sweet were it not for the vehicle that transported him there, and were it not for the masses of instantly aghast witnesses – some soon appalled, others quickly euphoric, but all initially aghast because it is nigh impossible for a person not to start at the sight of his own put temporarily in a place so like death.

There was not a seat on press row from which anything but Pacquiao’s back could be seen. One heard the clapper signal 10 seconds and began the countdown to round’s end. Surely a few scribes, and cornermen, lowered their heads to begin all the thoughts and activities that happen in the in-between minutes of championship prizefights. Pacquiao had won the round and was about to be up two points on all three judges’ scorecards – identical after five – at the midway point of a fight already featuring two knockdowns and more brutality than its trilogy of predecessors, as neither man desired judges’ opining this time, each stating plainly beforehand he preferred exactly the unconsciousness Pacquiao got to another official decision.

The very maneuver Pacquiao used to fell Marquez three times in the first round of their first match in 2004 – feinted left-hand lead, backwards hop, forwards leap, committed left hand – brought the violent end of their tetralogy. For Marquez made an adjustment that betrayed his newfound confidence in a right hand that was ever accurate but is now prodigious. Marquez used a leftwards spin to thwart Pacquiao’s signature combo in the concluding 11 rounds of their first match, a left-hook lead to Pacquiao’s right shoulder to thwart it in their second match, and a feint of his own in their rubber match; but Saturday brought a seeing-eye right hand Marquez threw because for the first time in his career’s 125 minutes and 59 seconds of fighting Pacquiao, Marquez, boxing’s best gambler, a natural-born predator, calculated the risk ratio favored him.

Pacquiao did not sense it at all; he leaped in with the left-hand lead because he knew the worst that would come was a trip over Marquez’s front shoulder, and the best that might come was a definitive end to their rivalry – shutting “Dinamita’s” crybaby mouth for the rest of their days. Pacquiao did not walk into Marquez’s right hand or even run into it. Pacquiao bounded at it, got his upper vertebrae contracted by it, his chin forced backwards while the rest of him surged forwards, and ruined by it.

There was something different about Marquez’s right hand Saturday. What made Saturday’s first knockdown so stunning in round 3, when a looping right hand from Marquez, one that traveled in an arc enough for Pacquiao to track it, knocked Pacquiao straight backwards, was that everyone watched it arrive, including Pacquiao. The punch disrupted the competitors’ pattern; it arrived either quicker or harder than anything Pacquaio’d been hit with in 13 years. And before Saturday, was Marquez known for wearing one-punch chloroform on his right glove at welterweight?

There will be allegations aplenty this week about Marquez’s historic transformation from balletic 125-pound counterpuncher to 143-pound powerpunching freak, delts bulged and lats shredded and biceps pronouncedly vascular, a transformation that came, absurdly and audaciously, after his 38th birthday, and so, two thoughts: Juan Manuel Marquez did not cheat – his negative drug test will confirm that – but the recipe for his strength and conditioning coach’s cocktail of supplements should be confiscated under a clause that reads: “Whatever chemistry transforms a professional athlete’s body the way yours did must not be tolerated henceforth.”

This too: If Marquez knew next week would bring a positive PED test but not erase from memory his moment of vindication, his instant of euphoria at seeing dissolved the man he believes delayed his proper coronation for almost a decade, a recorded sensation of Pacquiao’s head giving way like a pillow to the middle knuckle of his right fist, followed by a snapshot of Pacquiao’s limp motionless body folded on the blue apron right beside the white ‘k’ in Top Rank, Marquez would take it, so help him God, he would.

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

LAS VEGAS, NEV. (December 9, 2012) – Following his knockout loss to Juan Manuel Márquez, Fighter of the Decade MANNY ”Pacman” PACQUIAO made a precautionary visit to University Medical Center.

“Manny was given a CT scan and the results were negative,” said Michael Koncz, Pacquiao’s advisor. “We were in an out in just over an hour and Manny was in excellent spirits.”

Pacquiao returned to his penthouse suite in THEhotel for a family dinner followed by a viewing of his fourth fight against Marquez. As the DVD played, Pacquiao announced “Spoiler alert. I don’t think you are going to like how this ends!”

Pacquiao then issued the following statement to his fans:

“First and foremost I would like to thank God for keeping Juan Manuel Márquez and me safe during our fight on Saturday night,” said Pacquiao. “I want to congratulate Juan Manuel. I have no excuses. It was a good fight and he deserved the victory. I think boxing fans who watched us were winners too.

“To all my fans, I would like to thank you for your prayers and assure you that I am fine. I am looking forward to a nice rest and then I will be back to fight.

“On behalf of Jinkee and our family we would like to wish everyone a joyous Christmas and a happy and healthy new year.”

In a consensus Fight of the Year, Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KOs), of the Philippines, ahead on all three scorecards 47-46, was knocked out by Márquez (55-6-1, 40 KOs), of México, via a spectacular right hand, with one second remaining in round No. 6. It took place at the soldout MGM Grand Garden Arena, in front of 16,348 fans. Their four-fight rivalry now stands at 2-1-1 in favor of Pacquiao.

Pacquiao-Márquez 4 was promoted by Top Rank®, in association with MP Promotions, Zanfer Promotions, Márquez Boxing, Tecate, Wonderful Pistachios, Cinemax ‘Banshee,’ Smart Communications, Universal Pictures ‘Django Unchained’ and MGM Grand Hotel & Casino.

The Pacquiao vs. Márquez 4 telecast was produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View® and available to more than 92 million pay-per-view homes. HBO Pay-Per-View, a division of Home Box Office, Inc., is the leading supplier of event programming to the pay-per-view industry. Follow HBO Boxing news at www.hbo.com and at www.facebook.com/hboboxing. Use the hashtag #PacMarquez to join the conversation on Twitter. For Pacquiao vs. Márquez updates, log on to www.toprank.com or www.hbo.com.

LAS VEGAS – An era came crashing down, face first. Jinkee Pacquiao cried. Her husband couldn’t. Manny Pacquiao was unconscious. After the smelling salts were applied and he awakened, he smiled. He might have been the only Filipino in the world to smile then, now and perhaps for a very long time. The Philippines could only weep.

But there might have been some relief in the Pacquiao smile.

Finally, he can move on.

Finally, he can get on with his political career.

Finally, he doesn’t have to answer any more questions about Floyd Mayweather, Jr., and the media doesn’t have to ask them.

Time to turn the page.

But it’s up to him.

After his collision with Juan Manuel Marquez’ right hand Saturday night in the final second of the sixth round of the fourth chapter of their rivalry at the MGM Grand, Pacquiao wasn’t ready to step out of the ropes for good and into a full time career in the political ring.

“I’m going to take a rest and come back,’’ Pacquiao said after Marquez beat for the first time.

He might re-think that tomorrow or next week or next year. A review of the stunning stoppage on video might do a lot to convince him that a fifth fight with Marquez isn’t worth the risk. While the predominately Mexican crowd danced and sang in celebration of Marquez decisive victory, Pacquiao talked about a fifth fight.

“Why not, if the promoters can make it?’’ he said.

Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum echoed the why-not. A live gate of more than $10 million is a pretty good reason to do some more business.

But Pacquiao wore a T-shirt that, unwittingly perhaps, summed it up. Finished Business, it said. It was supposed to be a message about a rivalry that he finished. Instead, it could have said it all for his brilliant career.

Marquez, who had a knockdown scored against him when his left hand hit the canvas from a jarring left in the fifth, foresaw a chance to knock out Pacquiao.

“He was coming in and I felt that I could hit him with a perfect punch,’’ said Marquez, who also knocked down Pacquiao in the third.

That punch landed at a moment when Pacquiao never saw it. His trainer, Freddie Roach, said he got careless, which is another way of saying it time to think about retirement.

Before the bout, Pacquiao got a visit in his dressing room from Mitt Romney, who wanted to be president and failed in U.S. elections last month. Roach, Arum and others in Pacquiao’s entourage have often said the Filipino Congressman has aspirations to be president of his own country.

He might have better chance that than at winning a fifth over Marquez.

LAS VEGAS – The definitive end of the Manny Pacquiao Era came Saturday. It came in an act of sudden, precise violence. And it came from the right fist of Pacquiao’s nemesis, Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez.

In the sixth round of their fourth fight, in the closing second of it in fact, Marquez used Pacquiao’s feint as his trigger, planted his weight, and threw a short right hand with years of frustration behind it. The punch landed purely, forced Pacquiao’s chin to his right collarbone, and rendered the Filipino entirely unconscious before he landed face-first on the apron. No 10-count was necessary.

The official time of Marquez’s victory and vindication was 2:59 of round 6.

Everything about Saturday’s match was different from its predecessor conducted 13 months ago. This time, Marquez (55-6-1, 40 KOs) was the larger, stronger, more powerful man. Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KOs) was still the match’s quicker and busier fighter, but he was no longer its hunter.

After a pair of very even opening rounds, the third saw Marquez lean leftwards and catch Pacquiao with a looping right hand Pacquiao appeared to see but was surprised by nonetheless. Pacquiao dropped directly to the mat, in a stunning moment entirely unanticipated by anything seen from him in a decade of superfights. Pacquiao rose, however, and fought the still-cautious Marquez off him.

Marquez was still cautious for a reason. After another even round in the fourth, Pacquiao blitzed Marquez in the fifth, dropping him with a straight left, thrown from Pacquiao’s southpaw stance, that stunned Marquez but did not truly hurt him. It affected Pacquiao more than Marquez, actually, emboldening him towards recklessness. After nearly three minutes of attacking Marquez in the sixth, on his way to a two-point lead on all three judges’ scorecards, Pacquiao showed Marquez his signature move one time too many.

Pacquiao feinted the left cross, took a hop back, and then leaped at Marquez, hands-down. Marquez, his back on the ropes, dropped his head underneath Pacquiao’s left hand, and threw his right at Pacquiao’s chin. And in an instant, the Manny Pacquiao Era was ended.

YURIORKIS GAMBOA VS. MICHAEL FARENAS
The plan was this: His promoter, rapper 50 Cent, would drop from the ceiling, and then Yuriokoris Gamboa would drop his opponent directly on the canvas. “Fiddy” did his part.

Saturday’s co-main event, a far more competitive affair than anticipated, or perhaps desired, saw Cuban Yuriorkis Gamboa (22-0, 16 KOs) win a wide unanimous decision over Filipino Michael Farenas (33-4-4, 26 KOs) in a match that was not without suspense. Scores went 117-109, 118-108 and 117-108, all for Gamboa, who despite landing more than 550 punches was unable to stop Farenas and had to rise from the mat in round 9 to prevail.

After a first stanza that saw Gamboa’s superior reflexes and movement dominate, the second found Gamboa staggered by a pair of left crosses from the southpaw Farenas. Those punches from the Filipino, though, did little more than incite Gamboa – who felled Farenas in the final seconds of the stanza.

Round 3 found more aggression from Gamboa, but also some unexpected fortitude and defiance from Farenas, who both weathered Gamboa’s attack and staggered Gamboa again in the fourth with looped left hands, for which Gamboa seemed to have no comprehensive plan. Gamboa, whose attention span is short as his talent is long, often got himself struck by punches a lesser talented man – one who relied more on fundamentals than reflex – might have ducked or blocked.

After a sixth round that saw cuts over Farenas’ eyes deepen and bleed enough for a ringside doctor to give him a full examination before the seventh, Gamboa tore out his corner and tried to end the fight sensationally. After 45 second of ferocious combat, though, when a weakened Farenas was nevertheless still standing and trading, Gamboa’s activity dropped considerably, and while he did enough to win subsequent rounds, his willingness to chase a knockout more or less disappeared.

When it returned in the ninth, it nearly cost Gamboa the ‘0’ on his record, as the Cuban, sensing a knockout was near, walked himself directly into a counter left hand that dropped him on the blue mat. Gamboa rose on wobbly legs and held on tight for much of the next two minutes.

After an uneventful 10th and 11th, both men exchanged occasionally in the 12th but otherwise shuffled to the finish line, satisfied with not being felled again – even if it meant not felling the other man.

MIGUEL VAZQUEZ VS. MERCITO GESTA
It was a title match between an experienced but dull champion and an exciting but inexperienced challenger, and the champion owned it. Most every minute of it.

In the penultimate fight of Saturday’s undercard, Mexican Miguel Vazquez (25-3, 19 KOs) easily defended his IBF lightweight title, decisioning Filipino Mercito Gesta (26-1-1, 14 KOs) by unanimous scores of 117-111, 119-109 and 118-110. It may not have been that close.

After an opening round that saw Vazquez look characteristically slippery while Gesta did little to press an attack, the second and third saw Vazquez too quick, busy and awkward for Gesta. Vazquez would attack Gesta, and have certain success, and then Gesta, after patiently waiting, would decide it was his turn. By the time Gesta began his attack, though, Vazquez would be gone.

The next four rounds saw more of the same, as Gesta, for all his vaunted explosiveness against lesser opponents, simply did not have a solution for the problems an experienced champion like Vazquez proposed to him. Gesta threw ominous left hooks aplenty from his southpaw stance, but Vazquez picked them up scientifically, staying at the end of his quite long reach, and ensured he was either spinning away or ducking well beneath their plane by the time they went whipping past.

In round 8, Vazquez added a dull new wrinkle to his attack, staying at range till Gesta dropped his guard, and then rushing in with both hands, landing a clean punch or two, and tying Gesta up. Gesta appeared not to have the wherewithal or desire to fight his way out of the awkward Mexican’s awkward clinches, and the next three rounds passed without incident or emotion.

The final round passed exactly as its 11 predecessors had, with Vazquez, a professional counterpuncher and winner, if not entertainer, boxing, moving, clinching and confusing his way to another successful title defense.

JAVIER FORTUNA VS. PATRICK HYLAND
It was a battle of undefeated fighters, and while neither guy wanted to lose, neither guy wanted to win much either. The partisan-Mexican crowd that half-filled the arena did not appreciate it.

In the first televised match of Saturday’s pay-per-view telecast, Dominican featherweight Javier Fortuna (21-0, 15 KOs) decisioned limited Irishman Patrick Hyland (27-1, 12 KOs) by unanimous scores of 118-110, 116-112 and 115-113. Fortuna, who appeared a little unstable both at Friday’s weighin and points of Saturday’s fight, fell on his back in celebration upon hearing the decision.

The fight began badly, and after two dreadful rounds that saw neither man engage and Fortuna in hands-down retreat, a lowblow made things briefly interesting and Fortuna briefly more offensive in the third. That brief display of offense by Fortuna was more than enough for Hyland to put his own fists away and spend two rounds focused on defense, blocking and ducking, and generally not punching.

In round 7, after 18 minutes of routine booing from the Garden Arena crowd, Hyland appeared to close space slightly and land a few decent right hands on the southpaw Dominican. The eighth brought increased fatigue to both men, which brought actual infighting and enough action for the crowd to cease its hectoring, if not increase its cheers.

The ninth saw a pair of unintentional fouls send Fortuna reeling to a neutral corner, followed by the entire fight’s best minute of sustained combat, as each man briefly took the other’s punches personally before returning to less-belligerent form. The 10th had the less-talented Hyland appearing to want to fight, and the more-talented Fortuna demonstratively displeased with anything that wasn’t clean punching.

The championship rounds passed uneventfully, with neither man daring to do anything daring, as the championship being contested was only the WBA interim featherweight title after all.

UNDERCARD
Saturday’s swing bout, a four-round scrap between local featherweight Alexis Hernandez (3-1, 1 KO) and New Mexican Jazzma Hogue (2-4-1) did not last long and did not look pretty, with Hernandez prevailing by TKO at 2:20 of round 1.

Before that, U.S. Olympian Jose Ramirez (1-0, 1 KO), a lightweight from California, made his professional debut against designated victim Corey Siegwarth (2-2, 1 KO) of Colorado. Charging out his corner and swarming Siegwarth from the opening bell, Ramirez moved well and threw punches in combination while showing good defense, stopping Siegwarth at 2:05 of round 1. As many clean punches as Ramirez needed to finish Siegwarth, time will tell how much power he has brought with him to the pro ranks.

Saturday’s second match saw Filipino featherweight Dodie Boy Penalosa (10-0, 10 KOs) stop Floridian Jesus Lule-Raya (2-2) suddenly and violently at 1:12 of round 2. Undefeated as he is, and with his victories coming the way they do, it will be interesting to see how Penalosa’s coming improvement in competition goes.

The evening began with a surprisingly two-sided affair between Filipino super featherweight Ernie Sanchez (14-3, 5 KOs) and Philadelphian Coy Evans (10-2-1, 2 KOs). Both men were hurt early in the fight, with Evans being sent to the mat by a right hand from Sanchez, but neither succumbed to the other’s numerous but light punches, and Sanchez prevailed by unanimous decision: 78-73, 78-73 and 77-74.

Opening bell rang on an empty MGM Grand Garden Arena at 4:06 PM local time.

LAS VEGAS – Evidence of Juan Manuel Marquez’ new found power is circulating like an ominous preview in video of his brutal stoppage of a sparring partner. But Manny Pacquiao hasn’t seen it. Won’t lose any sleep thinking about it.

“I’m not worried about it,’’ Pacquiao said Friday after the formal weigh-in for his fourth fight Saturday night with Marquez at the MGM Grand. “I took Antonio Margarito’s best punch.’’

In the sixth round of a 2010 victory over Margarito at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Tex., Pacquiao was rocked by left hook to the body. It was one of the punches Margarito had used with devastating efficiency throughout his career as a brawler.

“I was lucky to survive that round,’’ Pacquiao said then.

In a lesson delivered by Margarito’s left hand, Pacquiao might have experience and confidence to go along with the luck he’ll need against Marquez.

Sellout equals heavyweight standard
Top Rank announced Friday that it had sold out the MGM’s Grand Garden Arena’s 16,000-plus seats for Marquez-Pacquiao. Promoter Bob Arum said the gate would generate more than $10.6 million. More than $10 million in tickets were sold for the third Marquez-Pacquiao fight, also at the MGM Grand.

It’s the first time rematches have done more than $10 million at the gate for each bout since Evander Holyfield beat Mike Tyson in 1996 and beat him again in 1997 at the cost of an ear lobe, also at the MGM Grand.

Notes, quotes
· Tyson was introduced to a noisy, cheering crowd at the weigh-in. The former heavyweight champ asked fans to support his charitable foundation, Mike Tyson Cares. Meanwhile, he’s getting ready to take his Broadway show on a national tour of 36 cities. “I’m like Frankenstein,’’ Tyson said. “A lot of people have put me together.’’

· After stepping off the scale, Pacquiao, a Filipino Congressman and Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserve, dedicated Saturday night’s fight on HBO’s pay-per-view television to fellow Filipinos hit by Typhoon Bopha. There were reports Friday of than 500 dead and 400 missing. There 310,000 left homeless.

· Former welterweight rivals Tommy Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard are in Las Vegas for Chapter IV in the Pacquiao-Marquez rivalry. Hearns picks Pacquiao to win. Leonard played it safe. He didn’t pick anybody.

LAS VEGAS – It was not particularly eventful, far as these things go – two muscular men stripped to their underwear, stepped on a scale, had their weights read, dismounted, and posed shirtless for photographers beneath the stage – but it was not entirely without event. Mike Tyson saw to that.

Friday afternoon at MGM Grand Garden Arena, Filipino welterweight Manny Pacquiao and his career nemesis, Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez, each made weight for their Saturday fight, a match that will complete a storied tetralogy in the very venue where it began.

Pacquiao made the welterweight limit of 147 pounds. Marquez came in three pounds below at 143.

“It’s going to be a war,” Marquez said immediately afterwards. “It’s going to be a war.”

If the fight will be the battle Marquez promised, he is the man who appears to have the heavier artillery this time. As part of a controversial strength and conditioning regimen conducted in Mexico with a controversial strength and conditioning coach, Marquez has added a significant quotient of muscle in his recent training camps and removed fat while doing it – a feat once believed nigh impossible for a man approaching his 40th birthday, as Marquez now does.

It is an edge Marquez, 0-2-1 in his three matches with Pacquiao, believes will mark the necessary “grain” of difference he needs.

“I would like to pray for all the families affected by the storm in the Philippines,” said Pacquiao, after making weight, replying to a question about a natural disaster that struck his native land this month. “I am dedicating this fight to them.”

Pacquiao, who looked very good, if not muscular as Marquez, Friday, has downplayed his opponent’s noteworthy growth in the last 15 months, answering questions about Marquez’s size with appeals to larger men Pacquiao has fought, and bigger punchers, too.

That may be, but did any of them have a history of hitting Pacquiao often or accurately as Marquez does?

“Not the biggest fight, possibly,” Marquez said of Saturday’s fourth match with Pacquiao and its place in his career. “The most important.”

Asked if, as a congressman in the Philippines, he still had the “fire in his belly” required to beat up a prizefighter gifted, dedicated and fixated on victory as Marquez is, Pacquiao was terse but adamant.

“Yes, sir,” he said.

Friday’s weighin, while not the fire-marshal-bar-the-doors affair previous Pacquiao weighins have been, was well-attended by what sounded like a partisan-Mexican crowd. Also in attendance was world middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, who kept a characteristically low profile.

Keeping a characteristically higher profile was former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, in town, and in MGM Grand, to promote and perform “Mike Tyson Cares: Giving Kids a Fighting Chance,” a show Tyson will host at MGM Grand’s Tabu Ultra Lounge, Friday night.

Tyson, whose euphoria at being on stage for a superfight weighin was pronounced, as evidenced by his constant smile and interaction with undercard fighters throughout, spent only a moment center-stage, waving and bowing to loud applause, then saying: “And make sure you come out!”

Doors for “Pacquiao-Marquez 4,” an eight-match card, will open at 3:00 PM local time, with opening bell scheduled to ring at 3:45. The four-fight pay-per-view televised portion of the card will begin at 6:00 PM. 15rounds.com will have full ringside coverage.

Manny Pacquiao 147 – Juan Manuel Marquez 143
Yuriorkis Gamboa 130 – Michael Ferenas 130
Patrick Hyland 126 – Javier Fortuna 126

Photps by Chris Farina / Top Rank

LAS VEGAS, NEV. (December 7, 2012) – The people have spoken and they voted unanimously for Saturday’s welterweight battle between MANNY PACQUIAO and JUAN MANUEL MÁRQUEZ 4 — Act Four of their exciting and fistoric rivalry. Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum announced today that the MGM Grand Garden Arena and its 16,000-plus seats have completely sold out, producing a live gate in excess of $10.5 million.

“Manny and Juan Manuel may have unfinished business in the ring, but as far as the live box office, it’s business as usual – another sellout,” said Arum. “I encourage boxing fans in Las Vegas to go to their favorite MGM Resort International property to purchase their closed-circuit seats today because the projections are looking like a sell out there too.”

Pacquiao vs. Márquez 4 will be available via closed circuit at the following MGM Resorts International Las Vegas properties: ARIA, Mandalay Bay, The Mirage, Monte Carlo, New York-New York and Circus Circus. Tickets are priced at $50, not including applicable service charges. All seats will be general admission and will be available at each individual property’s box office.

Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KOs), of the Philippines, and Márquez (54-6-1, 39 KOs), of México, who have won world titles in 12 weight divisions between them, will go mano a mano and toe-to-toe in a 12-round welterweight battle.

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The finale of the all-new editions of HBO’s all-access reality series 24/7 PACQUIAO/MARQUEZ 4 debuts Tonight! Friday, December 7 (8:00-8:30 p.m. ET/PT), the night before the high-stakes welterweight showdown. All four episodes will have multiple replay dates on HBO, and the series will also be available on HBO On Demand and HBO GO®.

Pacquiao-Márquez 4 is promoted by Top Rank®, in association with MP Promotions, Zanfer Promotions, Márquez Boxing, Tecate, Wonderful Pistachios, Cinemax ‘Banshee,’ Smart Communications, Universal Pictures ‘Django Unchained’ and MGM Grand Hotel & Casino.

The Pacquiao vs. Márquez 4 telecast, which begins at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT, will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View® and will be available to more than 92 million pay-per-view homes. HBO Pay-Per-View, a division of Home Box Office, Inc., is the leading supplier of event programming to the pay-per-view industry. Follow HBO Boxing news at www.hbo.com and at www.facebook.com/hboboxing. Use the hashtag #PacMarquez to join the conversation on Twitter. For Pacquiao vs. Márquez updates, log on to www.toprank.com or www.hbo.com.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Dec. 7, 2012) – No longer will Raymundo Beltran be known as Manny Pacquiao’s favorite sparring partner. He’s finally carved his own niche amongst the elite lightweights in professional boxing.

Fresh off his upset win over former top-ranked contender Hank Lundy in July, Beltran (27-6, 17 KOs) pieced together another brilliant performance Thursday night in Las Vegas, defending his North American Boxing Federation (NABF) lightweight title with a 98-92, 98-92, 97-94 unanimous decision win over Ji-Hoon Kim (24-8) at The Mirage Hotel & Casino in the main event of a special Thursday night edition of ESPN’s Friday Night Fights.

“I pray I get a shot at a world title. That’s what I want, and I believe that’s what I deserve,” Beltran said. “This is no time to stop or take easy fights. I have never shied away from a tough fight. I just needed the right fights under the right conditions, and Lundy and Kim were made to order for me.”

Kim entered the fight ranked No. 3 in the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and No. 7 in the World Boxing Organization (WBO) and appeared to be in control of Thursday’s fight when he sent Beltran to the canvas courtesy of a hard, left hook midway through the opening round, but Beltran fought back, answering with a left hook of his own that dropped Kim at the bell.

Over the next nine rounds, Beltran out-worked and out-muscled Kim to win decisively on all three scorecards in what was his second consecutive victory and first since dethroning Lundy on ESPN in July.

“This was a great fight for Ray. He trained hard and fought harder,” said Beltran’s head trainer Freddie Roach. “We had Kim hurt a number of times, but Ray hurt his hand early, so we just stayed on Kim’s body. When Ray went down in the first round, I looked at him, and that’s when I knew he wasn’t going to go down again. Kim is a tough kid, but it was Ray’s fight. We want a title shot next.”

A former sparring partner for Pacquiao, who is also fighting this weekend in Las Vegas, Beltran toiled in anonymity before beating Lundy in what many considered the upset of the year. Under the guidance of his longtime manager, Steve Feder, Roach and promoter Jimmy Burchfield Sr. of Classic Entertainment & Sports, Beltran has finally escaped Pacquiao’s shadow and is now on the cusp of a shot at a world title in the 135-pound division.

“This has been long overdue for Ray,” Feder said. “He’s really put his work in. The biggest difference is his mindset. Being Manny’s sparring partner has been a blessing and a curse. It gave him tremendous experience, but in some ways it took him out of the picture because he’d have a hard time understanding he’s not just someone’s sparring partner.

“These last two camps, although we worked with Manny, we also brought in a lot of other sparring partners as well. We worked with Brandon Rios, who was really helpful, and we brought in strength and conditioning coach Rob Garcia, who really helped Ray step his game up. He had a really good camp. It was all about clearing his head, and having that belt gave him something to prepare for and defend.”

With Pacquiao simultaneously preparing for Saturday’s Pay Per View showdown against Juan Manuel Marquez – the fourth installment of their longstanding rivalry – he and Beltran worked together at Roach’s Wild Card Boxing Club in Los Angeles.

“Manny has been such a great supporter for him,” Feder said. “Manny kept insisting that Ray understand what his role was and that he was not only there to support Manny, but to prepare for his own fight. Manny never put him in the position of just being a sparring partner. They were really helping each other.

“Being in this relationship with Manny has been phenomenal for Ray, but, as a fighter, he also needs to have his own identity,” Feder added. “He’s not walking into the ring with Manny; he’s walking in there on his own. At this stage in his career, the key for him is being able to identify himself as his own fighter.”

After beating Kim in front of a worldwide audience, the sky’s the limit for Beltran – originally from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico – who entered Thursday’s fight ranked No. 9 in the World Boxing Council (WBC). He’s keeping a watchful eye on the rest of the field, starting Saturday night on the undercard of the Pacquiao-Marquez fight when IBF world lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez defends his title against unbeaten challenger Mercito Gesta.

“I will be watching,” Beltran said. “I want my shot. Tough fighters bring out the best in me and now I want to continue to fight the best.”

Added Burchfield: “We’ll challenge anyone in the 135-pound division, whether it’s Vazquez, Gesta, Richard Abril or Adrien Broner. We’ve seen first-hand what Ray is capable of inside the ring. No one’s worked harder, and, right now, there’s not a more dangerous fighter in this weight class.”

Boxing’s most contentious rivalry is set to end with a knockout this Saturday night, live on Primetime (Channel 498 on Sky & Virgin On Demand).

Both Manny Pacquiao and Mexican warrior Juan Manuel Marquez insist that they will flatten the other to conclusively prove who the superior fighter is as they clash for the fourth time in Las Vegas.

The previous three fights have all gone the 12 round distance and despite a draw in their initial encounter in 2004, and Pacquiao winning closely contested points decisions in the other two, the matchups have been the subject of much controversy.

Despite Pacquiao catching the judges’ eyes, many experts and fight fans believe that Marquez has been the rightful victor in their past encounters.

However, despite not getting the rub of the green, Marquez is adamant that this time round he has the tools to stop it going to the scorecards.

“A lot of people know what happened in the last three fights but I’ve prepared myself very hard because I want to give another great show. After this fight it might be the end of the chapters,” said Marquez.

“I’m trying to look for the knockout. Pacquiao said he wants to knock me out but I want to knockout him out. Manny is a strong fighter, he’s maybe the toughest I’ve fought. But I’m ready for this fight. I’ve trained very hard and I’m in great condition for the twelve rounds.

“This is the most interesting fight. I know I need to change something because he knows me – I need a perfect performance,” he said.

The Filipino star, who is regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, claims he will be going into this bout as the aggressor, in a fight he believes will be the last between the two.

“We changed a little bit of our strategy for this fight. We studied his style and we’re ready for him. He knows how I like to fight which is getting in and out so I will be trying to counter-punch more,” said Pacquiao.

“My focus is on more aggression and if I have the chance to finish the fight early I will grab it. Marquez never accepted that he lost the last three fights so it’s up to me to show him in this one,” added the eight-division world champion.

Pacquiao vs. Marquez is live on Primetime for £14.95 this Sunday morning at 2am. To order visit www.primetimelive.co.uk or call 0871 200 4444.

LAS VEGAS – Threat of a lawsuit is little bit like opening bell. Hear one and you can be sure the fight is about to begin.

Opening bell for the fourth chapter Saturday in the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez rivalry was still a couple of days away, but the lawsuit threat echoed Thursday through the MGM Grand’s press room with a buzz that said only fury will settle the differences that divide the opposing camps.

Marquez’ controversial strength coach Angel Heredia promised to sue Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach for comments in USA Today that implied the heavily-muscled Marquez had been using performance enhancers. Roach didn’t need to consult an attorney for his response.

“He’s a piece of bleep,’’ said Roach, who also called Heredia “a rat” during roundtable sessions with the trainer.

Flush the legalese.

It’s hard to know whether Heredia is just posturing or has been caught up in the hyperbole that always intensifies during the countdown for a major bout. He’s a relative newcomer to boxing’s outhouse. But Heredia’s notorious resume is accented with inevitable questions. During the Balco scandal, he testified he had a role in giving PEDS to Olympic track-and-field medalists, including Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery.

Roach reads the testimony, looks at the bulked-up Marquez and says what many fans are thinking. No surprise there. Roach, a Hall of Fame veteran of fight-week hype, might be using the moment to play some mind games. That’s as fundamental as a feint. Whatever he was doing, Heredia’s anger is enough to wonder if it has entered into his conversation with Marquez and trainer Nacho Beristain.

“We’re going to meet up with my lawyers,’’ Heredia told the media Wednesday after a formal news conference.

If there is a meeting about anything other than how to beat Pacquiao for the first time, then Roach will have succeeded in throwing the first feint.

Notes, Quotes, Anecdotes
The intensity of the Pacquiao-Marquez rivalry makes it impossible to predict how their relationship will be after the final bell. “My relationship with him is one of respect,’’ Marquez said. “It will always be inside the ring. But outside of the ring?’’ Marquez left some doubt about whether they could be friends. “That’s his problem,’’ Pacquiao said.

Purses: According to contracts filed with the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Marquez is guaranteed $3 million and Pacquiao $8.595 million. That doesn’t count the international money. Bob Arum says Pacquiao will collect at least $26 million after it’s all counted. “We haven’t knocked out anybody lately and we got a loss in our last fight,’’ Roach said of Pacquiao’s controversial loss by decision to Tim Bradley in June. “So we’re taking a cut in pay.’’