Floyd says that everyone wants to see him lose while Manny’s already lost three times therefore there’s no upside for him. While there’s no erasing Pacquiao’s three losses and Floyd’s undefeated record, there is a question as to who is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world and who the top welterweight is. Right now Pacman is on top of his game and considered to be every bit as good as Floyd. Because of that reason, Mayweather stands plenty to gain by fighting (and beating) Manny. The term “undisputed” champion is often used in boxing. Right now there’s a dispute that can only be settled in the ring. Floyd should recognize that and make this fight happen to boost his legacy. After that, beating Sugar Shane Mosley would just be icing on the cake of an unblemished career.

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By the way, would somebody please tell A.C. Slater to take his finger out of his ear. And would somebody tell Slater that English isn’t Pacman’s primary language so it’s probably not a good idea to ask him 30 second questions with lots of big words. The guy just went 12 rounds with Miguel Cotto … give him a break, A.C.!

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A prop on the set or really his piss? You make the call. I guess we can never doubt Juan Manuel Marquez’s desire to win if he’s drinking his own piss to get proper nourishment before a fight. I guess it’s also one of those adages — how much would it take for you to drink your own urine? In Marquez’s case, he’s getting paid probably 7-figures for the fight. I might plug up my nose and hunker down for that amount. You?

Thanks to Deadspin for that story.

Mayorga recently sued Don King for his inability to find him a fight and for alleged violations of the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act. In the interim, it appears he’ll begin preparations for a late-career run in MMA.

We’ve increasingly seen more boxers discuss the option of exploring the MMA frontier, Roy Jones Jr. being the most notable. Ever since recording back-to-back wins against Vernon Forrest in ‘03, Mayorga’s gone 3-4 including an embarrassing loss to Oscar De La Hoya. Given El Matador’s style, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him be part of one of those 7-second knockouts. Because he doesn’t hold anything back, you figure something crazy will transpire.

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Let’s see, Roy Jones Jr. is hanging on way past his prime, presumably to make money like most other boxers do. He got his head handed to him by Joe Calzaghe last November but still came back for two more fights since, winning both. Oscar De La Hoya recently wrote that he felt Jones Jr. continues to fight because of ego, not money; he says Roy wants to prove he’s still a top fighter. De La Hoya said Roy should retire because he’s done. Roy obviously didn’t take to that opinion very well and has now spoken:

“Yeah, well, I ain’t quit like he did, did I? I don’t even think he’s got enough respect to talk to me. I never gave up. He gave up to a smaller man. I don’t owe no explanation for that. I don’t even think he earned the right tot talk to me. I ain’t never quite. Got cut and still went on against what they called pound-for-pound one of the best fighters out there and never thought about quitting. I feel like I owe that to the fans. I feel like if they paid to see me fight, they should get a whole fight whether I’m getting my behind whooped or I’m whooping behind, they deserve a whole fight. I ain’t never quit in the ring so don’t tell me what I need to do.”

No doubt Jones Jr. is oozing with confidence from his win over Jeff Lacy two weeks ago. He was bragging about his handspeed from that fight during the interview and suggested he wants to fight Anderson Silva from MMA. The interview also confirmed De La Hoya’s feelings — that Roy still feels he’s a top fighter. But Jones Jr. is definitely correct about Oscar quitting. Both guys are right and it would have been nice if we didn’t have to experience either process as fans.

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“I’ve been watching boxing a long time and you don’t see too many good decisions in Texas with out of towners against Texas fighters. I don’t know who to blame. I put my two cents in before. I didn’t want Gale Van Hoy and I didn’t want Raul Caiz.

118-110 was Gale Van Hoy d*cking it to me. He bent me over and he f*cked me. I said before the fight that this guy never goes against a Texas fighter in the state of Texas. I complained about him and he did it to me on purpose. There is no way that anybody won that fight 118-110. I didn’t beat Juan 118-110 and Juan didn’t beat me 118-110. Gale Van Hoy filled out his score card and said ‘let me f**k Paulie Malignaggi because he talked s**t.”

Malignaggi went on to say that this is why boxing has no popularity left. It’s actually a similar reason why I got turned off of boxing about three years ago. I went to a small-level card in central California (Arreola and Paul Williams were on it) and watched every decision go in favor of the fighters for the guys promoting the card. It’s hard to watch something where judges are paid off or holding personally biases. We see it all the time. I’m guessing Paulie was on the mark. The only difference is it would have been a unanimous decision regardless and he would have been on the losing end no matter what.

But he taught me one of the most valuable lessons I’ve ever learned. Some people close to me are familiar with this story while others have never heard it, so there’s no better time to bring it up than now. I have a big history with Vernon Forrest that goes back six years to when I was 19-years-old, and when he was undefeated. It was at that time that I got sucked into sports betting on a daily basis by a kid on my dorm floor who had just about every bad habit you could imagine (I think he once placed a sports bet on the computer while sipping 151 and snorting coke off a hookers ass with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth). I had been making money betting on college basketball games and it all stemmed from betting against UCLA because they were so horrible that year (Lavin got fired but the UCLA name still made them favorites in the book, so the formula was quite lucrative). On one particular Saturday, January 25th, 2003, I had made a little over $100 betting on Pac-10 hoops — not bad money for a college sophomore. I was looking for just one final score to get me up to about $150 for the day and I had been eying the Vernon Forrest line for about a week.

Naturally all the degenerates must have had their eye on the line as a way to make up for lost wages during the day Saturday because the odds went from about 1:5 in favor of Vernon to 1:10 by the time I got out of a meeting to place my bet. My $200 bet to win $40 soon became $400 to win $40 and while that sounded bad, I was already counting my winnings so I didn’t care — I placed it without thinking twice.

Later that night while working an editing shift at Fox Sports Radio, I went around boasting to my co-workers that Forrest was fighting that night and that he was a lock to win. At 35-0, how could this fighting machine lose to a nobody? One of my friends there told me there’s no such thing as a lock, much less a sure thing. Next thing you know, word comes down from Temecula that some crazy, cigarette-smoking Nicaraguan had beaten my boy Forrest, handing him his first loss ever. The $400 hit didn’t seem as bad as the result of the fight — a third round knockout — a total f*** you to the face as if to slap me over the head as a reminder of how wrong I was and why I shouldn’t ever do that again.

Of course I didn’t learn my lesson. It wasn’t until the following weekend that I won 8 of 9 college basketball games against-the-spread, betting just around $11 to win $10 on each one when I realized I had only earned back about a quarter of my losses from the previous weekend despite kicking ass on the games. I cashed out my remaining balance with that Aruban sportsbook — an even more painful process than watching Forrest get KO’d — and I accepted my losses. Six months later I went with my best friend to watch the Mayorga/Forrest rematch at The Orleans in Las Vegas, resisting the urge to try and recoup my losses. My friend, who got shot and killed on a Saturday night nearly three years later, bet on Mayorga and collected a nice sum after Ricardo won the decision. Save a friendly office pool here and there, I haven’t bet on a sporting event since.

After Forrest was shot and killed Saturday night in Atlanta while he was trying to thwart an attempted carjacking, Vernon was described as a decent, charitable man who helped kids. His death completes a strange circle for me, one in which I learned a life-long lesson about the risks of gambling and how there is no sure thing in life. While I never met the man, his eulogy rings true for me and I thank him for getting knocked the eff out in 2003 so that I could be saved from much larger losses later in life. Maybe my story can help deter you from ever making the same mistake and counting on something as a “sure thing.”

Sadly, I’d like to wake up one day and not wonder who the latest professional athlete is to be found dead.

The wife seems pretty stupid and sloppy in this case and really didn’t seem like she cared much about covering her tracks. She’s been charged with first degree murder after there were inconsistencies during the interrogation. She’s trying to claim that someone else came into the room and committed the murder, but the room was on the second floor of the hotel and a magnetic key card was needed to open the room, making it highly unlikely someone else came in. Boxing Scene says the two were out to dinner the night before the murder and had gotten into a fight on the street where Gatti pushed his wife to the ground. Between McNair and Arturo, it’s pretty clear that guys need to be extremely careful about what they’re doing and with whom they’re cavorting. Better yet, never pass out drunk around your lady — you never know if you’ll wake up!

Dude, like who doesn’t know that Manny Pacquiao has lost three times?? That’s embarrassing. How could he even proceed after that? Now if you’re ready for a role-reversal, Brian Kenny owns Mayweather on SportsCenter in this interview:

Kenny was well-prepared, showed his knowledge, and peppered Floyd with excellent questions and arguments. Kenny brought his A-game and would have been awarded a TKO. Mayweather would have been deducted points for clenching and dirty tactics that prevented the progress of the fight. Also, not only did Floyd prove what a money-hungry nut he is, but he also showed that Bob Arum is the biggest obstacle from the public seeing a Pacquiao/Mayweather fight. Mayweather needs to drop that clapping habit too, that’s just tiresome. He also seems super hungry to regain the spotlight and his reputation as the best fighter in the world. This can only be good news for the sweet science.

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It’s funny how much things change in a small amount of time. 18 months ago, Floyd Mayweather Jr. destroyed Ricky Hatton to cement his reputation as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. At that point Manny Pacquiao was fighting at 130 lbs and wasn’t really on the radar (as far as being a contender). A year and a half later, Mayweather’s coming out of retirement (as I predicted), and Pacquiao’s the top fighter in the world coming off a win over Hatton. As for Ricky, well, nothing really changed for him — he still wound up laying on the canvas on top of the Rockstar logo, a loser in both bouts.

Manny really has proven to me that he has an excellent skill level in addition to his impressive punching power. This guy absolutely destroyed Hatton, to the point where I thought he broke Ricky’s jaw and inflicted serious long-term damage with the knockout blow. I’m not going to get carried away with his ability and tell you how great he is — go see his fights against Juan Manuel Marquez to see otherwise — but Pac Man has really has opened up many people’s eyes with his wins at the higher weight class. Manny proved that he has a lethal knockout punch and that great results can be achieved when you pair a diligent fighter with a smart trainer.

Back to Hatton, truth is he got exposed once again. The guy is nothing but a straight ahead puncher who fails to make in-fight adjustments (probably because he was able to beat up just about anyone he’d ever faced). Pacquiao and Freddie Roach devised a plan to exploit Ricky’s weakness (Hatton leaves himself open when he throws his left) and they executed perfectly. Retirement isn’t necessary, but mechanical adjustments and fighting lower-quality opponents is. And with the layoff, Mayweather has a lot to prove against Marquez before a fight with Pacquiao can be scheduled. (Even if that’s what we all want to see).

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