ESPN Dan Rafael Blog

Your weekly random thoughts …

• I don't know what Guillermo Rigondeaux's purse is for his "Friday Night Fights" bout this week, but a tip of the cap to the two-time Cuban Olympic champion for announcing that he is donating his entire purse to the Children of Haiti Fund.

Same to Lou DiBella, Golden Boy Promotions and AEG, who are selling event shirts and hats from the aborted Mosley-Andre Berto fight in an effort to raise money for Haitian relief. They announced that all the net proceeds from the sales will go to the Red Cross to support relief efforts in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, where Berto lost eight family members. The items are available at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, The Fight Museum store at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, online at www.GoldenBoyStore.com or by calling 888-483-2652. Top Rank also gets props for pledging $1 per every ticket sold to all of its cards for 2010 to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. That could add up to a lot of money for the cause. Boxing folks often get a well-deserved rap for their greed, but they are also some of the most charitable people you will ever run across in a time of need.

• With regard to Floyd Mayweather Jr. finally signing a contract to fight Shane Mosley: Don't expect me to gush about it. I'll simply say it's about time he fought a legitimate top-level 147-pounder. After being a welterweight since 2005, it sure took him long enough. He's only doing what he should have been doing years ago.

• I love HBO's plans for April 17. I think the split-site doubleheader it is trying to finalize is tremendous. Lucian Bute defending his super middleweight belt against Edison Miranda in Montreal is a done deal, and Kelly Pavlik defending the middleweight championship against Sergio Martinez in Atlantic City is getting close to being done. Both venues will be packed with roaring crowds and both fights look exciting on paper. If Bute and Pavlik, the favorites, both win, it could lead to a Bute-Pavlik showdown, which would be great.

• April 17 could be the most significant night in the history of the super middleweight division, because while HBO has Bute-Miranda, Showtime is airing two Super Six tournament fights: Andre Ward defending his belt against Allan Green and Carl Froch defending his title against Mikkel Kessler. That's a lot of 168-pound action for one night, and I can't wait. Just make sure your DVR is ready.

• Could anything be bigger than three first-class super middleweight title bouts April 17? You betcha. That's also when Golden Boy Promotions chief operating officer Dave "The Itsk" Itskowitch will wed his better half, Kim "The Chess" Chessler, in New York. However, I do hope that "The Itsk" arranges for premium cable to be available at the reception.

• It's hard to believe that it's been almost a year since the death of Artie Curry, my friend and the friend of so many others in boxing. The longtime HBO boxing talent director passed away in April. On Feb. 18, Artie would have turned 50. On that day, St. Francis College in Brooklyn, N.Y., and HBO will formally dedicate a memorial scholarship in his name. Jim Lampley will serve as the master of ceremonies at the program, which will take place at the school. Artie is gone, but not forgotten.

• For the Fight Freaks who keep asking where they'll be able to see the March 20 heavyweight title bout from Germany between Wladimir Klitschko and Eddie Chambers, it's going to be on pay-per-view. HBO's schedule didn't match up with the fight date. It was offered for a modest fee to ESPN, which was interested, but the bucks simply weren't in the budget. Other networks weren't interested. Hence, if you want to see America's No. 1 heavyweight contender get his crack at the title, it'll cost ya.

• I know this isn't what you want to hear, but it looks very likely that the Yuri Foreman-Miguel Cotto junior middleweight title bout June 12 at Madison Square Garden will also wind up on pay-per-view. HBO is interested in the fight and made an offer to Top Rank's Bob Arum. But Arum has big numbers to cover for the fighters. He told me, without condemning HBO for its offer, that the numbers just don't work. Top Rank and HBO may work together on a pay-per-view, but unless something significant changes in the numbers, get ready to pay up again if it's a card that interests you.

• It just wouldn't be February without the annual Groundhog Day news release from ace publicist Fred Sternburg, who handles Manny Pacquiao. The only question was just what would Punxsutawney Phil predict for the PacMan this year? Naturally, according to the bilingual Sternburg, when the little guy emerged Tuesday from his burrow at Gobbler's Knob, Pa., he predicted in his native language of Groundhogese, of course, that Pacquiao would still have his welterweight title six weeks from now after facing Joshua Clottey on March 13. "It's five more weeks of training for Manny Pacquiao and four-time trainer of the year, world-famous Freddie Roach," Sternburg quoted Phil as saying while he shadowboxed during his annual news conference. "Manny is going to exit the ring the same way he entered it -- as world champion." According to Sternburg, the little guy was wearing a PacMan headband and a T-shirt emblazoned with "100% PHILipino" on the front as he further predicted a Pacquiao victory in his upcoming Filipino congressional campaign in May. Not sure where Sternburg learned Groundhogese, but it sure makes each and every Groundhog Day one to look forward to.

• So who's stepping up to face Timothy Bradley Jr.?

• I'm no auto racing fan (even though I had to cover it earlier in my career), but you know what? I'm digging HBO's "24/7 Jimmie Johnson: Race to Daytona." Who said the series had to only focus on the buildup to a big fight? Besides, I can't get enough of the theme music.

• I really like the fight that Top Rank and DiBella are discussing: a junior middleweight match between prospect Vanes Martirosyan and former welterweight titlist Carlos Quintana. That's a true crossroads sorta fight, and one that would fit nicely as an HBO or pay-per-view undercard fight. I hope it gets made.

• It's amazing: A few weeks have passed without the hideous WBA sanctioning a new interim title fight. But give it time.

• Isn't it just great to see Showtime's Nick Charles back at ringside, where he belongs?

• I felt old last week watching Alonso "Finito" Lopez knock out Sergio Cruz in the third round of a flyweight fight on the "Top Rank Live" card. Lopez (3-0, 2 KOs) is the son of the great Ricardo "Finito" Lopez, one of my all-time favorite fighters, whom I had the opportunity of covering for his last few fights. (I also had the great honor of writing a piece about him for the Hall of Fame induction program.) Watching Alonso fight, I thought I was watching his old man, because they look almost identical and their boxing stances are carbon copies. If he can achieve half of what his father did, Alonso will be an excellent fighter.

• As has become the norm, paging Winky Wright.

• Happy birthday to HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg, who celebrates the big 55 on Sunday.

• DVD pick of the week: I've picked this one before, but it's just one of those fights I could watch over and over. I picked it this week because of a milestone. On Feb. 11, it will have been 20 years since James "Buster" Douglas authored the greatest upset in sports history when he knocked out Mike Tyson in the 10th round in Tokyo to win the heavyweight championship. It was a terrific fight, with an ending for the ages. To this day when anyone asks me if so-and-so can beat so-and-so, I always have the same answer: I saw Douglas knock out Tyson. Anything is possible. Incidentally, in honor of the anniversary of the upset, Douglas will be the in-studio guest on ESPN2's "Friday Night Fights" on Feb. 12.

Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, is usually a calm, cool and collected sort. The former Swiss banker doesn't get rattled easily.

Tuesday morning, however, he sounded rattled, expressing concern about why Floyd Mayweather Jr. has not signed his contract to face welterweight champ Shane Mosley on May 1 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, in as big of a fight as there is in the sport.

It has been five days since both sides acknowledged an agreement on terms.

Mosley, of course, put pen to paper on Friday in Las Vegas, where his attorney, Judd Burstein, went through the paperwork with him point by point.

"He is excited to move forward with the bout," Burstein told me at the time.

Burstein also added that he had been assured by Leonard Ellerbe, one of Mayweather's advisers, that there were no problems on their side.

"I confirmed with Leonard that there are no issues," Burstein said.

Ellerbe's quote to me for the story I wrote Friday was, "All of the deal points have been agreed to. We still have to put pen to paper, but everything is agreed to."

Yet five days later, Schaefer still does not have a signed agreement from Mayweather. He was clearly at wit's end when he called me about it Tuesday morning.

"He still hasn't signed. I am so frustrated," Schaefer said. "I wanted both guys to go down to the Super Bowl in Miami to do some promotional stuff. I don't know what Floyd is waiting for. I have no clue. I have a signed contract from Shane on my desk. I have nothing from Floyd."

Schaefer said he is in constant touch with Ellerbe and Al Haymon, Mayweather's other adviser, and when he asks them where the paperwork is, the response is always the same: "Every day, it's the next day. They say, 'Don't worry, it's going to come.' Well, where is it? I'm waiting for the signature before we can move on."

Burstein said he and Mosley were also quite aggravated by the delay.

"I am outraged," Burstein said when I reached him Tuesday afternoon. "I have a client who acts in a professional manner. He allows me to negotiate a deal for him in constant consultation with him. When it all gets put on paper, we go over it and, as promised, he signs if it's OK. That's what happened on Friday. It was signed with the assurance from Al Haymon and Leonard Ellerbe that everything was agreed to and there was no problem."

So what does Burstein believe is the issue?

"It's either one of two things that has happened," he said. "Either he's rethought the wisdom of risking his undefeated record against Shane or he chooses to act like a 7-year-old. Hopefully, it's the latter and he will mature very quickly. But either of these possibilities is completely unacceptable to us. He's going to end up in a fight with Mosley. The only question is whether it will be in the ring or in court."

Now, May 1 is still a ways off, but for a megafight the magnitude of Mosley-Mayweather, kicking it off with promotional appearances at the Super Bowl is significant. When Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya met in May 2007, their media rounds at the Super Bowl generated enormous interest in the fight, which went on to set the all-time pay-per-view record.

Schaefer wants to follow the same blueprint. He said Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr., who will meet April 3 in a pay-per-view rematch that Golden Boy is co-promoting, will be in Miami to help drum up interest in their fight, so he can't understand why Mayweather is MIA.

So I asked Schaefer if he was concerned that the Mosley-Mayweather fight might be in trouble?

His answer was simply, "Yes."

I asked him if he would elaborate.

"At this point, I don't know," he said. "We want to do some big PR, so this is frustrating. I read Leonard's quotes that it was agreed to and that it was just a matter of time to get it signed, but if it's all done, why isn't it signed?"

Schaefer has been down this road with Mayweather before, perhaps one of the reasons for his concern. He negotiated a fall 2008 rematch between Mayweather and De La Hoya, which also had been agreed to and was on the verge of being announced. However, Mayweather never signed the paperwork and instead announced his retirement, which lasted 18 months.

"I am not having flashbacks to anything, but [the Mosley fight] is still not signed," Schaefer said. "I don't know what it means. Obviously, we can't move forward with the promotion, including some important activities that were planned for this coming weekend, unless we have a signed deal."

Before negotiating with Mosley, Mayweather was close to a deal to face Manny Pacquiao on March 13 in what would have been, by far, the sport's biggest fight. But that fight fell apart shortly before what was supposed to have been a kickoff news conference in early January. The reason was because the fighters couldn't reach a compromise on drug-testing protocol. Mayweather insisted on testing that went far beyond the rules of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. While Pacquiao accepted some additional testing, he refused random blood testing.

Both fighters moved on. Pacquiao quickly made a deal to defend his welterweight belt against Joshua Clottey on March 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Mayweather and Mosley began their talks after Mosley's Jan. 30 unification fight with Andre Berto was canceled.

So while Pacquiao wrapped up his deal with Clottey in about two seconds and Mosley signed on the dotted line in pretty short order, we all continue to wait for Mayweather's John Hancock yet again, including Schaefer.

"I always tell you, a signed deal is a done deal," Schaefer said. "It will only be done when Floyd signs, and that hasn't happened yet. I don't know of any deal terms that are not agreed to. I don't understand it."

Golden Boy Promotions is going to be awfully busy in the coming months. There are its smaller monthly "Fight Night Club" shows on Fox Sports Net and dates on ESPN2's "Friday Night Fights." There are bigger "World Championship Boxing" and "Boxing After Dark" cards on HBO. And, of course, there are pay-per-view events, including the huge Shane Mosley-Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight on May 1.

I traded a few e-mails with Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer over the weekend, and he offered some updates on some of the events in the works:

• Of the proposed Michael Katsidis-Robert Guerrero lightweight fight, which is penciled in to headline "BAD" on March 27, Schaefer said, "[It] looks good. Both guys have agreed." He said he has a meeting planned with Katsidis to finalize the bout. If you ask me, that is a can't-miss fight.

• The March 27 card could be a tripleheader with middleweight Daniel Jacobs, the 2009 ESPN.com prospect of the year, returning from a hand injury to make his 2010 debut in one of the televised fights.

• Work continues on the proposed Amir Khan-Juan Manuel Marquez junior welterweight title bout. Schaefer said if he can wrap it up it will be May 15 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas with junior welterweight Victor Ortiz facing former lightweight titlist Nate Campbell in the televised co-feature. Ortiz, of course, would have to defeat Hector Alatorre on Feb. 25 in a "Fight Night Club" main event. Schaefer noted that a Marquez victory would make him the first Mexican to win titles in four divisions. "And if Khan wins [it] would be a huge introduction for Khan to the American audience," he said. "Would be a huge fight." He's absolutely right. On paper, at least, that's a terrific show.

• The two most likely opponents for interim junior welterweight titlist Marcos Maidana are titleholder Timothy Bradley Jr. or Victor Cayo. "Will be up to Maidana," Schaefer said. He added that he had a Monday meeting planned with Maidana to see what he wants to do. If it's Maidana-Cayo, the fight probably will land on an HBO undercard. If he challenges Bradley, it probably lands on Showtime, where Bradley has been fighting regularly.

• The promotion for the Roy Jones-Bernard Hopkins rematch, which will be April 3 at Mandalay Bay, will officially kick off the week after the Super Bowl with news conferences in New York and Los Angeles.

• Mosley has already signed his contract, and Schaefer is awaiting a signature from Mayweather, who has agreed to terms.

Welterweight titlist Andre Berto, a Haitian-American who called off Saturday's unification fight with Shane Mosley after eight members of his extended family were killed in the Haiti earthquake, went on a humanitarian mission to Haiti to bring aid.

Berto also brought his sister and her daughter back to the United States after their home was destroyed by the quake.

Berto has stayed busy doing his part to help in Haiti. But he's also anxious to get back to boxing, especially after putting in nearly a full training camp in preparation to fight Mosley.

"Now he's gung ho to get back in the ring," promoter Lou DiBella told me the other day. "Andre feels the best way to help Haiti now is to get back in the ring and do his thing, and help raise more money and awareness."

That ring return could come April 10 on HBO at New York's Madison Square Garden, DiBella said.

There has been early conversation about Berto facing former junior welterweight titlist Paulie Malignaggi, whom DiBella also promotes and who is coming off an impressive win against Juan Diaz in their December rematch.

"The idea has been thrown out, but we haven't yet had substantive conversations," DiBella said. "Until [Berto manager] Al Haymon and I can sit down and talk with Andre, nothing is going to happen. But it's an idea that's been kicked around."

DiBella put a hold on the Garden for April 10 a few weeks ago when Malignaggi was raised as a possible opponent for Floyd Mayweather Jr.. It was a fortuitous move, because now it might be used for Berto-Malignaggi.

"Andre wants to do an event that will help Haiti, and there's a huge Haitian population in New York and Madison Square Garden is a very attractive place to a fight," DiBella said. "Wherever Andre fights, it will have a fundraising element to the fight."

One of the reasons Malignaggi is in the picture is because the proposed spring fight with junior welterweight titlist Amir Khan of England now appears unlikely, and Khan is negotiating with Juan Manuel Marquez for a May fight.

"Paulie is not agreeing to be a low-paid B-side to Amir Khan," DiBella said. "If Paulie is going to fight him, Golden Boy can treat him like he should be treated. Khan means nothing in the United States at this point, so we're not going to be treated like we're nobodies, so that limits Paulie's options. But he's a brave kid. He hung with Miguel Cotto and he's willing to take a challenge by fighting Berto. He said he wants that fight."

Among the potential undercard bouts DiBella has discussed with HBO: a junior welterweight fight between Zab Judah and hot prospect Victor Cayo, and Judah against former titleholder Carlos Quintana in a welterweight bout (although given a choice, HBO prefers the junior welterweight bout).

Judah, the former undisputed welterweight champ who is interested in moving back to junior welterweight, has also talked to Golden Boy about a spring fight with Marcos Maidana, the hard-punching interim titleholder. Maidana might also wind up facing Cayo on an HBO card. Maidana and Khan, who are both with Golden Boy, are trying to work out a scenario in which they both take interim bouts while trying to build their mandatory meeting into something bigger than it would be now.

Promoter Gary Shaw, who handles junior welterweight titlist Timothy Bradley, told ESPN.com that he is talking to Golden Boy about a Bradley-Maidana fight for Showtime in the spring.

Even though I don't love the idea of Berto-Malignaggi, it might be interesting, and there sure are a lot of other bouts being talked about. Some of them are bound to happen, meaning we could have a nice spring schedule. At the very least, the spring could be a lot better than the first few months of the year have looked.

Your weekly random thoughts …

• The start of 2010 has been just awful for big fights. Other than a nice "Boxing After Dark" card on HBO last week, January has been a complete waste because of the cancellation of HBO's Shane Mosley-Andre Berto fight and the fact that Showtime didn't schedule a prime-time card. HBO will have no boxing at all in February and no live "World Championship Boxing" in March either. And what's with just a one-fight "Boxing After Dark" on March 6, with Devon Alexander facing Juan Urango? Can we at least get a doubleheader? Remind me again why I'm paying $15 a month for HBO?

Although Manny Pacquiao returns to action to fight Joshua Clottey on HBO PPV, we're still settling for second-best because it isn't Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Showtime has the Edwin Valero-Antonio DeMarco fight on Feb. 6, which could be explosive but isn't that big of a fight. Showtime's March schedule includes the resumption of the Super Six, with Arthur Abraham facing Andre Dirrell. But talk about an overall woeful quarter for the premium networks. And while I'm at it, it would be nice if HBO would stop counter-programming Showtime at every opportunity, as it has done on March 6 and will do again April 17. You think it's an accident? If you do, I've got some nice Harry Greb videos for you.

• As much as I would love to see Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa in a featherweight unification fight right away, I understand promoter Bob Arum's reluctance. Arum is right: The fight isn't big enough right now. It needs time to marinate. A couple more wins for each guy and it will be a blockbuster. Arum is 100 percent right when he says he owes it to both fighters, as well as his company, Top Rank, to make the bout as big as possible. So if he wants to take some time and build it up, I'm fine with that -- as long as he follows through with what he said at ringside after both guys looked so spectacular knocking out their opponents Saturday in New York. Arum said he wanted them to clean out the division so that they are the last men standing when they finally meet. Why would anyone have a problem with Lopez and Gamboa not fighting each other next, as long as they are facing quality guys such as Chris John, Elio Rojas, Celestino Caballero, the winner of the Feb. 13 Mario Santiago-Bernabe Concepcion fight or even the winner of Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez IV on May 22, along the way? The trick here is to get Arum to keep his word, which is often the hard part.

• Not sure if the promoters have come up with a title for the Roy Jones Jr.-Bernard Hopkins pay-per-view fight, but I have a suggestion: "Grumpy Old Men." Ace publicist/comedian Fred Sternburg asked me if I think the postfight urine test will check for prune juice.

• It would be nice if some American television network would pick up the March 20 Wladimir Klitschko-Eddie Chambers heavyweight title fight.

• Yes, I am still ticked off that Pacquiao-Mayweather isn't happening March 13.

• What exactly is taking so long for the Mosley-Mayweather fight to be finalized?

• I really hope the Kelly Pavlik-Sergio Martinez fight is finalized, but there are issues. The date is supposed to be April 17. However, Showtime doesn't want Lou DiBella, who promotes Martinez and super middleweight Allan Green, promoting Martinez in a major HBO fight on the same night he has Green challenging Andre Ward in the Super Six tournament. Between that sticky situation and the fact that the DiBella/Martinez, Pavlik/Top Rank and HBO camps aren't on the same page in terms of money, the fight could be in trouble.

• Have to give ESPN boxing programmer Doug Loughrey a tip of the cap for rescuing the Glen Johnson-Yusaf Mack light heavyweight elimination bout. It was supposed to be on the untelevised undercard of Saturday night's Mosley-Berto show. That show, of course, was canceled, but Loughrey found a few extra bucks and somehow managed to fit it into the Feb. 5 show that was already scheduled. We all win by the move. ESPN2's "Friday Night Fights" gets an excellent fight, fans besides those who had a ticket to Mosley-Berto will get to see it on television, and the boxers had to delay their bout by only a week rather than have it stuck in limbo.

• I love the proposed Michael Katsidis-Robert Guerrero fight.

• So, who's going to step up and fight Timothy Bradley?

• When Berto resumes training after his humanitarian mission to earthquake-ravaged Haiti, where his family is from, he'll get an HBO date and resume fighting. One fight I really hope that doesn't get made is the proposed match between Berto and junior welterweight Paulie Malignaggi. I love both guys, but I'm not interested in the slightest in seeing that particular match. There are so many more interesting bouts for both guys, especially for Malignaggi, who has never weighed more than 143 pounds for a fight in his career and would face Berto as a massive underdog.

• DVD pick of the week: When I broke the news a few days ago that Erik Morales was coming out of retirement, it put me in the mood to see "El Terrible" in action. He had so many great fights, but I went for his last great moment. It was a junior lightweight fight on March 19, 2005, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Morales, coming off a majority decision loss to rival Marco Antonio Barrera in the rubber match (and 2004 fight of the year) of their glorious trilogy, faced Pacquiao for the first time in what began their own memorable trilogy. It would be Morales' last stand. He would lose his next four fights, including two knockout losses to Pacquiao, before going into a 2½-year retirement. But the first fight against Pacquiao was unforgettable and one of Morales' finest moments. The three-division champ cut Pacquiao badly over his right eye in the fifth round and got a little better of the action throughout most of the all-out slugfest. Although Pacquiao closed strong, rocking Morales in the classic 12th round, Morales got the tight, but well-deserved decision (115-113 on all three scorecards). Pacquiao hasn't lost since. Watching the DVD, however, couldn't replace what should have been memories of the ringside experience. I was set to go to the fight, which would have been my first from ringside for ESPN after leaving USA Today. However, I came down with a nasty flu a couple of days before the trip and wound up watching the fight from my couch while deathly ill.

There are a lot of people utterly disgusted by the likelihood of Antonio Margarito being granted a boxing license by Texas regulators, a situation I outlined in a blog last week.

Carson Jones isn't one of them.

If Margarito, who was punished last year by the California State Athletic Commission for attempting to wear loaded gloves for his fight with Shane Mosley in Los Angeles, gets his license, Top Rank will match him with Jones in a 10-rounder at 155 pounds. It will be a high-profile fight co-featured on the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey HBO PPV card at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

I think that most who read my work regularly know I'm one of the people appalled by the idea of Margarito getting a Texas license without even having to go before the California commission, which rightfully revoked his license at a disciplinary hearing last February.

However, there are two sides to every story, and Jones is one of the few people who wholeheartedly endorses the idea of Margarito being allowed to fight.

Can you blame him?

It would be the biggest fight and payday of his career. Jones (24-7-1, 15 KOs) is a 23-year-old from Oklahoma City trying to make a living in a tough, tough sport. Nobody looks at Jones and sees a future world champion -- just a hard-working fighter trying to do the best he can and looking to take advantage of a big opportunity against Margarito.

In his last fight, Jones did open a few eyes. In December, he scored a third-round knockout against previously unbeaten and wholly untested Tyrone Brunson in the main event of a "ShoBox" card on Showtime.

A fight against Margarito would dwarf that bout.

"If Margarito is not allowed to fight, that takes food off of my table and robs me of a chance to show the world that I am the real deal and hurts me far more than it does Antonio Margarito. I wish people would stop trying to prevent this fight from happening. This is a dream fight for me and something I have worked all my life for to have an opportunity to do," said Jones, who is going to go through with an already scheduled rematch against Eloy Suarez on Thursday night to prepare for the Margarito fight.

"The public needs to let me handle the punishing of Antonio Margarito, because that is exactly what I will do if he is allowed to fight me on March 13. I ask all the people who want this fight stopped to just support me on March 13 when I pull off my second upset in a row."

Jones, who has already signed a contract for the fight in anticipation of Margarito being licensed, said he has no concern about him trying to cheat again. Besides, you can bet the house that the wrapping of Margarito's hands for that fight will be the most scrutinized in history.

"I think he has learned his lesson, and I am not concerned at all about him trying to do any of the things that he has been accused of doing in the past," Jones said. "This is supposed to be his comeback fight. It will be his retirement fight also. Trust me."

NEW YORK -- Fight week was in many ways a passing of the torch from Puerto Rican legend Felix "Tito" Trinidad to the island's bright new star, newly crowned featherweight titleholder Juan Manuel Lopez.

Although Miguel Cotto became a star in between them, Trinidad and Lopez are much more comparable because of their similar outgoing personalities, their big smiles and the emotional connection that Puerto Rican fans have made with them. Cotto, although respected and cheered by those fans, has never generated the kind of emotion that Trinidad and Lopez do. Perhaps it is because of Cotto's more reserved and private personality. Perhaps it is his desire to train away from Puerto Rico.

Trinidad and Cotto were both in the house Saturday night to watch Lopez blow out Steven Luevano in seven lopsided rounds to win his second world title in as many weight divisions.

And, of course, they both received cheers when they were introduced to the crowd at the Theater at Madison Square Garden.

Cotto was in town for the prefight tribute to his late father, Miguel Sr., and to sit with promoter Bob Arum and try to make a deal for a June 12 fight against junior middleweight titlist Yuri Foreman, who was also on hand.

Trinidad, however, was there just because he's a big Lopez supporter and enjoys being around the fight scene. While Cotto arrived Friday night, Trinidad was in New York for a few days. He soaked it all in. He posed for pictures with Lopez at the weigh-in, signaling that passing of the torch in a graphic way. He spent time around the fight hotel, mingling with his many fans, signing every last autograph and posing for numerous photos, always with a smile on his face -- just like Lopez has.

While there are always rumors that pop up out of Puerto Rico here and there that signal a possible Trinidad comeback, don't count on it.

I had a chance to spend some time with Trinidad after Saturday's fight. I asked him what he was planning to do, and I have to admit, I thought maybe a comeback was on his mind for two reasons: Don King, his longtime promoter, called Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer last month to inquire about a rematch between Trinidad and Bernard Hopkins and because Trinidad, who has a tendency to blow up in weight when he is out of the ring, looked in incredibly fit and trim condition.

But Trinidad told me in his broken English and with that broad smile that, no, he is not training for a comeback. He said he does still train and he still runs, but just to exercise.

"Run, run, run, just to run," he said as he pumped his arms like a jogger as we walked back to the fight hotel after the show. "No boxing, no comeback. I am done."

I was glad to hear it. He turned 37 on Jan. 10 and lost his last two fights in terrifyingly lopsided fashion, dropping a decision to Roy Jones in a light heavyweight bout at the Garden two years ago this month and a punishing decision defeat to middleweight Winky Wright in 2005.

Trinidad's time has passed. When he was at his best, there were few fighters who were more of a joy to watch or cover. Some of my greatest memories are of being ringside for Trinidad fights. His junior middleweight unification victory against Fernando Vargas in 2000 was an extraordinary fight and a great promotion. It was the first really big fight I covered in Las Vegas and it was a blast.

Trinidad's annihilation of Williams Joppy at the Garden to win a middleweight title in 2001 is easily one of the greatest atmospheres I have ever been in for a fight. His knockout loss to Hopkins in the final of the Middleweight World Championship Series at the Garden just two weeks after 9/11 remains one of the most emotional experiences of my career. And Trinidad's 2004 comeback from his first retirement to face Ricardo Mayorga at the Garden was another electrifying atmosphere. Fans, and, to be honest, media members too, were just so overjoyed to have Trinidad back in the ring for that fight after a 2½-year hiatus.

But now it's over. There won't be a third comeback, it seems. And I was really happy to hear Trinidad say it to my face. When he said it, I really felt like he meant it and that he was at peace with his final record reading 42-3 with 35 KOs and five world titles in three divisions.

He was a great fighter and one of the most exciting of his time. But he's a spectator now. Trinidad can enjoy watching Lopez grow, perhaps someday into the force he once was in Puerto Rico and in New York.

He's doing his best to help Lopez reach that level, the weekend's figurative passing of the torch being a great place to start.

NEW YORK -- Sure, most boxing fans really, really wanted to see pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao fight Floyd Mayweather on March 13. While that fight isn't happening now because of their inability to agree on how to handle drug testing for the bout, the public seems to have accepted with open arms Pacquiao's replacement fight.

He's going to meet former welterweight titleholder Joshua Clottey on HBO PPV on March 13 in the first boxing event to be held at the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, outside of Dallas.

In just the first three hours of public tickets sales (preceded by three days of limited pre-sales) on Saturday, more than 20,000 of the approximately 40,000 available were gobbled up. They ranged in price from $50 to $700.

"Ross Greenburg and I are very gratified that the public has responded like they have, and we are happy for our partner (Cowboys owner) Jerry Jones," Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told me on Saturday night at the Madison Square Garden Theater.

Arum and Greenburg, the president of HBO Sports, were sitting together shortly before the telecast of Top Rank's doubleheader, featuring featherweight title bouts pitting Steven Luevano and Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa and Rogers Mtagwa.

Arum said if the demand for the fight continues the capacity of the stadium, which is 100,000 or so for Cowboys games, can easily be increased.

"It's going to be quite a night," Arum said. "And Jerry isn't just a one-event guy. If he sees this as a success you can be sure he'll do more boxing in that great stadium."

Also Saturday night, junior middleweight titlist Yuri Foreman and former welterweight titlist Miguel Cotto were in the house. Arum, who promotes both, was talking with both sides trying to finalize a June 12 fight between them, which he is planning for in the Madison Square Garden main arena.

Since reporting Wednesday night that Top Rank was planning a fight for disgraced former welterweight titlist Antonio Margarito and that it believes he will be licensed by the Texas commission, the reaction to the story from people inside the boxing industry has been swift and strong.

Several industry insiders called or e-mailed me on Thursday to vent their disgust at the notion after reading the story, and I can't say I blame them. I was a little ill just reporting the facts, which are that Margacheato is likely to receive a license in Texas to fight Carson Jones on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey welterweight title fight at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington on March 13 (HBO PPV).

We all know the story by now, about how Margacheato and trainer Javier Capetillo had their licenses revoked in February '09 by the California State Athletic Commission a few weeks after it was discovered that before Margacheato fought (and got drilled by) Shane Mosley that his gloves had been loaded with illegal pads coated with a plaster-like substance.

Few buy Margacheato's plea of ignorance, and many question the legitimacy of his other victories, including his knockout win against Miguel Cotto in the fight before he faced Mosley. Boxing fans around the world were disgusted by the blatant attempt to cheat and the thought of the potential damage he could have done to Mosley in an unfair fight.

If you want to see what happens in that kind of situation, just watch the recent HBO documentary "Assault in the Ring" (just out on DVD) which chronicles the story of the scandalous 1983 fight at Madison Square Garden in which junior middleweight Luis Resto and evil trainer Panama Lewis removed the padding from his gloves before Resto disfigured Billy Collins Jr. over 10 rounds.

Resto and Lewis were banned from boxing for life and served prison time, as they deserved. Margacheato, now that a year since the license revocation is just about up, will be eligible to be licensed by commissions around the country. However, Texas is considering giving Margacheato a license without him having to go before the California commission again to ask for one. It's technically within the rules, but it will be a horrible decision if Texas gives the cheater a license.

It's also a bit disturbing that Top Rank and its chairman, Bob Arum, would support it, especially since Arum promoted the Resto-Collins fight and knows as well as anyone what might have happened had Margacheato entered the ring with loaded gloves.

Main Events chief Kathy Duva described the possibility of Margacheato being licensed as "sooo wrong!" in an e-mail to me.

Even Jones' manager, Bobby Dobbs, expressed mixed feelings.

"If my fighter wasn't being given the opportunity of a lifetime and a huge payday, I am not sure if I would think he should fight either," he wrote me.

The most scathing e-mail came from promoter Jeff Wald from "The Contender."

"Of all the many disgusting things I have seen in boxing, this ranks near the worst," Wald wrote to me. "There is no way he didn't know what was in his gloves. I can't believe Arum would support this guy and have him fight after he was responsible for almost destroying Cotto, who is also handled by Arum. … The rest of the U.S. should never give him a license and California should now bar him for life with no appeal. Texas obviously does not care about fighters or their health. Panama Lewis was barred for life and so should Magarito."

Your weekly random thoughts …

As soon as Shane Mosley's welterweight unification fight with Andre Berto was canceled -- understandably, because Berto lost numerous family members in the Haiti earthquake and isn't prepared to go forward with the fight during this heartbreaking time -- the possibility of Mosley defending against Floyd Mayweather Jr. immediately came up.

It's the obvious fight. Mosley needs a dance partner, and Mayweather also needs one. Besides, it's a huge fight.

Let's just hope the sides can make it happen (probably for early May) and not get bogged down in the ego and stupidity that killed Mayweather's fight with Manny Pacquiao, which was supposed to be on March 13.

If you ask me, there are three superfights in boxing. One is Pacquiao-Mayweather, which is by far the biggest. The other two are Mosley-Mayweather and Pacquiao-Mosley.

So while Pacquiao moves on to face Joshua Clottey -- the next-best available welterweight for him to fight -- Mosley and Mayweather hopefully will come together.

Mosley-Mayweather is a fight I've wanted to see for many years, going back to the late 1990s when Mayweather was the junior lightweight champ and Mosley was the lightweight champ. But Mosley didn't stick around at 135 pounds waiting for Mayweather; he jumped all the way up to welterweight to lure a prime Oscar De La Hoya into the ring.

As much as I like Mosley-Mayweather, though, remember one thing: It's still second-best. Pacquiao-Mayweather was, and still is, the biggest fight out there.

• Not sure what to make of some phone calls I received Monday night: Informed sources said that even though Berto planned to withdraw from the fight because of his family situation, his adviser, Al Haymon, who also happens to handle Mayweather, made a deal for Berto to get paid (either by the Golden Boy/Mosley side or Mayweather or both) to step aside to allow for Mosley-Mayweather (a much bigger fight than Mosley-Berto) to be put together. One reason it sounded plausible is because, according to a source familiar with the Mosley-Berto contract, the deal had a rescheduling clause in it, in the event either guy had to delay the fight. That clause was not exercised. Perhaps a payment to Berto made that go away.

• With Mayweather off March 13, it should come as zero surprise that HBO PPV and Top Rank struck a deal for the network to produce and distribute the Pacquiao-Clottey card on March 13. There never was any way in the world that a Mayweather fight would have actually gone on the same night against another opponent, as had been insisted upon by Golden Boy, which is promoting Mayweather. HBO's Ross Greenburg and Mark Taffet had to let the craziness play out, and now it has. Pacquiao gets March 13. Mayweather will go some other time. All's well that ends well -- except for the fact that we still aren't getting Pacquiao-Mayweather. And don't think that I or millions of boxing fans are going to forget that any time soon.

• Example 5,879 on why boxing often leaves me scratching my head: Mosley slaughtered Antonio Margarito in January 2009 in a huge victory. Margarito later had his license revoked for at least a year for trying to load his gloves before the fight, yet he may wind up back in the ring before Mosley. Top Rank, which believes Margarito will be licensed in Texas, plans to put him on the Pacquiao-Clottey undercard. Mosley, meanwhile, hasn't fought since beating Margarito and probably won't fight until the spring now that his fight with Berto is off. Crazy.

• Promoter Don King always seems to wait until the last minute to secure sites for his cards. King, however, has found a home for the March 6 HBO show headlined by the Devon Alexander-Juan Urango junior welterweight unification fight. It will take place at the Mohegan Sun resort in Connecticut. He landed the site with about seven weeks before the fight. By King's standards, that's an eternity.

• You may not like watching John Ruiz fight/hold, but it made a lot of sense for Golden Boy to sign him because it also promotes David Haye, which means Golden Boy will control a piece of the heavyweight title regardless of who wins their April fight. And then Golden Boy can give the winner of Haye-Ruiz to Bernard Hopkins, assuming he beats Roy Jones Jr. (which he should). As long as HBO doesn't let Ruiz anywhere near one of Golden Boy's dates on the network, everything will be just fine.

• Regardless of whether he got a buyout, I'm glad Jermain Taylor withdrew from the Super Six tournament. Nobody wants to see the guy get hurt. But I found it pretty weak that while thanking everyone in his statement announcing his withdrawal that he left out promoter Lou DiBella, who had been an integral part of Taylor's career from day one. Although DiBella had resigned a couple of weeks earlier over concerns about Taylor's health, he deserved more from Taylor than to be ignored as though he never existed. Taylor won the undisputed middleweight championship and made many millions of dollars, and he has DiBella to thank for being a major reason it happened.

• Times may be tough for some promoters, but Top Rank keeps rolling along. Bob Arum's company will promote 11 cards in the next 10 weeks. The marathon begins with an excellent HBO card in New York on Saturday night when featherweight titlist Steven Luevano defends against junior featherweight titlist Juan Manuel Lopez in the main event, and runs nonstop through a Fox Sports Net card on March 27. In all, there is one HBO card, one combo "Latin Fury"/"Pinoy Power" pay-per-view card, eight FSN cards and the centerpiece of it all: the Pacquiao-Clotty HBO PPV card. Top Rank matchmaker Brad "Abdul" Goodman is going to be awfully busy for the next couple of months.

• I don't know about you, but between the return of ESPN2's "Friday Night Fights" a couple of weeks ago and the regularity of the new "Top Rank Live" series on FSN, I'm a pretty happy camper when it comes to the basic cable offerings. Unfortunately, it's a miserably slow start for HBO and Showtime. With regard to the new Top Rank series, I thought the debut card headlined by Vanes Martirosyan's extremely competitive fight with Kassim Ouma was excellent. Hopefully, shows like it will be the norm and not the exception.

Let's also hope that Top Rank won't be destroying another network's taste for boxing as it did when it got the keys to the castle from Versus and then burned it down. I think Arum understands, although you never know. At least he's saying the right things.

Here's what he had to say recently when I asked him about the FSN series and reminded him of the disaster he was responsible for at Versus: "We f---ed up Versus. If we don't learn from the mistakes we made at Versus, then this series will go down the drain. Versus was not something we are proud of. It just went off the tracks. We didn't pay attention to it. I admit that. This is different. Now we brought a guy on, Carl Moretti, whose first responsibility is that series."

• After the 2009 awards stories came out a few weeks ago, I was asked by several Fight Freaks to name my biggest robbery of the year. I'd have to go with two of them. Ali Funeka got absolutely hosed when he got a draw against Joan Guzman. Same goes for Sergio Martinez, who got an inconceivable draw against Kermit Cintron, who really had been knocked out earlier in the fight until referee Frank Santore made one of the worst calls I have ever seen and allowed the fight to continue.

• So Evander Holyfield's fight with Frans Botha in Uganda had been postponed from Jan. 16 to Feb. 20. Anyone shocked? Hopefully, the farce will wind up being canceled.

• Ron Scott Stevens, who was unceremoniously dumped as chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission in July 2008 (even though he apparently had done a fine job) has always had interests outside boxing. One of them is theater. Stevens has written and produced an off-Broadway play called "The Cutting Den." Its three-week run opens Feb. 4 at the Soho Playhouse. Publicist Donald Tremblay described the play as being about a Brooklyn barbershop fronting for a gambling parlor. One of the interesting notes about the play is that former middleweight titlist Doug DeWitt, who has been acting since the end of his boxing career in 1992, has one of the lead roles.

• DVD pick of the week: I received some DVDs from a buddy of mine the other day. One fight he sent was one that I have on VHS but in crappy condition. The DVD of this original ABC broadcast, however, was in stunning condition, which made it all the more enjoyable watching one of the greatest heavyweight slugfests ever. It was George Foreman's epic five-round brawl with Ron Lyle from Jan. 24, 1976, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. It was Foreman's first sanctioned fight in more than a year (he had done some exhibitions) following his knockout loss to Muhammad Ali, and Foreman barely survived. Lyle hurt Foreman in the first round and dropped him twice in the fourth round. But Foreman also dropped Lyle in the incredible fourth before knocking him out in the fifth. It's a truly awesome fight.

There are two significant reasons why Top Rank's Bob Arum will be in New York next week. One will be to oversee a press conference on Wednesday to promote the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey welterweight title fight, which will take place on March 13 at Dallas Cowboys Stadium. The other is for the final promotional push for next Saturday's outstanding HBO "Boxing After Dark" card at the Madison Square Garden Theater.

That card, which I can't wait for, features a pair of featherweight title bouts as Steven Luevano defends against junior featherweight titlist Juan Manuel Lopez and the electrifying Yuriorkis Gamboa defends his sliver of the title against rugged Rogers Mtagwa.

That's a lot of business for one week, but apparently not enough for Arum.

He will also start the unofficial media blitz for another fight he intends to make for June. That fight would see newly crowned junior middleweight titleholder Yuri Foreman, the New York-based, Belarus native who is studying to become a rabbi, defending against former welterweight beltholder Miguel Cotto, who lost his title via 12th-round knockout to Pacquiao in November on the same card on which Foreman beat Daniel Santos to win his title.

"You will see Miguel Cotto and Yuri Foreman at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 23," Arum told me the other day. "The reason they will both be there is to start the promotion for their fight in June. Miguel wants to fight Foreman. Yuri wants a big fight. Yuri will have the Jewish fans behind him. And we already know what a big attraction Miguel is in New York and how much the Puerto Rican fans support him."

The bout would take place at the Garden on June 12, the eve of the annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York. Top Rank has made that weekend a regular fight date for Cotto for the past few years.

Arum said Cotto, who is still mourning the recent death of his father, asked to come to the Jan. 23 show and is interested in moving up in weight to challenge Foreman.

Foreman, too, is interested in the fight. He had been in the running to land the March fight with Pacquiao after the fight with Floyd Mayweather (I'm still not over that) fell apart. But Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer, put the kibosh on the match over concern about Pacquiao again moving up in weight and facing the much taller Foreman.

So if Foreman couldn't get Pacquiao, he'll certainly take Cotto, according to manager Murray "Shpipples" Wilson.

Arum admits he hasn't yet talked to either camp about money, but he plans to next week in New York.

Arum also said he is unsure if he would present the fight on pay-per-view or try to make a deal with HBO. But either way, he intends to make the fight.

"That's why I am going to show them together in New York, to get this thing rolling," Arum said. "They both want the fight. It would be so big in New York."

If Lopez beats Luevano, Arum said he'd like to put him on the June 12 undercard. Arum's plan has been to eventually match Lopez and Gamboa, if they are both victorious, but not right away.

"We're saving that for later in the year if they both win," Arum said.