Because You Won't Read Anything Else...The Floyd Mayweather vs. Marcos Maidana (and Undercard!) Prediction Piece.

Whether you love him or hate him, nobody quite does it like Floyd Mayweather. The undefeated five-division champion has made the Cinco De Mayo weekend go from big to epic in the sport of boxing, making his matches not just a fight, but an event.

Leading up to this fight with WBA Welterweight titleholder Marcos Maidana, Mayweather launched an ill-advised poll to gather support for a clash with the fading former Junior Welterweight Amir Khan or Maidana. Though Khan "won" on the poll, Mayweather vetoed the result and accepted the public's choice that he face Maidana instead.

Maidana has had a long road on his way to this fight and is coming off of a career-best win after throttling Mayweather-mini Adrien Broner in his last effort. He toppled one of boxing's best prospects, but does the rugged Argentine have what it takes to take down the best fighter of this era?


Power: Maidana

Speed: Mayweather
Style: Mayweather
X-Factor: Maidana's conditioning. Has been unable to consistently maintain a pace.
Recent Form: Mayweather



To make it brief: No.

Mayweather at 37 is fighting smarter and more efficiently than he did in his younger years. In his 2013 campaign, which came following a year of inactivity and serving a prison sentence, Mayweather easily defeated Robert Guerrero and moved up to 152 pounds to spank Saul Alvarez. In both of those fights, "Money" looked like his namesake by winning virtually every second of those fights against two very different, but very good fighters.

There really isn't much to say about Mayweather in regards to any intangibles or issues he'll have going into the fight. He'll be the same well conditioned technician looking to deflect his opponents charges with his shoulder roll and right hand counters. The real question mark isn't how prepared Mayweather is, but more so what exactly does Maidana bring to the table?

Much has been made of Maidana's reinvention after pairing up with Robert Garcia, but that came after a point where many wondered if Maidana was ever ready for mainstream success. Maidana fell short in all three of his previous title fights before Broner with each person beating him in a different way.

Andres Kotelnik outlasted and outboxed him. Amir Khan dropped Maidana early with a body shot and his chin held up strong in Maidana's late desperation surges, and Devon Alexander used combination punches and counters to stamp the signature win of his career against him, nearly stopping him late in their fight.

Maidana isn't as fast as Guerrero, nor is he as strong as Alvarez. He has no physical advantages or wrinkles in his style that could potentially lead to success against Mayweather. As a matter of fact, Maidana just may be the most limited fighter that Mayweather has fought since outpointing the lumbering Carlos Baldomir back in 2006.

14/1 odds say that Mayweather is going to win, and it's hard to not see him do so convincingly. While Mayweather may press for a stoppage, he'll settle for a lopsided decision and have to look forward at the best of what's left.

...Or maybe not.



Khan, who was nothing but a snotty brat when he realized that he wasn't getting a fight with Mayweather, might still be able to punch his ticket against the resurgent Luis Collazo in the main undercard bout. Collazo shockingly knocked out Victor Ortiz last January and Khan hasn't been in the ring since narrowly escaping handpicked foe Julio Diaz last year, not to mention the fact that Khan hasn't looked good since losing a close loss to Lamont Peterson three years prior.

Collazo may not be a big puncher, but Khan's declining form thanks to the now ill-advised pairing with Virgil Hunter makes this a close fight. The judges will ultimately see this one in Khan's favor though the crowd may not, and it will ultimately remove him from the Mayweather equation once again.

More than likely the winner of this fight may have to take one more shot before getting Mayweather if they get a shot at all. That will have to come against Broner, who will be matched up against Lightweight contender Carlos Molina (not to be confused for the Junior Middleweight champion of the same name). Broner should take down Molina by mid-round KO, but will more than likely be seeing either Collazo or Khan later this year.

Old Man Smell

Things are starting to look very, very rough for the house that Bob Arum built. Just less than a week ago, we were anticipating the announcement of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs HBO's own golden child Gennady Golovkin in what would have been an excellent fight. This week, it has been reported that Chavez has been courted by boxing's mega-broker Al Haymon and it looks like the young man likes what he sees.

As of this writing, Chavez is still under contract with Top Rank but it isn't hard to see that these are trying times for Bob Arum and the HBO regime who so heavily rely on his fleeting stable.

Chavez might be willing to either sit out or buy out his remaining eight months to partner up with Haymon. Their future star in the making Mikey Garcia is taking his grievances with his current employer to court, citing a violation of the Muhammad Ali act which will end with Garcia either leaving or missing significant time in the ring.

These developments have just come hot off of the reports that the Manny Pacquiao/Timothy Bradley rematch last weekend severely underperformed at the box-office selling only $7.8 million at the live gate, Pacquiao's lowest gate in four years.

The projected pay-per-view numbers are floating anywhere between 600-800k, which is also a tremendous disappointment for what was one of the biggest fights of the year at this point. Not to mention that the results from the Bradley fight continues a downward trend in Pacquiao's marketability as age and tougher matchmaking have taken their toll on their Filipino superstar.

Arum's long promotional career has included tons of strong-arming and clandestine business practices to keep fighters and revenue from being split as little as possible, but where Arum always found himself smarter than the fighters he employed in the past, this is a whole new game. There are very little places for old-timers and their old school practices anymore.

If a fighter wanted to fight any of his big name guys in the past, it had to come with either options or a contract altogther. Shane Mosley, Juan Manuel Marquez and Timothy Bradley all had to jump ship from their previous promoter in order for their fights with Pacquiao to take place. Chavez could not get his fight with Sergio Martinez two years ago unless he agreed to a contract extension.

Opportunities are no longer at Arum's feet anymore and his fighters are taking notice. Garcia saw a potential career-high payday go up in smoke when Arum put the kibbosh on a fight with Yuriorkis Gamboa, not wanting his fleeting former client to make a single cent from his pocket. Let's not even mention why we haven't gotten Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao to fight, but history will tell us who ultimately pulled the plug on that one time and time again.

One would have to imagine the state of HBO boxing if Showtime were to annex Garcia and Chavez much like they did Adonis Stevenson just a few months ago. HBO cannot possibly hope to compete with the quality of fighters making their way to Showtime with the ragtag bunch of fighters they have now.

In the course of the past year, HBO lost major pay per view and network draws like Adrien Broner, Bernard Hopkins, Saul Alvarez as well as Stevenson and Mayweather. They are in the process of losing their future in Garcia as well as the Golovkin/Chavez match that had designs to get Golovkin to superstar status.

The bleeding might continue even further in the coming weeks. Who does Ruslan Provodnikov fight after he crushes ho-hum Chris Algeri in June? Is Nonito Donaire content with decent paying mismatches for the rest of his career? How many fights do we get out of the Pacquiao/Bradley/Marquez round robin?

Unless HBO steps in and actively searches out to find new talent, they aren't going to have much of a boxing program in place. The network already issued an apology for the lack of quality undercards on their pay per view programs (though Roy Jones, in typical HBO commentator fashion, found a way to kiss butt on the air) and must not be happy with these recent developments.

In the long run, this changing of the guard will ultimately lead to much better competition and a new generation of fighters. Matchmaking will have to get more creative with the fighters at the network's disposal now more than ever and will break away from the showcase fight format. There won't be pay per view fights, there will have to be pay per view events to take their place.

All of these don't sound like things Arum and Top Rank are willing to do, but it'll be up to them to adapt. The business is changing, whether they like it or not.

Fool's Gold

When Peter "Kid Chocolate" Quillin heard his name annouced as the new WBO Middleweight champion after a 12 round thrashing of Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam two years ago, it must have felt that the world was finally at his feet. The Cuban-American had finally found his vindication after facing the many obstacles in his professional life as well as his personal life.

The money, the big fights, and the glory that came with being a champion and defending his gold. Since his coronation, the reality of Quillin's reign is that it hasn't provided him any more opportunities now than before, and the future isn't looking any brighter on the eve of his third defense this weekend.

A victim of circumstance of the current impasse between HBO and Showtime/Golden Boy Promtoins, Quillin has spent his reign watching as almost everybody in the Middleweight division advance their career except him. Gennady Golovkin is getting money thrown at him for blasting out no-hopers, Sergio Martinez is about to make a career-high payday beating up Miguel Cotto and even guys like Brian Vera have gotten more prime time exposure than him.

Golden Boy can't go to bat for Quillin as the majority of the power-players at 160 pounds are all on HBO, and even his partnership with Al Haymon has only gotten him this far. He is a champion with only short term prospects, and that's not how primetime fighters are made.

While the blame is easy to pin on Golden Boy, Quillin himself hasn't done himself any favors with muddled wins against middling competition. He blasted out Fernando Guerrero in his first defense, which was expected since Guerrero's suspect chin failed him against journeyman Grady Brewer, and was subsequently rescued from catastrophe against the quick-to-bleed Gabriel Rosado when their fight was stopped on cuts.

Not wanting to stray too far from the path, Quillin's next opponent this weekend is none other than...Lucas Konency?

Who?

I jest. Of course I know who Konency is. Konency is a well-traveled fighter who has never fought outside of Europe and at 35 with a record of 50-4, with his most notable fight in recent memory was a loss to Zaurbek Baysangurov in a WBO Junior Middleweight title fight in 2012. Baysangurov would be outclassed and stopped by Cornelius "K9" Bundrage soon afterwards, and Konency just went back to the European circuit before accepting the call for this fight. 

Konency is the kind of fighter Quillin should have fought on his way to becoming a champion, not in his course to legitimize himself as one. Regardless of how the fight goes this weekend, Quillin has been once again put in a no-win situation where victory, no matter how conclusive, will fail to change the perspective of his level of talent due to him facing the opponents he is supposed to crush. 

Should Quillin struggle against Konency, it's not hard to imagine Golden Boy making a quicker push to match Quillin against fellow New Yorker Danny Jacobs in what would serve as an eliminator of sorts within their stable. Jacobs was on his way to a world title until he was unexpectedly stopped by Dmitry Pirog in five rounds and later diagnosed with cancer, which is now in full remission. Quillin/Jacobs has been mentioned as a potential fight for quite some time, and with Jacobs' most recent performances suggest that he is back to form, Golden Boy just might reinvest in their past prospect to overcome their present one.

Quillin can still beat the hapless Konency this weekend and Jacobs in the Fall, but it wouldn't get him any closer to the recognition he feels he deserves. For a fighter that has no fan base to rabidly cheer his name, opponents that will establish him as a force and a promoter perhaps willing to abort their investment altogether, Quillin still finds himself in the same situation he found himself turning pro: A man with the odds stacked against him.

Manny Many Prizes! Pacquiao Champion Again!

Manny Pacquiao defeated Timothy Bradley last weekend via unanimous decision for the WBO Welterweight championship and avenging the controversial points loss to Bradley from June 2012. In a much closer affair than their first fight, neither fighter was able to clearly outperform the other, but the right fighter came home with the win in an exciting rematch.

While Bradley controlled the action in the first half of the fight with sharp lead right hands and a vicious body attack, Pacquiao bided his time and scored on the ropes with an all to willing to exchange Bradley. As the fight progressed into the later rounds, Bradley abandoned his body attack and the fight devolved into a brawl; which lead to Pacquiao having his best moments of the fight firing multi-punch combinations and landing the harder shots down the stretch.

Heading into the later rounds, Pacquiao also managed to keep his composure while raising his activity level in regards to his offense as Bradley began taunting and challenging Pacquiao to engage. Bradley’s trainer, Julio Diaz, furiously instructed his charge to stay focused but Bradley refused to change his strategy and attempted to bait Pacquiao into a big shot.

The official scorecards read two scores of 116-112 and a very wide 118-110 decision all for Pacquiao. The Spit Bucket scored the fight 114-114. Unlike their first encounter where Pacquiao was egregiously robbed of a clear win, this fight didn’t exactly produce a clear winner but did at least provide a winner free of controversy.

With the win, Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KO) becomes the WBO Welterweight champion and finally erases any doubt that the back-to-back losses to Bradley and knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez has left him a diminished fighter. A fifth fight with Marquez is all but assured as long as Marquez defeats former Junior Welterweight champion Mike Alvarado next May.

Bradley officially loses the first fight of his career, dropping him to 31-1, 12 KO. The former two-division champion complained of sustaining a calf injury during the fight, but acknowledged that the right man won in the ring regardless of his impediment. If the pay per view numbers determines the rematch a success, it is likely that Bradley and Pacquiao will meet for a third time in the immediate future.

Because You Won't Read Anything Else, It's the Pacquiao/Bradley II Prediction Piece!

For almost 10 years since his loss in the first Erik Morales fight, Manny Pacquiao embarked on a 15-fight unbeaten streak which elevated him from good to legendary. The night he fought Timothy Bradley two years ago looked like another win in the books as Pacquiao scored the harder shots and controlled the tempo of the fight from beginning to end, but that night wasn't like any other. No, that night it was Bradley's hand held in shocking victory and setting the stage for a rematch two years in the making.

This weekend, Pacquiao hopes to reclaim his title that was unjustly taken from him by incompetent judges and keep himself in the position of mega-bucks fights until the end of his career, but he's got his hands full. Bradley may not have deserved to win that title, but i'll be damned if there's anybody who is questioning his merit as a champion. Very seldom does a return fight exceed the level of the first encounter, but all signs are pointing to an unforgettable  night of boxing.


Timothy Bradley (WBO Welterweight Champion) vs. Manny Pacquiao II

Power: Pacquiao
Speed: Pacquiao
Technique: Bradley
Recent Form: Bradley
X-Factor: Pacquiao's dropping punch output.


The controversial verdict crowning Bradley the winner, as we all know, was only half the story for Pacquiao. Instead of opting for the rematch at a sooner time, Pacquiao chased the money and found himself cold-clocked by rival Juan Manuel Marquez in his very next fight. A win would finally come against Brandon Rios last November in a performance that played out like everybody thought it would, with Pacquiao beating the hapless Rios around the ring like a sparring partner, but failed to impress the notion that the Pacquiao of old was back.

That's partially because we are currently seeing the Old Pacquiao, who at 35 is showing the wear of a long pro career, but still is able to win at the high levels of the sport. He should have beaten Bradley the first fight, but was also on his way to a knockout win over Marquez until he ate canvas himself. Rios was the typical fall guy opponent to shake off the rust of nearly a year of inactivity, but even that fight was evident of Pacquiao's decline.

Rios managed to land 43% of his power punches despite the fact he was being manhandled, Marquez knocked him down and out and even Bradley left Pacquiao bruised and marked from thier encounter. Not to mention, Pacquiao is throwing less punches now than he did moving up in weight. Pacquiao is averaging around 55 punches per round since the Shane Mosley fight in 2011. Prior to that point, he was throwing nearly 70 punches a round.

That lack of activity is one of the factors that may have swayed the old, lazy eyes of the judges against Bradley in the first fight. Bradley certainly wasn't landing the better shots, but he was the visibly the more active fighter while Pacquiao would go in and out of lulls.

For Pacquiao to beat Bradley this time, it's not going to be a matter of "more of the same" as the script usually dictates in rematches. Pacquiao's lack of bad intentions of his opponent is admirable, but stupid...especially when the guy he's fighting would love nothing more than to knock him back to the moon.

Bradley's own aggression nearly costed him his title last year against Ruslan Provodnikov when he tried to trade punches with the much stronger man. Suffering a concussion from the beating he took, Bradley managed to keep most of his brain matter in tact to win a close decision in a brutal fight.

But where Pacquiao is naturally degenerating, Bradley is evolving. Brain overtook brawn in his next fight as Bradley easily defeated Marquez by outboxing the Mexican legend and not being drawn into trading shots with him.

The mistake Bradley made in the first Pacquiao fight, allegedly due to injuries sustained to his feet, was that he stood his ground with Pacquiao and gave rounds away to the better puncher. However, Bradley made an adjustment and was able to do much better work in the second half of the fight.

Believing that he defeated Pacquiao in the last fight and coming off of a career best win, Bradley may have all he needs in regards to preparation and motivation to outduel the Filipino legend. Pacquiao has always been a Plan A guy, which is "attack" and "attack" with a little bit of "attack some more" thrown in for good measure. The problem is that a cerebral style with accurate counters, patience and a good chin has often turned what should be a sensational win to a muddy, disputed finish through the course of his career. Marquez gave him three tough fights and a knockout, Morales figured him out in their first fight and Bradley's success in the second half of their fight are all evident of what kind of fight one needs to have when fighting Pacquiao.

Bradley cannot knock Pacquiao out, that's for certain, but the same can be said about Pacquiao's chances to knock out Bradley. This fight is going to come down to Bradley's brain vs Pacquaio's brawn and who sees their game plan through to the end. Bradley was able to do that against Marquez, even when it seemed he could take a chance and try to press for a more dominant win but Pacquiao stepped off of the gas when he could have easily stopped Rios in the later rounds.

Pacquiao may not have much time left in the sport, but where he was robbed of his title and glory two years ago, it's easy to pick him to regain his belt over a foe he easily vanquished. Yet, he isn't facing the same foe and that is what many people are not recognizing when they assess Bradley. Bradley's youth, new found confidence and experience has made him a much better fighter than he was two years ago and Pacquiao is going to have to figure that out when that bell rings Saturday night. Will he?

Maybe he won't have to, because boxing politics and the sad state of HBO Boxing and Top Rank Promotions almost ensures that Pacquiao must win to secure a major fight on their Fall calendar. Marquez fighting an easy mark in Mike Alvarado next month is evident enough that him and Pacquiao are being positioned for a fifth encounter, but to make that viable they must both win.

Unfortunately for Bradley, who should win over the last of his skeptics by seemingly winning a clear, competitive decision against a fading Pacquiao, he doesn't even have a chance. In boxing's version of an eye for an eye, Manny Pacquiao should controversially defeat Timothy Bradley this weekend and once again become a world champion.

False Positive

The following is a sample from my novel "And Stay Down! Boxing's Worst Comebacks." Available via Amazon.



"On the morning of February 9, 1996, former WBO champion Tommy Morrison was supposed to fight journeyman Arthur Weathers in what would have been the first fight on the road to a multi-million dollar clash with Mike Tyson. Just hours before he stepped into the ring, the Nevada State Athletic Commission immediately placed a suspension on Morrison due to an irregularity they discovered with his blood.

"The Duke" didn't test positive for any drugs or performance enhancers. He instead heard something far worse: Tommy Morrison was told that he was HIV positive. It had seemed his career was all but over and he would spend his remaining years coming to terms with his disease; but nothing is that simple in the sport of boxing.

In an attempt to challenge the system and continue his career against all odds, Tommy Morrison embarked on one of the most controversial and dangerous comebacks ever attempted in the history of the sport.

Starting from the very beginning, Morrison always had the rebel mindset. At 13 years of age, Morrison forged documents so he could fight in Toughman competitions when the legal age was 21. His passion for fighting transitioned to boxing where he would win the Kansas City Golden Gloves at heavyweight and turned pro in 1988.

Morrison was a hideously strong puncher with one of the best left hooks of the past 20 years and always came to fight. When Morrison would win, he'd win early and in devastating fashion making him a fighter to watch. He got a huge popularity boost when he was approached by Sylvester Stallone to star as the antagonist in "Rocky V," where he starred as Tommy Gunn, protégé and later foe to Stallone's character.

As he continued his climb towards the top of the heavyweight mountain, his desire to fight and knock his opponents out uncovered a severe hindrance when he began fighting better opponents. Morrison had a faulty chin and if he couldn't knock his opponent out, chances are he'd get knocked out himself.

Against Ray Mercer for the WBO title, Morrison boxed cautiously against the very strong Mercer easily winning the first couple of rounds but looked tense while doing so. Morrison, who had never gone more than six rounds in a fight, would get hurt by a counter right hand at the end of the third and it was all downhill from there. Mercer would punish the fading Morrison in the fourth to set up one of the vicious knockouts ever seen in the fifth.

Not letting the loss to Mercer deter him, Morrison pushed on and continued to grow a following with his grit and toughness. Against Joe Hipp, Morrison allegedly broke both of his hands and his jaw in the fight but managed to stop Hipp in the ninth. He would be dropped twice against former heavyweight challenge Carl Williams only to recover from the knockdowns to stop him in the eighth round.

1993 would be his finest hour when Morrison would once against challenge for a heavyweight title, this time against the legendary George Foreman. Many were expecting Foreman, 44 at this point, to become the oldest heavyweight champion in history, but Morrison would deny Foreman his glory in what was the definitive performance of his career.

Minimizing any kind of exchanges with the all-time great puncher and out boxed the hard charging Foreman to win by decision. Winning the title against Foreman put him in a position for financially lucrative bouts with Lennox Lewis and Riddick Bowe, who were watching at ringside.

Hoping to capitalize on his title win and his popularity while biding his time for Bowe and Lewis, Morrison's first defense was scheduled against "Rocky" co-star Mike Williams in a fight that was billed as "The Real Gunn vs. Cane Fight." In a shocking turn of events, Williams walked out on the fight with only an hour to go leaving Morrison without an opponent and a televised boxing card without a main event.

This disaster was saved by promoter Top Rank being able to spot local journeyman fighter Tim Tomahawk at ringside and asked if he'd like a shot for the heavyweight title. Tomashek, who was more or less three beers down watching the card, accepted and challenged Morrison with borrowed trunks and gloves! There would be no Hail Mary punch that'd knock the chinny champ out; Tomashek would be picked apart in four rounds, but not before he gave Morrison the only noogie ever seen in boxing history.

Morrison's train would derail in his next fight against 11-1 Michael Bentt, who knocked him out in 97 seconds to end his only title reign. Though Morrison would still be on the bubble for big things in the division, he ultimately couldn't replicate his earlier success and was written off as a top contender following a one-sided knockout loss to Lewis in 1996. Despite his fading status, Morrison was on the verge of a major payday against Mike Tyson before he was given the news that he was HIV positive.

Even with being banned in the United States due to his condition, he would fight one more time in Japan with heavily modified rules stating that a cut on either fighter would immediately halt the bout and go to the scorecards. Morrison won that fight against journeyman Marcus Rhodes in one round and it would be the last time anybody ever thought they'd see him again.

Initially, Morrison blamed his reckless lifestyle and sexual promiscuity for contracting the disease but he eventually surmised that his drug use caused his condition. His trouble with drugs was well documented, including a DUI stop in 1999 that landed him in prison for two years. After being stopped by a patrol car, a search of his vehicle discovered drugs and firearms and he was convicted by a grand jury shortly thereafter.

When 2003 came around, Morrison somehow drew up a theory that his sudden contraction of HIV was part of a grand conspiracy against him and doubted very much that he had the virus. This would be one of many crazy statements uttered by the former champion, including giving Kansas City Star reporter Sam Mellinger a first hand account of his ability to spontaneously teleport! What took the cake was Morrison allegedly buying a plot of land and hiding in a cave anticipating the apocalypse on January 1, 2000.

While the consensus opinion of Morrison was that he was truly delusional, he and his lawyers flaunted the term “false positive” to the point where it probably should have been his new ring name. To add more fuel to this very confusing fire, Morrison tested in front of the Arizona commission in a public test and no traces of HIV could be found. At this point, it was only expected that he was going to take his chances in the ring and his comeback was imminent."


Read the rest of the tragic story of Tommy Morrison as well as boxing's other awful comeback attempts in "And Stay Down! Boxing's Worst Comebacks."

Marquez/Alvarado: A Means to an End.

Sometimes in the sport of boxing, a loss can open up more opportunities than a win as evident with “Mighty” Mike Alvarado’s upcoming bout with Juan Manuel Marquez next month. Their fight, contested at a catch weight of 143 pounds, pits two former champions coming off of clear losses in their last fights and must win to continue their careers.

However, this fight wasn’t made with competitiveness in mind. For all the parties involved, this fight is supposed to kick off what will end up being HBOs biggest promotion of the year: A fifth (and God help me, final) fight between Marquez and Manny Pacquiao.

When one looks at it from this perspective, there is no better fall guy to put these events in motion than Alvarado. Marquez is at the age where he can no longer compete with the best and must carefully choose his opponents to prolong his career, or at least to make it to his last major payday.

Last October, Timothy Bradley soundly outpointed Marquez and there was nothing in his performance that suggested that he would perform better in a rematch. Ruslan Provodnikov had gone out of his way to try to get Marquez to fight him, but Provodnikov’s youth and strength may call for Marquez to dig deeper than he can muster for a relatively small reward, so he slyly downplayed that fight in the press.

Pacquiao, who Marquez knocked out nearly dead in their fourth fight, represents a fight to him that is both marketable and winnable. The Filipino legend, like Marquez, is at the end of his career as well and also is looking for the best financial excursions he can find himself in. Though Marquez swore to never tarnish his empathetic win over his rival, the need for money always changes people’s minds.

Marquez claimed that the reason he decided to not retire after knocking Pacquiao out was that he wanted to win a fifth world title, leading to the Bradley setback and ultimately for another shot at Pacquiao. Pacquiao should walk out with a win against Bradley next weekend, more than likely by extreme controversy, but regardless if Pacquiao wins or not, Marquez is next.

Bob Arum, Top Rank President, wants the fight and HBOs lack of a marketable roster at this point makes their fall schedule looking feeble and unappealing. Arum, who more or less is playing puppet master to HBO Sports President Ken Herhsman won’t let any obstacle interfere in his master plan and for all to go well, Marquez and Pacquiao must look impressive in their next outings.

For that reason primarily, Alvarado got the assignment not necessarily to compete, but rather to play the part of the fall guy. Another reason could be that Arum is hoping to kill two birds with one stone.

Nobody has had a tougher series of fights in the sport as Alvarado. For the past two years, Alvarado has been pummeled night after night be it in victory and defeat and is in dire need of a break. The Denver native and former Junior Welterweight champion was last seen getting viciously beaten by Provodnikov last October, that fight coming less than six months after going 1-1 in two wars with Brandon Rios.

Ahead of the Provodnikov fight, Alvarado looked to be in terrible condition; which was a big contributing factor to the pounding he took from the Siberian terminator. It’s not out of the question to suggest that such a long stretch of physically demanded fights has whittled Alvarado down physically, but it falls right into the hands of the matchmakers hoping for a Marquez KO.

Since the Provodnikov fight, Alvarado found himself implicated in a bizarre incident where he allegedly dumped his SUV into a river in his native Denver. Alvarado is no stranger to controversy or being on the wrong side of the law, almost four years ago, Alvarado completed an 18-month prison sentence for violating his probation stemming from domestic and traffic offenses and also was allegedly involved in a physical altercation where Alvarado was slashed and stabbed while training for the rematch with Rios.

Perhaps feeling a sense of déjà vu from when they had to deal with the mentally combustible, yet physically gifted Kelly Pavlik, Top Rank sees this as an opportunity to put Alvarado out to pasture and wash their hands of him.

While Marquez no longer has the reflexes and defensive movement he had in his younger years, he’s dumbed himself down into becoming a one-punch destroyer against any opponent who stands right in front of him. Alvarado, if he’s not totally shot from his string of fights, has a great chance to upset the apple cart against the aging legend but he’ll have to do it by swimming against the current.

A Marquez loss won’t derail the Pacquiao fight, nor will a Pacquiao loss and that’s a fact. Alvarado isn’t expected to win, but with his back to the wall and being lead to ruin, he’s going to do everything he can to throw the wrench into the bigger scheme of things.

One can only imagine how the landscape will change with an outcome nobody is expecting.