Will megafight get made?
You can follow Kevin Iole on Twitter at @KevinI
Short shots about the world of professional boxing:
Trainer Freddie Roach is a straight shooter. When he says he believes a Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight will get made, I believe he believes that.
But I don't believe it.
We went through this once before, and most everyone in the business believed the fight would get made because of its massive financial potential.
It didn't happen before and I don't believe it will happen this time around.
The dislike between Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum and Mayweather's team – particularly Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe and adviser Al Haymon – is very real and very deep.
I hope I'm proven wrong and the fight occurs. Sadly, though, I believe I'm right.
• Paul Williams was a big loser on Saturday despite a win over Kermit Cintron in a super welterweight bout at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. Williams won a split technical decision when Cintron fell through the ropes, hit a ringside table and fell to the floor.
Ringside physician Paul Wallace ruled that Cintron could not continue. Under the unified rules of the Association of Boxing Commissions, which are used in most states, it would have been a technical knockout for Williams. Under the unified rules, the only time a fight goes to the scorecards is when it is on a foul. Since there was no foul involved, Cintron had to get back into the ring and continue. Because he could not, he would have lost by TKO under the unified rules.
But a weird California rule requiring only that the fourth round begin for the fight to head to the scorecards in such cases took precedence. The judges had to score the fourth round, though it had lasted less than a minute. California should change its rule because boxing needs standardization.
Williams won a split decision, but he didn't look good in doing it. Worse, he drew next-to-no fans, as scores of empty seats were visible on the HBO broadcast. That sparse crowd, more than his lackluster performance, will unquestionably take him out of the mix to fight Pacquiao or Mayweather, the two cash cows of the welterweight division.
• I had Cintron up three rounds to zero. I didn't score the fourth because it lasted less than a minute.
• HBO announced on Tuesday, a full 10 days since the fight, that the Mayweather-Shane Mosley bout did 1.4 million pay-per-view buys and generated $78.3 million in pay-per-view revenue.
It is the second largest non-heavyweight pay-per-view of all time, trailing only the 2007 fight between Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya. That bout did 2.45 million.
De La Hoya's 1999 fight with Felix Trinidad had been No. 2 on the list for non-heavyweight pay-per-views, also at 1.4 million.
Normally, HBO announces the pay-per-view figures four to five days after an event. • Mayweather-Mosley doubled the total of 700,000 Pacquiao did against Joshua Clottey in March, though Mosley is far more well known than Clottey.
• Mayweather probably belongs in the all-time Top 25 at this point. In his excellent 2006 book, "Boxing's Greatest Fighters," historian Bert Sugar ranks the Top 100 fighters ever.
Anyone who ranks Mayweather over Sugar Ray Robinson should note this: Robinson had at least one victory over the following members of the International Boxing Hall of Fame: Henry Armstrong (No. 2 in Sugar's Top 100), Jake La Motta (No. 27), Carmen Basilio (No. 57), Kid Gavilan (No. 61), Rocky Graziano (No. 98), Gene Fullmer, Fritzie Zivic, Randy Turpin, Joey Giardello, Bobo Olson and Sammy Angott.
Robinson also lost to Hall of Famer Joey Maxim in a bid for the light heavyweight title. Robinson suffered heat stroke in the fight at Yankee Stadium but was leading 10-3, 9-3-1 and 7-3-3 on the scorecards after 13 rounds when he passed out and couldn't continue.
• Antonio Margarito was only so-so in his return to boxing on Saturday after a layoff spurred by getting caught with an illegal knuckle pad in his hand wraps prior to a January 2009 bout with Mosley. This time, Margarito defeated Roberto Garcia in a 10-round decision in Mexico.
Here's hoping that Arum doesn't try to match the disgraceful Margarito with Manny Pacquiao. Margarito, who doesn't have the decency to so much as apologize for the hand-wrap incident, doesn't deserve such a fight.
• A very good fight that won't be on U.S. television on Saturday is Michael Katsidis vs. unbeaten Kevin Mitchell in London for the interim WBO lightweight belt.
• I like Amir Khan to defeat Paulie Malignaggi in the main event on Saturday on HBO, though not without some anxious moments.
• I think Nate Campbell destroys Victor Ortiz in the HBO opener Saturday from New York.
• I'm glad to see that negotiations for a heavyweight-title unification bout between Wladimir Klitschko and David Haye are progressing well. That would be a significant bout in the division.
• It barely got any attention in the States, but Fernando Montiel made a major statement when he went to Japan on April 30 and knocked out Hozumi Hasegawa for the World Boxing Council bantamweight belt. That win puts Montiel into my Top 10.
• If you need more evidence what a joke the World Boxing Association is, consider some of its No. 1 contenders: Kali Meehan at heavyweight, Austin Trout at super welterweight and Jorge Linares at super featherweight.
In his past two bouts, Linares was knocked out in the first round and then won a majority decision over the less-than-ferocious Francisco Lorenzo. Linares is a talented fighter but, given his recent results, he shouldn't be No. 1.
