Talk about Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. is back like a bad hangover. Everybody seems to have an interpretation, if not a prediction, in the wake of a settlement to Pacquiao’s defamation suit and his offer to give Mayweather the lion’s share in a 55-45 split.

It’s as if Pacquiao’s rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez in their fourth meeting on Dec. 8 doesn’t matter. Maybe, it doesn’t, which is good reason for Marquez to worry about Robbery IV. The public and media fixation on Pacquiao-Mayweather won’t go away and perhaps won’t let anything stand in its way

That said, there’s been a shift in public sentiment and in Pacquiao himself. Combine the two, and only Marquez matters – or should – in any talk about Pacquiao-Mayweather. If Pacquiao loses, the Filipino Congressman becomes a full time politician. He has talked about leaving the ring. Marquez could hasten that departure.

Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach is concerned on a couple of levels.

First, there’s sympathy for Marquez and his argument that he was robbed in the narrow decisions, split and majority, that went against him in the first and second rematches. Scorecards can be like ballots. They’re subjective.

“I think we go into the fight three to four rounds down already,’’ Roach said about the Marquez bout when it was still being negotiated a couple of days before he worked Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.’s loss to Sergio Martinez on Sept. 15 at Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center.

That means Pacquaio has to win by knockout. That would be a first. Marquez, who has six losses, has never been stopped. Given the narrow 36 rounds that already have transpired and Pacquiao’s record of no stoppages in five fights since a 2009 TKO of Miguel Cotto, Pacquiao by KO is a very tall order.

Roach says the task in camp at the Wild Card Gym will be to rediscover Pacquiao’s old aggression, which has withered for reasons that aren’t clear.

Compassion, perhaps the born-again expression of Pacquiao’s return to a Catholic lifestyle, has lessened the ferocity for which there was no refuge for so many of his fallen foes, Roach says. It was evident in 2010 when Pacquiao almost begged referee Laurence Cole to stop what he wouldn’t in a brutal decision over Antonio Margarito at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Tex.

Then again, it wasn’t enough in 2004 when Pacquiao, then at his ferocious best, knocked down Marquez three times in the first round, but never out during the next 11 in a bout that ended in a draw.

Roach says Pacquiao’s physical skills are as sharp as ever, although there seemed to be a missing gear in the hand speed throughout his controversial loss by decision to Timothy Bradley on June 9. From Erik Morales to Oscar De La Hoya, Pacquiao threw punches at a rate that overwhelmed. Against Bradley, that rate proved pedestrian.

But Roach is convinced that those hands will move at a ruthless rate if Pacquiao’s heart still has the streak of larceny needed in a brutal business.

Will it?

“I don’t know,’’ Roach said. “That’s the challenge.’’

The only one.

Is anybody surprised that Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., tested positive for marijuana?

Didn’t think so.

News of the test in the wake of Chavez’ loss by one-sided decision Saturday night to Sergio Martinez at Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center is just more of the same in an exasperating pattern of behavior from a man-child who won’t grow up.

Already, Chavez’ enablers are trying to muddy up the issue by arguing that pot is as much a performance-enhancer as a bacon-cheeseburger. It should be legal, they say. It’s already legal in some places. Smoke it for therapy. Smoke it as a sleep aid. Soon, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton will be tossed into all that smoke. The current president inhaled it and a former one said he didn’t. Blah-blah-blah

So what’s the problem?

It’s not the pot. It’s the irresponsibility.

If Chavez, Jr., smoked a joint after a fight that included an epic 12th round, that’s his choice. But the positive test indicates he was indulging when he wasn’t training throughout a haphazard camp, which included weird hours and sessions when apparently his road work was limited to a few laps around the couch in his Vegas’ living room.

Instead of fulfilling his obligations with some sweat equity, it looks as if the former middleweight champ was getting stoned. That was irresponsible to trainer Freddie Roach, who sometimes would be summoned to supervise a workout at midnight or 3 a.m. It was a breach of what Top Rank and fans expected him to do.

Chavez has been allowed to skate from accountability throughout his young life because of his name. He’s the son of Mexico’s beloved Julio Cesar Chavez, Father Legend. If there’s a burden in carrying on the name, it includes favors that have postponed maturity.

More troubling and perhaps ominous, he hasn’t learned from his father’s mistakes. In addition to a durable chin, there are signs that the 26-year-old Chavez inherited dangerous habits that led his dad into substance-abuse and rehab. Chavez Jr. talked about his dad’s problems a couple days before the Martinez bout. In a forthright manner, he talked about fears his dad would die. He called the experience “horrible.’’ But he didn’t call it a lesson.

It’s not as if Chavez Jr. didn’t know he would be tested. His history dictated that he, perhaps more than any fighter, would be. In 2009, he was suspended for seven months after testing positive for a diuretic. In January, he was arrested for DUI. In June, Andy Lee trainer Emanuel Steward questioned the legitimacy of a test that Chavez underwent before he beat Lee in El Paso.

By now, Chavez knows the rules. If he had trouble sleeping, he should have used something else other than pot to help him get his rest. Marijuana is still on the banned list. It’s fair to argue whether it should be. But that’s an argument for another day.

Today, the argument is only about Chavez Jr. In a Don’t Worry, Be Happy style, he’s likable. He has potential. But that’s all he’ll ever have if the people around him continue to postpone the battle to mature. For now, it’s the only fight that matters.

LAS VEGAS – Two major cards separated by a short ride looked like an accident about to happen. Look again. Sergio Martinez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at Thomas & Mack Center and Canelo Alvarez-Josesito Lopez at the MGM Grand were a lot of things. It was a good night to wear a sombrero. It was a long night in line for a cab and a longer line at the bar.

It was one shot of Pancho Villa, a shot of Peron, another shot of soccer and endless shots of tequila. Above all, it was thoroughly Vegas, at least Vegas before the recession. It was also boxing at its best, which also means some of its worst. Nothing can be so irresistible and so distasteful at the same time.

But there it was Saturday night, a double shot and 180 proof of what is so compelling about a sport that just won’t die no matter how hard it tries to kill itself.

It was impossible to see the depth of its unique resiliency Saturday. I tried. But there was just too much to see. My night started at the MGM Grand. It ended at Thomas & Mack with a brilliant victory by Sergio Martinez, who survived a wild 12th-round comeback from Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.

My cab driver predicted the winner. But not the drama.

“Martinez by knockout,’’ the driver said beneath an old cowboy hat that he had to have been wearing 25 years ago when he collected fares from fans who watched Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin, Hagler, Robert Duran and Thomas Hearns.

But it was Chavez who almost won by knockout. Chavez sent Martinez spinning down and onto the canvas in the 12th round, immediately conjuring up memories of how his dad, Julio Cesar Legend, beat Meldrick Taylor with two seconds left so long ago.

An encore for the Chavez family didn’t happen, not even on a weekend celebrating Mexican Independence. Chavez blamed himself after losing a unanimous decision. He said he started his stubborn assault too late. Martinez, a proud Argentine, also put himself in harm’s way when he didn’t have to. In the end, however, Martinez wouldn’t let Chavez steal a victory or the middleweight title he had ensured himself on the scorecards. Argue with Chavez’ early rounds. Argue with Martinez’ last round.

But don’t argue with the climactic finish. A record crowd of 19,187 at Thomas & Mack loved it. Mexicans and Argentines, alike, cheered loudly, filling the old basketball arena with chants that echoed down the aisles and through time.

Boxing isn’t back. It never left.

Not long after leaving the MGM Grand, super-middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez scored a fifth-round KO of Josesito Lopez in a bout that was probably more significant for the number of people in the seats than it was for the victory. The undersized Lopez was overmatched. Canelo had been favored by odds as big as 14-1. Yet, a capacity crowd of 14,275 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena showed up. There’s been a nasty debate between Golden Boy Promotions and rival Top Rank about how many tickets were sold and at what price. Yet on a night when Canelo was a laughable favorite in a Golden Boy promotion up against Top Rank’s intriguing Martinez-Chavez Jr. showdown, Canelo filled the seats.

“That underlines just how big an attraction Canelo is,’’ Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said.

It underlines much more than that. Two cards within a couple of miles of each other drew a total of 33,462 fans. That’s no accident.

LAS VEGAS – A motorcycle accident took away Paul Williams’ legs, but not his confidence.

It was there, as evident as ever Friday when he came out of an elevator at the MGM Grand before the weigh-in for the Showtime-televised junior-welterweight fight between Canelo Alvarez and Josesito Lopez Saturday night.

Williams was in a wheelchair. But he made it sound as if that chair was a temporary vehicle until that day when he believes he will recover, perhaps enough to even fight again.

“I feel good,’’ Williams said. “This is a small thing for a giant.’’

Williams is in Las Vegas for a fight that was supposed to include him against Canelo before the accident in Atlanta left him paralyzed. In his brief comments to 15 Rounds and Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times, it wasn’t clear what his condition was.

But his confidence was unmistakable. Williams has faith that he will walk again in a path that might even take him up those steps, through the ropes and into the ring for another opening bell.

“I think I can come back,’’ Williams said. “Give it two or three years. I’ll come back.’’

If Williams had been Canelo’s opponent instead of the undersized Lopez in a Golden Boy-promoted bout, there’s speculation that rival Top Rank would have moved Saturday night’s other fight, Sergio Martinez-versus-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for the middleweight at Thomas & Mack Center, to a different date, possibly Oct. 6.

The consensus is that Williams-Canelo would have been more competitive and marketable than Canelo-Lopez.

Weights from the MGM

About 90 minutes before the Martinez-Chavez weigh-in, Canelo and Lopez stepped on the scales. Canelo looked solid at 154 pounds, the junior-middleweight limit. Lopez looked a little soft at 153, his heaviest ever.

“I’m not as weak as I look,’’ Lopez joked a day before the weigh-in. “I just look skinny.’’

At opening bell, Lopez expects Canelo to be at 170, which would mean about a 10-pound advantage for the favored Mexican, who holds the World Boxing Council’s version of the title.

Notes, Quotes

· Golden Boy announced a sellout Friday for the Canelo-Lopez featured card. Within minutes of the announcement, tickets were still available on Ticketmaster.

· Jose Benavidez Jr., an unbeaten junior-welterweight prospect from Phoenix, has been added to the Top Rank card featuring Nonito Donaire versus Toshiaki Nishioka at Carson, Calif., on Oct. 13. Benavidez is expected to fight Raul Tovar.

LAS VEGAS – News conferences came like a one-two punch Wednesday and Thursday for dueling promotions Saturday night featuring Sergio Martinez-versus-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at Thomas & Mack Center and Canelo Alvarez-Josesito Lopez at the MGM Grand.

It’s been a rhetorical food fight, boxing’s version of Republicans and Democrats after back-to-back conventions. First, it’s Top Rank to the bully pulpit. Then, it’s Golden Boy’s turn. It’s Home Box Office- versus-Showtime. Ego-against-ego. An insult-fest. But should it be?

After widespread criticism for scheduling two major cards on the same night and amid all the ongoing negativity, there’s a chance at some numbers that might put a surprising spin on the business. Attendance at each could provide a powerful counter to an epitaph so often repeated, yet never proven.

If boxing is really dying, then a lot of people – maybe more than 30,000 at two venues within a couple miles of each other – have yet to hear the news.

There’s plenty of debate about box-office numbers promised by Golden Boy for Alvarez-Lopez in a 154-pound bout televised by Showtime. Golden Boy President Oscar De La Hoya said Thursday at the Canelo-Lopez news conference that 13,000 tickets had been sold.

“We are expecting a sellout,’’ De La Hoya said of a weekend celebrating Mexican Independence.

Top Rank doesn’t believe it. On the surprise meter, that ranks somewhere between zero and yawn. If the situation was reversed – and it will be one day, Golden Boy wouldn’t believe it either. Remember, Republicans and Democrats trust each other more than Top Rank and Golden Boy do.

For Martinez-Chavez, Jr., in a HBO pay-per-view bout for the middleweight title, Top Rank already has a sellout, 19,186, a boxing record at Thomas & Mack. Even if a sellout is announced for Alvarez-Lopez, there will be suggestions that Golden Boy gave away tickets to get there.

As of Thursday, it wasn’t clear what number Golden Boy needed for a sellout. Seating capacity at The MGM Grand Garden Arena has been 14,800. But Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said 2,000 seats can be added before Saturday’s opening bell. If there’s time to construct the addition and the seats are filled, the crowd would be announced at 16,800. Add the Thomas & Mack sellout, and the total would be 35,186.

“That would tell you a lot about the sport,’’ Schaefer said.

With apologies to Mark Twain, t would tell you that all those dire warnings of imminent death are greatly exaggerated.

It might also tell you what could happen if Golden Boy and Top Rank made peace and did business together. But that’s another story, if not a miracle. It didn’t sound as if peace were even a remote possibility Thursday. The irony is that the fighters were the diplomats. Canelo and Lopez praised each other. The only real trash talk came from Keith Kizer, the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s executive.

In an apparent reference to the controversy over the judging of Tim Bradley’s decision over Manny Pacquiao in June at the MGM Grand, Kizer seemed to take exception at HBO’s criticism of judges Duane Ford, CJ Ross and Jerry Roth.

“There was another fight here in June, but some of the veterans at ringside that felt badly that night won’t feel so bad this time, because HBO, (Jim) Lampley and (Harold) Lederman won’t be there,’’ Kizer said. “I like the Showtime announcers much better.’’

Kizer’s shot followed one at Showtime from Top Rank’s Bob Arum.

“Half the people who’ve got Showtime don’t know they have it,’’ Arum said.

Shot, counter-shot. The beat goes on.

But if predictions are fulfilled and the numbers add up Saturday night, there won’t be an argument about whether the business still has a heartbeat.

LAS VEGAS – There was a time when the son couldn’t mention his father’s name. It was too painful. Legends don’t die. But dads do.

It was 2010. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. watched substance-abuse wash away the immortality that Mexicans have attached to his famous dad, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

“I kept thinking this guy is going to die,’’ Chavez Jr. said Wednesday to handful of reporters after a formal news conference for his middleweight title fight Saturday night against Sergio Martinez at Thomas & Mack Center. “He’s going to die. I got used to thinking about it.’’

Dad changed his son’s mind, but only after the end so feared by his son ominously appeared one day in Tijuana. Julio Sr. said he didn’t feel well. His son recalls that he sought medical help. His father was sedated and then rushed to rehab.

Twenty-six months later, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. sat Wednesday – clean, sober and proud — near his son just days before the family business continues against Martinez in an HBO pay-per-view bout.

“Right now, our relationship is good,’’ said Chavez Jr., about a 2-to-1 underdog in betting odds posted late Wednesday. “It can withstand the disagreements we have.’’

The relationship has healed so much that the son can now often joke about a dad who doesn’t often like to be the intended target of any sort of mockery. Julio Chavez Sr. has been in gym with his son and trainer Freddie Roach. But Chavez says he listens only to Roach. The son is a smart guy. He knows that old lesson about dads, even Hall of Fame Fathers. They don’t belong in their son’s corners.

“Freddie is the last word,’’ Chavez Jr. said. “Sometimes, my dad will run to my corner and say something. I’ll tell him: ‘Work the corner or get the hell out.’ ‘’

Dad always gets the message, Julio Jr. said.

At least, he does now.

A couple of years ago, he wasn’t certain. His father, he says, would come home early in the morning after a night of drinking.

“He would come home, sometimes at 5 a.m. and sometimes on the day I’d fight, sit down and start talking, while I was trying to sleep’’ he said. “He’d just talk and talk, talk for three and four hours.’’

About what?

“Not sure,’’ Chavez said. “About everything.’’

In the couple of years since his dad underwent rehab, Julio Jr., once dismissed as a lazy rich kid, began to mature as a fighter under Roach’s steady guidance. His training schedule might be quirky. Roach said he often trains in the early morning hours. Workouts can start at 1 a.m. and end 4 a.m. But the work is serious, Roach said.

In part, Julio Jr. appears to have inherited some his dad’s toughness. There’s the durable chin. There are also the body punches. Both made a Hall of Famer out of his stubborn dad.

“That’s why I feel sorry for Sergio Martinez,’’ Bob Arum, Julio Jr.’s promoter, said Wednesday during the news conference. “He’s going to take body shots like he’s never felt before.’’

But there can also be dangers in what a son inherits from his dad. For Julio Jr., it is a lifestyle that put his dad in rehab. A warning sign was there in January when The Ring’s Lem Satterfield reported that Julio Jr. was charged with DUI within a couple of weeks of his victory over Marco Antonio Rubio.

It was a lesson then.

It’s a lesson now, especially for a family business that needs to remember them if it hopes to fight on.

It’s hard to know whether September’s promise is a new dawn or just a familiar set of oncoming headlights in another head-on collision with a demise predicted and heightened by August’s doom and gloom.

No matter how you look at Andre Ward-versus-Chad Dawson Saturday in Oakland, Calif., and a dueling Las Vegas’ twin bill on Sept. 15 featuring Sergio Martinez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at Thomas & Mack Center and Canelo Alvarez-Josesito Lopez at the MGM Grand, however, it is hard not to see potential for a comeback that is a boxing specialty. No business does it better.

Reliable resiliency is there in a shifting alignment that offers a way out of the never-never land of talk and only talk about Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Yeah-yeah, it could still happen. But a generation of lost fans doesn’t care anymore. The good news is that there is always a new one. In part, chances at winning over generation-next rest in what happens with fighters poised to succeed Pacquiao and Mayweather.

For now, the intriguing battle is for No. 2 spot in the pound-for-pound debate. The fading Pacquiao, second on most lists behind Mayweather, is in jeopardy of falling to third or even fourth after evidence of decline in his last two fights, controversial decisions over Juan Manuel Marquez and Timothy Bradley.

“Me, I believe I’m No. 2 at this moment,’’ Martinez said Wednesday in a conference call for his showdown with Chavez Jr. in a HBO pay-per-view bout for the middleweight title.

A better argument might come from Ward, if he remains unbeaten (25-0, 13 KOs) Saturday in a HBO-televised bout against light-heavy champion Dawson (30-1 17 KOs), who agreed to come down in weight for a 168-pound fight in Ward’s hometown. Mayweather stays at No. 1 because of his perfect record (43-0, 26 KOs). Martinez can’t make that claim. Even if he beats Chavez Jr., there are still losses to Antonio Margarito and Paul Williams and two draws on his resume (49-2-2, 28 KOs).

Predictably perhaps, the more circumspect Ward isn’t as bold about his place in the pound-for-pound debate as Martinez, who has become more outspoken in an escalating exchange of trash talk with Chavez Jr.

For the most part, Ward’s attention isn’t easily diverted by anything beyond the challenge immediately in front of him. That means the dangerous Dawson. Everything else is just talk that would take him away from the task at becoming an equal of fighters he admires, including Mayweather and Sugar Ray Leonard.

“They’re masters,’’ Ward said. “I’m trying to be a master.’’

The guess is that Ward will never quit trying. The goal will be there for as long as he is fighting. It’s a motivational piece to a Ward persona that in a couple of years could put him at the top of the pound-for-pound crowd.

Even in the build-up for Dawson, he seemed to look for something that would drive him to knock out slights, imagined or real. Dawson’s camp praises him. But the skeptical Ward deflects it.

“I think they’re giving us some superficial credit because they have to,’’ he said. “…To listen to them tell it, they have every advantage in the book. I think they’ll discover that isn’t the case.’’

Ward’s insightful trainer, Virgil Hunter, had his own spin.

“Our advantage is being at a disadvantage in their eyes,’’ Hunter said.

If there’s a disadvantage during the next nine days, it is expected to be in betting odds against Chavez Jr. and Dawson. But even those are slim. Spring an upset, and one or both will suddenly leap to the front of a line in the fight for spots at the pay window long occupied by Pacquiao and Mayweather.

Bob Arum, Chavez Jr.’s promoter, said an earlier opportunity for big money against Martinez was resisted precisely for the moment that will transpire on Sept. 15.

“We could have taken a chance against Martinez a year ago,’’ Arum said. “If he wins – and we believe he will, he will become an attraction on the level of Pacquiao, Mayweather.’’

Meanwhile, a hint at Mayweather’s immediate future could unfold at the Canelo-Lopez fight at the MGM Grand. Canelo keeps talking about how he wants to fight Mayweather. His representatives at Golden Boy Promotions have advised caution. At least, Golden Boy President Oscar De La Hoya did on May 5 in the wake of Canelo’s victory over Shane Mosley. But an impressive victory over a smaller Lopez on Showtime might sweep aside concern that Canelo is getting ahead of himself.

If Mayweather decides he wants to fight the popular Mexican redhead now instead of later, there’ll be no waiting.

Another future will have arrived.

What’s known about Kazakhstan by a U.S. audience that gets most of its news from late-night comedians probably comes from the film, Borat, a so-called mock-u-mentary. If Gennady Golovkin has his way however, his homeland will be remembered for its boxing more than jokes about potassium and clean prostitutes. It won’t be easy. Perceptions are as durable as a memorable punch line. But maybe — just maybe — Golovkin has a chance. The journey from a Central Asian nation as faraway as a remote planet for geographically-challenged Americans has already been attempted. Vassiliy Jirov did it a decade before Borat landed in American theaters..

Jirov arrived in the U.S., upset Antonio Tarver at the 1996 Olympics, won a gold medal for Kazakhstan, was awarded the Val Barker trophy for being the best boxer at the Atlanta Games, learned English, got an Arizona driver’s license and lost in 2003 to James Toney in one of the best fights during the last decade. Jirov never got a rematch with Toney. He never got a shot at the money that might have been there in a bout with Roy Jones Jr. Big dollars eluded him. So, too, did many of the dollars owed him for fights he won and contracts he signed.

No, the American dream wasn’t there for Jirov, who is the first of what has become a Kazakhstan tradition for great Olympic boxers. But he served as a pathfinder, a guide perhaps for Golovkin (23-0, 20 KOs), who introduces himself to the U.S. Saturday night against Poland’s Grzegorz Proksa (28-1, 21 KOs) in Verona, N.Y., at Turning Stone Casino in a middleweight title fight televised by HBO’s Boxing After Dark.

“They’ve talked,” said trainer Abel Sanchez, who once worked Terry Norris’ corner, yet says Golovkin is the best he has ever trained. “Gennady says Vassiliy just told him to be himself. Every fighter is different. He told Gennady to use his own strengths.”

Jirov, who lives in Phoenix and works as a trainer in the city’s many gyms, said he didn’t try to advise Golovkin on what and what not to do during their first meeting about two years ago.

“My experience is not anybody else’s,” said Jirov, whose Barker Award in 1996 was followed by two more for Kazakhstan with welterweight Bakhtiyar Arkyev in 2004 and Serik Sapiyev, also a welterweight, at the London Games a couple of weeks ago. “My experience was a good one. I’m happy with what happened. I’m happy that Gennady is trying. I like anybody who tries something new. That’s what creates opportunities.

“From talking to him, I really think he has very good chance of being very good as a pro in this country. With his power and skill, his potential in this country is great. He’s smart, very smart.”

He also has at least a couple of advantages that Jirov did not.

One is the weight class.

“A key difference, I think, is that Gennady is a middleweight and Vassiliy fought mostly as a cruiserweight,” Sanchez said.

Jirov was at his best in a lost division. There’s a reason fighters like David Haye are quick to to move up and out. No matter what the passport says, nobody pays much attention to the snoozerweights. For Jirov, that meant an even more difficult task at becoming known in the American market. He was always most comfortable at 190 pounds. A move to heavyweight, a business decision, led to mixed results with a TKO loss to Michael Moorer and a strange fight in 2004 with Joe Mesi, who won a decision, yet suffered a dangerous head injury — reported bleeding on the brain. The Mesi bout cemented Jirov’s fate. He wasn’t known by many fans, yet was feared by every potential rival. On the reward scale, Jirov wasn’t worth the risk.

Golovkin, the World Boxing Association’s 160-pound champion, is employed at a much more marketable weight. He also is working in a world-wired era. Although he lacks the name recognition of the known Americans, Mexicans and at least one Filipino, he fights for the first time in the U.S. with the internet and social media as an introduction. Digital hype has preceded him. Jirov didn’t have that advantage. Of course, Golovkin has to fulfill the promise.

“Gennady understands that the American public wants knockouts,” Sanchez says. “Whichever round it is, they want to see a knockout.”

Intriguing knockout power is evident both in anecdotes from Golovkin’s training camp and his record. Twenty knockouts in 23 victories add up to a hint of power that is hard to resist for even a casual fan. Golovkin is worth a look. But Jirov had plenty of marketable power himself. A missing element in Jirov’s marketing plan was an interim step. Golovkin has taken it. Instead of jumping straight into the American market in the transition from amateur to pro, the 30-year-old silver medalist from the 2004 Olympics first created a European market for himself. He moved to Germany and pounded out an unbeaten record impossible to ignore in any language and on any continent.

Can Golovkin take that next step with an entertaining style that will make him known, feared and worth the risk for familiar names always seeking the biggest reward?

“I really hope so,” said Jirov, who deserves a thank-you if Golovkin completes what he began 16 years ago.

The dog days of August, an unexpected offseason, is full of more idle speculation than medal winners among the American men at the London Olympics. There’s little to celebrate and much to anticipate before it starts all over again next month. A busy September includes one night — the 15th — with two good cards: HBO’s telecast of Sergio Martinez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center and the Showtime telecast of Canelo Alvarez-Josesito Lopez down the street at the MGM Grand. A couple of miles of Vegas neon will separate the two. After a barren August, an embarrassment of riches awaits. Or maybe just embarrassment. Until then, it’s just a guessing game.

A few more guesses:

Manny Pacquiao. Further uncertainty is about the only way to interpret his latest decision. Reports about him moving his next bout from Nov. 10 to Dec. 1 seem to say he doesn’t really know what he wants. Advisor Michael Koncz says the new date is a political necessity. It eliminates a potential interruption of training by allowing Pacquiao time in October to refile his candidacy for re-election to the Filipino Congress, according to Koncz, who was quoted as saying he has to be in the Philippines to file the documents. But Filipino media reports that he does not have to be there. He can mail in the documentation, according to the reports. The contradictions only muddy uncertain waters. Just who does he plan to fight? Reported options are Juan Manuel Marquez, Miguel Cotto and Timothy Bradley. There would be a lot less uncertainty about Pacquiao if he had announced the opponent along with the new date. As it is, there are questions about whether retirement is another option.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. It’s been three weeks since he walked out of a Las Vegas jail after serving about two months for domestic violence. There’s still no word on what his plans are. Pacquiao doesn’t seem to be among them, at least not during the final months in 2012. Keep an eye on Twitter, Mayweather’s favorite way to communicate. Also keep an eye on Canelo-Lopez. It’s not the biggest fight on Sept 15. Martinez-Chavez is. But Golden Boy Promotions has dropped hints that Canelo might be Mayweather’s next opponent if Lopez doesn’t score an encore of his upset of Victor Ortiz.

50 Cent. Keep another eye on the rapper whose birth name, Curtis Jackson, is included on the promotional license that sets him up as a potential rival to Golden Boy and Top Rank. He might have some very different ideas about who Mayweather, his friend and confidante, should fight next.

Juan Manuel Marquez. He plans to write a book. At least three of the chapters figure to be about how he says he got
robbed against Pacquiao, who won two disputed decisions after a draw against the tactically-skilled Mexican. A fourth chapter looks doubtful, if only because the proven risk isn’t worth an iffy reward for Pacquiao

Ricky Hatton. Yeah-yeah, we read the rumors about a Hatton comeback, possibly against Paulie Malignaggi. Can another Oscar De La Hoya rumor be far behind?

Andre Ward and Chad Dawson. It looks like the best of September. Martinez-Chavez Jr. is getting most of the attention, which also means all of the expectations. Those might be very hard to fulfill. Ward-Dawson on Sept. 8 in Oakland, Calif., isn’t surrounded by all of the hype, in part because neither fighter engages in much braggadocio. But the fight, an All-American bout, might introduce a new argument to a pound-for-pound debate grown stale by the unresolved blather about when or whether Pacquiao and Mayweather will fight. Ward-Dawson “sells itself,” Ward told the media Thursday in hometown Oakland. It does.

Gennady Golovkin. Never heard of him? That’s a question Golovkin, an unbeaten middleweight and Olympic silver medalist from Kazakhstan, hopes to quit hearing in the U.S. sometime after he fights for the first time in America on Sept. 1 when he kicks off next month’s schedule on HBO After Dark against Grsegorz Proksa at Turning Stone Resort in Verona, N.Y. “We’ve made it clear we’ll fight anybody in the middleweight division,” Tom Loeffler of K2-Promotions said of Golovkin. In a month that includes middleweight Chavez Jr. and Martinez, Golovkin needs to make his American debut a memorable one.

Devon Alexander and Randall Bailey. Showtime and HBO will stage a preliminary Sept. 8 to their Sept. 15th duel for viewers. That’s when Showtime will televise the Bailey-Alexander welterweight at Las Vegas’ Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on the same night as HBO’s telecast of Ward-Dawson. Alexander-Bailey has the makings of a classic boxer-puncher confrontation. Bailey already is making it fun. Bailey, who says his one-punch KO power makes him the last of a kind, has little patience for Alexander’s speed and boxing skill. “Everybody gets hit with that right hand,” Bailey said during a conference call. “Question is, when you get hit with that right, what are you gonna do?”

In September, at least, we’ll get the chance to find out.

USA Boxing’s search for a national coach might be as futile as winning an Olympic medal. After the American men came home from the London Games without even a bronze and about as much respect, the proposed job hunt looks like mission impossible. Then again, it can’t get any worse. If the sell-high-and-buy-low strategy applies, there might be an opportunity lurking in the mess.

Anybody who dares take the job, however, faces a big challenge in trying to convince young Americans that Olympic boxing is even worth it anymore. For the last couple of decades, the best have been moving away in an exodus that kept the American men off the medal stand for the first time ever. The 15-year-old who watched the 2012 debacle could not have seen a reason to try in 2016.

Only a competent cornerman with the right name has a chance at rebuilding an American franchise. By the right name, we’re talking about a resume that includes professional champions, some celebrity and credibility that comes with being a teacher. If Olympic boxing trashes computer scoring for pro-style cards and the international ruling body (AIBA) doesn’t become another pro acronym, there’s much to gain for somebody willing to assume the risk.

Three nominations:
Freddie Roach. Can we try this again? Please. Roach was never given much of a chance at helping the 2012 team as a consultant because of American coaches jealous of their turf. Then, there was turmoil that led to a staff shuffle just months before opening ceremonies. Roach’s busy schedule with Manny Pacquiao and Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., looms as a problem. But give him the funds to hire a staff this year, and he could have time to develop medalists four years from now. As the best trainer of his generation, he’s known to emerging prospects who hope to forge pro careers. Roach’s name recognition and clout could go a long way in re-establishing an Olympic medal as a steppingstone to the pros. After all the confusion over his role with the 2012 team, Roach also knows what’s wrong. Only a real boxing guy can fix it.

Emanuel Steward. Steward was the American choice to coach the 2004 team at the Athens Games until politics knocked him out of the job. Turns out, it was a sign of what would happen eight years later in London. Steward wanted the 2004 Americans to re-emphasize KO power. HIs old-school idea was to take the judging out of the equation. Given the bizarre decisions made by key-punch operators posing as judges at every Olympics since 1992, what could make more sense? Even if computer scoring is trashed in favor of a 10-point-must system, decisive power is the answer. Power also retains the element demanded by young Americans, who want to learn how to deliver it as they prepare to go pro. Like Roach, Steward has a busy schedule, including ringside analysis for Home Box Office and corner work with Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko and Irishman Andy Lee. He has become something of an ambassador for boxing. Steward in the job would mean the Americans are serious, which they were not in London. Subjective judges, whether punching a computer pad or writing on a scorecard, notice those kind of things

Teddy Atlas. He’s a lot less diplomatic in his talk and opinions than either Roach or Steward. But maybe that hard-nosed approach is what’s needed. Atlas’ uncompromising commentary for NBC in London left no doubt about what he thinks of USA Boxing, AIBA and international judging. All of those bureaucrats and officials heard it the way Michael Moorer heard it from Atlas, then Moorer’s trainer, during a 1994 loss to George Foreman for a heavyweight title. Atlas couldn’t stand what he was witnessing.

It’s time to hire somebody who won’t stand for what happened to American boxers in London.

Notes, Quotes
Timothy Bradley chose the wrong word, but had the right idea when he told The Desert Sun that “a lot of people on that side are scared” about Pacquiao fighting him on Nov. 10 at Las Vegas MGM Grand in what would be an immediate rematch of his controversial victory by split decision on June 9. A better word than scared? How about worried? Juan Manuel Marquez and Miguel Cotto are Pacquiao’s other options. Pacquiao’s corner should be worried about any of the three. Unless there’s a reversal in the evident erosion of hand speed, Pacquiao is vulnerable.

And Chavez Jr. weighed 176 pounds 30 days before his middleweight showdown against Sergio Martinez on Sept. 15 at Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center, according to news reports from Chavez’ training camp. Reaction: What do you want to bet that Chavez is 180-plus at opening bell, 24 hours after the formal weigh-in?

It’s hard not to think about Jose Benavidez Jr. while watching the sad and inevitable demise of American boxing at the London Olympics. In another time, Benavidez would have been there. But today that time looks lost in the collapse of an American tradition. For nearly a century, the American men dominated the medal count. In London, they couldn’t count one. They were shut out for the first time ever.

Some of the best Americans just don’t go anymore. Pick the reason: Disarray in USA Boxing or computer-based scoring system, or coaching, or 24 years of controversy since Roy Jones Jr. and Michael Carbajal were robbed of gold at the infamous 1988 Games, or all of the above.

“It’s just not the way it used to be anymore,’’ said Benavidez, 20, an unbeaten junior-welterweight prospect from Phoenix who was projected to be a star for the 2012 U.S. team before he signed with Top Rank as a 17-year-old. “A lot of guys just go pro. That gold medal isn’t worth what it used to be.’’

The computer-scoring, Benavidez says, is the biggest reason he went pro.

“I decided I didn’t want to continue boxing as an amateur because of that system,’’ said Benavidez (16-0, 13 KOs), who on Nov. 4 fought in Las Vegas instead of London, winning a fourth-round stoppage over Javier Loya. “It’s just throw- throw-throw, throw as many punches as fast as you can. But sometimes, you might land two shots and they won’t score them. It was just frustrating, real hard to understand.

“All along, I’d been taught to fight like a pro. I like to take more time, set up my shots. It just made more sense to go straight to the pros when Top Rank made me that offer. I don’t have any regrets. None at all.’’

Benavidez knows all about the long run of Olympic controversy, which continued in London with a referee who was expelled from the Games after he failed to rule a single knockdown in a round when the same fighter was on the canvas six times. But the controversies are older than he is. Benavidez wasn’t even born when Jones and Carabjal, also of Phoenix, lost at the Seoul Games in controversial scoring by judges who were linked to suspected bribes in the subsequent disclosure of old East German secret police files.

Still, the uninterrupted controversies have devalued the gold medal once so important in launching a pro career. For the best American amateurs, it also has created a culture in which the Olympics are no longer a priority.

Before the 2004 Olympics, I recall an interview with Rafael Valenzuela, then a terrific amateur with the kind of hand speed that might have been able to score with keypad punchers posing as judges. Valenzuela, a Phoenix featherweight, represented the U.S. in the 2003 World Championships in Thailand. In the ready room before a preliminary bout, Valenzuela said a Cuban looked at him and told him:

“You’re an American. Why did you Americans even come here? You’re going to get screwed.’’

Valenzuela came home and quickly went pro.

USA Boxing has a lot of work to do and perhaps a few good ideas about how to rebuild its Olympic fortunes. One plan includes a permanent national coach, instead of the patchwork collection of coaches. The revolving door continued to cripple American chances in London with the April dismissal of Joe Zanders and the late hiring of his replacement, 2004 coach Basheer Abdullah, who wasn’t allowed to work any American corner in London reportedly because he worked with a pro.

Lost in the shuffle was Freddie Roach, the Hall of Fame trainer who amid much fanfare had offered to work as a consultant, yet ultimately was rebuffed. Roach worked with a few of the Americans. Yet, Roach never made it to London.

No wonder the Americans looked confused. From day-to-day and perhaps from round-to-round, they didn’t know who would be in their corner. A permanent national coach might be a good step. But that coach will have to change a culture in which an Olympic medal has mattered less and less. After London, it doesn’t matter at all.

QUOTES, ANECDOTES

· There’s been a lot of talk about sending pros in a bid to re-assert American dominance in the same way USA basketball did in 1992 with the Dream Team. Even a roster including America’s best pros, however, might have had a tough time in London. “Most of our pros would lose, because they don’t understand that scoring system,’’ Roach said. Muhammad Ali, now an Olympic icon and a light-heavyweight gold medalist in 1960, might have had a tough time winning if the computer had been at ringside for the Rome Games.

· In terms of media perception, America’s failure to medal is devastating. But mainstream media in the U.S. doesn’t care about boxing anyway. No American medal figures to have no impact on the pro game. Here’s why: Mexico didn’t win a medal either. Medal hopeful Oscar Valdez, a bantamweight from Nogales on the other side of the border from Arizona, was eliminated, 19-13, by Ireland’s John Joe Nevin. Mexico is the world’s best boxing country. Without Mexican fighters and fans, the pro game wouldn’t be the same. For boxing’s most important audience, the medal count doesn’t count.

Photo by Stephanie Trapp

We were hoping for a rebirth. Instead, we got another robbery.

On a day when I had hoped to write that three-time heavyweight gold medalist Teofilo Stevenson was a greater Olympian than swimmer Michael Phelps, boxing continued to trash its own legends and any chance at credibility with a referee and judges who didn’t even bother to wear ski masks in the attempted heist Wednesday of Japan’s Satoshi Shimizu at the London Games.

No reason to hide. The undisguised spree has gone on, without interruption and without an apology, since 1988. That’s when judges in Seoul robbed Roy Jones Jr. of a gold medal that went to South Korea’s Park Si Hun. The theft was subsequently proven when the judges’ fingerprints were found throughout files kept by East Germany’s old secret police.

Yet, the Seoul scandal was allowed to stand. Jones never got the medal he rightfully won and Olympic boxing never got the message that it was time to clean up its act. Instead of gold, the International Olympic Committee gave Jones a conciliatory trinket. The IOC awarded him something called an Olympic Order, which didn’t include an order for the judges to pose for mug shots.

It was outrageous 24 years ago, yet as current as Twitter Wednesday while watching Shimizu knock down Magomed Abdulhamidov of Azerbaijan six times in the third round. Somehow, referee Ishanguly Meretnyyazov of Turkmenistan missed all six. It was as if Meretnyyazov thought that Abdulhamidov had slipped on a wet London sidewalk. The bout should have ended there, a stoppage as clear cut as any.

But no, oh-no.

Not only did Meretnyyazov fail. The scorecards, compiled by computer operators posing as judges, did too. Abdulhamidov won a 20-17 decision. The Japanese protested. The decision was reversed. Meretnyyazov was banned from working the rest of the 2012 Games. Boxing’s ruling cartel, AIBA, fired an international technical official.

Yet, no action was reported against the judges. For all we know, they are still there for the next round of outrage between now and the gold-medal bouts on August 11 and 12. With some of the usual suspects still in place, a BBC story about money for medals has re-emerged. In September, the BBC reported that Azerbaijan, host for the World Championships last fall, loaned AIBA $10 million. The payback was reported to be two gold medals for Azerbaijan.

There was an investigation, conducted by AIBA. Surprise, surprise, the cartel dismissed the BBC report. At this point, it’s hard to know where the IOC is in all of this. Then again, it’s hard to know where the acronym was more than two decades ago in the aftermath of a Seoul scandal that still makes Olympic boxing look as if the ring is surrounded by yellow crime tape instead of those traditional ropes. If history is a guide, the IOC is MIA.

There’s an argument that it’s time to just drop boxing from the Olympic program. On the politically-incorrect scale, however, the 2012 introduction of the women makes elimination unlikely. Major endorsement money and media attention for American Marlen Esparza might make it impossible.

The real problem might come from the boxers themselves. The London controversy is fueled by suspicions that the referee and judges acted together in an attempt to fulfill a reported loan that, if accurate, will surely mean that good boxers, like fans, will stay away. In an interview with Jones for the August issue of The Ring, I asked him if he would have fought in the Olympics today.

“If I saw what I went through, I’d say: ‘Hell no, I won’t go,’ ’’ the former pound-for-pound champ said. “No way. You invest too much of your time and yourself to take that chance. I mean not only can they cheat you. They’ll stick to it if they do.’’

Before long, they might have only themselves to stick it to.

Boxing attempts to become more than just Olympic history in London during the next couple of weeks in a fight to reclaim an identity that just hasn’t been the same since the Seoul scandal in 1988.

Muhammad Ali, a 1960 gold medalist, is in London like royalty. He is attached to the Olympics like a sixth ring, a ceremonial symbol of what they were and boxing was. But Roy Jones Jr. is the current symbol of what the Olympics have become for a sport that has fallen off the marquee and into the margins in the 24 years since gold was stolen from the former pound-for-pound king.

In a story for the August edition of The Ring, Jones confirmed what I have always believed. To

wit: Boxing’s long decline – in the Olympics and pros – began on that infamous afternoon in Seoul when judges robbed him of light-middleweight gold with a decision unequalled in outrage.

It happened before the internet and long before the immediate anger at Timothy Bradley’s split decision over Manny Pacquiao in June. Imagine if twitter had been around when Jones was left with silver and judges were suspected to have collected some.

The tweets, digital graffiti, might have been enough for Olympic officialdom to finally banish a sport it has never much liked anyway. As it was, the ringside corruption, confirmed in the subsequent disclosure of East Germany’s secret-police files, was enough to push boxing into a medal sport seemingly on perpetual probation. Squeamish officials tolerate it, mostly because they have to. Even the poorest nations in the third world can send a boxer to London. But countries without swimming pools can’t compete with Michael Phelps.

With boxing shoved out of the Olympic limelight and away from the NBC cameras, however, the pro ranks were robbed of a significant step in development and marketing.

“At the time, I didn’t really realize what had happened,’’ Jones told me in an interview for The Ring. “What I didn’t realize was how much it hurt boxing. The reason I say that is because, truthfully, the Olympics was where boxing kind of gets a little jump start.’’

http://ringtv.craveonline.com/images/toc/ring_aug12_contents.pdf

That jump start is gone, Jones says, because of 1988 and the subsequent move to computerized scoring. There’s no way to correct what happened in Seoul. But there are lessons. An intriguing step will come after London when computerized scoring will end. At the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, boxing will go back to traditional scorecards instead of computer operators who act as judges by punching a button as way to count the punches they see land.

Jones welcomes the move, although it reopens the possibility of the 1988 scoring in one of the greatest scandals in Olympic history. Nevertheless, it’s a step that Jones says will regenerate Olympic interest in amateurs who have a chance at pro careers.

There’s also been talk about bringing pros into the Olympics. Who knows, maybe, Floyd Mayweather Jr., can turn the bronze he won in 1996 into gold in 2016?

However, George Foreman, a 1968 gold medalist at the Mexico City Games, doesn’t like the prospect of pros at the Olympics.

“The Olympics have always been a chance for a nobody to become somebody,’’ said Foreman, a former heavyweight champ who is The Ring’s super-heavyweight on a Dream Team, an all-time American Olympic roster. “For me, other things were probable. But the gold medal? It was impossible. For me, that was the beginning.’’

Foreman is convinced that, in time, boxing will find the young fighter who will resurrect an Olympic sport known for him, Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Patterson, Jones, Andre Ward and a light-heavyweight named Cassius Clay, now known simply as Ali.

“We don’t even know who he is yet,’’ Foreman said. “But he’s out there. Look at what Michael Phelps has done for swimming. More than 30 years after Mark Spitz, he turned it in the sport people want to see. It only takes one person. Nothing is wrong with Olympic boxing.’’

Nothing but a comeback.

Notes, Anecdotes
· Trainer Freddie Roach, already busy training Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for his Sept.15 middleweight clash with Sergio Martinez at Las Vegas Thomas & Mack Center, has no plans to be in London for Olympic boxing. He worked with some of the American s as a consultant to the U.S. team. But that was before a late shuffle in the U.S. coaching staff.

· Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer is already in London. If he can sign some of the best prospects, he hopes to introduce them to the pro ranks on an Oct. 14 card, a Sunday, at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay. On Oct. 13, Schaefer has plans for a card that might include junior-featherweight champion Abner Mares, also at Mandalay.

· Just wondering: Could NBC’s renewed deal for pro boxing lead to more network coverage of Olympic boxing? After years of seeing more ribbon-waving girls in rhythmic gymnastics than boxers, any boxing coverage at all would be a lot.

Amir Khan, who wears lightning bolts on his dark trunks, is a lightning rod for controversy, especially in the week after Danny Garcia stopped him in the fourth round of an upset that few foresaw.

The attention on Khan is unfair to Garcia, but that’s built into a modern star system created and sustained by social media. Khan, a designated star since the 2004 Olympics, knows how to use it. Garcia, a relative newcomer with an annoying trash-talker for a dad, does not.

Stardom looms for the unbeaten Garcia.

It’s not quite so clear for Khan.

But here is a scorecard, a guide of sorts, on what Khan should do and not do:

Retire: Ridiculous. Fellow Brit Carl Froch said he was misquoted by the BBC. Whatever Froch said or didn’t say, it’s safe to assume Froch would have a more damning comment if the 25-year-old Khan did in fact retire. There’s another way to describe a young fighter who retires a few years from his prime. He’s called a quitter. Khan is not. He proved that by fighting back after the third-round knockdown and getting up from a knockdown early in the fourth.

The chin: Golden Boy promoters insist that Khan proved he could withstand power in 2010 when he survived Marcos Maidana’s crushing blows in the 10th round. But the Maidana fight created a dangerous illusion that Khan could take a big punch. Khan believed it. That’s why he decided to brawl in the fourth against Garcia, who dropped him twice in the round. Remember, Maidana’s punches landed late. Garcia’s biggest punch landed early – in the third. If it hadn’t ended in the fourth, it would have in the fifth or sixth or seventh. Khan fought as if he thought Maidana had inoculated him from having a weak chin. No, he just needs to know he must use superior skills to protect it with his reach, jab and feet. A fragile chin, which Khan leaves high and exposed, is not a career-ender. From Floyd Patterson to Lennox Lewis, history is full of fighters who have learned to fight despite it and perhaps succeed because of it.

Freddie Roach: Don’t fire him. UK media are full of stories about Khan hiring a new trainer who can teach defense. Roach is known for emphasizing offense. Hard to blame him. A little more offense from Manny Pacquiao might have resulted in a stoppage that would have averted the flap over his split-decision loss to Timothy Bradley. It’s an insult to say Roach can’t teach defense. Boxing isn’t football. Offense and defense aren’t played by different squads and coached by different coordinators. They are inseparable. Khan just has to suspend a confidence bordering on arrogance and remember to execute a Roach plan with tactics defending the chin while augmenting the offense.

Time: There is still plenty of it left. It’s too easy of think of Khan as much older, perhaps because he’s been a star since the Athens Olympics when he was a 17-year silver medalist. He is still maturing. In a couple of years, Pacquiao will probably be a full-time Filipino politician. A couple of more fights are left in Pacquiao’s career. Pacquiao’s retirement would mean more time for, say, a rematch with Garcia.

Quotes, Anecdotes
· A sign of Khan’s over-confidence can be found in what was missing in his contract with Garcia. It didn’t include a rematch clause. A loss to Garcia never seemed to be even a remote possibility to Khan, who in pre-fight interviews often talked about fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. in December.

· Several possibilities have been mentioned for Garcia’s next bout, including Zab Judah and Paulie Malignaggi. A rematch with Khan was eliminated by Garcia’s dad, Angel, who in pre-fight exchanges insulted Khan’s Pakistani roots. “Why should we give him a rematch when he didn’t give us any respect?’’ Angel said.

AZ Notes
Phoenix super-bantamweight Alexis Santiago (11-2-1, 5 KOs), nicknamed Beaver, is scheduled Friday night for an 8-rounder in Santa Ynez, Calif., against Roman Morales (10-0, 6 KOs) of San Ardo, Calif., on a ShoBox-televised card featuring former World Boxing Association lightweight champ Miguel Acosta (29-5-2, 23 KOs) of Argentina against Armenian Art Hovhannisyan (14-0-2, 8 KOs).

You know the cliché. It’s trotted out after nearly every controversial decision. Yeah-yeah, reasonable people can disagree. Trouble is, that’s all they ever seem to do in boxing.

As the business approaches a potential fiscal cliff of its own making on Sept. 15, however, there’s an opportunity for reasonable minds to actually work in behalf of the customers who just seem to be in the way of promoters hell-bent on destroying each other with dueling cards — the Golden Boy-promoted Canelo Alvarez-Josesito Lopez at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand and Top Rank’s Julio Cesar-Chavez Jr.-Sergio Martinez just a fast-break away at Thomas & Mack Center.

Here’s a way out of the conflict: The Grand Garden Arena at the MGM Grand is available Friday night, Sept. 14.

How hard would it be to re-schedule Alvarez-Lopez from Sept. 15 to Sept. 14 as a way to kick off a weekend celebration of Mexican Independence on Sunday, Sept. 16? First, Canelo-Lopez on Friday. Then, Chavez- Martinez on Saturday. Finally, Mana, a concert featuring the popular Mexican rock band scheduled for Sunday at the Grand Garden Arena.

The weekend-long fiesta sounds simple enough. Perhaps too simple. It hasn’t been suggested, at least not by the reasonable people who only know how to disagree. The topic dominated conversation before and after Danny Garcia’s stunning fourth-round stoppage of Amir Khan last Saturday at Mandalay Bay. From bar-tenders to serious fans, it was the same question: How come nobody is talking about making that move?

Above-all, it’s a win-win for fans, regardless of whether they prefer Canelo or Chavez Jr. They’ll have a chance to see each fight live, rather than being forced to pick one instead of the other. For the respective television networks, it’s a chance at attracting the biggest possible audience. Showtime will carry Canelo-Lopez. HBO plans a pay-per-view telecast of Chavez Jr.-Martinez for the middleweight title. If on the same night, each figures to lose some of its audience.

Then, there’s the MGM Grand and Wynn-Las Vegas, which will be the hotel site for news conferences and other pre-fight events in its role as a sponsor of Chavez-Martinez. All customers can’t be at both places at the same time.

There has been a suggestion that maybe one main event can be scheduled a few hours before the other. To wit: On Sept. 15, schedule Canelo-Lopez for 5:30 p.m. and Chavez Jr.-Martinez for 8:15 p.m. But that is fraught with potential headaches. Logistically, there might be an impossible crush to get a cab and rush hour-like traffic on the short road from one parking lot to the other. There’s also talk that Televisa, the Mexican network aligned to Canelo, wants the fight only at night instead of late-afternoon or early evening.

Even if that one doesn’t work, there’s still a way out of the dilemma. But so far a possible solution has been ignored and reason set aside for a winner-take-all confrontation that Golden Boy and Top Rank are promoting more than any fight and at any cost, even to themselves.

LAS VEGAS – Danny Garcia calls himself Swift. Now we know why. He was swift to emerge from anonymity. He was swift to impose himself on the junior-welterweight ranks. And he was so swift to dispose of heavily-favored Amir Khan Saturday night that it might take Khan awhile to understand what happened.

Garcia appeared to be outclassed for three rounds by the speed in Khan’s hands and feet when suddenly Khan was down and looking as if he had been trampled. One looping left from Garcia seemed to catch Khan between his jaw and neck dropped him as if he were a pedestrian hit by a speeding truck.

Khan got up, but his eyes looked as hollow as his future.

The inevitable end was there, in those eyes and like that nickname on Garcia’s trunks and robe. It was swift. In the fourth, it was over. Khan was finished, a TKO loser at 2:28 of the round at Mandalay Bay. A wobbling Khan ran into straight a right that put him back on to the canvas early in the fourth. Late in the round, two Garcia rights, a double shot, proved to Khan’s last call. Again, Khan managed to get up. But referee Kenny Bayless looked at him once, looked at him again, asked him a question and said no more.

“Maybe, they made the right decision,’’ Khan (26-3, 18 KOs) said.

No maybes about it.

Khan said his mind was clear and that he was ready to fight on as he had against Marcos Maidana in the in the 2010 Fight of the Year. But his advantage was gone. Garcia (24-0, 15 KOs), bloodied over his right eye in the second round, had proven what Breidis Prescott exposed in a first-round KO of Khan in 2008. It’s called a suspect chin. It’s not suspect anymore. It’s forever stamped as fragile.

“I always knew I was going to win this,’’ said Garcia, who was about a 4-to-1 underdog and an 8-to-1 shot to win by knockout. “I needed a great fighter in front of me to show how great a fighter I was.’’

There were doubts about Garcia’s credentials, which now includes the World Boxing Association’s version of the 140-pound title to go along with the World Boxing Council’s belt. He beat a fading Erick Morales. But the wear-and-tear on the aging Morales left questions about that victory.

“I hit him with the same shot that I hit Morales with,’’ said Gracia, who collected $540,000, $410,000 less than Khan’s $950,000. “That shows how good a fighter Morales still is.’’

And, maybe, how great a fighter Garcia is about to be.

On The Undercard
The Best: Puerto Rican lightweight Abner Cotto (14-0, 6 KOs), Miguel Cotto’s nephew, showed he understands the family business with an eighth-round stoppage of Mexican Juan Manuel Montiel (7-6-3, 2 KOs).

Cotto rocked Montiel with a blinding succession of punches along the ropes. Dazed and already flat-footed, Montiel looked as if were ready to surrender. Referee Jay Nady didn’t give him the chance. Nady ended it 1:03 of the eighth.

The rest: Super-middleweight Fernando Guerrero (24-1, 18 KOs) scored a knockdown in the second round and points through the next eight for a unanimous decision over Jose Medina (17-11-1, 7 KOs) of Tifton, NH; Toronto junior-middleweight Phil Lo Greco (24-0, 13 KOs) needed more time to walk to the ring than he needed to stop Brandon Hoskins (16-2-1, 8 KOs), a Missouri fighter who was knocked down twice and beaten by TKO 86 seconds after the opening bell; super-middleweight J. Leon Love (12-0, 7 KOs) of Dearborn Heights, Mich., scored two knockdowns in the first round and then relied on an accurate jab for a unanimous decision over Joseph De Los Santos (10-1-3, 4 KOs) of Puerto Rico; Orlando junior-middleweight Daquan Arnett (5-0, 3 KOs) had a short night, scoring a second-round KO of Eddie Cordova (3-3-1, 1 KO) of Clearfield, Utah; Jamie Kavanaugh (11-0-1, 5 K0s), an Irish lightweight training at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Calif., scored a unanimous decision over Paul Velarde of Orange, Calif.

LAS VEGAS – Amir Khan and Danny Garcia were light on the scale Friday at a weigh-in that included all of the usual poses and promises, yet little of the buzz that puts some drama into the pre-fight ritual.

A crowd of a few hundred watched Khan and Garcia weigh in at 139 pounds, one under the limit for their junior-welterweight bout Saturday at Mandalay Bay. From Garcia’s potential emergence to Khan’s bid to re-assert his claim on stardom after a controversial loss, the ingredients for an interesting fight are there. But there are questions about whether many paying customers will be.

Ticket sales have been slow, according to sources at the box office. Barring a good walk-up during the hours before opening bell, a small crowd would raise familiar questions about Khan’s marketability in the United States. He’s a British fighter of Pakistani descent. Some of his fans were there Friday, dressed in T-shirts that said Khan’s Army. But it was a small army.

In part, there’s been a dilution of interest in his bout with Garcia in the UK because of the heavyweight brawl Saturday between Dereck Chisora and David Haye in London. Much of the UK media stayed home for Chisora-Haye instead of traveling to Las Vegas for Khan’s first fight since his controversial loss to Lamont Peterson in Washington D.C.

Then, there’s Garcia (23-0, 14 KOs), a Philadelphia fighter who is still relatively unknown, even in his own country. His dad and trainer, Angel, has been trash-talking non-stop in an evident attempt to gain some notoriety for his 24-year-old son. But if early ticket sales are an indication, the public hasn’t been paying attention. What’s more, the bookies aren’t impressed with Angel Garcia’s braggadocio. Khan (26-2, 18 KOs) was about a 5-to-1 favorite on Friday. That means he is expected to win the HBO-televised bout easily.

“I will knock Danny Garcia out,’’ Khan said. “ I will take the world titles home. I know Danny didn’t train as hard as me. I promise I will knock him out. That is the only way.’’

Khan said it with the conviction of fighter who knows he must be sensational in his bid to eliminate questions that have lingered since his mixed performance against Peterson, who was forced out of rematch by a positive test for a synthetic testosterone.

Khan also had a message for Garcia’s dad, who has said he has never seen a good fighter of Pakistani descent.

“I cannot wait until after the fight when we stand here and I have knocked your son out,’’ Khan said. “He is going to see what a Pakistani-British fighter can do. I cannot wait to get in there.’’

Angel Garcia couldn’t wait to deliver a rhetorical counter.

“This fight is going to show the world who is the boss,’’ Angel said. “Danny is the boss. Khan has never faced a Latino like Danny. This is Latino blood. A nation. We are going to show the world who is the boss.”

Well, a fraction of the world anyway.

A zero on the right side of a rare won-lost ledger can be a doughnut hole full of illusions. It’s hard to confront and harder to learn from something that amounts to nothing. Amir Khan doesn’t have that problem.

There’s opportunity on that side of the equation for Khan, who is coming off a loss to Lamont Peterson in a decision as controversial as any, including the latest twitter-driven flap over the split scorecards favoring Tim Bradley over Manny Pacquiao. Without returning to the grassy knoll full of lousy decisions and subsequent suspicions, let’s just say that Khan has another chance to define himself in the way great fighters always have.

They are remembered for their victories, but they are measured by how they respond to the adversity that comes with a loss, no matter how controversial. Defeat is the great divide between good and great. Khan (26-2, 18 KOs) won’t make the leap in one night Saturday against the unbeaten and untested Danny Garcia (23-0, 14 KOs) in a HBO-televised bout at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay.

But Khan can re-assert his potential, eliminate doubt left in the wake of the Peterson performance and show that he is ready to move on, from junior-welterweight to welter. Don’t expect him to send any thank-you notes to Peterson, who was forced to withdraw from a scheduled rematch because of a positive test for synthetic testosterone. Without Peterson and the timing of the loss last December in Washington D.C., Khan might not have been forced to acknowledge and presumably correct mistakes that could have set him for more significant trouble later one.

“At times, we got lazy and stuff,’’ Khan said in a conference call. “We weren’t feeling the effects of his punches, so we just stood there and took punches that we shouldn’t have taken. I think we were too brave really. That’s why I knew in the rematch I was not going to do what I did in the first fight and make the silly mistakes I did make. There are some things that we did in the fight that I shouldn’t have done.

“Also, outside of the ring there were a few things in training camp I did that I’ll never do again. I’ve changed them around and I feel like a totally different fighter now.

“It was a great learning curve for me, the Peterson fight, because it made me realize that, ‘Look, I need to do things and I have to be more professional and I can’t do this and I can’t do that.’

“Sometimes, it’s a good wake up call.’’

A willingness to change has already been evident in Khan’s camp, which was interrupted by news of Peterson’s positive test and the announcement he would fight Garcia instead. Khan fired conditioning coach Alex Ariza and hired Ruben Tabares.

“Yeah, we’ve changed from Alex to Ruben Tabares and it was just a change I needed because it’s always good to have a change and work on new things,’’ said Khan, whose chin has been suspect ever since his first loss – a first-round KO to Breidis Prescott in 2008 . “There are a few things in camp I changed and I didn’t change. It was a big wake up call for me after the Peterson fight and there were a few things I could change. This was one of the things that changed.’’

Tabares, he says, has forced him to re-focus by altering routines.

“It’s a new challenge, as well, which kind of drives me and I think that’s what young fighters need because you can get bored doing the same thing.’’

In dumping Ariza, Khan did what Pacquiao, his stable mate at trainer Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym, would not. Tension between Arizona and Roach muddied the waters before the Bradley fight.

On HBO’s 24/7, Roach said Ariza would not be in the corner. Then, however, Pacquiao stepped in and said that Ariza would be there. Pacquiao, a Filipino Congressman, often acts like that politician who wants to please all of the people all of the time. The impossibility of that task is no secret, especially in the contentious boxing business. The controversial Ariza was in Pacquiao’s corner on June 9, but there was still speculation about lingering tension between him, Roach and cutman Miguel Diaz. Ariza repeatedly insulted Diaz after the Diaz-trained Marcos Maidana lost to Khan in the 2010 Fight of the Year.

Unlike Pacquiao, Khan eliminated any chance of Ariza becoming an issue against Garcia or presumably anybody else. It’s a sign that he has moved on in perhaps one small, yet significant step toward crossing that great divide.

QUICK HITS
· The U.S. economy is headed for a fiscal cliff on Jan. 1 if politicians can’t agree. By then, the boxing business will already have driven off its own fiscal cliff if the Top Rank-promoted Sergio Martinez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. fight at Thomas & Mack Center and Golden Boy’s Canelo Alvarez-Josesito Lopez bout go off on the same night, Sept. 15, in the same city, Las Vegas.

· Any odds on who will outweigh whom by more on Sept 15? Chavez, a 160-pound champion has been entering the ring at 180 pounds and more at opening bell. Lopez, who has never been at more than 144 pounds, is facing a junior-middleweight (154) in Canelo.

Kelly Pavlik is somewhere in the middle of that comeback story few can resist, especially in a business with a soft spot in its battered heart for an attempt as perilous as it is compelling. It’s impossible to know where it will end. It’s also impossible to ignore.

A sign of its destination will be there Saturday night on HBO’s Boxing After Dark in a Pavlik bout against an unknown, who for now is best known for wearing a T-shirt that mocks his own anonymity. Who Is Will Rosinsky?, says the shirt worn by an entertaining super-middleweight from New York with the same name.

Lose to Rosinsky (16-1, 9 KOs), and Pavlik (39-2, 34 KOs) might as well open up a T-shirt shop. The guess is that he won’t. Rosinsky is just the third step in Pavlik’s fight to come back from a messy bout with alcohol and subsequent erratic behavior, including an abrupt withdrawal from a fight last year with Darryl Cunningham, reportedly because he was unhappy with a purse worth more than $50,000. Had he beat Cunningham, he was in line for $1.35 million against Lucian Bute.

“I know there are some things Kelly wants to accomplish on this comeback, and we do call it a comeback because of all the changes that he made,’’ said manager Cameron Dunkin, who stood by Pavlik through all of the turmoil.

In the wake of two stays at the Betty Ford Clinic, Pavlik left old temptations and former trainer Jack Loew home in Youngstown. Then, he moved to Oxnard, Calif., and into Robert Garcia’s busy gym.

“The move out here to Oxnard was the best move I could make,’’ Pavlik said during a conference call about 10 days before facing Rosinsky on a Carson, Calif., card that includes Nonito Donaire (28-1, 18 KOs) against South African super-bantamweight Jeffrey Mathebula (26-3-2, 14 KOs). “I didn’t think I was ever going to get this opportunity again if I stayed back home training. We had to make that move.’’

It’s one among many in a plan that puts routine back into a lifestyle gone awry. Pavlik, who beat Scott Sigmon on June 8 in Las Vegas, is fighting Saturday for the second time within a month. Staying busy means a couple of things: There’s the patient re-discovery of fundamentals. And there’s staying sober. Sobriety is a difficult question, yet also inevitable after all the headlines about what went wrong after a loss to Bernard Hopkins in 2008.

Pavlik doesn’t like the question. Hard to blame him. But publicity has made it inevitable and perhaps turned it into just another opponent for the former middleweight champ in what might be his last chance.

“Right now I am in training,’’ Pavlik said when asked what he knew was coming. “You see people mentioning the last couple of incidents. But that is a three-year-old question. I will talk about my fight coming up and the opponent I am fighting.’’

Move on. It’s all he can do.

A sign of progress was there, in tone and words, when he talked about his victory over Sigmon. Before the seventh-round stoppage, it looked as if Pavlik got tired. But it wasn’t fatigue that kept the fight going a couple rounds after some at ringside thought it should have ended. It was fun.

“I wasn’t tired,” Pavlik said. “I was having a little bit of fun in that fight with Sigmund. I kind of made it look that way and that was my fault. Robert kept telling me: ‘Keep your distance, keep your distance.’ If he had some power to threaten me or keep me on my toes I wouldn’t have fought that way. But he didn’t have anything. I was enjoying what I was doing in there.’’

A rediscovery of simple joy in an old craft might be an intangible, yet it is no less significant than the re-application of a consistent jab and skillful defense. Pavlik is glad to be back and ambitious for a return to the big stage he once occupied.

“I am ready for the big fight now,’’ said Pavlik, who hopes his horizon after Rosinsky opens up to include Carl Froch or Bute or even pound-for-pound contender Andre Ward. “…Ward impressed me the most. He won the Super Six hands down and his overall boxing is good. I would love to fight him because he is the man. But he’s got a fight with (Chad) Dawson right now (Sept. 8). Froch, I would love to fight. Bute, also.

“There are a lot of opportunities out there.’’

And each a reason to hope that this comeback ends the way it was intended.

AZ Notes
In his first fight since a unanimous decision over Josh Sosa on May 26 in Tucson, Phoenix junior-welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez Jr. (15-0, 12 KOs) is scheduled for an Aug. 4 bout at Las Vegas’ Texas Station against Raul Tovar (10-5-1, 4 KOs) of Mission, Tex.

However, Benavidez’ opponent might change. Tovar has a July 13 bout scheduled against emerging Chris Algieri (14-0, 7 KOs) in Huntington, N.Y. An injury could force Tovar to withdraw. Benavidez was somewhat tentative in May in his first bout since surgery on his right wrist. Top Rank wants to ensure that his hands stay healthy with the right gloves and proper taping. Then, it hopes to step up the level of competition with tougher opponents.

The furor surrounding Tim Bradley’s victory over Manny Pacquiao is more of the same in a tiresome, if not redundant, succession of lousy decisions. But there was not much argument about Pacquiao, who has been robbed more by time than judges.

Speed, especially in hands once as lethal as lightning, is gone. That suggests more controversy on the scorecards for his remaining fights, be they against Bradley or Juan Manuel Marquez or Miguel Cotto.

The big tease, Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr., is now full of more potential controversy than drama, simply because both are in decline. What Pacquiao has lost in his hands, Mayweather has lost in his feet. A better bet than a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight later this year, or early next year, or in any year is that Mayweather and Pacquiao won’t be No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in Forbes’ 2013 ranking of the world’s highest-earning athletes.

In the rush to find crooks, or conspiracies, or fault with the failing vision of aging judges, there’s still a simple solution as fundamental and reliable as a jab. Who’s next? Stardom’s successor is out there. Retirement is on the horizon for the current pound-for-pound generation that includes Mayweather, Pacquiao, Cotto, Marquez, the Wladimir-and-Vitali Klitschko empire and Bernard Hopkins.

What will that pound-for-pound crowd look like a couple of years from now? Here’s a guess from No. 1 to No. 10.

1 –Andre Ward. The reigning super-middleweight possesses classic skill, poise and surprising toughness. Everything, it seems, but a large fan base. In a media session before the June 9 craziness over Bradley’s split decision over Pacquiao, Ward said “give it time.” It’ll happen, he said. Give him the right opponent, too. An insightful friend says the right foe might be Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., who is growing into Ward’s weight class. Chavez also has his dad’s legendary name and the Mexican audience, which might like what it sees in Ward when introduced to him.

2 – Nonito Donaire. He has been riding a crest of popularity since his crushing knock out of Fernando Montiel last year. There have been some mixed performances since then, perhaps brought on by a promotional controversy. Now that he’s back and apparently comfortable with Top Rank, he figures to regain the dramatic edge he had against Montiel. “He might be the best pound-for-pound fighter there is,’’ manager Cameron Dunkin said of Donaire’s 122-pound bout on July 7 against South African Jeffrey Mathebula in Carson, Calif. “In my opinion, he is. Five, six, seven titles? Who knows?’’

3 — Sergio Martinez. The Argentine middleweight often looks beatable, but the former soccer player’s unusual style has made fools of nearly everybody who has tried. The junior Chavez is expected to try on Sept. 15 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. It’s a defining bout for Martinez, mostly because Chavez is beginning to define himself with some toughness that few thought he had. If Martinez beats Chavez, he’ll have to move up in weight and onto another defining step against Carl Froch, Arthur Abraham and even Ward.

4 – Chavez Jr. and junior-middleweight Saul “Canelo’ Alvarez. We could break this tie if Top Rank, Chavez’ promoter, and Golden Boy, Canelo’s promoter, could sit down at the same table, break bread and agree on a date and weight. Then again, we’d probably get only a food fight. Too bad. Canelo’s combinations against Chavez’ emerging toughness would be a beauty.

6 – Abner Mares. If you’re sick of hearing about Pacquiao-Mayweather and Chavez-Canelo, prepare for more indigestion. At the lighter weights, there’s not a fight the public wants more than Mares-versus-Donaire. It could be the best rivalry in the lighter divisions since Michael Carbajal-Humberto Gonzalez. Without an end to the Top Rank-Golden Boy food fight, however, it won’t happen. Mares is a Golden Boy fighter and its first prospect to win a major title. Donaire is promoted by Top Rank. Mares has many of the qualities that makes Ward so intriguing. He’s smart, tough and skilled.

7 – Adrien Broner. What’s not to like about the unbeaten junior-lightweight from Cincinnati? He has speed in his hands and feet. He’s also a lot of fun. He likes to talk almost as much as he likes to fight. The showmanship includes a brush that might be worth some endorsement money if and when he moves to lightweight and junior-welterweight in search of name opponents and bigger victories.

8 — Chad Dawson. His bout on Sept. 8 with Ward will say something about his staying power, although the light-heavyweight will be at disadvantage in Oakland, Calif. – Ward’s hometown — and at Ward’s weight – 168 pounds instead of 175. A close loss wouldn’t keep him off this list, however. His future still might be at heavyweight, where the search for the next great American continues. Yeah, it might be former Michigan State linebacker Seth Mitchell. A couple of years from now, however, it could be the more experienced Dawson.

9 – Amir Khan. The UK junior-welterweight has as much to prove as he has potential. His split-decision loss in December to Lamont Peterson in Washington, D.C., was every bit as bad as the one that went against Pacquiao in the loss to Bradley. But it also left doubts about whether Khan is as good as he looked in victories over Marcos Maidana and Zab Judah. We’ll know more on July 14 against young Danny Garcia at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay. The athletic Khan is smart and knows how to market himself. If one punch exposes a suspect chin, however, he could quickly fall to the canvas and off this list.

10 – Bradley. It would be interesting see him in a Pacquiao rematch with healthy ankles. He injured both – a sprain to the right and damaged ligaments in the left — early in the June 9 bout. With both ankles intact, the result might be the same, but without the controversy.

From Duane Ford to Forbes, the rapid succession of headlines during the last few weeks is either a shotgun blast that adds up to chaos tipping further into anarchy or business generating more interest and money than it has in decades. Maybe, there’s a little bit of both, meaning the face of the game is as fractured – and familiar — as ever.

The good, the bad and the bizarre have collected in a notebook full of opinions and not much else. If you want something definitive, go see a judge as long as his name isn’t Duane Ford.

Here are some of the news items and a reaction to each:

NEWS ITEM: Inmate Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Filipino Congressman Manny Pacquiao are first and second, respectively, on the Forbes’ list of the richest 100 athletes from June 2011 through June 2012. Mayweather, a guest of Nevada’s Clark County Detention Center for the next couple of months, earned $85 million. Pacquiao earned $62 million.

Reaction: The boxer-topped list is a 1-2 punch that makes a mockery out of the know-nothing tweeters and talk-show hosts, who argue that boxing is dying. But it’s not a sign of a healthy business, either. Only two other boxers are ranked – heavyweight Wladimir Klitschko tied at No. 24 with $28 million and junior-middleweight Miguel Cotto at No. 75 with $19 million. Contrast that with the NFL, which starts with Denver quarterback Peyton Manning at No. 10 with $42 million. Thirty NFL players are among the top 100. The depth of NFL wealth is the mark of sustainability. Boxing’s winner-take-all model is not.

News Item: In a video review, the World Boxing Organization announces that a panel of five judges scored unanimously in favor of Manny Pacquiao instead of Timothy Bradley, who got the official victory in a split-decision stunner on June 9 when Duane Ford and CJ Ross scored it for Bradley, 115-113, and Jerry Roth scored it for Pacquiao by the same score. The WBO disclosed the scores — 118-110, 117-111, 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113, all for Pacquiao – but not the judges’ names.

Reaction: No names? Come on. Since the controversy erupted, there has been a demand for transparency. For the sake of credibility, the WBO could at least identify the judges who were on that panel. For all anybody knows, it could have been Manny, Moe, Jack and a couple of shock absorbers.

News Item: Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, and Harry Reid the Senate’s majority leader and a Democrat from Nevada, seize upon the Bradley-Pacquiao furor, questions the scoring and re-introduce an attempt to establish a federal commission.

Reaction: Reid owed Pacquiao favor. The Filipino politician campaigned for him in a tough run to retain his seat in 2010. Meanwhile, chances at a federal commission aren’t as good as an unlikely Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. It — the federal commission, not the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight — was proposed about a decade ago. It’ll still be there, the next time the good senators can’t resist a chance at grandstanding.

News Item: Bob Arum’s Top Rank and Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions each have fights scheduled on the same night, Sept. 15, with a couple of miles of each other in Las Vegas. If Victor Ortiz beats Josesito Lopez Saturday night at Staples Center in Los Angeles, Golden Boy plans to match him against Saul “Canelo’’ Alvarez at the MGM Grand on a Showtime pay-per-view card. On the same night, Arum plans to have Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. face Sergio Martinez at Thomas & Mack Center in an HBO pay-per-view event.

Reaction: This potential escalation in the feud between the game’s two biggest promoters is a lot more dangerous than controversy surrounding the Pacquiao-Bradley decision. The guess is that the networks, Showtime and HBO, will intervene and one of the bouts will be moved, perhaps to Oct. 6. A solution would be to have Chavez-versus-Canelo in a Mexican rivalry on a weekend celebrating Mexico’s Independence Day. But that would be too easy and not much has been lately.

AZ Notes
Popular Arizona super-bantamweight Emilio Garcia (6-0-1, 1 KO), who now has veteran trainer Chuck McGregor in his corner, expects his next fight to happen on Aug. 27 at Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix on an Iron Boy Promotions card, which put together a successful show on June 16.

Judges have been tough during the last week on the only two fighters the general public knows.

First, three judges score against Manny Pacquiao in a split decision met by unanimous outrage. Then, Melissa Saragosa, a Las Vegas justice of the peace, hands down a judgment denying Mayweather’s motion to finish his 87-day sentence at home instead of jail, the Big Boy Mansion instead of the Big House.

A controversial boxing decision and an attempt to escape jail time might be as comparable as Pacquiao’s suite at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay and Mayweather’s lonely cell at Nevada’s Clark County Detention Center. There weren’t any mints on Mayweather’s pillow to console him on the night after Saragosa said no Wednesday to his attorney’s emergency filing 10 days into his sentence for domestic abuse.

Nevertheless, I can’t help but think that the way each behaved in the face of recent adversity says something about how they are perceived — at least this week — by all of those judges in the court of public opinion.

Pacquiao won.

Mayweather lost.

Pacquiao exhibited Ernest Hemingway’s definition of courage – grace under pressure. While saying he thought he won, Pacquiao also said he did his best. His best, he said Saturday night, just wasn’t good enough for the judges. Accept it, use it as motivation and move on.

A couple of days later, Mayweather’s attorney files a motion that makes him sound like Paris Hilton. He has to drink tap water instead of bottled water. The jailhouse menu doesn’t include any of the meals his personal chef prepares. What did Mayweather expect? Twenty-four-hour room service?

It’s impossible to really know how Mayweather would have reacted to the split-decision that went against Pacquiao in his loss to Timothy Bradley. But it’s fair to wonder. The guess in this corner is that he would have raged into the night with bursts of profanity and perhaps tears. We’ve seen both, especially in his up-and-down relationship with Larry Merchant of Home Box Office, which will replay the controversial fight Saturday night as part of a telecast featuring the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.- Andy Lee bout in El Paso, Tex.

There’s a lot to like about Mayweather. In early May, it looked as if he was winning his fight with Pacquiao in the court of public opinion, which might be the only place we’ll ever see them fight.

He beat Miguel Cotto in an admirable, bruising confrontation. He apologized to Merchant and conducted a civil interview in the middle of the ring after the bout. Mayweather looked and acted like a grown-up. At the time, Pacquiao’s reputation was taking a beating for issues involving taxes and customs at home in the Philippines.

After the last week, however, it’s hard to know whether Pacquiao or Mayweather is the overall leader in the court of public opinion, which might be the only way to decide who deserves to be the pound-for-pound champ. You be the judge.

NOTES, QUOTES
For the record: In a freelance gig for the New York Times, I quit scoring Pacquiao-Bradley after seven rounds. I had Pacquiao leading, six rounds to one. I thought it was over. I started writing a story about a Pacquiao victory. Rookie mistake. After deleting the lead and re-writing in Usain Bolt time, I watched a replay. I scored it 116-112, — eight rounds to four – for Pacquiao.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all: Bradley, tough and admirable, has to be the first fighter to show up at a post-fight news conference as a winner in a wheelchair. He suffered injuries to both ankles in the early rounds while scrambling to get away from a lethal left thrown by Pacquiao, who emerged from the fight unmarked. Those Pacquiao lefts might be boxing’s version of basketball’s ankle-breaking moves.

AZ NOTES
Junior-welterweight Azriel Paez (2-0) is featured in the main event Saturday night at Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix against Michael Salcido (1-3) of Eloy, Ariz. Paez’ dad is the entertaining ex-featherweight champ Jorge Paez, who is expected to be at ringside. Roger Mayweather, Floyd’s trainer and uncle, also is expected to work the corner for fighters he trains in Las Vegas.

The card is scheduled for 10 fights, including David Benavidez — the younger brother of unbeaten Phoenix junior-welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez Jr. — in one of two amateur bouts. First bell is scheduled for 7 p.m.

LAS VEGAS – Manny Pacquiao is a heavy favorite. Heavier than ever.

Pacquiao was at 147 pounds, a career high, at the official weigh-in Friday for his welterweight fight Saturday night at the MGM Grand with a chiseled Tim Bradley, who looked bigger across the shoulders, yet was a pound lighter at 146.

It’s impossible to know whether Pacquiao’s weight was by design or just the result of a late snack.

“It just means he ate breakfast and ate lunch,’’ Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum said. “That’s all it means.’’

In the never-ending rounds of gamesmanship in the hours before opening bell, however, one pound is worth tons of speculation. Perhaps, Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KOs) intends to augment his power in an attempt to score an early stoppage of Bradley (28-0, 12 KOs). Maybe, Pacquiao is out of shape. Maybe, the white socks he wore on to the scale accounted for that pound. Before anybody calls Jenny Craig, maybe it’s all just 16 ounces of hot air.

Whatever the theory, the famed Filipino Congressman was two pounds heavier than at weigh-ins for Shane Mosley last May and Joshua Clottey in March, 2010. He was at 145 pounds both times. For Antonio Margarito in November, he was at 144.6.

“I’m happy,’’ said Pacquiao, who in his last appearance at the MGM Grand talked about “a not so happy fight” after his controversial decision over Juan Manuel Marquez last November.

Pacquiao, often enigmatic, can be hard to read before any opening bell. For those who like to interpret body language – and there are plenty of those up and down the Vegas Strip, there’s talk that Pacquiao is headed for a defeat, despite 4-to-1 betting odds that favor him over Bradley.

HBO commentator and Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward is one who expects an upset. He is picking Bradley, who will be fighting as a welterweight for only the second time in his career. Steward likes Bradley’s smarts, overall competence and ability to adjust.

“He is tough, tough, tough and, unlike a lot of guys Manny has fought, he’s his own man,’’ Steward said. “He thinks for himself.’’’

Pacquiao’s has had trouble against fighters who think and adjust from round to round. Just go back to November. In Pacquiao’s last fight, Marquez, a thinking man’s fighter, threw subtle change-ups at Pacquiao, an instinctive fighter who is at his devastating best once he is allowed to establish a rhythm. Marquez’ adjustments and counters forced Pacquiao to hesitate just long enough to keep him out of his comfort zone.

But if he’s worried, it wasn’t apparent when he flashed a friendly smile at Bradley during the stare-down in the ritual pose for the cameras after the weigh-in. Bradley wore the mask of an angry man. He urged the Pacquiao fans in the reported crowd of 4,000 to boo, please, boo some more. Bradley bounced his glistening head at Pacquiao menacingly, almost as if it will be a weapon, which is what it has been in many of his fights.

“I’m ready for war,’’ he said. “It don’t matter, these boos. I’ve been here before.’’

Truth is, however, Bradley really hasn’t. His bid to upset Pacquiao, the World Boxing Organization’s welterweight champion, is his first appearance on a major stage. His inexperience is a factor in the odds stacked against him. His inexperience also means he is a relatively anonymous. He has none of the star power possessed by Floyd Mayweather, Jr., or Miguel Cotto, or even Marquez. That might explain a somewhat subdued scene for the weigh-in. The crowd actually did the wave, which is often a sign of boredom in baseball or football. It also might explain why there were still about 1,500 tickets available late Thursday.

Doesn’t matter, Bradley said. At opening bell, only two people will count anyway, he said.

“That’s when I’m going to prove all these people wrong,’’ he said. “I’m going to shock the world, baby.’’

Pacquiao was asked why Bradley appeared to be so angry.

“I don’t know,’’ he said, almost laughing.

Then, Pacquiao pressed his hands together and looked up in an expression of his born-again faith. Bradley has called his training camp “hell,’’ as if that is where he intends to take Pacquiao throughout a scheduled 12 rounds. Pacquiao called his camp “heaven.’’ Maybe, that’s why he prayed at the weigh-in. He prays he’ll still be there late Saturday night.

LAS VEGAS – Timothy Bradley says he has worked hard to eliminate the head-butt from his attack Saturday night in bid to upset Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand.

Not to worry, says Manny Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach.

Roach said it won’t happen if Pacquiao remembers to do what he has practiced throughout endless hours of training for the welterweight bout.

“Lateral movement,’’ Roach said.

There’s a scenario that the fight will end in controversy if a Bradley head butt bloodies Pacquiao enough to force a stoppage. A scar is evident above Pacquiao’s right eye from a cut suffered in his last fight, a controversial decision over Juan Manuel Marquez in November. Pacquiao got 28 stitches for that one.

Bradley, who often leads with his head, vows to upset Pacquiao, about a 4-to-1 favorite. But he said he doesn’t want controversy to tarnish the victory. That’s why he says he has worked to eliminate the head butt, however unintentional.

Notes, Quotes, Anecdotes
· Bradley’s dad, Ray, recalls when he knew son was a fighter. It was 1998 in Los Angeles. His son was a 12-year-old amateur, fighting one of the best amateurs of that timer, Jesus Gonzales of Phoenix. Ray Bradley said his son bloodied the nose of Gonzales, who then as an amateur beat Andre Ward. Ward hasn’t lost since. Bradley saw the blood and continued to batter Gonzales nose, his dad said.

· Yuriorkis Gamboa is expected to be at the fight Saturday night, a Top Rank promotion. Gamboa is being sued by Top Rank for breach of contract. There were reports he would jump to Floyd Mayweather’s promotional company after his failure to appear at news conferences led to the cancellation of an April fight with Brandon Rios. It’s not clear whether Gamboa’s appearance at Pacquiao-Bradley means he’s back on good terms with Top Rank.

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank

LAS VEGAS — Antonio Margarito is retiring.

Margarito announced the decision Thursday on his Facebook page.

“After much thought and extended conversations with my family and team, we have all agreed that the time to hang up my gloves and begin a new chapter in life has arrived,’’ Margarito wrote in a nine-paragraph statement. “I always told my family and team that I would walk away from boxing when I felt I could no longer compete at the level I believed I needed to be, in order to be successful. Although the passion and drive are still there, I have to accept that my time to walk away has arrived.’’

Margarito is the third fighter to retire within the last week. Winky Wright and Shane Mosley retired on Sunday. The former welterweight champion had been considering the decision for several days. He wasn’t sure whether he wanted to fight in a ceremonial farewell bout for his Mexican fans. His promoter, Top Rank’s Bob Arum, said he heard last week that he wanted to walk away from the sport.

“He should be remembered as a real warrior, a guy who was afraid of nobody, whose athletic skills were limited, but never quit,’’ said Arum, who defended Margarito in the controversy about whether he knew his former trainer had tried to put altered wraps on his hands before a loss to Mosley in 2009. “I think he’s a great guy. I wish him luck with whatever he’s going to do.
Margarito had been scheduled for a fight on July 20 at Casino Del Sol in Tucson against Abel Perry of Colorado Springs in his first bout since a 10th-round TKO loss in December to Miguel Cotto, who left Margarito’s surgically-repaired right eye badly bloodied and swollen during a dramatic rematch at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

The bout against Perry, which Margarito saw as a potential step toward a middleweight fight with fellow Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., had been postponed from May 26 to July 7 and then July 20 because of a reported injury to an Achilles tendon that Margarito sustained while training in Tijuana, his hometown.

There were also fears that his problematic right eye might sustain further damage, especially against Chavez, a 160-pound champion who reportedly has been as heavy as 180 pounds at opening bell for his last few fights. That could have given Chavez a powerful advantage of at least 20 pounds against Margarito, who has fought at 154 since 2008.

Margarito underwent surgery to correct the vision after the orbital bone was fractured in his 2010 loss to Pacquiao. But scarred skin surrounding the eye was vulnerable to further cuts, said his manager Sergio Diaz. In the Cotto rematch, those cuts led to a stoppage that Margarito and Diaz believed was premature.

Questions about the condition of the eye led to doubts about whether the New York State Athletic Commission would license him for Cotto. It finally did on Nov. 22, 12 days before the fight.

Margarito underwent surgery to correct the vision after the Pacquiao loss, but scarred skin surrounding the eye was vulnerable to further cuts. Those cuts led to the stoppage against Cotto. Arum had his family opthamologist do the surgery to correct any problems in the eye itself.

“The eye is 100 percent,’’ Arum said in a media room for the Pacquiao-Tim Bradley fight Saturday at the MGM Grand.

There was speculation that Margarito was considering retirement on May 26 when he accompanied his brother-in-law, Hanzel Martinez, to Tucson for a victory over Felipe Rivas for a minor bantamweight title, also at Casino Del Sol. Margarito did not make himself available for comment. His former trainer Robert Garcia, who was in Martinez’ corner, said he had spoken to Margarito, but had not been working with him. Garcia then hinted that retirement was a possibility. He said that “Margarito had a lot to think about.’’

Margarito earned about $22 million over a 46 fights (38-8, 27 KOs). His career as a tough, stubborn brawler took a controversial turn in January 2009 when altered hand wraps were found before losing to Mosley at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The California State Athletic Commission banned his trainer, Javier Capetillo, and revoked his license.

Margarito, re-licensed in Texas for the Pacquiao fight at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, has always said he didn’t know that Capetillo tried to tape his hands with the wraps – which reportedly included plaster-like inserts. There was never any evidence of altered wraps in any bout before they were discovered by Mosley trainer Naazim Richardson. Nevertheless, it was suspected that Margarito used altered wraps in his 2008 upset of Cotto, who got his revenge in the rematch.

“I’ve always strongly believed in his innocence,’’ Arum said. “So, I’m happy that I helped make him financially secure with the Pacquiao fight and then the Cotto fight. We feel like we did our responsibility for Margarito. ‘’

ShowDown Promotions still plans to stage a card at Casino Del Sol in late July, possibly with Top Rank junior-welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez Jr. of Phoenix. If not July 20, the card might be scheduled for July 27.

LAS VEGAS – Born-again Manny Pacquiao has been more of a diplomat than a preacher for the last few days. He played the peacemaker Wednesday in an attempt to ensure a unified front instead of civil strife in his corner Saturday night against Tim Bradley at the MGM Grand.

After a formal news conference, Pacquiao planned to talk with trainer Freddie Roach and conditioning coach Alex Ariza about their differences and how to get beyond them, at least for one night. It appeared that Ariza had been banished by Roach, who said Saturday on HBO’s 24/7 that he wouldn’t be in the corner. A few days after Roach’s comments signaled a significant shuffle and perhaps turmoil, Ariza was back.

“Manny’s call,’’ Roach said.

Pacquiao, who confirmed that it was his decision, made it clear that there won’t be any confusion. If you want democracy, go to a voting booth. In this corner, Pacquiao will listen to only one voice.

“Freddy’s,’’ he said.

Roach repeated his criticism of Ariza, who was seated on the stage for Wednesday’s news conference. The outspoken Ariza left Pacquiao’s training camp in the Philippines a few weeks ago to work with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., who is in training for Andy Lee in El Paso, Tex.

“I thought it was a bad choice,’’ Roach said.

Another trainer was hired, Filipino Marvin Somodio, who was introduced Wednesday as Ariza’s assistant.

Pacquiao’s corner includes another subplot, also involving Ariza. Miguel Diaz will work as the cut man. Diaz and Ariza exchanged insults during a post-fight news conference following Amir Khan’s victory over Marcos Maidana in December, 2010. Diaz was Maidana’s trainer. Ariza, then Khan’s conditioning coach, called Diaz a “fraud.” Ariza repeatedly mocked Diaz, a former maître ’d at a Las Vegas restaurant, by yelling “table for four.’’

For Bradley, reports of potential discord in the corner represent just another distraction for Pacquiao.

“I knew, sooner or later, it would catch up to him’’ said Bradley, who was confident and relaxed despite being a 4-to-1 underdog just days before the biggest fight in his career.

Notes, Quotes, Anecdotes
· Bradley again said he has been working hard to eliminate the head-butt from his arsenal. “I definitely want to keep my head out of the mix,’’ said Bradley, who promises to win, yet doesn’t want a victory to be tarnished by controversy.

· Top Rank promoter Bob Arum introduced Bradley manager Cameron Dunkin as “Cameron Diaz” during the news conference. “I wish he looked like Cameron Diaz,’’ Arum in a quick comeback from his own misstep.

· Bradley is a practicing vegetarian, which he says gives him strength and endurance. He said he heard about the diet from a physician. “This doctor tells me, “You know, those 300-pound gorillas don’t eat meat,’ ‘’ he said. “That’s when I decided I’m going to go vegan. I’m going to eat grass, trees, bark, whatever.’’

· Roach is scheduled for induction to the International Boxing of Fame in Canastota, N.Y. Sunday, the day after Pacquiao-Bradley. “I rented a plane,’’ said Roach, whose overnight jet to nearby Syracuse will cost him $26,000. “I’m not happy about that.’’ Roach should be able to afford it after he collects his share of Pacquiao’s guarantee, $6 million, according to contracts filed with the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Bradley is guaranteed $5 million.

· And Pacquiao has shed at least one diversion. Basketball isn’t exactly a distraction. But Roach said he has quit playing pick-up games after training. “I asked him why he gave up basketball,’’ Roach said. “He told me, ‘After training all morning, maybe I shouldn’t play basketball.’’ Maybe without the basketball, Pacquiao won’t suffer from further cramps in his calves. The cramping bothered him in his last two fights – a controversial decision over Juan Manuel Marquez and a one-sided decision over Shane Mosley. After hearing Pacquiao’s answer, Roach said “Thanks, Manny, that’s the best answer you ever gave me.’

Photo by Chris Farina / Top rank

If defiance is an art form, Winky Wright is an artist. He might not practice it in quite the style of a Bernard Hopkins, who has applied it in broad strokes for an identity all his own. But Wright uses it in a careful, almost subdued tone that has made fools of many who didn’t see it or doubted it was even there.

Whether it can still help him is either a question of time — he’s 40 – or Peter Quillin (26-0, 20 KOs), who Saturday night on a Showtime-televised card in Carson, Calif. will attempt to do what Felix Trinidad and Shane Mosley couldn’t.

Wright’s initial challenge rests in whether he can overcome a problematic combination. There’s his age, although Wright (51-5-1, 25 KOs) won’t even be the oldest on a card labeled “Four Warned.’’ The senior citizen on this one is Antonio Tarver (29-6, 20 KOs), who at 43 faces Lateef Kayode (18-0, 14 KOs) in a cruiserweight fight. Wright’s biggest problem might be a long layoff. He’s had only one fight in the last five years and only two in the last six-and-a-half. His last victory was over Ike Quartey in 2006.

But, Wright said in a conference call, he never retired. OK, maybe he was on an extended vacation or gone on a long recess. Whatever it was, Wright says he never planned to quit. That, he says, is why he’s coming back.

But, he said, “If I’m going to do it, I’ve got to do it now.’’

If not retirement, inactivity often erodes reflexes and dulls muscle memory. Wright played a lot of golf. But a tee time isn’t opening bell. In perhaps a concession to that possibility, Wright trained in Phoenix at the Athletes Performance institute where the best from all sports often go to rehab from injuries or to resurrect old skills.

Wright, who is back with trainer Dan Birmingham, conceded that it took him a while to re-adapt to the Spartan-like regimen that dictates a fighter’s lifestyle in the weeks before a bout.

“I’m not going to say I stayed in boxing shape,’’ said Wright, who got up to 185 pounds and will fight Quillin at 160. “I wasn’t fat. But I wasn’t in boxing shape.’’

The layoff, he said, was a result of not getting the kind of fights he wanted.

“No one significant wanted to fight me,’’ he said.

Significant fights eluded him for years. In large part, that was his story before he emerged as the first undisputed junior-middleweight champion in nearly three decades. Wright fought in Europe, winning yet ignored in the United States during the late 1990s. In the U.S., Wright, the American expatriate, got little respect for a record perceived to be built on opponents who – the joke went – could only get licensed to drive a cab in Las Vegas.

Wright filed it away, used it as motivational chip and as a weapon for those who laughed at the jokes, yet looked like the punch line once they got into the ring against the lefthander with a precise jab and defensive knowhow. In 2004, he beat Shane Mosley twice, the first time after Mosley was coming off his second victory over Oscar De La Hoya. Yet, Wright was still the underdog in 2005 when he met Felix Trinidad at middleweight. Trinidad had no chance in losing a one-sided decision in what was Wright’s finest performance.

But victory didn’t temper the defiance, which was sometimes reflected in failed negotiations. In 2006, Wright and Jermain Taylor fought to controversial draw. Taylor has the middleweight title, but balked at giving Wright financial parity, a 50-50 split, because Wright didn’t have a title. The rematch never happened.

Wright is often asked about the fights he turned down, including one with Oscar De La Hoya proposed in 2003. He was asked about it again in the conference call that included Quillin.

“All these idiots always talk about what I turned down,’’ Wright said in a flash of anger that said time hasn’t tempered that defiance either.

It’s a sign that Wright has a chance on a night when few give him any at all against the 28-year-old Quillin. From the beginning, it’s why he’s always had a chance.

Notes, Quotes
· The sad death Sunday of Johnny Tapia marks the passing of a star-crossed personality and a character as colorful as any in a sport full of them. He was as ferocious a fighter as there ever was. In the end, he will be remembered more for his story outside of the ropes – Mi Vida Loca – than for what he did within them.

· Say a few prayers for Paul Williams. His fight is just beginning after a motorcycle accident Sunday in Atlanta that will likely leave him paralyzed from waist down. He was scheduled to undergo surgery Friday.

· Wright’s last opponent was Williams, who beat him by unanimous decision in April 2009 at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay.

AZ Notes
Phoenix junior-welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez Jr. is thinking about a different model of Everlast gloves after extending his unbeaten record to 15-0 last Saturday in Tucson in his first bout since surgery on his right wrist in January. He emerged from the six-rounder over Josh Sosa without pain in the wrist. But there was a swollen knot on the middle knuckle of the left hand. It’s a problem he’s had over the last three-to-four fights. Benavidez’ bone structure might not be able to withstand power from his own punches. One solution might be an Everlast model with more padding above the knuckles.

TUCSON – There was no comeback from Antonio Margarito. That will have to wait. But there was a split decision, a couple of split lips, controversy and a tentative comeback from a leading prospect whose fight with fragile hands continues.

Margarito could only watch Saturday night, first from a seat and then from a corner behind trainer Roberto Garcia at Casino Del Sol’s outdoor arena where the former welterweight champion is expected to fight on July 20 in his first bout since his dramatic loss to Miguel Cotto in December.

Margarito, who had been scheduled to fight Abel Perry Saturday night, was there for his brother-in-law, Hanzel Martinez (18-0, 15 KOs), who won a minor World Boxing Council bantamweight title when Felipe Rivas (13-10-1, 7 KOs) suddenly quit before the seventh.

Rivas, who agreed to the fight only two days before opening bell, scored a third-round knockdown and was leading on the scorecards when he abruptly checked out. Rivas said he decided he couldn’t continue because of the difference in weight.

“The pounds were just too much,’’ Rivas, a Mexican, said through an interpreter.

Rivas weighed in on Friday at 116.2 pounds. Martinez’ official weight was 118.

Rivas, whose compact punches left Martinez bleeding from the nose and lip, said he knew he was winning.

“But it wasn’t worth for me to continue in a fight like this,’’ said Rivas, who is from the border town of Nogales, about 60 miles south of Tucson.

Martinez’ corner believed that Rivas, penalized a point in the third for spitting his bloodied mouthpiece at Martinez, just ducked the inevitable. Martinez, who appeared to get stronger in the sixth, would have scored a knockout within the next two rounds, said Garcia and Sergio Diaz of ShowDown Promotions.

The in-laws, it turns out, fight the same way. Both Margarito and Martinez are notorious slow starters.

Diaz said he hopes to have Martinez back at Casino Del Sol on a card scheduled for July 20, when Margarito’s comeback has been re-scheduled for a second time. It was postponed the first time, from May 26 to July 7, because of a strain to an Achilles tendon suffered while training in Tijuana about a week after the fight with Perry was formally announced. It was re-scheduled again, this time to July 20, to accommodate TV Azteca, which has other bouts scheduled for July 7.

“Tony’s been running and is in good shape,’’ said Diaz, who said Perry is still Margarito’s opponent.

However, It’s not clear who will train Margarito, who was in Martinez’ dressing room and not immediately available for comment. Garcia was in Margarito’s corner for losses to Cotto and Manny Pacquiao. Some have urged Margarito to retire because of damage suffered to his right eye, which was surgically-repaired after the orbital bone was fractured by Pacquiao. Margarito said in March that he hopes for a shot at fellow Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in September.

“He’s still working out in Tijuana,’’ Garcia said. “This is not just about me. He has lot of thinking to do.’’

In a main event put together after Margarito’s injury in early May, Mexican super-welterweight Jesus Soto Karass (25-7-3, 16 KOs) battled to a split decision over Said El Harrack (1-2-1, 4 KOs) of Henderson, Nev.

“It was tough fight,’’ said Soto Karass, who rocked El Harrack, a Moroccan, with uppercuts to the stomach. “That guy is a good fighter. My body assault won it for me.’’

Before Soto Karrass-El Harrack and the Martinez-Rivas controversy, Phoenix prospect Jose Benavidez Jr.’s tested his right wrist for the first time since undergoing surgery for a misplaced bone in January. Benavidez (15-0, 12 KOs) was cautious early, throwing only three right hands in the first round en route to a unanimous decision over Josh Sosa (10-3, 5 KOs). Benavidez relied on a powerful jab, head to body and body to head, throughout most of the next five rounds, until rocking Sosa with rights in the bout’s final moments.

There was no further pain in the right hand or wrist, Benavidez said. However, there was swelling and bruising on the middle knuckle of the left. Benavidez has had problems with both hands. The 20-year-old junior-welterweight will have a physician look at the left hand sometime within the next week, his dad-and-trainer, Jose Benavidez Sr. said.

Best of the undercard

Super-lightweight Abel Ramos (4-0, 3 KOs) of Arizona City displayed a prospect’s power with a second-round stoppage of Cassius Clay (0-4,), a Las Vegas fighter who has the legend’s original name and a photo of himself as an infant in the arms of the heavyweight champ better known as Muhammad Ali.

In the first, Ramos threw an overhand right that lifted Clay up and dropped him on to the canvas as though he had fallen off a one-meter diving board. At 1:54 of the second, Ramos threw another right. Clay spit out his mouthpiece in a gesture that needed no interpretation. He was finished.

The rest
· Lightweight Javier Garcia (8-2-1, 7 KOs), of trainer Robert Garcia’s gym in Oxnard, Calif., scored four knockdowns, forcing Juan Jaramillo (8-11-2, 3 KOs) of Salem, Ore., to quit after the fifth round.

· Lightweight Eric Flores (3-1-1, 1 KO) of Los Angeles scored a unanimous decision over Rudolfo Gamez (1-2) of Tucson.

· Lightweight Andrey Klimov (14-0, 7 KOs) stayed unbeaten with a unanimous decision over Alejandro Rodriguez (13-6, 6 KOs) of Mexico.

· Phoenix super-middleweight Andrew Hernandez (4-0-1 scored a unanimous decision over Katrell Strauss (2-2, 1 KO) of Denver.

Photo by Phil Soto / Top Rank

Jose Benavidez Jr.’s apprenticeship will move on to another stage, from patient prospect to potential contender, if he can get through a test Saturday at Tucson’s Casino del Sol that is critical and perhaps necessary in the development of the 20-year-old junior-welterweight.

Benavidez (14-0, 12 KOs) is coming off surgery for a troublesome right wrist that forced him out of a couple of fights and gave him a hint at what he can expect. The Phoenix fighter has yet to encounter much adversity from the opposite corner, although that surely awaits him if he fulfills all that has been forecast. But surgery creates its own adversity. It leaves a scar and sometimes questions.

Questions might be there are at opening bell at Casino del Sol’s outdoor area on TV Azteca against Joshua Sosa (10-2, 5 KOs) of Leavenworth, Kan., on an eight-fight card (6 p.m. first bell) featuring junior-middleweight Jesus Soto Karass (24-7, 16 KOs) of Mexico against Said El Harrack (10-1-1, 5 KOs) of Henderson, Nev. Benavidez father and trainer, Jose Benavidez Sr., is confident his son will answer in a fashion that will leave only the scar.

The wrist, he says, has withstood long hours of pounding mitts, speed bags, heavy bags and sparring partners at trainer Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Calif., and Central Boxing in Phoenix.

There were some predictably tentative moments in the early going. The senior Benavidez could see it. His son would wince.

But five days before Benavidez’s first fight since a victory in November on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao’s controversial decision over Juan Manuel Marquez, that wince was gone, replaced by confidence.

“We were working the mitts,’’ Jose Sr. “The first time he hits the mitts with the right hand, I looked up into his face. There was no expression. He just kept on working. Then, he sparred eight, nine rounds. He’s ready to go. Everything is good.’’

Jose Benavidez Sr. works to balance the various, sometimes conflicting tasks that go into being a dad and his son’s trainer. It’s not easy. Many fail to separate emotions from business. But there have been dads and sons who have managed, including retired welterweight and middleweight champion Felix Trinidad and his father, Felix Trinidad Sr. The senior Benavidez has tried to learn by quietly watching others.

His son turned 20 on May 15. That’s the good news. Somebody who was 19 just a month ago has a short memory for surgery that happened in January. Concern is for old guys. That’s his dad, CEO of the family business.

Jose Benavidez Sr. looks at the rest of 2012 and sees a year in which his son is going to have to further prove himself to Top Rank, which signed him as a 17-year-old.

“I’m sure there are some doubts in a lot people’s minds,’’ said Jose Sr., who hopes a first or second-round stoppage without further trouble to the right wrist will put his son into a bout on the June 9 undercard of Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. “That’s just the way the business is. Over the next year, the level of competition will be stepped up. He’s ready for that. But we have to show improvement.

“Right now, it’s about how you win.’’

Bute might have to steal one in Nottingham
Lucian Bute might have to be a modern-day Robin Hood to steal a victory Saturday in Nottingham, England, from Carl Froch in an EPIX-televised super-middleweight bout.

Bute has the title — the International Boxing Federation’s version, but few advantages in going to Froch’s hometown. Bute, a Romanian living in Canada, tried to duplicate the expected atmosphere by even training while listening to a tape of crowd noise that included the voice of Froch’s wife.

Meanwhile Froch, who lost to Andre Ward in his last bout, has been predictably forthright and confident. Bute, he says, is out of his league.

“We’re going to find out if he’s good enough to fight at the next level,’’ Froch (28-2, 20 KOs) said in a shot at Bute’s unbeaten record (30-0, 24 KOs) during an international conference call. “Lucian Bute, on paper, is overrated.’’

Notes, Quotes
· During a conference call with Pacquiao, Top Rank’s Bob Arum said he doesn’t believe that Lamont Peterson and Andre Berto are drug cheats. Both have tested positive. Arum asked for further research before a rush to judgment. “Unless everybody sits down and works through this, we’ll have chaos,’’ he said.

· And Antonio Tarver started slowly and picked up steam in an angry rant directed at Lateef Kayode during a conference call for their Showtime-televised cruiserweight bout on June 2 in Carson, Calif. Apparently, Kayode is upset that Tarver criticized him while working as a TV analyst. “”He told me what’s he’s going to do me when he sees me in the street,’’ said Tarver, who promises to break down Kayode. “This man has threatened me.’’

Boxing and politics are impossible to separate. Proof rests in Muhammad Ali’s opposition to the Viet Nam war. But the ring and political office are an impossible mix. The furor surrounding Manny Pacquiao’s opposition to same-sex marriage in a misleading, examiner.com story is just another example of why the Filipino Congressman would have been better off if he had postponed his political career.

From this corner, it’s a mystery as to why Pacquiao would even comment about the issue. I’m a lot more interested in how he plans to deal with Tim Bradley’s head-butts on June 9. I also suspect the controversy will quickly subside, a forgotten tempest. An athlete’s opinion about anything outside of the arena is a little bit like going to the window at a Vegas book in March with wagers based on President Barack Obama’s NCAA bracket.

It’s foolish.

Pacquiao’s seat in Congress has always seemed to be something of a sideshow. It’s an intriguing element, just one among many in the make-up of a compelling story. Put it this way: Pacquiao is not going to be judged on what legislation he proposes, but only for whom he beats and how he beats them. If he loses to Bradley, he loses more votes than he would with an opinion about gay marriage.

The trouble with his political office is that he has become fair game, an easy target, for unseen shots he can’t counter when all of his time and energy are needed in the challenge posed by the dangerous Bradley. Politicians without enemies are ex-politicians.

From an issue with Filipino authorities to a controversy with customs about goods imported by his charitable foundation, Pacquiao’s office and his aspirations beyond Congress have created a complicated landscape full of fronts that will confront him all at once at a time when only one fight really matters.

From the Twitter front
Is anybody taking Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s latest tweet seriously? Mayweather tells his 2.8 million followers: “I stand behind President Obama & support gay marriage. I’m an American citizen & I believe people should live their life the way they want.’’

I guess that means few remember Mayweather’s internet video about Pacquiao a couple of years ago. Mayweather repeatedly used a homophobic slur to describe Pacquiao.

Dates, Quotes, Anecdotes
· Happy Birthday, Sugar Ray Leonard. He turned 56 Thursday.

· With a Chad Dawson-Andre Ward fight possible in September, Lucian Bute was asked for his pick Thursday in a conference call that included Carl Froch in the build-up for their EPIX-televised fight on May 26 in Nottingham, England. “A very good fight,’’ said Bute, who agreed to face Froch when Ward said no. “Probably 50-50. I would give a little edge to Dawson right now.’’ Leonard will work as an EPIX analyst for Bute-Froch.

· And Froch, on Bute’s contention that a succession of punches can crack his durable chin. “The best chin in the business is the one that doesn’t get hit.’’

AZ Notes
· Happy Birthday, Jose Benavidez, Jr. The Phoenix junior-welterweight prospect turned 20 Tuesday while training for May 26 at Tucson’s Casino del Sol in his first bout since surgery on his right wrist for an injury suffered in a November victory on the Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez undercard. “He looks good, looks strong,’’ said his dad and trainer, Jose Benavidez Sr., who said his son knocked out a sparring partner last week with a left hook.

· Tijuana super-flyweight Hanzel Martinez, Antonio Margarito’s brother-in-law, will get a shot at a minor title, the North American Boxing Federation’s version, on the May 26 card. Margarito had been scheduled for the main event, but his first fight since a December loss was postponed until July because of foot injury suffered a few days after it was formally announced.

Lamont Peterson’s camp must not have been reading websites, Twitter or Facebook when ESPN reported just two days after Peterson’s upset on Dec. 10 of Amir Khan that Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun had tested positive.

Either that or Peterson’s management was partying on a planet where there is no social media. Braun’s positive test was for elevated levels of testosterone. A second test showed that the testosterone was synthetic, meaning that Braun, the National League’s 2011 MVP, had either injected it or ingested it.

Braun’s positive test was a cautionary tale in what not to do. Peterson went ahead and did it anyway, setting off a fast-moving chain of events that led to the cancellation Wednesday of a May 19 rematch with Khan at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay. Peterson’s test samples also revealed a testosterone that had been injected as pellets into the junior-welterweight’s hip.

Expect lots of legalese in the argument about whether the testosterone in the Peterson sample was synthetic. His Las Vegas physician, Dr. John Thompson, said it was soy-based, calling it “bioidentical testosterone’’ administered after Peterson complained about fatigue brought on by what Thompson said were low levels of the natural stuff.

Even if those pellets were veggie burgers, they had to be injected in a procedure not reported to VADA, the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association, which conducted the tests in an agreement with both camps. If there was in fact a legitimate medical reason for the testosterone treatment, VADA should have known about it. That it didn’t before a positive test on March 19 raises a red flag.

Peterson, a nice guy with a compelling story, said he was told that soy-based testosterone was not on the banned list. He said he researched on-line and decided it was natural. He said there no reason to worry. If not, why not report it on a VADA form that asked each fighter to disclose medications? Sorry, but to call its absence on the document an inadvertent slip just doesn’t explain it. Even his own camp says the treatment started about a month before his controversial decision over Khan in Washington D.C.

Questions raised by Braun’s positive test should have alerted Peterson to the peril of continuing it without disclosing it. Unlike Braun, the unfortunate Peterson doesn’t have a Player’s Union or an appeal process that can protect him and his livelihood. Braun’s 50-game suspension was overturned in February on an appeal that disputed only the process in which the sample was delivered and not the result itself.

Braun got off on a technicality.

Peterson didn’t.

He already has lost a payday in a cancellation also costly to Khan and Golden Boy Promotions. He’ll lose a few more if he can’t explain to various state commissions why he wasn’t more transparent about his use of a substance long controversial in other sports but just becoming an issue addressed by boxing.

In some ways, Peterson has become the personification what boxing must do: Pay attention, or else there will be cancellations in a business that can’t afford them.

AZ Notes
Phoenix junior-welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez Jr. (14-0, 12 KOs) is expected to test his surgically-repaired right wrist on May 26 at Casino Del Sol in Tucson against Josh Sosa (10-2, 5 KOs), a Leavenworth, Kan., fighter who has lost has last two. The fight will be Benavidez’s first since injuring the wrist during a victory in November on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao’s controversial decision over Juan Manuel Marquez.

Benavidez is scheduled for an undercard that will feature Mexican welterweight Jesus Soto Karass (24-7-3, 16 KOs) against Said El Harrack (10-1-1, 5 KOs) of Henderson, Nev. Karass-El Harrack replaces the Antonio Margarito-Abel Perry bout, which was moved to July 7, also at Casino Del Sol, because of an Achilles tendon injury suffered by Margarito last week while training in Tijuana for his first bout since a loss in December to Miguel Cotto.

LAS VEGAS — There were a lot of surprise, but only one upset.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. did the expected Saturday night at the MGM Grand and beat Miguel Cotto with a decision that was as bruising as it was unanimous. Then, there was the upset.

Mayweather did an interview with HBO’s Larry Merchant after saying he wouldn’t after the two engaged in a war of words following his controversial stoppage in a September stoppage of Victor Ortiz. Merchant said Mayweather apologized Friday for the rhetorical brawl.

The bet was that an apology from Mayweather would happen before immortality and an end to taxes. The way things are changing, anything looks possible, maybe even a Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight. More on that later.

Nevertheless, there have been hints for at a least week that Mayweather is a changed man even before he has to report on June 1 for an 87-day jail sentence for domestic abuse. At news conferences and other public appearances, he had begun to behave more like a diplomat and less like an ill-mannered rapper.

In Cotto, he said, he expected a tough fight.

“He came to fight,’’ said Mayweather (43-0, 26 KOs), who collected a minimum of $32 million, a record guarantee. “He didn’t come for survival.’’

No, he didn’t. Cotto came for a significant upset. He didn’t get it. On the scorecards, his loss was one-sided. Judges Patricia Morse Jarman and Dave Moretti scored 117-111 each for Mayweather. The third judge, Robert Hoyle, had it 118-110. Cotto (37-3, 30 KOs) left the ring without speaking to the media, which might be a sign of his frustration at the scoring.

But there are no points for determination and the guts to sustain an attack throughout 12 rounds. A key element to Cotto’s tactical plan took shape early. Mayweather often uses distance like a puppeteer uses strings. From about the length of a jab, he pushes, pulls, leads, twists and, in the end, turns ordinary opposition inside-out. But Cotto refused to let him maintain the distance so fundamental to his reign.

In the second, it was evident Cotto would not follow Mayweather’s calculated lead. Cotto shoved him up and against the ropes as if to say that Mayweather should have picked a different dance partner. Cotto returned to the blueprint again and again throughout the next 10 rounds, driving Mayweather into the ropes with a bruising jab and a physical attack that bloodied Mayweather’s nose.

The blood was a surprise. If anybody was going to bleed, the guess was that it would be Cotto, whose eyes are surrounded by scar tissue from old wounds. This time, however, the unmarked Mayweather was the only one to bleed and sight of that blood elicited cheers from that part of the crowd that lusts for him to lose.

He didn’t, because in the ring, at least, he never changes. He is never without resources or an infinite ability to adjust. He scored by getting Cotto out in the center of the ring and landing shots, some unlikely. In the fourth, he rocked Cotto with a right that circled around his upraised hands. The punch found its mark, almost like a curve ball. Even when pushed up against the ropes, he rolled his shoulder and managed to deflect many of Cotto’s blows.

What’s next? For now, there’s only June 1 and time in Nevada’s Clark County Jail.

“That comes with the territory,’’ Mayweather said. “Things of life. You are faced with certain obstacles. You take the good with the good and the bad with the bad. …When June 1 comes, I’m going to accept it, like a true man would do.’’

And after his release?

“I don’t know,’’ said Mayweather, who went on to rip Pacquaio’s promoter, Bob Arum. “I was looking to fight Manny Pacquiao. I didn’t think that fight would happen because of Bob Arum. Bob Arum stopped the Manny Pacquiao fight. Let’s give the fans what they want to see. Let’s get that fight together.’’

Otherwise, Mayweather might have to apologize again. Once is enough.

It was the end of a beginning for a 21-year-old Mexican who might finally begin to be known for something more than his red hair.

“This is the beginning of my career,’’ Saul “Canelo” Alvarez said. “Thank you, Shane Mosley, for giving me this experience.’’

Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 KOs) might also have said thanks to Mosley (46-8-1, 39 KOs) for letting him add a legendary name to his unbeaten resume. He could also have said good-bye and good-luck to Mosley.

Mosley never had a chance. He was pounded to the body, pounded to the head, pounded from pillar-to-post in losing a unanimous decision to Alvarez, still the World Boxing Council’s junior-middleweight champion and more ambitious than ever to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Miguel Cotto or Manny Pacquiao.

A sign, perhaps, that Canelo is growing up and beyond his Howdy Doody days happened at the moment when he encountered the only potential adversity in an otherwise one-sided fight.

Blood, Canelo red, poured from a cut above Alvarez left eye after a head butt in the second. But it didn’t seem to bother Alvarez, who is said to have never suffered a cut before the inadvertent collision with Mosley.

If it really was Alvarez’ first wound, the 21-year-old Mexican responded as if he had always known how it would feel. How it would color his vision. How it would taste. It was a moment when he looked as if he had been born for the blood sport.

“He can go a long ways,’’ said Mosley, who collected $650,000 on a night when Alvarez earned $2 million.

The totality of Alvarez’ victory, however, might be hard to judge in terms of how he will do against younger, more dangerous opponents. The 40-year-old Mosley did nothing to dispel mounting evidence that he’s more shot than Sugar. He endured 12 rounds. He would not quit Saturday night. After sustained punishment that has left his face puffy and some say his speech slurred, however, it looks as it is time to quit the long, legendary career that will one day land him in the Hall of Fame.

“It can look that way,’’ said Mosley, who in the immediate aftermath of the loss didn’t say he would retire.

Mosley had no defense for the heavy hands that ricocheted off his midsection, rocked his head and echoed with an almost sickening thud throughout the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

“Maybe, he’ll be one of the next kings of the ring,’’ Mosley said.

Maybe.

Las Vegas welterweight Jessie Vargas (19-0, 9 KOs, a Floyd Mayweather Jr.-promoted fighter, is still unbeaten, but there wasn’t anything unanimous about his performance after a unanimous decision over shop-worn Steve Forbes (35-11, 11 KOs), also of Las Vegas.

There were scattered boos from a crowd gathering for the Mayweather Jr.-Miguel Cotto fight for the dull 10 rounder. Vargas won at least eight of the rounds, but wasn’t dominant in any of them over Forbes, who has lost six of his last eight fights.

With Miguel Cotto watching from a ringside seat, super-welterweight Carlos Quintana (29-3, 23 KOs) scored a sixth-round knockout of DeAndre Lattimore (23-4, 17 KOs) of Las Vegas in the first bout on the pay-per-view part of the card.

Cotto must have liked what he saw from Quintana, a fellow Puerto Rican, in a victory that might have been a good sign for his chances at an upset of Floyd Mayweather in the main event. Quintana swarmed Lattimore with a barrage of punches — head to body, body to head.

Midway through the sixth, Quintana stunned Lattimore in a neutral corner. A dazed Lattimore slid along the ropes. Quintana pursued, hitting Lattimore with a succession of left hands that finally dropped him near his own corner at 2:19 of the round.

“A great day for Puerto Rico,’’ Quintana said of a night that he hoped would end in a Cotto encore.

Puerto Rican featherweight Braulio Santos (6-0, 5 KO) employed explosive quickness for a unanimous decision over Juan Sandoval (5-9-1, 3 KOs) of San Bernardino, CA, in the last fight before the pay-per-view telecast.

Santos’ array of punches came at a blinding rate, especially in the fourth when Sandoval was knocked into the ropes by combo capped by a stinging left.

Lightweight Omar Figueroa (16-0-1, 13 KOS) of Weslaco, TX, could have been swinging a bat at a ball poised on a tee with a wide left hook that lifted Robbie Cannon (12-7-2, 6 KOs) of Pevely, MO, up and almost out of the ring.

Somehow, Cannon got up, but only to see that referee Vic Drakulich had ended it, declaring Figueroa a TKO winner at 2:08 of the second round.

Welterweight Keith Thurman (17-0, 16 KOs) of Clearwater, FL, turned the card’s second fight into a display of the reasons why Golden Boy Promotions signed him.

Thurman’s foot speed, power and quick jab overwhelmed Brandon Koskins (16-1-1, 8 KOs) of Hannibal, MO. Referee Russell Mora stopped it at 25 seconds of the third with a defenseless Koskins hanging on the ropes after a head-rocking right hand from Thurman.

Antonio Orozco and Dillet Frederick fought in front of referee Kenny Bayless, three judges, cornermen, a few ushers and nobody else in the first fight on a card Saturday that would end hours later with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Miguel Cotto in the main event at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

The arena was filled only with echoes, mostly from body punches landed by Orozco (14-0, 10 KOs), a San Diego welterweight who won a third-round TKO over Frederick (8-6-3, 5 KOs) of Fort Myers, Fla.

LAS VEGAS – Floyd Mayweather Jr. generated cheers, boos and even a reaction from the stoic Miguel Cotto after a stare down Friday that lasted longer than anybody can remember in a ritual that has followed weigh-ins for as long as there has been an opening bell. For 70 seconds, they looked into each other’s eyes, maybe looking for a weakness or maybe looking for another clue to the outcome of Saturday night’s junior-middleweight fight at the MGM Grand.

Those dangerous eyes stayed locked, without a single blink, like lasers onto a target in a break from expectation and perhaps a sign that the Mayweather-Cotto fight will end in a surprise.

The biggest, of course, would be a Cotto victory. That’s the most unlikely outcome. Mayweather leaves very little to chance. Proof of that is in his unbeaten record (42-0, 26 KOs). He picks his opponents these days. In fact, he hires them, which helps explain why he will collect a $32 million before anybody even begins to count his cut of the pay-per-view revenue, concessions and ticket sales. According to contracts filed with the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Cotto (37-2, 30 KOs) will get $8 million. Not bad, but it’s a fraction, a quarter, of the record guarantee that further confirms Mayweather’s nickname, Money.

Maybe, that’s why Mayweather has been acting as cool and calm as any CEO with Wall Street-like wages already in his wallet. For him, there have been no worries. He weighed in at 151 pounds, his heaviest ever and one more than his official weight before his victory over Oscar De La Hoya in 2007.

“I feel comfortable at any weight,’’ Mayweather said.

Cotto was three pounds heavier at 154, the junior-middleweight mandatory.

No matter what the scale, the hired help is never supposed to have an advantage, no matter how minimal. From Mayweather’s perspective, Cotto looked as if he had struggled to make weight.

“He looked kind of dry, kind of drawn to me,’’ he said.

If anything, Cotto looked out of character after stepping off the scale and onto a side of the stage for a stare down that almost lasted past sundown. He started talking at Mayweather. From a man whose meals outnumber his words over any given day, it was unusual.

“I told him, he has never faced anybody like Miguel Cotto,’’ the Puerto Rican said. “That’s the reason he’s undefeated and that’s the reason I will win on Saturday night.’’

The unusual stare down was punctuated by a backstage controversy that erupted behind curtains that hid the scale from the weigh-in crowd of about 6,000. Mayweather and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who faces Shane Mosley on the undercard, will have to get new gloves for Saturday night’s fight. The gloves they had planned to wear included thumbs made in plastic. Mosley trainer Nazim Richardson said that plastic cuts more easily than leather. Richardson spotted plaster-like inserts in the gloves Antonio Margarito tried to wear before he lost to Mosley in 2009. When Richardson complains about gloves, regulators listen. The Nevada Commission ordered that Mayweather and Alvarez get gloves with thumbs made in leather. New Grant-made gloves are expected to arrive in Las Vegas from New York some time before Saturday night’s card.

What else can happen? Anything.

Everything, said Cotto, who was asked whether his best chance at upset rested with his proven arsenal of body punches.

“I can’t just go to the body,’’ he said. “I have to be on top of everything.

“If he wants to fight, I’m ready. If he wants to run, I’m ready for that. I’m ready for everything.’’

Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KOs) wasn’t ready for the scale. At least, not the official one. He was a half-pound heavier than the mandatory 154 for his shot at the World Boxing Council junior-middleweight title held by Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KOs). After a run, he returned to the scale an hour later and made weight.

“I was on weight, but on a different scale,’’ Mosley said. “I ran, sweated it off. No problem.’’

The 21-year-old Alvarez, who is 19-years younger than Mosley, had no problem in his first trip to the scale. He was 154 pounds.

In a welterweight bout on the HBO telecast, Jessie Vargas (18-0, 9 KOs) of Las Vegas weighed 146 pounds. Steve Forbes (35-10, 11 KOs), also of Las Vegas, was 146.5. In the first bout on the pay-per-view telecast, junior-middleweight DeAndre Latimore was 154.5 pounds and Carlos Quintana (28-3, 22 KOs) was at 154.

Antonio Margarito’s comeback against Abel Perry of Colorado Springs has been postponed from May 26 to July 7 at Casino Del Sol in Tucson because of a foot injury sustained Thursday while training in Tijuana, Gerry Truax of Showdown Promotions said.

Truax said Margarito hurt an Achilles tendon. Physicians told the three-time former welterweight champion to rest the tendon for three weeks, said Truax, who said he reserved Casino Del Sol for July 7 for Margarito’s first fight since a loss to Miguel Cotto in December in New York.

The May 26 card, a Top Rank and Showdown promotion, is still scheduled. A Top Rank spokesperson said a new main event for May 26 will be announced sometime next week.

Margarito, who was at a news conference Monday at Casino Del Sol, is hoping for a shot at fellow Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., the World Boxing Council’s middleweight champion. He plans to fight Perry at 160 pounds.

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank

LAS VEGAS – It sometimes sounds as if Mexico looks at Saul Alvarez’ red hair and sees a halo. Jose Suliaman, president of the Mexico City-based World Boxing Council, called the young fighter his Godson Thursday during a news-conference filibuster about a search for heroes in a nation known for drug violence. Suliaman sees the halo and thinks he has found one. A Mexican idol, the Godfather said. But halos can be targets, too. They get knocked off all the time.

Whether that halo is a real crown or just an illusion is the question at the center of a career crossroads for Alvarez Saturday night against Shane Mosley at the MGM Grand on the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Miguel Cotto pay-per-view card. Consider just two circumstances: There’s the date, May 5, Cinco de Mayo, a major Mexican holiday that celebrates the nation’s victory over the French in a battle, a fight. Then, there’s Mosley’s unbeaten record against fighters of Mexican descent.

There’s enough pressure there to turn an ordinary redhead gray. But Alvarez addresses it in a style straight out of Charles Barkley’s guide on how to make it work for you. Pressure, Barkley said, is for tires. Use it the right way, and you’ll reach your destination a lot faster.

“It’s a motivation,’’ said the 21-year-old Alvarez, whose confidence includes hopes of a bout against the Mayweather-Cotto winner some time next year. “On May 5, the only thing I want to end is that Mosley streak.’’

The guess is that Alvarez will do exactly that. A www.RingTV.com panel of writers, fighters and broadcasters pick Alvarez, 19-to-1. But there are a couple of assumptions baked into that one-sided cake. There’s Mosley age. He’s 40. Then, there are his last two fights, a dull draw with Sergio Mora and a loss by unanimous decision to Manny Pacquiao on a night when Mosley survived 12 rounds, yet did nothing dispel talk that he was shot.

There’s speculation that Mosley is fighting only for the money, because of an expensive divorce a couple of years ago. His purse is $650,000 before taxes and expenses. After the IRS and everybody else get their cut, there might not be much left. But there is his reputation, which was run through the media shredder after the Pacquiao loss.

“There’s motivation in showing the way Sugar Shane really fights,’’ said Mosley, whose son, Shane Jr., is the same age as Alvarez.

Mosley has no illusions about what he has to do. Alvarez’ popularity is evident in Suliaman’s remarks and even on the Ring Kings’ fight poster. There’s no mention of Alvarez. Just Canelo. That’s his nickname, which is Spanish for Cinnamon and universal for the halo that many of his countrymen see in his distinctive hair. Against the Word Boxing Council’s 154-pound champion, Mosley can’t risk a fight that goes to the scorecards. With widespread talk of Mosley being shot, he also says he can’t let Alvarez’ heavy hands get him into trouble with a knockdown or cut that might lead to a TKO loss.

“I’m not even thinking about a decision,’’ said Mosley, who has promised a stoppage.

Mosley’s quiet confidence suggests that he will re-enter the ring more Sugar than shot. He says there were injuries before his loss to Mayweather and distractions before Pacquiao. Against Mayweather, he said he suffered from blisters on his feet that were sustained while snowboarding. He didn’t elaborate about distractions before Pacquiao. Instead, he referred to a comment made by Steve Forbes, who faces Jessie Vargas in a welterweight bout on Saturday night’s undercard. Forbes has struggled. He’s 2-4 since losing a decision to Oscar De La Hoya in May, 2008.

“Glad to be back on the biggest stage,’’ Forbes said at Thursday’s news conference. “Had a lot of problems, but, thank God, she packed up and moved out.’’

Enough said.