I have a birthday party for a friend to get to, but I want to do a few quick bullet points on tonight's magnificent tiebreaker between Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez, won by Vazquez on split decision thanks to a knockdown in the final ten seconds of the fight (114-111, 113-112, 111-114 -- my card was 113-112 for Vazquez, who was floored earlier in the fight).

• The fight was INCREDIBLE. I never thought these two could go 12 rounds. And not only did they do just that, but it was a superhuman effort on both parts to accomplish that amazing feat.
• This was their best fight. I really mean that. This had all the sound and fury of the first two, it just kept going for twice as long. Unreal.
• Marquez was wildly upset with the decision, and doesn't think he was knocked down in the 12th. He was -- you can't be held up by the ropes, which was the case.
• Referee Pat Russell deducted a point from Marquez for repeated low blows, which was just. And the knockdown in the 12th was rightly called. Russell did a wonderful job refereeing this fight, and deserves great credit for that. He let them fight, gave Marquez more than enough warnings about the low blows, and called it square. Plus, instead of jumping in and stopping the fight in the 12th (Marquez was being blown away the entire round), he gave it a count instead, and let Marquez finish the fight.
• I feel bad for anyone that missed this fight.
• I now feel this is the best trilogy of my lifetime. With this fight, they have surpassed Barrera-Morales.
• They're talking fourth fight, which is really early, of course, but I don't know how I feel about it. Would I tune in? Of course. I love the fighters. But do they need to do this to their bodies again? Look, I don't get all holy about this stuff. But they are taking a lot of punishment. I ain't their moms, so it's not up to me. But I can't say I'm FOR it.

We'll have a LOT more tomorrow on this unbelievable fight, which will be almost impossible for anyone to top. We may have already seen the 2008 Fight of the Year.