The hype was great. It was a fight in the middle of boxing's most glorious fight season in a long time -- maybe ever. After Taylor-Pavlik, Pacquiao-Barrera II, and Calzaghe-Kessler, we got this WBA welterweight title tilt between undefeated champion Miguel Cotto and his great opponent yet: surefire Hall of Famer "Sugar" Shane Mosley.

Any fight is subject to personal taste, but I can't imagine a boxing fan on the planet that wasn't looking forward to this one. The rugged, fearless, ever forward-moving attack of bruiser Cotto against the lightning combinations, savvy and speed of Mosley. On paper, this couldn't have been a bad fight if they'd tried to make it one. It also had plenty of atmospheric intrigue. Madison Square Garden was now Miguel Cotto's house, no bones about it, and Shane Mosley had never fought on the main stage at the Garden before. He'd fought in the MSG Theater, but never the real deal. Given that he's 36 years old and the career he's had, that seemed almost impossible, but it really was his Madison Square Garden debut.

The West Coast superstar was coming into the lion's den. Cotto had the homefield advantage, plus he was red-hot, coming off a decisive and thunderous TKO win over Zab Judah in June, his biggest win to date. But Zab is no Shane Mosley, who also came in riding high, having won his last five fights over David Estrada, Jose Luis Cruz, Fernando Vargas (twice) and Luis Collazo. If Mosley was ever going to truly reach the pinnacle of the sport again, this was his chance.

As Jim Lampley put it on HBO's "Countdown to Cotto-Mosley" show, "Beating Zab Judah was good. Beating Shane Mosley would be great."

The pressers leading up to the big night were pretty mundane by some modern standards. This was not a fight that needed to be sold on faux animosity or trash talking. Both men were confident, but always respectful of the opponent. They acknowledged that it was going to be a tough fight. This was a boxing match sold on the fact that it was going to be great boxing between two great boxers. How novel, huh?

And thank God for the Top Rank-Golden Boy feud ending. Without that Cold War coming to an end, we never would've gotten this fight. Really, these were the two guys everyone wanted to see Mayweather tackle. When Floyd took the fight with Hatton, they decided they'd square up to one another instead. Good for them, and great for us.

It was a pick 'em fight, too. Cotto had youth and strength on his side, but to many -- myself included -- he seemed tailor-made for Mosley, a stand-still thumper that Mosley could box rings around if he was at his best.

Well, Mosley was at his best, but he didn't box rings around anyone.

It was obvious early on that Miguel Cotto had trained to be quicker than he ever had been before, and to use his jab more, to box more effectively. He had to know that if Mosley could work a jab, slide in with combinations, and hurt him now and then, he'd take round after round en route to a decision win. Mosley was too quick and too smart to get bulled around, and wasn't fighting for his professional career like Judah was.

For six rounds, I had a sweep on Miguel Cotto's side. Mosley looked really outstanding, much like Mikkel Kessler did against Calzaghe, but Cotto was beating him. In the fifth, he was shaken up from a big right hand near the end of the round. The two traded in some furious exchanges. Cotto's combination punching looked better than it ever had before, which may have surprised Sugar Shane, and it looked, though less dramatically than it usually does, that Cotto was breaking his opponent's will.

Looking like he was getting a little tired and failing to find a rhythm, Mosley started moving around a lot more. He had surprised by trying to stand and mix it up with Cotto for the first half of the fight, and it wasn't working for him. Mosley slowed Cotto down and landed good stick-and-move shots starting in the seventh, winning his first round on my card, though many had it much closer. No matter the scores, though, it was a hell of a good fight.

In the eighth round, fatigue set in for both men, as they were both getting winded. Cotto took another round to widen the gap on my card, but then, Mosley made his move.

Cotto was working the jab and the left hook again early in the ninth, but then Mosley popped him with his own nasty hook. Cotto, suddenly, seemed hurt. Miguel Cotto was backing down from Shane Mosley, which I have rarely seen, and was the first time we'd seen it in this fight. Cotto constantly moves forward -- it's his bread and butter. Now, though, Shane Mosley knew he had his opponent in trouble. He smelled it.

A huge right landed from Mosley near the end of the round, and Cotto's fighter instinct called him into fighting back as best he could. Cotto went to the corner, hurt, and even though I still thought the fight was firmly in Miguel's grasp on the scorecard, it had just gotten much more interesting. It's not as though we've never seen Cotto knocked down before, and this was Shane Mosley he was fighting, with 37 knockouts to his credit.

The tenth round was positively wonderful. Mosley swarmed on Cotto, drilling him with a right hand, and Cotto was clearly hurt. In a questionable move that hasn't been discussed a whole lot, referee Benjy Esteves, Jr., stopped the action to dry off the mat in the corner. It did need to be cleaned up, but it was a bad time to halt the proceedings to take care of it. Cotto was in trouble, and Mosley had his rhythm.

Could we have seen a knockdown, or even a KO win for Mosley? We'll never know. But the fight was intense now, as both guys were looking to score with power shots. Most rounds had been so close that no one could have properly predicted the outcome in the 10th round.

Mosley landed a hard right, and stayed in control until Cotto fired back with a left that rocked him. The two bulled into each other. An uppercut from Mosley. A sizzling three-punch combination from Cotto, and then another one that got Mosley to backpedal a little bit.

Another uppercut from Mosley, and Cotto stings him again with a left hand. As the first of the championship rounds came to a close, a tight, hard-fought battle was morphing into all-out warfare.

HBO's Harold Lederman had a 95-95 draw into the 11th round, but I had Cotto up 97-93. He had the fight in the bag, as far as I was concerned, but the 10th round let me get swept up in the fact that this was absolutely not over. Anything could still happen.

It was amazing to watch two guys that had put forth such a great effort continue to tear into each other with thunderous shots in the 11th round. It is a testament to the conditioning of both men. By now, it was an alternate world fight -- for much of the bout, it had been Mosley landing the best body shots, and Cotto looking like the better boxer. Maybe the two men had the gameplan to attack one another with the other guy's strengths, pull out a wild card. And then, as it turned out, they just traded places.

The final round saw Mosley chase Cotto, only to get close and be met with a flurry from the champion. Cotto played defense and stayed away, hoping to have it won on the cards. Though they both looked exhausted, they continued to work hard. A clash of heads didn't even stop the fight -- the two just backed away, touched gloves, and went on with their business.

It was a fabulous fight. I scored it 116-112 for Cotto, and Lederman had it 115-113 for Miguel, as well. The official cards came in: 115-113, 115-113, 116-113, all for the winner by unanimous decision, Miguel Cotto.

It was one of those fights that was about as close as you can get, and a decision either way wouldn't have upset too many people. They both landed 248 punches, Cotto scoring 37% of the time, and Mosley at 32%.

When he beat Judah, Cotto became a real star. When he beat Mosley, he reached elite status in the world of boxing. Now 31-0 and having topped quality opponents for years, Cotto became a beacon for boxing fans -- this was a guy that would fight anybody, and it takes a special will just to go the distance with him. A world champion since 2004, when he demolished then-unbeaten Kelson Pinto for the WBO 140-pound title, Cotto is now one of the biggest stars in the game. If there's a boxing fan out there that isn't a Miguel Cotto fan, I've yet to meet that person. He is everything we want from our champions.

I wondered earlier on if anyone out there besides Frank Lombardi and Ron McNair thought that Joel Casamayor won his alleged fight against Jose Armando Santa Cruz on Saturday night. I even wondered if anyone thought it was as close as Tony Paolillo did.

Turns out, nope.

Again, I had it 117-110 for Santa Cruz. Harold Lederman had it 118-109.

To paint just how big of a robbery this was, I decided to gather the thoughts of several others that watched the fight. No one -- no one -- thinks Casamayor won, or that it was close.

Dan Rafael, ESPN: "The ghosts of the first Lennox Lewis-Evander Holyfield fight must have awakened inside Madison Square Garden because, like that draw that robbed Lewis of the undisputed heavyweight championship, this disgusting split decision for Casamayor blatantly robbed Santa Cruz of the true lightweight championship. It's one of the worst decisions we've ever witnessed. And we're not talking about a close fight, either. The prevailing scores at ringside had it 11-1 or 10-2 in rounds for Santa Cruz. That means it was a total wipeout, but not according to judges Ron McNair and Frank Lombardi, who incredibly had it for Casamayor. They ought to be ashamed of themselves, and forced to explain their cards to New York commission chairman Ron Scott Stevens. Even the scorecard of Tony Paolillo, which favored Santa Cruz, was horrible. He should also be benched for having it so close."

Eric Raskin, MaxBoxing: "Good news for boxing writers: We have a new horrendous modern decision to reference so we can stop comparing every outrageous outcome to Courtney Burton-Emanuel Augustus. The scoring in the Joel Casamayor-Jose Armando Santa Cruz fight wasn't just bad; it was unfathomable. I had it 119-110 Santa Cruz, in the same neighborhood as Harold Lederman and most of the ringside press. If by chance I was a judge who didn't care one bit about holding and didn't care one bit about fighting in reverse, and was judging the fight based solely on the punching, maybe I could see giving Casamayor three or four rounds. But that's the maximum. The judges gave him seven, seven, and six rounds. Absolutely pathetic."

Tim Starks, Seven Punch Combo: "The Joel Casamayor win over Jose Armando Santa Cruz featured by far the worst decision by three judges I've ever seen with my own eyes in real time. I scored it 119-107 for Santa Cruz, and most everyone who scored it on press row had it about the same. ... Casamayor did nothing. Nothing. Since when do you get points for running away from someone? His punches, when he bothered to throw them, lacked steam. He was rusty from a 13-month layoff, and, maybe, just plain old at 36. The only thing Casamayor did of note was avoid getting clobbered when he accidentally got caught between the ropes at one point and dodged Santa Cruz's punches Matrix-style by bending halfway over."

Taj Eubanks, East Side Boxing:  "For twelve rounds Casamayor, who has dedicated himself in recent months to heaping ridicule upon other top fighters such as Juan Diaz, Manny Pacquiao and Julio Diaz, , hugged like a bear and ran like tap water. He even suffered an official knockdown in round one. For someone who constantly derides his potential opponents as being 'bums', Casamayor turned in a deplorable performance. The rangier, fresher Santa Cruz backed Casamayor all night, while the 'champion' was content to backpedal. The fight was so one-sided in fact that one cannot even make a case for a draw, much less a Casamayor victory." (East Side's Matthew Hurley had it 119-109 for Santa Cruz.)

Bill Calogero, Boxing Scene: "One of the most outrageous, and sickening decisions I think I have ever witnessed in over twenty-five years in the business. ... This fight was not even close! ... I am not sure what fight (the judges) were watching and I am shocked that the NYSAC could allow this to happen. To say this was a joke is a complete understatement." (Boxing Scene scored the bout 118-109 for Santa Cruz.)

Jim Lampley, HBO: "Just when you think you've seen everything, just when you think you've seen decisions so bizarre that you think you'll never see anything worse than that, along comes something like this."

Emanuel Steward, HBO: "This was a bad, disgusting decision -- and that's putting it mildly."

Corey T. Willinger, Inside Pulse: "By the end of the fight, Casamayor's face had been bludgeoned by the harder shots from Santa Cruz, yet it was the sport itself who again received the biggest black eye when Casamayor was inexplicably announced the winner."

And that's just a start, really. Nobody had this fight for Joel Casamayor. Nobody thought it was even close.

Casamayor was already pretty hard to like a lot of the time. I think that he is (well, was) a hell of a good boxer, at times great. But he has always been brash and very arrogant. And it's not even that I think Joel Casamayor deserves the blame for this -- he deserves the blame for the fight being terrible, since it was his doing by refusing to fight Santa Cruz, but he didn't fill out the scorecards.

I no longer think Casamayor should even be remotely discussed as the best 135-pounder in the world. That performance was rotten. He may not even be top 10, because I wouldn't have Santa Cruz that high, and Santa Cruz beat him soundly. He is, though, the true lightweight champion. And that is an utter disgrace.

Miguel Cotto has undoubtedly reached elite status.

If anyone was still waiting for a defining performance from the Puerto Rican superstar, even after he beat current 140-pound champions Ricardo Torres and Paulie Malignaggi in thrilling affairs, and stopped Zab Judah in June in a rugged brawl at Madison Square Garden, then the wait is over. Miguel Cotto went to war with surefire Hall of Famer Shane Mosley, and he came out on top.

Winning a tight unanimous decision (115-113, 115-113, 116-113), Cotto improved to 31-0 and firmly established himself among boxing's elite. But this was not a fight where just one man's star was able to shine. This fight probably elevated the current standing of Sugar Shane Mosley, as well, and made it very clear that he is a ways off from being finished.

The 36-year old Mosley, in my view, was being beaten early in the fight the same as most of Cotto's opponents have been -- worn down, getting savagely attacked by the ruthless young star, and while doing his very best to fight back, just losing the war of wills. But it became perfectly clear when Mosley hurt Cotto in the ninth round that if a test of wills was what Cotto wanted, then Mosley would be more than willing to fight back.

Mosley had Cotto moving backward, which I've never seen before. Cotto was able to suck it up and get his own rhythm back, trading wicked body blows and precise shots to the head with the veteran superstar.

Shane Mosley gave Miguel Cotto the toughest test of his career, and after the fight -- which could have gone either way, I think -- he was nothing but generous in praise of his opponent.

"It was a great fight. Miguel was very strong, not only was he a powerful puncher but he can box. He mixed it up and did a hell of a good job. He's a young lion on the way to greatness," said Mosley. "For a guy to be fighting in the ring like that, when I was fighting him and he kept fighting me back, the guy did a great job."

Mosley was a gracious loser, and while the idea of a rematch was presented by Max Kellerman (and will no doubt be discussed to some degree), I don't know that he'll want to go back in with Cotto. How much better could the 36-year old Mosley do than he did last night?

I don't know what the future holds for Mosley, as he really needed this win to set up a potential blockbuster money fight with Floyd Mayweather. Would a fighter in his positon really want to take on a guy like Paul Williams or Kermit Cintron? Would there be much for him to gain from that?

A rematch with Cotto does make some sense, but I don't particularly love the idea. And, honestly, if we're going to do Cotto against Antonio Margarito, the time is now. Margarito was at his vicious, brutal best in a one-round destruction of battle-tested Golden Johnson on the undercard, dropping the Texan three times en route to victory.

The other possibility is Cotto against the Mayweather-Hatton winner, though if Hatton does pull the huge upset, he'd almost certainly be facing Oscar de la Hoya in May. Mayweather-Cotto is something I'd love to see. Cotto is the anti-Mayweather. He doesn't talk a big game. He's not flashy. And their styles are polar opposites. And after having seen what he's done against Zab Judah and Shane Mosley, I think Miguel Cotto would be very, very dangerous against Floyd Mayweather. He does not stop coming, and Floyd doesn't have Shane Mosley's power, which did give Cotto some trouble. Mosley also doesn't quite have Floyd's speed or footwork, and is far more willing to engage in a brawl than the Pretty Boy is. But, if you ask me, Miguel Cotto would give Floyd a lot of trouble. Floyd or anyone else.

I mentioned Margarito's dominant win on the undercard, and Victor Ortiz also scored a first round knockout, dropping Carlos Maussa at 1:15. Maussa looked absolutely horrible out there, and is totally shot. Those fights happened, and we got decisive winners. Paired with an outstanding main event, that along made the show worth the $50 pay-per-view pricetag.

But let's get on to the other fight, because it deserves to be discussed.

Joel Casamayor remained the true lightweight champion with a split decision victory over Jose Armando Santa Cruz. Two cards had Casamayor winning, 114-113, and the third had Santa Cruz by the same score.

I had it 117-110. Harold Lederman had it 118-109. Both of those cards were for Santa Cruz. When the official decision was announced, the not-yet-filled MSG stands vigorously booed.

It was highway robbery. Emanuel Steward said, "It was a bad, disgusting decision." Jim Lampley said something to the effect of, "Just when you thought you've seen it all, something like this happens."

The three ringside judges -- Frank Lombardi, Ron McNair and Tony Paolillo -- should be ashamed of themselves, even Paolillo, the judge that scored it for Santa Cruz. The fight was not close. I like Casamayor as a guy who is maybe the most overlooked boxer of his generation. At 36, he's on his last legs. He looked terrible against Santa Cruz.

But the fight sucked. There was no action. Blame Casamayor's constant evasion and clinching for that, but as the fight wore on, I had a gut feeling we were in for a horrible judging decision. In the ninth round I said the following:

That is what happened. Like Hopkins-Forbes, the fight had a clear favorite. It was Hopkins that night, it was Casamayor tonight. And honestly, Hopkins-Forbes was an OK fight, but it didn't have much in the way of excitement. Casamayor-Santa Cruz was flat-out terrible.

When that happens, I think it's easy for anyone, even the best of judges, to lose interest in what they're doing and just give a "close" round to the favorite. If it happens enough, you wind up with the type of bullshit scoring this fight received.

How was Casamayor winning? He never pushed the action -- never. When Santa Cruz would start to throw punches on him, he would clinch. He spent 95% of the fight either running from Santa Cruz -- and I HATE to say that any fighter is "running" -- or hugging him. It was a terrible performance from what used to be a legitimate champion.

And make no mistake, with the awful decision, Casamayor is STILL the lightweight champion. He is THE lightweight champion, and I don't care how many pieces of tin Juan Diaz carries around. Until Juan Diaz or someone else beats Casamayor, Joel is the champ. Although, I guess that's debatable. Santa Cruz beat him, and Joel is still the champion.

Decisions like this where nobody thinks the right call was made are behind only the obscene sanctioning bodies at the top of my list of "things still seriously damned wrong with the sport of boxing."

We still see these decisions. Casamayor over Santa Cruz was the worst decision of the year, though it is rivaled by Kid Diamond over Miguel Huerta. Joel Casamayor was putrid and got rewarded for it. It is an absolute shame. At least Diamond fought Huerta, you know? On some planet, I suppose, you could have seen Diamond winning more than one or two rounds. I sincerely don't think that was the case for Casamayor-Santa Cruz.

But I don't want to end on that. Let's close it out by focusing on a brilliant battle between Miguel Cotto and Shane Mosley, two fighters that are clearly willing, ready and able to fight the very best competition. Those are two guys that represent what's great about boxing, and they left everything in the ring at Madison Square Garden in a Fight of the Year contender that was every bit as good as advertised. For every Casamayor clinch in that debacle of a fight, Cotto and Mosley gave us a big punch and a stunning display of fortitude to make up for it.

Here's to them, and I also raise my glass to Joe Calzaghe, Mikkel Kessler, Sakio Bika and Jaidon Codrington in addition. Those six men have given us a week of boxing without rival.

MAIN EVENT
For the WBA Welterweight Title
MIGUEL COTTO
(30-0, 25 KO, Caguas, Puerto Rico)
versus
SHANE MOSLEY
(44-4, 37 KO, Pomona, CA)

For the RING Lightweight Title
JOEL CASAMAYOR
(34-3-1, 21 KO, Guantanamo, Cuba)
versus
JOSE ARMANDO SANTA CRUZ
(25-2, 14 KO, Michoacan, Mexico)

For the vacant WBO Intercontinental Welterweight Title
ANTONIO MARGARITO
(34-5, 25 KO, Tijuana, Mexico)
versus
GOLDEN JOHNSON
(25-7-3, 18 KO, Killeen, TX)

PLUS - Junior Welterweights
VICTOR ORTIZ
(19-1-1, 14 KO, Oxnard, CA)
versus
CARLOS MAUSSA
(20-4, 18 KO, Monteria, Colombia)

I really think we could be looking at a fantastic card stacked with four fights that could be exciting. Should be a hell of a night of boxing at MSG.

Casamayor-Santa Cruz doesn't exactly light up the mind as something that could bring a house down, but with Casamayor's rust and age, I think it could be a more competitive fight than I would give it credit for on paper. Casamayor via UD

Ortiz-Maussa should feature some good punching, simple as that. I don't know that Maussa has the legs left under him at 36 with as inactive as he's been to take that kind of punishment and keep on ticking. Ortiz is still green, though, and could be prone to being forced into mistakes by the veteran Maussa. Maussa was supposed to be a stepping stone for Vivian Harris, too. Ortiz TKO-8

Margarito-Johnson shapes up as a fight that should delight those that like rugged boxing. Johnson has long been at that point in his career where he's got nothing to lose, so I don't expect we'll see him overly cautious. That's just how Margarito likes it, too. Johnson is 3-0-1 since his beginning his comeback after a three-year absence in 2005, scoring upsets on Freddy Hernandez (SD-12) and Oscar Diaz (TKO-11) in those fights. Margarito has plenty to lose, because if he were to drop this fight, that's a long, hard climb back into contention. As it is, he's being talked about as the opponent for the winner of the main event. I think we'll see Margarito bring back the viciousness that made him so effective in the past. Margarito TKO-5

And then there's the main event. I re-watched Cotto-Judah today, as well as Mosley-Collazo. I also watched Mosley-Oscar I, because I wanted to, but that fight was seven years ago and I'm not putting any stock into that. Mosley is not as fast as he once was -- actually, it's not even terribly comparable. But what he has more of now than he did in 2000 is just plain old ring savvy that comes with being in the ring with as many great fighters as he has been. Mosley, like Oscar, can never be accused of ducking fighters. He's the guy that gave Winky Wright two fights when nobody wanted a damn thing to do with Wink.

Since the two losses to Wright, he is 5-0, beating good fighters including the two wins over Vargas, the first of which was an absolute war and one of Fernando's best and gutsiest performances, and the latter of which was Mosley, on top of his game, completely outclassing Vargas.

Miguel Cotto has beaten good fighters, too: Judah, Malignaggi, Torres, Quintana, Corley, Pinto, Maussa, and plenty of other quality fighters. But he has never been in the ring with someone of Mosley's caliber. Sugar Shane is, by far, the toughest test of Cotto's outstanding young career. Win or lose, Miguel Cotto is going to be around and be a factor in this division for years. And that's a good thing, because I'm finally going to make my pick and stick to it: Mosley TKO-10 -- I don't see any way this one goes to the cards. If Cotto is winning, he'll be busting Mosley up from the inside out. If Mosley is winning, it's because he's battering Cotto with combinations aplenty. We're going to see a knockout in this one.

OUR LIVE COVERAGE STARTS AT 9PM EASTERN. JOIN US FOR THE FIGHTS!

No matter if you think their fights are foregone conclusions or not, the fact of the matter is that boxing is reaching a simple and wonderful conclusion: Pay-per-view cards need to be cards, not one-trick ponies.

The last major PPV, of course, was Pacquiao-Barrera II. It may also prove to be the beginning of the end for its kind, with an undercard that greatly underwhelmed, despite that it was, in fact, a fairly solid lineup.

Look, I like Steven Luevano. A lot, in fact, and his win on October 6 over Antonio Davis helped me think more of him. But the fight wasn't exactly set up to be a competitive battle. Antonio Davis was brought in as a challenger to showcase Luevano. The Librado Andrade-Yusaf Mack super middleweight bout that went on second was a Shobox main event at best. And again, that's fine, but are either of those guys truly near the top of the division? Andrade may be top ten, maybe not. It was a hell of an entertaining brawl, too, and I'm not trying to knock the fight itself.

Forbes-Bojado was a matchup meant to showcase the comebacking Bojado. Didn't work out that way, as fights with Stevie Forbes have a habit of not doing. It was a moderately interesting PPV opener, but more or less only if you're a diehard boxing fan. Otherwise, you probably didn't enter October 6th giving a shit about Forbes or Bojado, let alone both of them.

Tomorrow night's Cotto-Mosley pay-per-view not only features one of the best and most intriguing main events of the decade, but it also gives us a legitimate lightweight champion on the undercard, as well as the start of the comeback trail for one of the welterweight division's best. The fights are still showcases, and all of them (including Victor Ortiz's card-opening fight) are meant to push something else later on.

But damn, doesn't it feel good to have true lightweight champ Joel Casamayor and former welterweight titleholder Antonio Margarito on the UNDERCARD of a major pay-per-view, instead of waiting around for them to try to make fights on a B.A.D. or Showtime card? (And, yes, I consider most of Showtime's "best" cards to be lesser than your average Boxing After Dark event.)

Casamayor (34-3-1, 21 KO) has been out of the ring since October of 2006, when he beat the late Diego Corrales via split decision to take the WBC lightweight title, as well as take a 2-1 win in their trilogy. The WBC would later strip Casamayor and give an interim title to David Diaz for beating Jose Armando Santa Cruz, using some of the flimsiest logic ever, only to then give Casamayor an interim title belt, after having promoted Diaz, apparently, to "regular" champion.

Now, apparently, Casamayor will be defending the WBC lightweight title, even though Diaz successfully defended it in August against Erik Morales. We'd heard around that time that Casamayor would be awaiting the winner of Diaz-Morales. Now...I...goddamn, but I hate the sanctioning bodies.

The bottom line is this: Joel Casamayor is the lightweight champion of the world. Some people qualify that with "linear," and almost make excuses for it, but no. Joel Casamayor is the lightweight champion. It's no disrespect to Juan Diaz, who holds three title belts. Casamayor is the RING champion, and he has neither been beaten nor retired since he beat Corrales for that position. You can think Diaz is the better of the two (and I think that's debatable, still), but Casamayor is the champion.

So, in essence, he is defending the WBC title (to hell with it, who cares?) and the RING title against... Jose Armando Santa Cruz, who has a couple of decent wins since losing to David Diaz for what was the interim title at the time. Who the hell knows?

Santa Cruz (25-2, 14 KO) is a fine fighter. He was up on every card against David Diaz at the time of the tenth round stoppage that gave Diaz the win. His other loss was to Fernando Trejo, which isn't really as bad as Trejo's record would suggest, the guy is another fighter like Carlos Baldomir or Humberto Soto or Antonio Margarito, who is better than the amount of losses on his record.

I give Santa Cruz a decent shot against Casamayor. Joel's ring rust could play a factor, but if it doesn't, then he shouldn't have much trouble. Casamayor is a world-class talent -- not the most exciting guy a lot of the time, and not the most dangerous puncher, and not the easiest guy to like, but a great boxer whose three losses have come to Castillo, Corrales and Freitas. Nothing to be ashamed of there. I think Casamayor is a guy that could've given Floyd Mayweather, Jr., hell at 135 pounds.

And then there's the Tony Margarito fight. Margarito (34-5, 25 KO) lost his WBO welterweight crown to Paul Williams in a highly-entertaining fight in July. He seems to have finally come to terms with it, and given up on saying he was robbed in the decision. He'll be facing Golden Johnson (25-7-3, 18 KO), a Texan who has been around the block.

Like the Casamayor fight, this should be a cakewalk for Margarito if he's as good as he used to be. But Williams stifled Margarito for much of their fight, and I didn't think Margarito looked too great against Joshua Clottey last December either. Had Clottey not hurt his hands in that fight, Margarito may never have gotten to Williams in the first place.

Margarito is 29, which isn't old, but it's not like we don't still see fighters more or less hit a wall around that age. You have your anomalies like Bernard Hopkins and Juan Manuel Marquez that seem to actually get better with age, but that's still not in any way the norm. And it's been a while since we've seen Margarito truly at his best, probably back to his 2005 destruction of Kermit Cintron.

Margarito should win. But I don't totally count Johnson out, and that's complicated by the fact that we're already hearing Bob Arum and others talk of Margarito facing the winner of Cotto-Mosley. Margarito might just look right past Golden Johnson and find himself in a fight instead of a gift.

As for super prospect Victor Ortiz's bout with Carlos Maussa, I even find that one really interesting. Maussa's a dangerous opponent to be sure, but he hasn't fought in 15 months and hasn't won in 29 months, since he knocked the shit out of the enigmatic Vivian Harris. Ortiz is a hell of a young fighter at 20 years of age, but Maussa has been in the ring with guys like Cotto and Hatton. He can punch, and he'll give Ortiz a nice test.

It reminds me, somewhat, of the Andre Berto-Cosme Rivera fight from this summer, which marked the first time that Berto went a full ten rounds, and the first time he was knocked down. Andre dominated most of that fight, but Rivera gave him troubles by just doing things that Berto hadn't seen in a pro ring before.

Combine these three fights with a marvelous main event, and you've got a winner of a pay-per-view card. Hopefully, this is just the start. Mayweather-Hatton has been given Lacy-Manfredo and Ponce de Leon-Escobedo on the undercard, too. Golden Boy and Top Rank seem to realize that the fight fans are more willing to pay $50 for a pay-per-view event if there's more than the one fight there to draw you in.

And, you know what else? It will simply make for a better viewing experience, be it at the arena or in your living room. The crowd will respond to good fights, which amps up the atmosphere when the big one rolls at the end of the evening. Considering I think we could have some exciting stuff on the undercard, and given that it's Madison Square Garden, Cotto-Mosley could have one of those rollicking crowds that make a good fight even better.

I have never struggled so much to come up with a preview-type article for a fight, and I've done plenty of them.

I've done fights where I was genuinely excited. Both of the Vazquez-Marquez fights, Barrera-Marquez, Taylor-Pavlik, Cotto-Judah, Miranda-Pavlik, several others. I've done fights where I've tried to hype up the chances of someone I thought had no shot in hell -- Ray Austin against Wladimir Klitschko, Jorge Solis against Manny Pacquiao. Those fights where even the underdog's own mother would put a dime on the other guy.

I've done fights where I, frankly, do not give a shit who wins. The two recent IBF heavyweight eliminators spring to mind immediately, and the surprisingly entertaining Forrest-Baldomir fight.

And, yet, this Saturday's welterweight title bout between Miguel Cotto and Shane Mosley is currently befuddling me. I am genuinely excited. I think a winner is decidedly tough to pick. On paper, it's a potential Fight of the Year. It's a red-hot rising superstar against a potential Hall of Famer who can still fight, and whom I would put in the ring, prime versus prime, against anyone in the weight class, ever.

And I can't think of the first damn thing to say to try to hype this fight up.

Part of that, though, is that this is a fight that doesn't need hype. Unless you've been living under a rock, you know Sugar Shane Mosley. The only guy to ever beat Oscar de la Hoya twice, a three-division champion who could've made it four had he felt like making a pit stop at 140, now back in his premium weight class. He has lost four times in his career, twice each to defensive master Winky Wright (and Mosley still deserves credit for fighting Winky in the first place, because no one else wanted to) and Vernon Forrest, who was simply Shane's kryptonite.

And then you have Miguel Cotto. If you don't know Miguel Cotto, it's not hard to find several glowing articles about the 27-year old, undefeated Puerto Rican champion. He is a rugged, fearless, stone cold fighter. Miguel Cotto is a bruiser. He doesn't have one-punch power, but he attacks. And attacks. And attacks. And attacks. He does not relent. He has been in memorable battles with Ricardo Torres, Paulie Malignaggi, and Zab Judah, battering them all.

The problem is, Mosley and Cotto are nothing more than what's on the surface. They're gentlemen outside the ring, and great fighters inside of it. They'll have a great fight. The loser won't complain after it's over. Nothing much will come out of this in the way of juicy antics. We've already seen their press conferences -- two men, smiling, praising their opponent and promising a great fight.

Nothing wrong with that. But it sure can be boring.

How Mosley can win: Speed and power, baby. Nothin' much more to it than that. Mosley has to avoid Cotto's bullying, and stick and move. Stay out of the younger man's wheelhouse, avoid his punishing body work as best he can, and just outbox the brawler. If Sugar Shane hasn't lost any steps (which is no guarantee), honestly, he is going to be very tough for Cotto to beat. As Jim Lampley put it, beating Zab Judah was good. Beating Shane Mosley would be great.

How Cotto can win: Corner Mosley and keep him in one place as often as possible. Beat the body up, as Cotto always does. As good as Miguel Cotto is, I have to consider him the underdog. Like Calzaghe-Kessler, I've changed my mind a couple of times, but I just don't see Cotto being able to slow Mosley down enough to score enough points to win a decision, and if he can't slow him down, he can't knock him out, either.

If this is the Shane Mosley we've always known, Miguel Cotto doesn't have the tools to beat him. Cotto is tailor-made for that Shane Mosley. The only thing stopping a Mosley win, I think, is that every fighter gets old sometime. At 36, you can't count that out.

We'll have continuous coverage of Cotto-Mosley all week, as well as a look at the very strong undercard featuring lightweight champion Joel Casamayor and former welterweight titleholder Antonio Margarito.