It appears as though Michael Katsidis may have suffered a broken hand in his loss to Juan Diaz on Saturday night, though this is pure speculation right now.

Trainer/manager Brendon Smith also notes that former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, in attendance Saturday night in Houston, came to the dressing to tell Katsidis that he thought he landed the cleaner punches and deserved the victory. All this tells me is that Evander Holyfield can't judge a fight, either. Do jabs suddenly not count? Jabs, as well as tons of combinations, as well as busting up your opponent, as well as landing A LOT more punches at a MUCH HIGHER connect rate?

Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix wrote an article about judge Glen Hamada's inexplicable 115-113 card for Katsidis, questioning whether judging is the most corrupted part of our beloved sport. Now, I'm not one of these schlubs that thinks fights are fixed, because I don't believe in fairy tales and I'm not big on conspiracy theories. But as much as I agree that Hamada's card was God awful and grounds for investigation on whether or not he deserves to be judging fights anymore, I had to scratch my head here:

Diaz's jab, which, according to CompuBox, connected nearly 400 times, was carving Katsidis' face from the second round on. Diaz's slashing body shots clearly took their toll as, at times, Katsidis didn't even look like he wanted to throw punches. CompuBox, which at this point seems like a reasonable alternative to human judging, had Diaz landing 296 of 801 punches (37 percent), while Katsidis landed only 149 of 868 (17 percent).

Uhhh...so Diaz landed 296 punches...nearly 400 of which (?) were jabs?

Also, big kudos to the Houston fight fans on Saturday night, who turned out in giant numbers for their hometown boys Diaz and Rocky Juarez. It was a card that deserved real attention, and it got it to the tune of 13,477 in attendance. Texas has never been great at producing butts in seats, but this was awesome. A hat tip to Golden Boy on promotion, too.

Houston fighters Juan Diaz and Rocky Juarez posted wins on HBO's Boxing After Dark last night, one of them staging a brutal comeback that concluded with the year's ugliest medical stoppage, and the other taking a split decision that shouldn't have been.

In the main event, Diaz came back from his first career loss with what seemed to be a rather dominant win over Australian slugger Michael Katsidis, but the judges' tallies told a different story. Judge Glen Hamada gave the bout to Katsidis, 115-113, and the other two gave Diaz the win, 116-112 and 115-113.

I had it 118-110, the same as HBO's Harold Lederman. I'm not saying old Hurrld is the greatest gauge these days, but I legitimately can't possibly see how this fight could have been scored for Katsidis.

Let's get into facts. Ignore what you saw or what you know.

Fighter A lands 296 of 801 punches thrown, good for a 37% connect rate. Fighter B lands 149 of 868 punches, good for a 17% connect rate. Furthermore, Fighter B is cut in three places and both of his eyes are swelling shut, and none of this came from a foul. Fighter A has a small mouse near his left eye, and some mild bruising outside of his right temple.

There are no knockdowns. Fighter B does not overwhelm in any single round.

Who do you think wins?

If you said Fighter B, you're in line with Glen Hamada. There is no excuse for thinking that Katsidis won this fight, as his awful cornerman/manager Brendon Smith tried to defend after the bout. Max Kellerman (who was in rare prickly form all night, honestly) was honest with Katsidis and Smith and said that he and his commentary partners had the fight as a lopsided decision for Diaz.

Katsidis was not only beaten by the faster, smarter, more technically proficient Diaz, but he was beaten in the corner, too. Ronnie Shields was excellent with Diaz, while Smith seemed like a guy that didn't know what he was doing, more of a buddy coaching a buddy than a trainer coaching his fighter, if you know what I mean. "Keep doing what you're doing, it's beautiful, it's wonderful, it's perfect." Well, it wasn't perfect. He was beaten badly in the fight stats, he was bloodied, and while valiant, he seemed almost lost at several points during the fight.

If I were Katsidis, I would strongly consider a new trainer. That said, I'm sure he and Smith are very close, and I don't mean to crap on Brendon for thinking his fighter won the bout. But I think it's very obvious and very clear that he did not.

As far as Katsidis goes, though, he was a class act after his second straight loss. He was asked by Kellerman if he should go after a soft opponent, to which he responded, "Nah. Go big or go home." He's Arturo Gatti II, and there's nothing bad to say about that. He is what he is, a gutsy warrior that comes to fight.

It's also worth noting that it was not anywhere near the epic battle we all expected. Honestly, when I put together the 20 best fights of the year in December, this fight won't make it. It wasn't nearly as good as Katsidis' last fight, and it wasn't as good as Diaz-Campbell, either. It was entertaining because both guys fight hard all the time, but it wasn't a great fight.

On the undercard, Rocky Juarez staged a dramatic late-rounds comeback against Jorge Barrios, scoring an 11th round TKO stoppage when Barrios' lip literally began to fall off of his face. It was a gruesome looking injury and the fight had to have been stopped -- had it not been, his lip would've been ripped from his head and he would've had a Joker scar.

Barrios controlled much of the fight. I had him winning despite being docked two points for low blows by awful referee Rafael Ramos, but it was competitive and closer than the HBO telecast made it seem. Juarez had his usual problems with not pulling the trigger -- it's his only real weakness.

It was a good night of boxing, and it was great to have so much to watch this weekend after the dead month. Diaz-Katsidis may have been disappointing and poorly judged (in my view), but it wasn't a bad fight at all. Two good action fighters going head-to-head can fall short of expectations, but it can't really be bad. That was the case last night.

Should be a damn good night of boxing on HBO, starting at 10:15 ET. This main event is, on paper, a bona fide Fight of the Year contender, and the opening bout is a fine matchup as well. This is what Boxing After Dark is all about: action fighters in action fights.

Three cards in two days -- welcome back, boxing.

Ahhh, FIGHT DAY! It's been over a month since we had a major fight to cover, and all I can say is, "Welcome back, Kotter." It doesn't hurt that this fight is a guaranteed winner, either.

We will be here with round-by-round coverage, analysis, scoring, and BSing for the big Boxing After Dark card. If you've been living under a rock or can't look left, the main event features lightweight bangers Juan Diaz and Michael Katsidis, and the opening bout on the telecast pits Rocky Juarez and Jorge Barrios at 130 pounds.

Some quotes for Diaz-Katsidis:

"I believe this will be one of the greatest fights. It could be the start of a trilogy. This has nothing but a great fight written on it. But we come to win. Michael is a dangerous man at this moment. I believe this fight will be brutal. I wish Juan Diaz a safe journey and recovery from the fight." -- Brendon Smith, Katsidis' trainer/manager

"A lot of times the people in the sport dismiss you just because you have one or two losses. hey want you to be undefeated to be considered a superstar. In football, teams lose and still make it to the Super Bowl. Just because you lose a couple of fights doesn't mean you can't give good fights and still win a big fight. We're exciting fighters." -- Diaz

"I see more motivation in Juan than I have ever seen before." -- Willie Savannah, manager of Diaz

"All I know is I've got a big fight coming up. The only thing that concerns me is that there's a great potential for one of us to get seriously hurt on Saturday night. So there is no crossroads if one of us gets hurt. I am only thinking about winning. I'm not looking at it any deeper than that." -- Katsidis

The card goes live on HBO at 10:15 ET tonight, and in my view is a can't-miss, a must-see (same diff, huh?). For those that don't carry HBO on their cable/satellite bill, this is HBO's free preview weekend.

This one is gonna rock, to be someone's mom about it.

Super featherweight contender Jorge Barrios is having trouble making the 130-pound weight limit for his Saturday night HBO fight with Rocky Juarez, and the Juarez camp has agreed to take a payoff and allow the limit to be lifted to 133 pounds.

Barrios (47-3-1, 34 KO) is not allowed to win in over 133 pounds, though, and if he does, the fight could be called off. It precedes the highly-anticipated Diaz-Katsidis showdown on Boxing After Dark.

Barrios has had a lot of trouble since his razor-thin 2006 defeat at the hands of Joan Guzman, fighting once last year and having a fight with Juan Manuel Marquez postponed and later cancelled when he had some eye injuries. The fight with Juarez would be his first in 16 months.

I hope Barrios can make 133, because it's a fight I'm looking forward to. Rocky always fights with guts, and Barrios can go if he's 100%. It's a great show.

As an aside, for those unaware and without HBO (though how you follow boxing without HBO and Showtime in the States is a mystery to me), the network's free preview is this weekend. They picked a nice boxing weekend to showcase, I'll give them that.

Sometime in 2007, a bunch of people started talking about the possibility of Juan Diaz (then a three-body lightweight titleholder) and Michael Katsidis (an Aussie slugger whose profile was rising quickly) going head-to-head.

"It'd be a war," one guy would say. "There's no way it's not a great fight," another might reply.

They were right. In 2007, though, both men were busy making themselves bigger names. Diaz forced former champion Acelino "Popo" Freitas to quit on his stool, and later beat the daylights out of very credible Julio Diaz. Katsidis, meanwhile, engaged in thrilling slugfests against Graham Earl and Czar Amonsot, winning both while taking and delivering big shot after big shot.

What wasn't to like, on paper, about Diaz-Katsidis? Nothing. Nothing at all. It WOULD be a war. It COULDN'T fail to be a great fight. The come-forward bullrush of Diaz against the never-back-down fists-a-flyin' attack of Katsidis? Sign us all up.

The fight was being negotiated to take place early this year, in fact. After it fell through at the hands of Diaz's former promoter, Don King, and/or his manager, Willie Savannah, the two were forced to move on.

Diaz was matched with fellow King fighter Nate Campbell, the hard-working, hard-punching veteran who had long since earned his shot at one of the three titles Diaz brought with him to Mexico on March 8. In fact, Campbell had won a mandatory the previous summer in brutal fashion against Ricky Quiles, earning him a shot at Julio Diaz that never came to fruition.

Campbell took advantage of a lot of things that fateful night. Diaz's last fight under King's banner was as much an audition for the heads of Golden Boy and Top Rank as it was anything else. King spent the hype time trashing Savannah, who is very close with Diaz. For once, when a camp makes claims that their man was a little distracted by other issues, it's kind of easy to believe.

Still, Diaz was fighting well. In fact, through six rounds, I had Diaz ahead 58-55, an extra point having been docked against Campbell because of a poor headbutt call by the referee. That same referee allowed Diaz's cut man to work on his man's cut during the downtime while they figured out what to do. That referee was not cut out for the job that night.

Really, as much as we still harp on how awful Diaz's cut man was in March -- and he was the worst I've ever seen, particularly on a championship level -- a lot of things went bad that night. That show as a whole was a disaster. Remember it? Diaz's corner has complained about having cramped conditions with people shoving them out of the way all the time, doctors getting in the way of them talking to their man, being warned that they would be disqualified for hanging onto the ropes at ringside in order to stay on their feet.

Even beyond just that, remember the ring announcer that night? It was hardly a show that went off without a hitch that night as Mexico welcomed its first-ever world-level heavyweight title fight.

Is the cut man to blame for the most part? Yes, but there were other factors. How many of us would bet money on Campbell to beat Diaz again?

Still, Campbell bloodied Diaz, backed him down, beat on him, and broke his will. It was a masterful performance from Campbell, who refused to back off of his strategy, which amounted to, "Anything you can do, I can do better."

And it was Diaz's first loss.

Diaz had a lot to think about after that fight. No pro fighter, especially one as young and highly-regarded as Juan Diaz, takes their first career loss in stride, no matter what they might say. He had come off of dominating an arguable Hall of Fame fighter in Freitas and Julio Diaz; now, he meets the less-regarded Nate Campbell, and is beaten at his own game.

Plus, all the other stuff. He's leaving Don King with his first loss? How much money did this fight cost Diaz? How did it affect his future? You'd even have to assume -- as silly as it might sound now -- that Diaz probably considered if both of the big two American promotional companies saw the fight and decided they didn't want to be in the Juan Diaz business.

Of course, they did. Golden Boy Promotions lost no interest, and signed Diaz just 18 days after his first career loss. After all, we're talking about a kid with baby fat that's already won three recognized lightweight titles. You don't pass up on that kind of future. You hope he learns from the loss.

And then there's Michael Katsidis. Born August 15, 1980, in the city of Toowoomba in Queensland, Australia, Katsidis brawled and bashed his way through his first 21 fights in his homeland, winning all but two via knockout or corner retirement. Though raw, Katsidis' warrior mentality and frenetic energy made him a star in the making, without any doubt.

It was when he went to The Arena at Wembley last year to fight Graham Earl that he broke through. Katsidis and Earl went through some exchanges that caused the face of veteran referee Mickey Vann to show genuine emotion. The fight was a minor classic, and would only be topped, in my estimation, by the bloody slugfest against Czar Amonsot months later on the undercard of Hopkins-Wright.

When the initial negotiations to fight Diaz fell through, Katsidis and his team didn't wait around for long looking for another big fight. The still-raw Aussie banger found a new dancer partner, lineal lightweight champion Joel Casamayor, one of the most awkward, evasive, and brilliant fighters in the world.

True, Casamayor was coming off of a dreadful performance and highway robbery win against Jose Armando Santa Cruz, but if you knew anythinga bout the fiery Cuban champion, it was that he'd use that to fuel his performance.

It seemed like a fight that might be a sleeper great one, one that people dismissed because of Casamayor's last performance. It lived up to any good hype that anyone was willing to give it.

Before the bell even sounded, Casamayor jumped into Katsidis' face. Did this affect Michael? It may well have. He was tight and jittery in the opening round, going down two times.

But, like all the great tough guys that refuse to lose, Katsidis battled back. In the sixth round, he sent Casamayor crashing completely out of the ring, gaining full momentum of the fight. By the 10th round, he was ahead on my scorecard, 84-83, mirroring two of the official ringside cards (the other had Casamayor up 85-82). It felt like the fight was his. The rough and rugged Katsidis was going to will his way through against a more skilled opponent.

Then, he got a little sloppy, and the veteran champion made him pay. Casamayor scored a 10th round TKO in a dramatic, epic fight that remains a contender for Fight of the Year.

Katsidis' first loss, like Diaz's, was more a learning experience than a disaster.

And now, the two will finally meet. After talk of a Casamayor-Diaz fight went by the wayside as Joel opted to meet Juan Manuel Marquez on September 13, Golden Boy looked at Diaz and Katsidis and said, "Well, why not?"

There will be blood. There will not be a lot of clinching. There will be exchanges that make your knees buckle. Who will win? I have no idea.

Though this fight is not for any title, it pits two of the most routinely exciting fighters in the game. This fight has Fight of the Year contender written all over it, and is exactly the type of fight that needs to be made more often. Neither of these guys backed down from a second straight big challenge; they didn't look for something easy to get one back in the win column. They are both facing a very realistic chance at losing two straight after having never lost at all.

It'll be a war. There's no way this won't be a great fight.

The September 13 head-to-head between Showtime Championship Boxing and HBO pay-per-view is a pretty legitimate question. You have to ask yourself, "Do I want to pay 40-50 bucks to see Joel Casamayor and Juan Manuel Marquez, or does Nate Campbell-Joan Guzman stack up just as well?"

The HBO undercard is offering a rematch between 154-pound titleholder Sergio Mora and Vernon Forrest, while Showtime is offering a 140-pound title bout between Timothy Bradley and Edner Cherry.

The Showtime card also has finally landed a home, at the Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi, Miss.

What pains me is that I think I'll wind up paying the money for the Casamayor-Marquez card, because I think that main event could be fantastic, and I have the gut feeling that Guzman is going to box circles around Campbell, who put in a career-best performance and was aided by a horrible opposing cutman when he beat Juan Diaz in March. The difference between Diaz and Guzman is huge; Campbell was able to stand and trade with the volume-punching Diaz, but Guzman won't let him do that. As far as pure boxers go, Joan is among the best in the business.

Mora-Forrest II is a rematch of a bad fight, while Bradley-Cherry is just not that interesting. I like Edner Cherry, but I don't think Bradley will have a whole lot of trouble with him. Cherry's a tough guy and a good fighter, but Bradley's got natural ability that just dwarfs Edner's. The Malignaggi-Cherry fight is still too fresh in my mind.

Casa-JMM seems like the type of fight that I'll be sorry if I miss, a fight that could easily be a war, easily be a great showcase of two tremendous pure boxers, and almost certainly won't be bad. Marquez's aggressive nature the last few years will press Casamayor into action. Plus, Joel is fighting for more paydays now. If he beats Marquez, there's an outside shot he could land a fight with Pacquiao down the line, or step up and fight Hatton or something of that nature. A loss really hurts his marketability.

The best 135-pound fight on the docket, though, is the Juan Diaz-Michael Katsidis scrap planned for September 6 on Boxing After Dark.

Each one of Katsidis' last three fights (Earl, Amonsot, Casamayor) have been Fight of the Year contenders. In fact, I'd put Casamayor-Katsidis over the Cotto-Margarito fight in my race (right now the top four are Vazquez-Marquez III, Marquez-Pacquiao II, Casamayor-Katsidis and Cotto-Margarito).

This fight was rumored last year, was rumored for February/March of this year, and now after both men have suffered their first career losses, they'll tangle in Diaz's hometown of Houston. I don't think the home field advantage will help Juan much because I don't think Katsidis is the type of fighter to care where he's at. He could fight Diaz in Juan's parents' basement and I think it'd all look pretty much the same as it would anywhere else on the planet. Katsidis is going to come forward and try to knock Diaz out.

And Diaz, lest we forget, is a tremendous pressure fighter that will fire back in spades. That fight will be a war. It's one of those bouts where there's just no way it's going to be bad. I think the Fight of the Year race will get a new horse on September 6.

Manny Pacquiao and team want a bigger set of fines for an pound over the 147-pound limit being discussed for their potential fight with Oscar de la Hoya, which may be another snag in the ongoing and increasingly wacky search to land Oscar an opponent for December 6.

It's being said that the Filipino superstar and his handlers want Oscar fined $1 million per pound over 147 should he come in overweight for the fight. This is because, simply, the Pacquiao force is concerned that de la Hoya cannot make 147 pounds anymore. I wonder myself, but it doesn't much concern me. He looked fit at 150 against Forbes, and while three pounds are bigger than they sound in boxing, I don't think it'd be a major hassle for him.

The other real concern for Pacquiao is that Freddie Roach has stated they would probably try to weigh in in the low-140s for the fight -- plus, if Oscar came in overweight, they'd be fools to go on with the fight, no matter how much money was on the line. So in essence, they're counting themselves in for a payday if Oscar should come up short (well, wide), because there are a lot of fights Manny could make for November or December.

Business, man.

And yes, I used a photo of Oscar at his fattest on purpose.

There has been no news on the return of Marco Antonio Barrera, but I was thinking about it earlier today, and I just can't decide what to feel about it.

He's not old and he hasn't shown that he's TOO badly beaten up. He was still in outstanding form last year against Marquez, though he turtled and didn't do a whole lot against Pacquiao, seemingly content to survive 12 rounds and leave it at that.

There was a rumor a while back, you probably recall, that he would return to face Mzonke Fana, who at the time was the IBF's 130-pound titleholder. He lost his strap to Cassius Baloyi in April via majority decision. Barrera has already beaten Fana, knocking him out in the second round back in 2005.

I've seen some fans suggest that he match up with old rival Erik Morales for a fourth time, but to me, that seems pretty sadistic, like you're essentially saying, "You know what I'd like to see? Erik Morales get hurt." Unlike Barrera, Morales has shown definite signs of wear and tear on his body, and reported after his final bout against David Diaz that he heard a ringing in his ears when he was hit in the head. Promoter Bob Arum is often full of crap, but when he says that if Morales tries to fight again he'll have nothing to do with it, I think you can feel sincerity and genuine concern.

The other talked-about fighter has been 122-pound champion Israel Vazquez, with the two Mexican fighters perhaps splitting the difference and squaring off at featherweight. I'm sure one of the major sanctioning bodies would find it in their hearts to strip a titleholder or declare an interim strap up for grabs in a Barrera-Vazquez bout.

Dan Rafael says Vazquez is taking the rest of 2009 off to fully recover, which is a smart move.

One thing is certain: should Barrera return as he apparently seriously intends to do, he will not be fighting under Golden Boy's banner, and that seems just wrong in some ways. He was one of their flagship fighters, along with Oscar, Mosley and Hopkins, and he had the distinction of being the one of their "Big Four" that wasn't really associated with de la Hoya as a star.

Personally, if Barrera is up for it, I'd still love to see a rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez, but that would involve working with Golden Boy, so count it out. Most likely Barrera will return against a mid-level or worse opponent, and try to move his way back up the ladder.

We'll see.

I read somewhere that I now can't find that Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., would be rematching Matt Vanda sometime this final quarter. Vanda put a hell of a scare into JC Junior in a damn good fight down in Mexico, nearly knocking the young, overheralded name out. You'd think first, perhaps, that a rematch would go toward the younger, fresher Chavez, like maybe Vanda made a final last great stand in the first fight. But I think it's legitimately very dangerous for Chavez, who I felt was exposed by the tough Vanda, whose name means nothing. The fact of the matter is that at some point, Arum and Top Rank are going to hit a wall with Chavez. He's just not that good, even with the strides he's made the last couple of years.

I'm pretty anxious to see what PPV numbers Casamayor-Marquez, Pavlik-Hopkins and Calzaghe-Jones pull in, because I don't expect great stuff in any of the fights, particularly Casamayor-Marquez. I understand pay-per-view and accept it as being what it is, but it's hard to lure in fans when you make being one an exclusive club, isn't it?

Sultan Ibragimov says he'll be back. Boy, I can't wait.

So far, so good for Vitali Klitschko not being injured. I still refuse to put that fight with Sam Peter on our schedule until the official weigh-in comes and goes with no shenanigans.

You may have heard that outspoken nitwit Anthony Mundine won a fight on July 30 against Crazy Kim. Latest word is he thinks that will give him a chance to chase Kelly Pavlik or Winky Wright at middleweight. Mundine gave up a super middleweight title so he could not get manhandled by Mikkel Kessler again, and now he thinks that he should get a fight with Pavlik or Wright. I guess I can't really see what Winky's doing that's any better, but Pavlik? That's some feverish dream world stuff, "Choc."

Has any fighter in recent memory done less with a star-making, highly-publicized win than Sakio Bika? Maybe he could fight Allan Green, if Bika's handlers could come up with the latest and greatest ridiculous figure that Green wants in order to take to the ring again.

With Vazquez taking the rest of the year off, I can't help but wonder what's up with Rafael Marquez. I'm hoping he decides to join his rival on the sidelines for the remainder of '08. Then maybe we can see them clash again in the first quarter of 2009. There's just no bigger or better fight for either man.

David Haye still has no opponent for his November 15 heavyweight "debut," though names are constantly being thrown around. Haye will be joined in the heavyweight ranks by faded ex-cruiser champion O'Neil Bell, who similarly claims that the division is a mess and needs a savior. Compared to the in-prime Haye, Bell's claims are akin to generic brand Doritos when the real thing is right in front of you for the taking.

Speaking of heavyweights, money is the big issue in the long-rumored showdown between sluggers Chris Arreola and David Tua. I kind of wish everyone would just move on. This fight is not going to happen. A win would push the exciting, 35-year old Tua right back into title contention, but he's been fighting journeymen since drawing Hasim Rahman in 2003 and taking two years off. Knocking out Cerrone Fox and Saul Montana is one thing; fighting a credible young slugger is another. He and promoter Cedric Kushner both know that, and want every cent they can squeeze. I can't blame then, and frankly I hope they're successful. For as long as it lasts, it could be a hell of a fight.

Frank Warren is all over the news. First up, he's speaking his mind on the Hatton family-Billy Graham rift that finally exploded, saying this was a long time coming, essentially. Also, Frank is suing Joe Calzaghe for £1 million, which has so "disgusted and saddened" the Welsh fighter that he's counter-suing. Oh, those Brits! (And Welshmen!)