Andre Berto retained his WBC welterweight title belt tonight with an eighth round stoppage of Carlos Quintana in Florida, and Celestino Caballero dominated Daud Yordan in the co-feature of HBO's first World Championship Boxing card of 2010.

Berto (26-0, 20 KO) started a bit slow and complained frequently of rabbit punches in the early going, but eventually was able to use his speed and natural ability to overwhelm Quintana. Quintana (27-3, 21 KO) was game and tried to make the fight a bit ugly. But it was talent that won the night, and Berto's physical abilities were just too much for him to handle. Quintana, due to the complaining of the Berto corner (and a legitimate rabbit punch, to be fair), had a point taken, but it didn't wind up mattering.

Berto said he hurt his left bicep in the second or third round of the fight, but fought through it and landed a lot of good right hands along the way. In the eighth, he stunned and chased Quintana quickly, and then finished him off with a nasty right hand right down the pipe, forcing Tommy Kimmons to step in and call the fight off.

Quintana is a gatekeeper, but a high-level gatekeeper. He's a step above the David Estradas of the world. In the end, Berto was better and he showed it. We'll have more on Berto this week, as I think the time is right to start examining what we really have with Andre Berto. The hype has died down some and he's become Andre Berto: Welterweight Contender instead of Andre Berto: Prospect. The next step up for Berto is a HUGE jump, as the HBO team talked about, and what stinks for Berto is there aren't a whole lot of guys better than Quintana or Luis Collazo against whom Berto can get better than he is. That's not Andre's fault. He might have to essentially "tread water" for a few fights.

But we'll get back to that later this week.

On the undercard, Celestino Caballero dominated Daud Yordan and won a unanimous decision. But to hear HBO's Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant tell it, Yordan was on death's door and Caballero was the Grim Reaper. Look, Caballero dominated. I said that, I mean it -- he clearly and relatively easily won the fight. But this was not the massacre or slaughter they were describing. Caballero looked excellent, and is a clear danger to the featherweight division. When he's on his game, as he was tonight, he's a terribly tough proposition for anyone from John to Gamboa to Lopez to whoever else at 126.

We went on and on enough about the HBO team's call of that fight in the live thread, so I won't do it here. I'll just say that as radical and upsetting as it might seem, it might be time for HBO to consider revamping their boxing team.

In other action tonight:

• Evander Holyfield TKO-8 Francois Botha in Las Vegas. Our own Brickhaus said there were a few hundred people in attendance. The fight was apparently dirty, as you'd likely expect.
• Mark Jason Melligen UD-10 Norberto Gonzalez, and Lamont Peterson TKO-7 Damian Fuller.
• David Estrada RTD-8 Orlando Lora. This was the ESPN2 fight tonight. I didn't see the last few rounds, but what I did see was Estrada, who didn't have much pop left, just slicing and dicing Lora. Lora clearly had stepped out of his league.
• Cristian Mijares won a split decision over Francisco Arce.  While losses to Darchinyan and even Cermeno might have been forgivable, a near loss to Panchito probably means that Mijares is about done.  Also on that card, Julio Cesar Miranda got back on the winning track with a third round knockout of Faustino Cupul.

This is pretty hilarious stuff, but in a way you have to understand and expect. They're trying to sell this fight, of course they're going to tell you that Ibragimov-Holyfield was "a close decision" (Ibragimov won 117-111, 117-111, 118-110) and that the fight being in Moscow played some role in that.

They're trying to sell you this show, of course they're going to refer to Holyfield's 1992 fight with Riddick Bowe at the Thomas & Mack Center (where this fight is being held) was one of the great heavyweight fights of this era. It was a great fight -- but not of this era. That fight was held on November 13, 1992. A person born on that day would be seven months shy of being able to buy a pack of cigarettes in the United States of America. The Toronto Blue Jays had just won their first of two World Series in a row. They have not been to the postseason since. Oscar de la Hoya turned pro 10 days after Holyfield-Bowe I.

I'm not going to watch this fight (well, not live anyway). It's a completely irrelevant heavyweight fight. But I don't have a burning hatred of it or anything. At this point, we know what it is. Holyfield is going to be fighting when he's 50 and talking about winning the world heavyweight championship. My one true hope for this is Evander wins, thus claiming the completely useless WBF title, and that that's good enough for him, and he steps aside.

Quotes from their press conference:

Evander Holyfield: "I'm happy to have the opportunity to fight in Las Vegas again. Everything that's happened to me has been here - in 1984 I had to win Saturday and Sunday to make the Olympic team. In 1990, 1993, 1996 and 2000 I won the heavyweight title here. Las Vegas has been the place that's given me the opportunity to be the person I am. I'm thankful for Botha giving me an opportunity to fight for a title again. My goal has simply been to be undisputed heavyweight champion. I'm a person - I think my attitude is good when people tell me I can't do something -- I'm driven by what people say I can't do to prove I can. I'm not disappointed by decisions. I felt I beat Valuev. I won't quit seeking to do my best and Saturday night you'll see me give my all. If not enough, I'll make adjustments.

"To be perfect is to reach my goal. I thought I did it in 1999 against Lennox (Lewis). Here, in 2010, and it's going to be a great fight. I'm telling you, Saturday night, I'll look better than I used to be."

Frans Botha: "I'm defending my title against one of the greatest legends of all-time. This will make my resume perfect. I've fought some of the best and Evander is one of the best. Saturday night, I'm prepared for this. Evander had talent and experience. I'm getting in there knowing it's going to be a tough fight. ‘The White Buffalo' is roaming the prairie. I'm going to end your career, make you retire. The Buffalo is charging.

"I'm very grateful to be here. Me and Evander would have fought 10 years ago. I was No. 1 and he was champion. It didn't work out. You're a legend. You've fought some of the greatest, but I have to stop that. Saturday night you're going to see a helluva fight."

There are some interesting and not-so-interesting smaller PPV shows on the horizon, with cards filling out, and one major card that isn't much filling out at all. Let's start with the latter.

All cards are subject to change, of course.

May 1: Mosley-Mayweather

This pay-per-view is a major event, obviously, and is less than four weeks away now. As for an undercard, there isn't one yet. The only thing anyone seems to know is that Saul Alvarez is on it, but not who he's fighting. Matthew Hatton was an option before, but I highly doubt Hatton Promotions is going to send him out again on what would be short notice, plus he just won the European welterweight title belt, which means his earning potential in the UK just went up. He would almost surely lose to Alvarez, and probably not in a competitive fashion, either. So I'm guessing you can count that out. Most likely, Alvarez will face a journeyman and look "impressive."

There was some talk of Danny Jacobs fighting on the show, which may still happen, given the level and type of fights we're likely to see now. There had earlier been talk of Joan Guzman-Joel Casamayor, but obviously that's not happening.

May 8: Latin Fury 14

This show will be headlined by the return of Antonio Margarito, who faces Roberto Garcia. The WBC has even put one of their "regional" junior middleweight titles on the line for that. The undercard, unfortunately, is actually pretty attractive. I say "unfortunately" because a lot of hardcore boxing fans have made it clear that they'll refuse to pay for a Margarito fight.

On that undercard, Jorge Solis (38-2-2, 28 KO) will defend his interim 130-pound title against Mario Santiago (21-2-1, 14 KO), who has been in the featherweight mix. Also, unbeaten Brandon Rios (24-0-1, 18 KO) takes on his stiffest test against Urbano Antillon (27-1, 20 KO) at lightweight. That's a big fight for both -- a win for either puts them right in the hunt at 135.

Those are two fights I have real interest in. Too bad Margacheato is headlining.

April 10: Holyfield-Botha

This Saturday in Vegas, 47-year-old Evander Holyfield and 41-year-old Francois Botha will tangle for...something. Money, really. And whatever the WBF is, their belt is on the line, which means they've got a 12-round schedule. There's no undercard as of right now, so don't expect anything.

May 29: Vazquez-Bedak and Martinez-Munguia

Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. will make his first defense of the WBO junior featherweight title he impressively won against Marvin Sonsona, taking on Zsolt Bedak, a Hungarian based in Germany. Bedak (15-0, 5 KO) turned pro in 2006 and last fought in December. He beat Abner Mares in the 2004 Olympics at bantamweight. Also on the card will be Roman Martinez defending his 130-pound belt against 30-year-old Nicaraguan Gonzalo Munguia (17-6-3, 13 KO). The Arroyo brothers (McJoe and McWilliams) will also be in action again.

June 26: Latin Fury 15

The Chavez-Duddy show is supposedly also going to feature a bantamweight fight between Jorge Arce and Eric Morel.

With boxing just about to really kick into full swing for 2010, I'm checking my watch every other day or so for the time someone at ESPN, Fox Sports, Yahoo! Sports, Comedy Central, ET Online or the famed site Old Man Who Used to Like Marciano and Hasn't Seen Boxing in 11 Years to chime in and notice, "HEY!"

"You know what would help?!"

"Heavyweights!"

"People always liked heavyweights before."

"With heavyweights, yada yada, Marciano and Louis and Ali and Frazier and Foreman and Holmes and Tyson and Jersey Joe and I guess Holyfield, too, why not?!"

Personally, I think the sport of boxing does just fine without a dominant heavyweight division, but I also don't deny that of course the game could benefit from a headline-grabbing big man. I also don't deny that without the lettuce, a BLT is just a BT.

For those who might not pay close attention, here are some notable heavyweight fights coming your way. I figure after Pacquiao-Clottey one of those "Hey! The heavyweight division is dead!" articles will pop up, so let's burn this out now.

Friday, March 12: Samuel Peter (33-3, 26 KO) v. Nagy Aguilera (15-2, 10 KO)

The night before the big Pacquiao-Clottey show in Arlington, Top Rank will put an appetizer onto the table about a half hour up the road at the Gaylord Hotel in Grapevine. Sam Peter is still best-known for knocking down Wladimir Klitschko three times in a 2005 loss, and has in a lot of ways become a hype job because of that performance, despite the constant harping on Klitschko for having a glass jaw that follows the world champion around to this day. If Klitschko's chin is so bad, what's the big deal about Peter knocking him down?

That was the last time Wladimir looked so much as vulnerable, too. Since then, Peter has stopped four guys, and three of them were bums. The fourth, Oleg Maskaev, was stopped in under two minutes by Nagy Aguilera in his last fight. Oleg, for the record, recently said he plans to box on at age 41, and considering how giddy the WBC has proven to be to hand him mandatory challenger positions before, why not, I suppose.

Anyway, this could be a decent sleeper fight if all goes right. Since signing with Top Rank after losing two straight to Vitali Klitschko and Eddie Chambers, Peter has been slowly rebuilding his career. He's run over Marcus McGee, Ronald Bellamy and the free-moving land mass that is Gabe Brown in his last three. Though not a world-beater, Aguilera could be a fair step back up the ladder in terms of competition.

Most likely, though, he isn't, and Peter will blast him out without much trouble. Aguilera's only credible win is over Maskaev, who is really old and never took a punch all that well, and was caught cold.

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