Boxing isn't always as simple as winning or losing a fight. The court of public opinion can often determine whether a fighter -- skilled or not -- really progresses in the sport to become a star, a serious contender, or even a champion. Last night's fights were no different. Here's how I saw the stocks of the fighters rising and falling.

Both Nate Campbell and Ali Funeka came out winners last night. Campbell failed to make weight, but Nate is such a sincere, honest, down-to-earth guy that you can't help but believe that he'll quit before he lets that happen again. It didn't seem like your usual weight-missing routine, either. Campbell got on the scales like normal. There was no word he was struggling with weight, and he said that going into the week he was where he normally is. He believes his aging just makes 135 near impossible for him to make anymore, and impossible to do and remain a good fighter, so he'll move up to 140.

As for Funeka's role in that part of the story, both Funeka and promoter Cedric Kushner deserve kudos for class shown in going forward with the fight. They did not have to, as a member of Campbell's team said. They didn't even demand a portion of Campbell's larger purse, which frankly I would have done. Funeka could've probably fought someone in South Africa for the vacant IBF title. I believe he should still get the chance to fight for that title, but hopefully here in the States against a top opponent, because his gutsy performance against Campbell showed him as a guy that could make real noise at 135 pounds.

Campbell's performance was that of a champion, regardless of the situation. He gassed himself, but he kept fighting hard. Both of them left everything they had in the ring, and Funeka picked himself up off the canvas twice and finished the fight on his feet. It was a good fight and a grueling fight for both men. Campbell doesn't get a pass for the weight issue, but he has accrued the goodwill over the years enough that I just want to wish him well in his move up to 140.

Conversely, the main co-feature dropped the stocks of both Sergio Martinez and Kermit Cintron, in my opinion. Cintron's second fight with Ronnie Shields was a disaster. Martinez, a southpaw, circled the unconventional ("wrong") way all night long, moving into Cintron's power. And Cintron did nothing with it, and Ronnie Shields didn't point it out once. Shields felt the fight was close. The judges did, too, apparently, and I think they're all way off base. Martinez did little and "dominated" the fight. There was not a single round where I would say Cintron was in control.

For such a powerful guy, Cintron is no highlight act when against good opposition. And Martinez is not the guy some thought he was after he lashed Alex Bunema. Martinez rightly showed caution dealing with a guy as powerful as Cintron, yet Cintron never made it apparent that Martinez should have.

Anything can happen in boxing, and careers change all the time. Sometimes a fighter "clicks" and things start going right. Sometimes it just takes years of making mistakes for a boxer to find himself in the ring and start winning regularly. But my gut feeling is that Kermit Cintron just isn't good enough to take down top guys. He can knock out just about anyone, but he didn't touch Martinez last night, and Martinez is a smarter fighter than he is any sort of great talent. Cintron thinks he's a showman; he's not. Ronnie Shields thinks he can be a boxer-puncher; he can't. He's a flat-footed puncher, period, and he was lucky to escape last night with a draw.

Rematch? Not on my TV, thanks.

154-pound rising prospect Alfredo Angulo's stock stays the same. He did what he should've done with veteran welterweight Cosme Rivera, who came in on four days' notice, and fought with all he had. He was gassed out early, admitted it, and then his corner told him it was "bull." Then they watched as Rivera nearly got his head taken off by Angulo. Rivera was desperately waiting for someone to stop the fight, and finally a member of the Florida State Athletic Commission did so. You could see in his eyes he wanted no more, and there's no shame in that. He was overmatched at the weight, wasn't in shape (he lost a pound overnight), and even having the guts to get in there with Angulo on four days' notice is guts enough.

Angulo is potentially a special specimen of fighter becaues it may take a guy who is more or less a mirror image of himself to knock him off his perch. It may also take nothing more than a slick boxer.

Gary Shaw is willing to step Angulo up. He showed that by booking this fight to be against Ricardo Mayorga, who pulled out. Shaw did what he could as far as replacements go. With James Kirkland and Joel Julio busy with each other on March 7, only one of those two will be left standing with Angulo as the two best young fighters in the division. Angulo ain't gonna fight Kirkland, because Kirkland ditched Gary Shaw for Golden Boy, which will probably eventually happen with Angulo, as well. Gary's one of those egomaniacal promoters that believe the fighters work for him. It's the other way around.

I wouldn't mind seeing Angulo-Mayorga revisited, if Mayorga is genuine that he pulled out because of an injury, but I doubt that's the case. Don King and Gary Shaw know why Mayorga pulled out. Saul Roman would seem to be a lateral step from Rivera, Joachim Alcine has no name recognition. Chances are we wind up seeing Angulo against someone like Kassim Ouma or Cornelius Bundrage next time out, but I think he's ready to step in against better fighters than that. The problem is mostly that at 154, the tiers of fighters are pretty well set, and the upper tier is small. I don't just mean talent, I mean name value, titles, all that. Maybe he could fight Daniel Santos, another King fighter, but Santos seems in no rush to defend that title he won in July.

This entire show was a debacle. It was a terrible, terrible promotion, and for that King and Shaw should look back on this one and say honestly to themselves, "Boy, we f***ed that one up." They had no venue until very late in the game, they had to do 2-for-1 ticket sales (and the crowd was sparse, if pretty into the card), Mayorga dropped out, his original replacement dropped out, Nate Campbell is bumped to main event and doesn't make weight, Martinez-Cintron turned into a mess that was ugly to look at, and it felt like the entire card was just star-crossed. Campbell and Funeka put on a fine fight to close it all out, but for the most part, this show is better forgotten than remembered.

Former three-body lightweight titlist Nate Campbell won a war of attrition against tough South African Ali Funeka in tonight's main event in Sunrise, Florida, winning a majority decision (114-112, 115-111, 113-113) after knocking Funeka down in the second and eleventh rounds. Bad Left Hook scored the fight 115-111 for Campbell.

The 6'1" Funeka acquitted himself quite nicely on the world stage, and was overcome by emotion after the fight, crying in his corner. His corner told him they have nothing to be ashamed of, and they're absolutely correct. He tested Campbell and gave him a real fight, and he recovered well from both knockdowns. Here's hoping HBO and Showtime give him some attention in the future. He's a quality contender.

Campbell appeared gut-shot by his inability to make weight, apologizing very sincerely and stating his intention to move up to 140 pounds. As Max Kellerman said, he's instantly one of the division's most attractive names.

On the undercard, Sergio Martinez and Kermit Cintron went to a majority draw in a fight I thought Martinez clearly won. The fight was plagued by a strange seventh round incident. Cintron went down from a left hand he genuinely believed he was a headbutt, and referee Frank Santore counted him out, and appeared to have called the fight off. Replays showed that Cintron had made it to his feet before the count of ten, and he was incensed that it was (1) called a knockdown, and he was wrong there, and (2) that he appeared to have been counted out, which he was right about.

The fight, which had been an ugly clash of styles before the incident, picked up after it was surprisingly restarted. The draw, I feel, robs Martinez of a win, but neither man exactly made an entertaining fight. Bad Left Hook scored it 117-109 for Martinez. The official judges' scores were 113-113 twice and 116-110 for Martinez.

In the TV opener, Alfredo Angulo punished Cosme Rivera for four-plus rounds before finally the commission stopped it in the fifth. The referee should have stepped in well before that. Rivera actually lost a pound overnight, putting him at a 15-pound weight disadvantage in the ring. He was game, but his corner and the referee let him take way too much punishment, even after he openly admitted to being tired.

We'll have much more tomorrow on the fights. Thanks to everyone who joined us for the round-by-round. We'll be back for a two-card weekend starting Friday.

The Campbell-Funeka led triple-header goes live on HBO from Sunrise, Florida, tonight at 10pm ET. Join us for all three fights, with live, round-by-round coverage and scoring!

REMEMBER: The IBF and WBO lightweight titles are on the line for Ali Funeka only, as Nate Campbell failed to make the 135-pound weight limit. Should Campbell win the fight, the titles are immediately vacated.

From now on I'll be instituting an official pre-fight picks thread for bigger cards (HBO, Showtime, PPV) the night before the event, and this'll be our first one. What a goofy mess to go first. I'll throw mine down here, and you can put yours in the comments. In future posts I'll probably try to get other bloggers from some of my favorite places to weigh in, too. Honestly this idea just hit me in the "Why the hell haven't I always been doing this?" part of my brain.

Nate Campbell v. Ali Funeka (Lightweights - Campbell's IBF/WBO titles on the line for Funeka only)

This was a tough fight to pick from the outset, now made tougher by the fact that Campbell hasn't made weight, which brings all aspects of conditioning into question.

If Campbell is stronger because of the extra two and a half pounds he had at his last attempt to weigh in, it could be a benefit against the rangy, powerful Funeka. If he's just that little bit out of shape, it could spell his doom.

I really like Nate Campbell, which we've been over a thousand times, but I'll admit that I'm openly rooting for Funeka now so that the tiles don't go immediately vacant. One of the comments in the weight thread a couple posts down wondered if Campbell didn't just have the worst three-title reign in boxing history, because it ends tomorrow night either way. I'd have to say if he didn't, someone else really screwed the pooch. Campbell won the titles last March, didn't fight Joan Guzman in September because Guzman was overweight and pulled out at the last minute, and now he's overweight and the titles are either lost to Funeka or taken away.

I've worried some about how Funeka might react to the pressure of fighting outside of South Africa for the first time in his career, but my gut tells me that Campbell has probably known for days that he wasn't going to make the weight, and he probably stepped onto the scales praying. I still think this is a pick'em, but I'm going with the upset. I think a gassed Campbell gets torn up in the late rounds. Funeka TKO-10

Sergio Martinez v. Kermit Cintron (Junior Middleweights - Martinez's interim WBC title on the line)

Cintron is of the opinion that Martinez hasn't ever really beaten anyone. I'm of the opinion that neither of them have. Both have felt their only career losses against Antonio Margarito (twice for Cintron), they're the same height, and outside of that they couldn't be much different.

Lumbering Cintron will find himself outboxed badly in the early rounds, I suspect, and I just don't see that changing. Martinez got really flashy and cocky against Alex Bunema, but he knows Cintron can punch so I don't expect to see the same hijinx again. I figure he'll give Cintron a schooling, and that after this, Kermit kind of goes into the role of big-punching gatekeeper at 147 or 154. He can knock out just about anybody, but I don't think he'll be able to land often enough to deter Martinez from a clear decision win. Martinez UD-12

Alfredo Angulo v. Cosme Rivera (Junior Middleweights)

Though James Kirkland gets more casual fan love, I'm not sure any of us would pick Kirkland to beat Angulo. Angulo has thus far shown a good beard (Richar Gutierrez tagged him square several times last summer) and a willingness to stay in the pocket and trade. Rivera still has some snap on his punches, but this is his first time fighting above 147, he's lost a step, and it's four days' notice to boot. Angulo's going to lay waste to the gritty vet. Angulo TKO-6

Time will tell how good I am at predicting. Sometimes I'm a genius (Darchinyan over Mijares, holla!) and sometimes I'm a boneheaded dullard (duhhr, Pavlik will stop Hopkins, duhhr). I figure in the end I'll be up because most fights, honestly, are fairly easy to predict. We'll keep track card-to-card. And if you participate, I'm tracking you, too, Buster Brown. Let's put our non-existant money where our fingertips are!

UPDATE: Campbell has officially failed to make weight for the fight, losing just a half pound in the two hour window he was allotted to drop the three pounds. When he fights Ali Funeka tomorrow night, the titles will be on the line for Funeka only. Should Campbell win, the titles will be immediately declared vacant. The fight will go ahead, however.

Nate Campbell came in three pounds overweight at 138 pounds for his Saturday lightweight title defense against Ali Funeka (133.5 pounds) and has about two hours to shed the weight or they'll have to start haggling.

Even if Nate can work off three pounds in that timeframe (and I doubt it), I'm sorry, but this is the straw that breaks the camel's back for this card. I went over all the sidesteps and screw-ups that have plagued that star-crossed mess from the beginning, and I still thought we'd have a great card, and I still think we can, but consider my excitement level greatly dipped at this point. Every single fight on this card has been a fustercluck in preparation.

If Campbell and Funeka can reach a deal should Campbell not make weight, the titles could become vacant or be up for grabs for Funeka only tomorrow night. Chances are the fight will still go through -- it's the main event, there's no suitable fight to bump up (sorry, other fighters), and Nate's the "hometown" guy in Florida. It's kind of on him to save people from asking for a refund tomorrow night.

The irony, you might be thinking to yourself, is that last September it was Campbell forced to file bankruptcy when scheduled opponent Joan Guzman couldn't make weight and their fight was scrapped.

As much as I like Nate Campbell, not making weight is unprofessional. And I know it's a horrible grind to make it to your limit, but fighters do it all the time. You can't just excuse it because Nate's a nice guy.

Other weights:

Sergio Martinez (153 1/4) and Kermit Cintron (154 1/2, Cintron then made 154 pounds)

Alfredo Angulo (153 1/2) and Cosme Rivera (151 1/2)

When Saturday night's HBO Boxing After Dark card was first conceived, it looked very different than the card that will actually take place tomorrow

The main event was scheduled to be Gary Shaw's star 154-pound prospect Alfredo Angulo of Mexico taking on veteran Nicaraguan brawler Ricardo Mayorga from Don King Promotions.

When Mayorga dropped out either due to money demands or Shane Mosley busting him up last September (you decide for yourself who you believe), the event was thrown into some degree of disarray. Mayorga was the name feature here. There was a good chance Angulo (14-0, 11 KO) would beat beat him, but Ricardo was the guy people know. After no-showing the first press conference, Mayorga shortly after pulled out entirely. And did I mention that the card didn't even have a venue until a few weeks prior to the show?

Gary Shaw scrambled to find a replacement opponent, and came up with former welterweight contender Danny Perez. Mere days later, Perez also dropped out, leaving Shaw scrambling again. He found welterweight gatekeeper Cosme Rivera willing to step up to 154 pounds on very short notice (four days to be exact).

With Mayorga out, the original co-feature of Nate Campbell fighting for the first time in 11 months against South Africa's Ali Funeka (pictured) was bumped to main event status. Even if by default, it's gratifying for many to see a hard-working, genuine guy like Campbell in an HBO main event.

Let's backtrack a little to January. The Berto-Collazo card was originally set to feature Sergio Martinez taking on Joe Greene in the opening televised bout, but Greene was forced to withdraw because of an injury. When Don King and HBO tried to insert 154-pound titlist Daniel Santos in as a replacement for Greene, Santos balked at taking the fight on short notice, but it was originally reported that Santos-Martinez was agreed to for February 14, making an already attractive card a tripleheader.

Later, Santos would also pull out, leaving Martinez again open. Former 147-pound titlist Kermit Cintron agreed to take the fight, leaving a welterweight mandatory shot at Joshua Clottey behind for bigger money and an easier time making weight.

Take a minute. Inhale. Let it all settle. Now breathe out.

If you're still having trouble putting together what the card is, here it goes.

In the main event, Campbell (32-5-1, 25 KO) will put up his IBF and WBO lightweight titles against Funeka (30-1-2, 25 KO), who garnered international attention last year when he slaughtered contender Zahir Raheem inside of four rounds in East London, South Africa. Campbell also won the WBA title when he upset Juan Diaz in March 2008, but shortly after relinquished that belt, which is now held by Paulus Moses. Technically, Jose Alfaro had beaten Prawet Singwancha for the "vacant" title, though the belt was still held by Juan Diaz, in December 2007. That was three months before Diaz-Campbell even took place. Diaz won the title in 2004 and made seven successful defenses, and also unified it with the IBF and WBO titles.

OK, sorry, that turned this into another head-scratcher. Just forget about it.

In Funeka, the 36-year old Campbell is up against an exceptionally tall foe for the 135 pound limit. Funeka comes in right around six feet, while Nate is 5'7", far more standard for the division. Campbell will also be fighting ring rust. A September bout with Joan Guzman was aborted when Guzman failed to make weight, leading Campbell to declare bankruptcy. It's been a long, crappy ride for Campbell, who should have had the best year of his life in '08, at least professionally.

But Funeka has never fought outside of his home base in South Africa, never been under the HBO (or any American TV) lights, never been in a fight this big, or in a land this foreign to him. There are a lot of wildcards, not the least of which is Campbell's advancing age. Boxers have been said to "get old overnight" many times, and with almost a year out of the ring, who knows how Nate will look on Saturday?

Funeka also hasn't exactly been active. He's been out of the ring since that July destruction of Raheem, perhaps wisely biding his time until he could land that IBF mandatory, not wanting to risk anything. Prior to that his last fight came in September 2007. His only loss came to Mzonke Fana in 2002.

Continue reading this post »

Ricardo Mayorga says he didn't pull out of a fight with Alfredo Angulo over money, as was reported by Dan Rafael of ESPN.com and his own promoter, Don King, but rather because he still hasn't recovered from injuries suffered in his September 27 fight with Shane Mosley.

Mayorga says that he's had pain in his ribs since the fight, but thought he could work through it, put in a good training camp, and be ready to fight Angulo on February 14. When Mayorga dropped out on short notice, Gary Shaw replaced him with Danny Perez, who also dropped out. Angulo will now be facing veteran Cosme Rivera.

"Mosley," Mayorga says. "You can blame Mosley, it's all his fault."

The 35-year old Mayorga also noted that he doesn't pull out of fights. But we all know he tried to hold King and Golden Boy up for more money prior to his fight with Oscar de la Hoya, and even though his reasoning here doesn't seem unbelievable or even like a stretch, it's also hard to buy it.

Alfredo Angulo has his third scheduled opponent for Saturday, and for the second time I think we have to give Gary Shaw a little kudos (painful though it may be) for finding someone credible.

Former welterweight championship challenger Cosme Rivera (31-11-2, 22 KO) has stepped into the void to face junior middleweight prospect Alfredo Angulo (14-0, 11 KO) in Rivera's first ever fight above 147 pounds.

Rivera having the guts to take a fight like this on four days' notice is admirable, and though it's likely he gets run over, he's provided some resistance to star fighters in recent years. He gave Joel Julio a stiff test in 2006, and followed that up by taking Andre Berto all 10 rounds, even knocking Berto down in the sixth round.

Angulo-Rivera is a far cry from Angulo-Mayorga, so let's once again say, "Screw you, Mayorga." Fun, isn't it?

According to Dan Rafael's latest blog, Ricardo Mayorga is out of his scheduled Feb. 14 fight with Alfredo Angulo -- which was to headline an excellent tripleheader -- not because of weight issues or a camp injury or anything else like that. It's just about money.

Just like the time Mayorga attempted to pull out of his fight with Oscar de la Hoya because he was unhappy with a $2 million purse and wanted $8 million instead, Mayorga tried to squeeze more money out of promoter Don King, who has already fronted Mayorga $300,000, and will in time collect that money from the Nicaraguan brawler.

Rafael also says that Daniel Edouard is now the leading candidate to replace Mayorga against Angulo. Edouard makes for good fights, so I see no problem there.

Some quotes from the blog:

"This is typical of Mayorga," a calm King told ESPN.com. "He did the same thing with Oscar. He thinks he's playing a game. This is the way he operates. I just take it like it is. If he fights, he fights. If he don't, it ain't the end of the world. I know the beast I am dealing with."

...

"Now we know why they call Mayorga 'The Matador.' He's full of bulls---," [Angulo promoter Gary] Shaw said. "This is as unprofessional as it gets. We don't hear he's pulled out from his promoter or manager [Carl King], just from everyone else in boxing. You have to wonder if he ever intended to fight at all. Mayorga didn't show at the press conference in Florida, and we have yet to see his mandatory 30-day weigh-in report from the WBC. Obviously, it wasn't a red cape he was waving, it was a red flag.

Have you ever reached that point with a fighter or any other athlete of whom you are a fan, where you just go, "Yeah, that's kind of enough for me"? I think I'm there with Mayorga. He made a lot of compelling TV and was in some pretty good fights, but enough's enough with him. I can't really consider myself a Mayorga fan anymore.

On a sort of similar note, Rafael notes that Mayorga will be lucky to ever get on HBO again, but I doubt that. Ricardo will get another chance when some fighter wants a name knockout victim.

In an article by Sharon Robb of the Sun-Sentinel, IBF/WBO lightweight titlist Nate Campbell says that matchmaking is a big reason for boxing's alleged woes:

"What they are doing now is this round-robin thing. Everybody fights each other but only if you are with the same promoter and that has to stop.

"Don King has done a lot of great things for boxing. One thing I realized about promoters is they all have detractors. For every one person that likes him, there is someone that doesn't. Whether he is good or not will be determined by what his legacy is."

The sport's credibility is eroding because of championship matches that are made involving boxers who have been inactive or not ranked, Campbell said.

"How do you get a championship fight if you're not ranked?" Campbell mused.

Listen, I love Nate as a fighter, and respect the hell out of him. He's worked hard, he's always had a great attitude, and he's made the most of his career. But he's half full of it here. I guess all the Top Rank-Golden Boy co-promoted cards just aren't happening, right? Hatton (Golden Boy) isn't fighting Pacquiao (Top Rank), I suppose. And Pacquiao didn't fight Marquez or Oscar de la Hoya (both Golden Boy) last year.

And Shane Mosley (Golden Boy) didn't just fight Antonio Margarito (Top Rank). And Kelly Pavlik (Top Rank) didn't fight Bernard Hopkins (Golden Boy).

Other promoters aren't also in the mix. Jermain Taylor (DiBella) didn't twice fight Pavlik, and then Jeff Lacy (Golden Boy). Cotto (Top Rank) fought Mosley in November 2007.

You know when the last time Nate fought was? Against Juan Diaz, who was then promoted by Don King. Don did get him a fight with Joan Guzman (Sycuan), but Joanie didn't make weight. And now Nate is semi-stuck, fighting Ali Funeka, who has zero fanbase in the U.S. or U.K. or anywhere outside of South Africa, where every single one of his 33 professional fights have been held.

He's stuck there because (1) he has few options and is in a bad place financially, (2) Funeka is the IBF mandatory, and (3) Campbell isn't a name, partially because he's never been promoted very well.

Nate is using a well-worn argument that has been presented by many, and was relevant until the Top Rank-Golden Boy Cold War ended. Nowadays, not so much. Promoters are working together all the time. It's just that Don hasn't really been part of that.

Don King has been a great promoter in the sport of boxing -- and people have called him a lot of other things, too -- but it'd be foolish to not look at his current roster and wonder where the problem really lies. He has none of boxing's biggest stars, save for Mayorga, who is losing sizzle by the fight, and Trinidad, who may never fight again.

Don's promoting is going so wonderfully these days that he's offering a 2-for-1 on seats for the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" card, which will be televised by HBO. It's really a very good card, and Don deserves credit for lining up what promises to be an action-packed night. But his promotion of it has stunk. They didn't even have a venue until a couple weeks ago.

He let his best prospect (arguably), Devon Alexander, languish for months without a fight. What planet is Don on these days?

And now he's talking about MMA:

It's no secret King is looking into mixed martial arts, which could make it interesting. King has been doing his homework, watching and waiting. However, at 77, he should stick to promoting boxing, which he is still the best at. Leave mixed martial arts to White and UFC.

"Most of them that go out into mixed martial arts are not successful," King said. "Ain't but one successful mixed martial arts and that's UFC. The rest of them are trying and want-to-be. Until I come, they are in trouble."

Affliction is apparently all but done, EliteXC died a painful, nationally-televised death under the watch of the Shaws, and now Don thinks he wants to get involved? He'd bellyflop so hard you'd think he got an awful waffle.

I also almost scoffed out loud with a snort and an eyeroll at Sharon Robb's other thought:

UFC President Dana White, who has a boxing background and great knowledge of the fight game, could clean boxing up in a year. White's business insight raised his pay-per-view spectacle from the dead and made it the hottest combat sport.

This is ridiculous. Dana White is a phenomenal businessman and a great promoter. There is no arguing that. But to be among the dead, one must have once been among the living. White and Lorenzo Fertitta basically remodeled the UFC, which was such a niche sport when they took over the company that it's not even remotely comparable to what it's become. No doubt they deserve all the credit in the world for that, but this was not a company that rose and then fell. The initial interest in early UFC waned pretty heavily, and was never a major sport to begin with. It was a morbid curiosity for most at best.

Making the delightfully overreaching statement that White could "clean up boxing in a year" can only come from someone living in a fantasy land that doesn't better understand the subject at hand. For one thing, boxing's not really dirty. For another thing, what's Dana going to do to fix things? Buy up all the fighters and tell them to take massive paycuts?

With UFC, White is able to house most of the world's best fighters because UFC is the place. You know what the place is in boxing, and has always been in boxing, and barring an unforeseen catastrophe of the first order, will always be in boxing? The building with the ring that pays the fighter the most to be there.

Mixed martial arts is still a young sport. Boxing is not. White coming into boxing -- this mythical, singular operation, apparently -- and cleaning it up in a year would be expecting Rome to be built in a day.

The thing most annoying about articles like these and the opinions presented are that they shine no light on the many good things that have happened in boxing in the last few years, and in failing to do that, they further advance the hyperbolic notion that boxing is in some sort of trouble. Boxing is the flagship of HBO Sports. It's not "Gee, Weren't Sports Better When I Was a Kid" with Bob Costas or "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel." It's boxing. And the sport is the flagship of Showtime Sports, too; it's not "Inside the NFL."

In short, Sharon Robb believes in myths, Nate Campbell is treading softly until he's out of King's control, and the Don (God bless him) would be better off to not even consider trying to get into MMA, particularly if he plans to promote it like he does his boxing.