Jorge Arce has been through numerous wars in his career. Though he stopped Fernando Lumacad on Saturday night, how much is really left? (via cache.daylife.com)

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Mexican warrior Jorge Arce is one of boxing's most brash speakers, one of the sport's most entertaining fighters, and a guy who can take abuse in the ring like few others. He's been a go-to action star his entire career, a career that began in a Tijuana ring in 1996, six months before Arce turned 17 years old.

13 years and a number of wicked, career-shortening bloodbaths later, the warrior still has his spirit. On the undercard of Saturday night's Top Rank pay-per-view, Arce, now 29, stopped 23-year old Filipino prospect Fernando Lumacad with one big overhand right in the third round. Lumacad looked in awe of Arce from the ring intros, and when he went down in the third, he didn't even bother trying to get up. He knew he was beaten by a bigger, stronger, and better fighter.

Lumacad is no huge notch on Arce's belt, but getting back into the ring and being able to so thoroughly destruct an opponent has to have been a great boost for his confidence. No one would have blamed Arce for feeling down after he was thrashed by Vic Darchinyan in February. Arce's matchup with Darchinyan had been talked about for years, a throw-down brewing through back-and-forth words between the two cocky, determined fighters, both of whom have a habit of backing up their words. Darchinyan beat on Arce so brutally over 11 rounds that Arce's corner finally stopped it, and though he was just 29, the rumblings of potential retirement started. Sure, he's still young, but there didn't seem to be much left. He couldn't dent the "Raging Bull," couldn't keep up with him, and couldn't stop walking into big shots.

Enter highly-respected Mexican trainer Nacho Beristain, the man behind the genius of the Marquez brothers, and the man called upon to train Oscar de la Hoya for his career-ending loss to Manny Pacquiao. While it is unlikely that Beristain can change the leopard's spots, promoter Bob Arum expressed serious concern after the Darchinyan fight, noting that Arce, a veteran of the sport, looked like he had no idea how to fight a left-handed foe. Arum was right, too. Arce was not just outgunned by a fresher fighter, he looked lost against Darchinyan.

Beristain isn't going to turn Arce into a top 10 pound-for-pound fighter. Arce simply lacks that type of pure skill, and he also lacks the mindset to fight smart when it starts getting nasty in there. He loves to brawl, to prove his machismo, to show he's tougher than the other man.

Last September, Arce faced Panamanian Rafael Concepcion on Mexican Independence Day. With the homefield advantage, a massive and rowdy crowd behind him, and facing an inexperienced, smaller man, Arce struggled with a fellow guts-and-bombs warrior who wouldn't back down. That fight, while great and an example of what makes Arce so amazing to watch, was troublesome, too. A younger Arce likely would have finished off Concepcion -- game as he is -- within five rounds. In other words, he would have done to him what he did to Lumacad on Saturday.

And I think that's a good sign for Arce. That he looked healthy, didn't look weight-drained, and didn't appear "old." He looked confident, ready, and in firm control from the time the bell sounded.

Does this mean that with Beristain in his corner, Arce can get back in with the big dogs? The last two times he's fought great opposition (Darchinyan and Cristian Mijares), he's been manhandled. Around those losses, he's kept on beating mid-level opponents, sometimes looking good (Lumacad, Tomas Rojas, Medgoen Singsurat, Isidro Garcia), and other times looking quite shaky indeed (Concepcion and a controverisal decision win over Devid Lookmahanak).

With Darchinyan leaving 115 to fight 118-pound titlist Joseph Agbeko on July 11, the division is without a ruler, and is wide open for the taking. Arce may in fact be the division's most accomplished fighter now. Alexander Munoz is inactive, Z Gorres doesn't have Arce's resume, and Nobuo Nashiro seems perfectly content to stay in Japan.

Arce's career, though, is still teetering on that brink between relevant and former warrior-turned-journeyman. I do know one thing: When he fights, we'll tune in. He's still that kind of fighter.

Veteran boxer Steve Forbes calls Victor Ortiz a quitter and a "hype job," slamming Ortiz's decision to give up against Marcos Maidana on Saturday. (via cache.daylife.com)

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Veteran boxer and former titleholder Steve "2 Pound" Forbes has ripped into Victor Ortiz, who quit during a sixth round fight against Marcos Maidana last night in Los Angeles. Forbes posted scathing thoughts on his Facebook page after the bout.

"Did Victor Ortiz just quit? or is my mind playing tricks? I'm sure I saw before the Doc stepped in that he shook his head no."

Then Forbes added another comment, invoking the name of another heavily criticized Golden Boy and Finkel client, Robert Guerrero. Fittingly, Guerrero is another GBP fighter who ran away from his previous promoter (Dan Goossen).

"Steve Forbes is wondering will people hold Ortiz to the same standard as Robert Guerrero? people grilled him after saying he couldn't go on, or will people say he's young?

I hope nobody's defending that, if so you shouldn't be a boxing fan."

Then came this Forbes penned entry:

"Ortiz did quit I just watched it again W.T.F hype jobs are destroying boxing this shiznit is disgusting. Lose on your shield."

Ortiz had better get used to hearing this stuff, honestly. It might not be nice, but folks are being honest. Boxing is a sport with participants that are tough cats, and fans that expect to see guys leave it all in the ring. It's a one-on-one, violent, "manly" sort of thing; no fighters are more verbally berated by fans than those that don't "man up" in big spots, and Ortiz did anything but.

Anyway, if Forbes is still wondering whether or not this would get the same guff that Guerrero did, he should be resting easy. It's much, much worse already.

WWE star Batista will play the villain in an upcoming film starring pound-for-pound boxing king Manny Pacquiao and Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger.

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According to GMA News, pound-for-pound boxing king Manny Pacquiao will begin filming the movie Wapakman in July, starring alongside Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger and WWE star Batista, who will play the movie's villain with Pacquiao as the hero. Batista, as you likely recall, is part-Filipino himself and accompanied Pacquiao to the ring for his May 2 fight against Ricky Hatton.

The movie will reportedly be similar to Kung Fu Hustle, a critically-acclaimed martial arts comedy. Pacquiao says that shooting will not interfere with his boxing schedule at all, and given that he doesn't fight again until November, I see no reason it would.

I think there's some definite cult classic potential here. A boxing superstar, a wrestling superstar, and a pop superstar. Martial arts. Comedy. What's not to like?

Felix Sturm may not get the chance to fight middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik in October after HBO showed reserved interest in the fight. (via p3.focus.de)

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Rick Reeno of BoxingScene.com reports that HBO has offered a "lowball" amount of $2 million for a potential October 3 fight between middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik and titlist Felix Sturm, citing the $3.5 million that they paid for Dawson-Tarver II.

I think Rick's comments on HBO being more a promoter than a network and holding promoters and fighters in the palms of their hands are spot-on, and that there are occasions where it would help if that were not the case, but it also does not surprise me that Pavlik-Sturm is not the hot commodity Bob Arum might have wanted it to be.

I like Kelly Pavlik a lot. He's one of my favorite fighters to watch. But you have to look at the facts: Since beating Jermain Taylor in 2007, he hasn't exactly performed from the business side and become the superstar Arum and Top Rank hoped he would. His pay-per-view rematch with Taylor was a disappointment, his fight with Gary Lockett drew awful ratings and press, and his bashing at the hands of Bernard Hopkins underperformed terribly on pay-per-view, too. Since then, he's fought Marco Antonio Rubio on Top Rank PPV, which was watched essentially only by the diehards. Whatever momentum he had as an attraction, he has lost.

Add in that Sturm's only real U.S. exposure was his controversial loss to Oscar de la Hoya years ago, and you have a fight that might not do so well ratings-wise and really might not be worth the money they want. The trouble with HBO's low offer is that someone has to pay the fighters, and without a better money deal from the network (Showtime is unlikely to be able to offer anything better), that'll be hard to do. Pavlik is the world middleweight champion, he demands a good purse. Same goes for Sturm, who can make great money fighting lesser competition in Germany. It's about results versus price; at $2 million, HBO wouldn't actively lose money for a fight that probably won't be a big hit, even if you can argue it should be. Sadly, Sturm isn't much bigger an attraction than was Lockett.

I do hope this fight will be made. Arthur Abraham is simply not available for a Pavlik fight this year, as he has Giovanni Lorenzo lined up as a mandatory challenger. And past Abraham, Sturm is the only good opponent at middleweight for Pavlik. Hopefully, even if it has to go to Top Rank PPV, this fight will come off.

Victor Ortiz's post-fight comments after his loss to Marcos Maidana were troubling to say the least. Can the Mexican-American come back to revive his career? (via www.hbo.com)

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After being knocked down in the first round on a nasty right hand from Marcos Maidana, Golden Boy phenom hopeful Victor Ortiz was vindicated on commentary by HBO's Max Kellerman. Kellerman, the color commentary man of the future for boxing's biggest broadcaster, noted the rumblings about Ortiz's chin, but that there had been none about his heart, and as he had recovered from a knockdown from the vicious-punching Maidana and scored two more knockdowns (making three total) of the Argentinian semi-underdog, Kellerman noted that his heart had proven out.

He had yet to see the rest of the fight.

When Ortiz was cut, his opposite eye swollen, and another knockdown suffered in the sixth round, Ortiz quit. There is no other way to put it: Ortiz quit. With no desire to continue on in the first fight of his career where he met resistance from the opposing pugliist, Ortiz waved his arms and let the doctor call the fight on the cut.

Ortiz, 22, has had quite a life already. His mother left he and his siblings one day when he was quite young in Kansas. A few years later, his father disappeared. He made his way to California, and then into boxing. Ortiz, though young, is quite a self-made man. You absolutely cannot disregard the guts he's shown as a human being; in similar circumstances, many would have given up, become inhabitants of society's outskirts, and never gotten anywhere near Ortiz's level as a professional athlete.

But that, like it or not, is the past. Ortiz is a man now. And as a professional, he had never seen a specimen like Maidana, the brawler with the big punch who refused to back off. He wasn't the first good fighter Ortiz had faced, but he was the first that offered a real challenge once the bell had rung. He was Ortiz's test. And Ortiz failed.

The loss was no shame. Maidana was ranked No. 10 by Ring Magazine coming into the fight, with a razor-thin loss to 140-pound titlist Andriy Kotelnik his only setback. The fight, while designed to be an Ortiz win, was no gimme whatsoever, and it turned into one of 2009's best, most thrilling affairs, even if the ending left you wanting a little bit something more.

Personally, I came away impressed with Maidana as a never-say-die warrior, a guy with huge huevos and a bigger right hand. Fight alone, Ortiz's loss was no great big issue. He wasn't able to finish a double-tough guy. It happens. Fighters lose fights when they take risks, and this was a risk by Ortiz.

But his post-fight comments are troubling. Some are already wondering whether or not Ortiz will ever step into a ring again, and they're perfectly right to do so. The 22-year old slugger from Oxnard was outgtunned by a nasty opponent, but he quit. And not only did he quit, but after the fight, he remarked, "I'm young, but I don't think I deserve to be getting beat up like this. I got a lot of thinking to do."

There are a LOT of fighters that came up through the ranks very fast, were deemed the next big thing, and then met the brick wall. For Ortiz, it might well be Maidana, the heavy-handed slugger that wouldn't accept a loss despite three knockdowns. After he'd beaten Ortiz up fairly badly, he made him quit. In Maidana, there was no quit. In Ortiz, there seemed to be nothing but.

I do not mean to disrespect Victor Ortiz, but his post-fight comments invited this sort of criticism. Does he love boxing? Is he willing to take the lumps? Is he mentally capable of being the fighter that Golden Boy Promotions want him to be?

I'm guessing he's not. These kind of comments don't just happen. As beaten up as he was, Ortiz appeared to be clear-headed and aware of what he was saying. He's always been a very honest young man -- it has been part of his charm, not holding back, not worrying about saying "the right thing."

Honesty has revealed something about Victor Ortiz that stings. He's just not going to be able to live up to the hype unless something drastically changes. He felt another fighter's drive and determination, and he didn't like it. Sad as it may be, "Vicious" Victor Ortiz doesn't really look to be part of boxing's future.

Arthur Abraham knocked Mahir Oral down five times to retain his IBF middleweight title, but Marcos Maidana's stoppage of Victor Ortiz was the story of the night. (via d.yimg.com)

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Marcos Maidana stopped Victor Ortiz in the sixth round of a junior welterweight war, but the biggest story of the night may have come from Ortiz's post-fight interview.

After essentially quitting in the sixth round, Ortiz said in his post-fight interview that he had "a lot of thinking to do" about his future, and pretty much seemed to give the impression that he doesn't love boxing and isn't up for getting hit the way he was tonight. Many guys have come up fast without much resistance, and then break down once they find that guy that hits back, hits hard, and tests their mettle. I don't want to speak to his future absolutely or anything, but if I were a betting man, Victor Ortiz is never going to be the fighter Golden Boy wanted him to be. I just don't think he has it in him. I don't say that to be disrespectful -- anyone that heard that interview would have to have the same questions. He put them out there.

The fight itself was a Fight of the Year contender, with both men dropped in the first round and Maidana down twice more in the second. The Argentinian Maidana (26-1, 25 KO) stormed back to drop Ortiz in the sixth, after which Ortiz gave up, went to the doctor, and they quickly called it off with a cut bleeding pretty well and his opposite eye swelling shut.

Ortiz (24-2-1, 19 KO) really does have a lot of thinking to do. He also noted that he's "not going out on his back for nobody," which received a few scattered boos. Not exactly warrior talk to say the least.

If you missed the fight, do catch a replay this week on HBO.

On Showtime from Germany, Arthur Abraham knocked down Mahir Oral five times, three in the tenth round, at which point the Oral corner stopped the bout. Oral fought and fought, and came forward, and never ran, but he was simply outgunned by a better, stronger fighter.

Results from the Top Rank PPV in Atlantic City:

• Juan Manuel Lopez RTD-9 Olivier Lontchi ... Called an ugly fight.
  
• Jorge Arce KO-3 Fernando Lumacad
• Yuri Foreman NC-3 Cornelius Bundrage, fight stopped on a headbutt cut
• Vanes Martirosyan RTD-6 Andrey Tsurkan; Martirosyan reportedly gave Tsurkan an awful beating
• Off-TV results: Mario Santiago UD-8 Gilberto Sanchez Leon ... Matt Korobov KO-1 Benjamin Diaz

We will have a lot more tomorrow on Victor Ortiz and Marcos Maidana in particular. This is a pretty interesting developing story to say the least.

Tonight's round-by-round coverage starts with Abraham-Oral on Showtime at 9pm and continues with Ortiz-Maidana on HBO at 10pm.

DO NOT POST SPOILERS OF THE ABRAHAM-ORAL FIGHT.

via www.fightnews.com

via www.notifight.com

Omar Narvaez made his record 16th defense of the WBO flyweight title last night in Argentina. (via d.yimg.com)

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• WBA featherweight titlist Chris John is going to be elevated to the status of "super champion" in a ceremony at the Staples Center that will feature Golden Boy promoter Oscar de la Hoya, odd timing considering John pulled out of tonight's card with an illness. Super prospect Yuriorkis Gamboa, who holds the interim title (which wasn't necessary, but hey, it's boxing), will now become "full champion," so that perhaps the WBA can sanction a few more interim title fights. Let's all take money! John's canceled rematch with Rocky Juarez is being talked about for the fall. Hey, put it on the Mayweather-Marquez show. Or more likely, don't.
  
• Danny Jacobs easily routed George Walton in the main event of Friday Night Fights last night when Walton essentially quit in the middle of the eighth round. It was a phenomenal performance from Jacobs, who landed 286 punches (mostly power shots, too) in less than eight full rounds. Walton was knocked down earlier, but it was more of a shove than a good shot.
• Last night in Canada, former 122-pound titleholder Steve Molitor survived a test from Heriberto Ruiz, escaping with a split decision (116-112, 116-112, 112-116). Molitor was cut and struggled mightily with the veteran in his first fight since being completely dominated by Celestino Caballero, which was his first loss. But it's not any great shame, either; Ruiz is a good fighter, better than his 41-8-2 record, and frankly Molitor probably isn't as good as his 29-1 mark.
• In Buenos Aires, WBO flyweight titleholder Omar Narvaez made his record 16th defense of the title with a dominant win over Omar Soto. The fight was stopped in the 11th after Soto was knocked down, though he did beat the count. With Nonito Donaire flying the coop to 115 pounds, Narvez has as good an argument as anyone for being the world's best 112-pound fighter right now.
• Former strawweight titleholder Florante Condes took what is being reported as a hell of a beating from South African Nkosinathi Joyi in an IBF 105-pound eliminator in East London, losing on unanimous decision scores of 120-107 (twice) and 119-108.
• If anyone's around Anderson, Indiana, Stevie Forbes will be at a local show tonight, and there were only about 100 tickets left as of this article's publishing. Forbes isn't competing, but he's one of the sport's truly good guys. Also in attendance will be Bob Sanders and Gary Brackett of the Indianapolis Colts.
• Jesus Chavez did an interview with Austin360, saying he's retired but considering coming back. Chavez last fought this April when he was mauled by Michael Katsidis. Again: Do boxers actually know what retirement is? That's not a "boxers sure do come out of retirement a lot, huh?" joke, I legitimately wonder if in boxing "retirement" just means something entirely different. Is it like when a man retires from a specific fight? RTD-8 and the like? And they just come back next time? Anyway, it's a good article, and I remain a Chavez fan.
  
• The U.S. Senate is really trying to get President Barack Obama to pardon Jack Johnson, who you likely know went to prison almost 100 years ago because he had an affair with a white woman and violated the Mann Act. As nice as I think it would be to have a Johnson pardon on the record books officially and all that, just do it and get it over with. The world has more pressing matters than this. And that's about as large a glimpse as you'll ever get into anything remotely close to my feelings on politics.
• If you missed the stunning turn of events, Evander Holyfield is again in danger of losing his ridiculously lavish Georgia mansion. He has defaulted on a $10,000,000 loan. He received $600,000 officially for his December fight with Nikolai Valuev, which doesn't account for his manager, promoter, entire corner team, etc.
• BJ Flores noted on FNF last night that he will be in, erm, action on the August 15 Jones-Lacy PPV. Try to contain your excitement, everyone.
• HBO currently has a poll up asking what the deepest division in boxing is, and they include both featherweight and middleweight, which aren't even close. Missing is super middleweight, probably the best division in the sport right now, but since HBO features none of those fighters, it doesn't exist. Thanks to HBO's ridiculous propaganda, welterweight is winning with a robust 76% of the vote.

Victor Ortiz looks to continue his climb up the 140-pound ranks against Marcos Maidana tonight on HBO.

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Neither of this weekend's fights being offered on major American TV are really big enough to go into our running picks competition, but both are more than worth discussion.

First off, Showtime will bring us a middleweight title fight on tape delay from Germany. IBF titlist Arthur Abraham is considered by some to be the world's top 160-pound fighter, not world champion Kelly Pavlik, and he faces yet another fairly soft touch when he takes on unknown Mahir Oral. The fight is live at 3 ET, but Showtime won't have it on our TVs until nine, so no spoilers tomorrow.

As much as I like and respect Abraham, and feel he's a tremendous fighter with some good wins, fights like this one and his last with Lajuan Simon are really no better than what Universum does with Felix Sturm. If Sturm is going to get the business for it, so should King Arthur, who likely will fight Giovanni Lorenzo next. I'm also not taking a shot at Abraham, but it appears more often that Sturm and Pavlik get grief for their competition, while Abraham rarely takes any guff whatsoever. They're all doing more or less the same thing: Dominating an empty division on their own terms and not fighting each other. If Pavlik-Sturm goes forward (tentatively scheduled for October 3, and not even close to a sure thing), I'll be pleasantly shocked.

If you've never seen Oral, here's the final part of his last fight, a win over Alexander Sipos:

It's not that I'm claiming to be a scout or anything, but watching this entire fight from last November, I see nothing about Oral that will give Abraham real trouble. Arthur will plod, play defense, and strike when he needs to. I don't know that he'll stop him, because some nights Abraham just doesn't ever go into a stopping gear, but he'll beat him convincingly.

On HBO at 10pm, Victor Ortiz matches up with dangerous Marcos Maidana. Maidana's a really good puncher, and his KO rate attests to that. He gave titlist Andriy Kotelnik (Ortiz's original opponent) all he could handle his last time out:

If you look at how Maidana fights and compare it to Ortiz, you can see trouble ahead for either man. Ortiz is a golden child sort of prospect, and a loss to Maidana would short-term ruin future plans that Golden Boy and HBO have for him. But I think he's probably just too fast for Maidana, and as aloof and surfer dude-ish as Ortiz is in interviews, he's a nasty finisher that knows how to go in for the kill. I don't see this one making it to the cards.

The Top Rank PPV from Atlantic City is headlined by Juan Manuel Lopez, who ought to flat-out demolish Olivier Lontchi. The best fight of that show might be Vanes Martirosyan versus Andrey Tsurkan, which should be your usual Tsurkan fight where Andrey shows lots of heart and guts but is seriously out of his league. That's $40 I'm keeping in my wallet. Yuri Foreman-Cornelius Bundrage might require viewers to set their alarm clocks for roughly 45 minutes after the first bell. Actually, if Jorge Arce is as shot as he's looked, his fight with Fernando Lumacad might turn into a war.

Elsewhere On Saturday: Jorge Linares returns against Josafat Perez ... Daud Yordan, who impressed many in his too-short no-contest against Robert Guerrero, fights in Indonesia ... Craig McEwan is on the untelevised HBO undercard, as is prospect Adrien Broner, who faces Willie Kickett.

Ivan "Iron Boy" Calderon remains No. 1 in the division, but his time may be running out. (Photo by Ryan Knapp)

View full size photo uploaded June 26, 2009

Let's go from talking heavyweights to talking some of the littlest guys in the sport. The 108-pound division gets very little publicity, but features some great competition and is one of the best of the "really small" divisions. I've said before I'm a guy that thinks the lowest weight in professional boxing should be flyweight (112 lbs.) and that if you can't fight at 112, find a new job, and I still feel that way, but it's not like I ignore that 108 is a hell of a division as it stands.

1. Ivan Calderon (32-0-1, 6 KO, Ring Magazine World Champion)

Calderon is arguable as his generation's best technician, even counting the more famous, richer, more highly-regarded Floyd Mayweather Jr., who would probably cry for a week if he woke up one morning with Calderon's bank account. He is a deserving Hall of Famer-to-be, one of the all-time greatest 105-pound fighters who has fought good competition since moving up to 108, but is now on the edge of danger. For one thing, he's 34 years old, which is pushing it for a guy this size. Punch is the last thing to go for a fighter, and Calderon has always been less than feather-fisted. If his reflexes slow, he loses a lot of what's made him so great over the last eight years., and he's a chronic bad bleeder now, having had his last two fights stopped early. He beat Hugo Cazares in their rematch by technical decision after seven rounds, and drew with Rodel Mayol last time out after the fight was stopped following the sixth round. I think he has to lose to be replaced as No. 1, or show a serious decline, but he's not too far off. There are good fighters nipping at his heels in this division. He's not as dominant as he used to be.

2. Edgar Sosa (36-5, 20 KO)

Sosa has long defended the WBC 108-pound title, now working on a streak of nine straight successful defenses of the strap since winning it against Brian Viloria in 2007 when the belt was vacant. Sosa has five losses, but there are two things about that: (1) He hasn't lost since 2003, and (2) He has never lost to a anything less than a good fighter, the worst of the lot being Isaac Bustos. His other losses have come to Ulises Solis (twice), Omar Nino and Manuel Vargas, who is still a solid contender at 105 pounds. You can make a decent argument that he should be ranked No. 1 in the division, and he'd be as good a bet as anyone to take Calderon's "0."

3. Brian Viloria (25-2, 15 KO)

Viloria stormed back into relevance with his grueling, Fight of the Year contender victory over Ulises Solis in April. He showed heart, firepower, and a determination that just hadn't been there when he'd fought other type guys in the past, leading most of us to believe he was a "never over the hump" fighter. But he got over that hump in a big way, and even though Sosa says he isn't that interested in fighting Calderon or Viloria, those are the fights to make in this division. He's won six in a row since a rough three-fight streak against Sosa and Omar Nino, and though most of those fights meant little, the Solis win was both an upset and a vindicator.

4. Ulises Solis (28-2-2, 20 KO)

Solis didn't lose a whole lot of standing with his loss to Viloria. He fought well, he just wound up outgunned. Prior to that he hadn't lost since 2004. At 27, he's actually the youngest of the top four (Viloria is 28). Prior to his loss he was a back end P4P top 20 guy for me, and again, I don't drop him too much. He's an exciting, active fighter, and before Viloria was on a Pacquiao-in-reverse run of taking out Filipino fighters, including Glenn Donaire, Rodel Mayol and Bert Batawang.

5. Giovanni Segura (20-1-1, 16 KO)

Segura's 2008 war with Cesar Canchila saw both men sit out from July 26 until March 14 of this year when Segura avenged his defeat with a controversial fourth round stoppage. While I agreed with the decision for Canchila last year and had problems with the rematch's finish, their first fight was tight enough that right now I rank Segura that hair higher than Canchila. Segura is scheduled to take on Filipino contender Sonny Boy Jaro (30-7-5, 19 KO) on July 25 in Mexico.

6. Cesar Canchila (27-2, 21 KO)

Here's the hair. 5/6 could be switched easily, too. Canchila has nothing on the horizon but probably would love to get a rubber match with Segura.

7. Omar Nino (28-3-1, 11 KO)

Nino turned pro in 1995, when he was just 19 years old, and now at 33 may be seeing his career wind down. There aren't a lot of truly old fighters in these weight classes. He dominated Juanito Rubillar in his last fight, winning all eight rounds before a bad cut sent it to the cards. He had lost a close fight to Rubillar in 2008, which was a comeback from two straight wins over Viloria, the latter changed to a no contest when Nino failed his post-fight drug test. He also beat Edgar Sosa back in 2002, when Sosa was just 11-2.

8. Juanito Rubillar (46-12-7, 22 KO)

Rubillar has lost two in a row, but they were to Nino and Sosa. He's also got losses to Jorge Arce (twice), Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, Wandee Singwancha and Medgoen Singsurat. Like a lot of guys in the smallest classes, he's got a rather empty record, but when you see him fight, you know he can fight.

9. Rodel Mayol (25-3-1, 19 KO)

Mayol's losses have come to Eagle Den Junlaphan, Adrian Hernandez and Ulises Solis, and he just drew Calderon, which makes him the guy that took the spotlessness from Calderon's record, if not the "0." He's a strong, tough fighter that seemed to be gathering some real steam on Calderon, and if that had gone a few more rounds who knows?

10. Juan Carlos Reveco (20-1, 11 KO)

The 25-year old Argentinian has won three straight since dropping his strap to Brahim Asloum in 2007. The Asloum fight -- which took place in France -- is also his only fight outside of his native country.

You Coulda Been a Contender...

Brahim Asloum (24-2, 10 KO) won the WBA title from Reveco in December 2007, and sat out until April of this year. Apparently he still holds the WBA title (in some way or another, but he's fought just once at 108 pounds in his career, and his ring return was back at 112, where he's done most of his fighting. He started off as a bantamweight (118 lbs.).

More notables to look up on YouTube: Sonny Boy Jaro, Adrian Hernandez, Munetsugu Kayo, Kompayak Porpramook, Jhonreil Casimero (19 year old Filipino, 13-0 with 7 KO)