Canelo Alvarez, who faces Shane Mosley in the main undercard bout of the Mayweather vs Cotto show on May 5, says he has an agreement in place to face the winner of the main event, but that he doesn't expect it will happen until 2013.

From notifight.com, via BoxingScene.com:

"The condition to fight in a preliminary [position to] Mayweather - is that I would face whoever wins. If Mayweather wins, [the fight] won't happen until next year because he only fights once per year and he has to go to jail for three months, so it wouldn't happen until 2013," Canelo said.

"I placed that condition in and I have every intention to follow through on this. I initially didn't want appear as a co-star. I preferred to fight on another day and another place. I was told that Mayweather also wants to fight with me and that I would be next, so we agreed to [be the co-feature]."

So let me put this in bold, underlined, and italicized letters so we all get this over with right now:

FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR AND MANNY PACQUIAO ARE NOT GOING TO FIGHT IN NOVEMBER. PLEASE REMEMBER THIS FOR THE COMING MONTHS. NOBODY IS REALLY PLANNING ON THAT FIGHT HAPPENING.

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Mexican boxing superstar Juan Manuel Marquez says he has plants to retire from the ring at the end of 2012, with or without a fourth fight against Manny Pacquiao -- but he's definitely hoping to take one final shot at his Filipino rival.

From Ernesto Castellanos and Miguel Rivera:

"My plans are already set. This is my last year in boxing, and if the fight with Pacquiao gets done, the that's great, but I will not wait around until he chooses to do it. If we fight, fine. Otherwise, my retirement has already been decided."

It's a logical stance from a veteran fighter who realizes his age and doesn't want to go forever. In other words, it's a fairly unusual stance -- at least for now, anyway, as boxing retirement talk comes and goes with the changing of the seasons.

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James Foley returns to Bad Left Hook tonight with a look at where the sweet science stands in the American sports culture.

Boxing entered 2012 somewhere behind golf, auto racing and poker (gasp!) on the American sports hierarchy. Okay, poker's not really a sport (neither are the other two), but the point is, the sweet science has seen better days. Once upon a time, the heavyweight champion of the world was the most famous athlete on the planet. Now it's "some dude from somewhere who I think was dating that chick from Heroes."

Anyone go into work on December 12th and catch the buzz from that fabulous Amir Khan-Lamont Peterson fight? Me neither. If you asked the crowd whether they'd seen it, you'd likely have been greeted with uncomfortable silence and a few awkward stares. "What is that, some UFC thing...? Nah, I don't watch that crap." "No, it's boxing." "Oh....well, I don't watch that either."

(Note-the dated reference to the Khan fight belies the fact that I started working on this two months ago. Relax.)

More people in the U.S. have heard of the 200th best guy in the National Football League than the 3rd best fighter in the world. Kris Humphries is a better known athlete than Andre Ward. And by the way, that was true before Mr. Humphries had anything to do with the lovely Ms. Kardashian and her sumptuous rump. Boxing is a niche sport, followed avidly by just a tiny fraction of the population. So-called major fights are being watched by well under 1% of the country. As boxing fans, we're all 1%ers baby! Unfortunately, we're not powerful enough to warrant protests...well, until the day society decides to outlaw this brutal pastime.

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Corey Erdman reports this evening that a big Brazilian clash between Michael Oliveira and Acelino "Popo" Freitas is looking very likely for a May 19 date in Rio De Janeiro, with a custom outdoor venue possible.

Oliveira (17-0, 12 KO) and Freitas (38-2, 32 KO) have been talking about a domestic clash for a while now, and it might mean something to casual Brazilian fans, but in the real boxing world, this fight is a farce and an absurdity. Let us count the reasons why.

Michael Oliveira is a middleweight. Acelino Freitas was, at his best, a super featherweight, and retired as a lightweight in 2007.

Acelino Freitas retired in 2007. Just in case that didn't stick a second ago. And Freitas was really never himself after his 2004 TKO-10 loss to Diego Corrales. It's been almost a decade since he was considered in his prime.

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Marcos Maidana's manager Sebastian Contursi has asked the Missouri State Athletic Commission to include post-fight drug testing as part of Maidana's February 25 bout against Devon Alexander, and Alexander's team had no qualms with accepting the stipulation, reports BoxingScene.com's Osman Rodriguez.

Maidana (31-2, 28 KO) is going on the road to face Alexander (22-1, 13 KO) at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, the hometown of Alexander. In his past two fights against Andriy Kotelnik and Lucas Matthysse, Alexander received some questionably favorable judging and came out on the better end of both fights.

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Last year, Britain's 3 best middleweights all fought for world titles, Matthew Macklin and Martin Murray fought for Felix Sturm's WBA Super version of the title and Darren Barker matched up against Sergio Martinez for the WBC Diamond and The Ring titles. While Darren Barker gave Martinez a good fight, he was outclassed by the Argentine Middleweight king. As for Macklin and Murray, both their outcomes can be debated, with them both putting on fight-winning performances only to see Sturm go home with his belt still around his waist.

So what I'm asking is whether the British middleweights do have the class to be world champions or whether they will forever be lingering in the gap between being to good for domestic and European glory but not quite there in terms of being top class, world level fighters?

Only a handful of fighters have shared the ring with both Floyd Mayweather Jr and Miguel Cotto. One of those men is Shane Mosley, who will feature on the undercard against young Mexican titleholder Canelo Alvarez. And he tells BoxingScene.com that Mayweather had better be ready for a fight when he faces Cotto on May 5:

"Cotto is no slouch as well. Cotto can fight as well, and Mayweather better take him very seriously. It's a great fight. Floyd has the better boxing skills, but Cotto is no slouch. If you take Cotto for granted, then something else can happen and he could be the victor of that fight. I think that matchup is a great matchup. I think it’s a great fight."

Mayweather (42-0, 26 KO) and Cotto (37-2, 30 KO) will fight at the 154-pound limit on May 5, for Cotto's WBA "super" title. It will be just the second time that Mayweather, who turns 35 on February 24, has fought beyond the welterweight division.

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