If we can manage it, we'll bring you live, round-by-round coverage and scoring of the WBC cruiserweight title fight in Germany today between Giacobbe Fragomeni and former long-reigning light heavyweight titlist and lineal champion Zsolt Erdei. The show goes live in Germany at 5:15 ET. There are simply no guarantees whatsoever with this one, but we're going to do our best.

GIACOBBE FRAGOMENI		ZSOLT ERDEI
	Main Event

Marvin Sonsona missed weight for his 115-pound title defense tonight in Rama, Ontario. His WBO title is now vacant.

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Filipino wunderkind Marvin Sonsona missed weight this morning in Rama, Ontario, meaning his fight tonight against Alejandro Hernandez will be non-title. Sonsona has vacated the WBO 115-pound title, but the strap will be up for grabs for Hernandez to win.

Sonsona weighed in at 117.6 pounds. At 19, he's just not going to be able to cut to 115 anymore. He's still maturing, his body is still changing, and apparently he's grown three centimeters of late. His promoter Allan Tremblay says Sonsona will skip bantamweight and go straight to the 122-pound division.

"He's a young guy exploding into a man," Tremblay said after Saturday's weigh-in.

Even after giving up solid food mid-week Sonsona couldn't slim down any further. When a Friday night workout only got him to 117, Tremblay decided to forfeit the title rather than try something drastic to make weight.

"He could have drained himself down to 115, but after six rounds he would have been a depleted fighter," he said, noting the danger in sending a dehydrated fighter into the ring. "Why kill him? Why take a possible loss when we have another plan for him anyway?"

I know what he's saying, but it sort of stings to read, "Hey, why make weight? Why bother making weight? We'll just give up this meaningless belt and fight anyway with an advantage. Big whoop, y'know? Besides, we have other plans."

But when all is said and done, it's not unexpected. Sonsona was reportedly having some trouble making the weight, and staying at the weight wasn't in their plans. They knew they were moving up, and soon. It's just coming a little quicker and with a bit of a hiccup.

Andre Ward is looking to break through into the elite ranks of the sport tonight against Mikkel Kessler. (Photo via Goossen Tutor)

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Tonight in Oakland, a star could be born. Or, if things don't go the young man's way, well, a star could be born later.

Andre Ward has the pedigree. He won an Olympic gold medal in Athens back in 2004, and turned pro in December of that year with a second round stoppage of Chris Molina. Since then, the pacing of Ward's rise has been called deliberate and even slow, something he contends isn't the case. Worth taking into account is a knee injury that surfaced when he started stepping up from the bums to the gatekeepers.

The gatekeepers have really been his main targets. To hear Ward tell it, everyone's been a tough fight, and everyone has taken him lightly, then been surprised by his full package of skills. Ward (20-0, 13 KO) will take a massive step up in class tonight, and even with home field advantage, he might be biting off more than he can chew.

Then again, let's look at what Mikkel Kessler has done lately. Kessler (42-1, 32 KO) is the world's best super middleweight, at least in my opinion. When he fought Joe Calzaghe in November 2007, he was clearly beaten, but gave Calzaghe one of the tougher fights of the Welshman's career. He came into that fight considered the world's No. 2 at 168 pounds, and I felt he left without losing that standing. Yes, Calzaghe was better than him -- but only Calzaghe was better than him.

Since losing to Calzaghe, Kessler hasn't exactly been on a notable tear. Sure, he's wasted the competition, but the competition has been iffy. A promotional dispute with Mogens Palle led Kessler to signing with Sauerland Event of Germany earlier this year. Dimitri Sartison, Danilo Haussler and Gusmyr Perdomo may not be the best of the best, but like Ward has done with his middling opposition, he's done with them as he should have: Blown them out.

Kessler has been called "overrated" by a few people, but I don't see it. When you watch him fight, you can see where his record and his standing comes from. His jab is powerful, sharp and accurate, among the best in the sport. He isn't a tricky fighter by any means; in some ways he's like a superior Kelly Pavlik. Simple, basic, and extremely effective. He's tough to rattle, partially because to get at him, you're going to have to get past that nasty jab of his.

In terms of overall "skills," Ward probably is the better man. He's quick with his hands and on his feet. He's got solid power, if not great power; certainly enough to keep opponents respecting him. Ward also has a wrinkle in his game, as he switches from his conventional stance over to southpaw frequently, and pulls that off with pretty much unrivaled success. The power he generates when using his left as his money hand probably trumps what he does fighting orthodox.

What most concerns me for Ward is simple: Mikkel Kessler is really, really good, and Andre Ward has not yet faced a really good professional fighter. The best scalp on his record is Edison Miranda's, and if any fighter has been living off of one trick for a while now, it's Miranda. (Miranda, coincidentally, is now a stablemate of Ward's with Goossen Tutor Promotions.) The rest of the names are what we were talking about before, pure gatekeepers. Guys like Shelby Pudwill, Esteban Camou, Jerson Ravelo, Rubin Williams and "Sugar Poo" Buchanan aren't bad fighters, necessarily, but they come nowhere near Kessler's class.

Bottom line on the potential outcomes of this fight is that if Ward pulls off the upset tonight, he shoots right up near the top of this division. Should he win, he will do so because his pure ability is simply too much for Kessler to overcome, which was in some ways the case for Kessler against Calzaghe. Kessler is by no means unbeatable. A superior athlete with tricks up his sleeve (like Calzaghe) can outpoint him. Should Ward do it, it will mean he's got skills that are more advanced than I'm thinking they are at this point.

These two may well meet again later on in the tournament. Even if Ward loses tonight as I expect, a second chance might not go so well for Kessler. Kessler, at 30, is as good as he's getting. Ward, 25, has the type of upside that could take him from good fighter to elite fighter in a flash if he finds that spark.

I don't see the spark coming tonight, though. I'm taking Kessler by decision.

Shane Mosley won't "chase" fights with Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather Jr. next year. He feels he's done enough to let them known he's ready to fight. (Photo by Al Bello / Getty Images)

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Shane Mosley told BoxingScene.com that he won't chase after fights with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and/or Manny Pacquiao in 2010, feeling he's made it more than clear he's ready to fight either man.

"I want to fight Mayweather but I want to fight anybody who wants to get in the ring with me. I'm not going to chase anybody. I'm not going to chase Mayweather and I'm not going to chase Pacquiao. I already said what I said and I already did what I had to do to as far as telling them that I want to fight them. It's up to them now to step up and say 'I want to fight you' and I'll make it happen," Mosley said.

You really can't say Mosley is fronting the way some fighters do. He had a fight lined up with Joshua Clottey that HBO fudged up, and when that happened, he made one happen with Andre Berto, an unbeaten young titleholder.

As for Pacquiao's win over Cotto, he still feels that he (Mosley) is the best welterweight out there:

"If Pacquiao wanted to fight the number one welterweight, he would have fought me first - he wouldn't have fought Cotto."

I know he needs to say these things, but it's pretty easy to have made a case for Cotto being ahead of Mosley, considering when they fought in the not-too-distant past, Cotto beat Mosley.

He also weighed in on Antonio Margarito's potential return to boxing. I know it seems like we've been talking about this a lot lately, but there's are reasons for that. Miguel Cotto just fought, and that fight will always come to mind when Cotto fights, plus Margarito's team spoke on his behalf about a rematch next year. Also, with welterweight being as hot as it is right now, a Margarito return shakes things up (in theory anyway). And we're starting to barrel toward a reinstatement hearing in just a few short months.

Anyway, Mosley said nothing new, just repeated what he's said before:

"With Margarito, I think if anything they should get the coach, because the trainer is the one who put the stuff on his hands. I'm not saying he's innocent. I'm not going to say that he's innocent. He probably knew what was going on."

It always bothers me when people answer with something like this, because nobody's saying Capetillo should come back, either. In fact, the entire defense strategy was built around throwing Capetillo under the bus and making him out to be some sort of evil mastermind that took the career of Antonio Margarito and attempted to flush it down the toilet with underhanded tactics the fighter knew nothing about. For all intents and purposes, it seemed to me like they tried to excuse Margarito based on ignorance of the events, and get Capetillo banned for life. It makes sense, since there's money to be made on Margarito and none on Capetillo, but this is not an "if anything" situation. It doesn't need to come down to just one. I doubt they're going to keep Margarito on the sidelines while Capetillo runs along merrily, loading fighters' handwraps in the shadows of the coliseum once again.

With Zsolt Erdei moving up in weight tomorrow, he has vacated the WBO light heavyweight title. Juergen Braehmer (pictured) is now the full titleholder. (Photo via www.boxing.de)

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Rumble at Rama X - Marvin Sonsona vs Alejandro Hernandez Preview (The Boxing Bulletin)
Andrew Fruman previews Saturday night's 115-pound title matchup between Marvin Sonsona and Alejandro Hernandez. Andrew will be giving some live updates from ringside tomorrow night. If you're yet unfamiliar with the phenom Sonsona, you can watch his last fight with Jose "Carita" Lopez here.

Q&A: Zsolt Erdei (Fightnews)
Zsolt Erdei challenges Giacobbe Fragomeni tomorrow for the WBC cruiserweight title. Erdei is undefeated and has held the WBO light heavyweight title since 2004. He's vacated the belt, and is going into tomorrow's fight with a black eye suffered in sparring.

Barrios va por el título ante Lozada en el Lawn Tennis (Agencia NOVA)
Story's in Spanish obviously. Jorge Barrios returns to action against Michael Lozada in Argentina. Barrios talked a lot earlier this year about fighting Edwin Valero, then pulled out of the Lightweight Lightning show, and now he's talking a lot about fighting Edwin Valero, which probably still won't happen.

¡González viajó con seguridad a Argentina! (NotiFight)
Also in Spanish, and also in Argentina. Marcos Maidana will defend his interim 140-pound title against William Gonzalez. Different card from the Barrios fight. Big weekend for Argentinian boxing.

Sadinas de Tuxtla - An Anecdote About the Sosa-Mayol Weigh-In (PhilBoxing.com)
108-pound titlist Edgar Sosa makes another defense of his crown, against Rodel Mayol. Mayol drew and lost to Ivan Calderon in two truncated fights this year. This article tells a tale of Mayol's frustrating experience with the weigh-in in Mexico.

Juergen Braehmer named full WBO light heavyweight titlist (Boxing.de)
With Erdei's move up, stablemate Juergen Braehmer moves into his spot as WBO titlist. Erdei's vacating of the belt also means that his argument as lineal champion is dead and gone, which is kind of a relief, really.

Karim Mayfield: "This Time, I Will Make It More Decisive" (FightHype)
Welterweight prospect Karim Mayfield (10-0-1, 6 KO) rematches Francisco Santana (11-1, 5 KO) on the Kessler-Ward undercard in Oakland. Mayfield beat Santana via split decision in March 2008.

Vazquez Jr. Stops Genaro Garcia; Title Fight Within Reach (Boxing Scene)
Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. won a seventh round TKO over veteran Genaro Garcia in Florida. Jake Donovan reports.

Humberto Soto meets Jesus Chavez in the Top Rank pay-per-view co-feature on December 19. (Photo by Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

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Top Rank is putting together a full PPV lineup for December 19 that might not make you want to shell out 40 bucks, but isn't for a lack of trying to get some interesting names out there.

We all know that the night's main event from Youngstown, Ohio, will pit middleweight world champion Kelly Pavlik against Miguel Espino, a fight that has not been well-received by fans or media at all, really. The show's main co-feature will main event the Mexico part of the card, as Humberto Soto moves up to lightweight to take on former titlist Jesus Chavez.

Soto calls Chavez "very dangerous," but I don't see that claim going over so hot, either. Jesus Chavez was a hell of a fighter in his prime, but he's not in his prime anymore. The 37-year-old Chavez has already lost fights to Michael Katsidis (Chavez quit on his stool) and David Diaz this year. Diaz had been out of action for over a year. Honestly, and I always hate even bringing it up, Chavez has not been the same since the Leavander Johnson incident, and that was over four years ago. He's also had a bad knee injury that has taken a lot out of him. Soto is the one going up in weight, but Chavez is just a name. He's not a legit contender anymore.

The best fight on the card might be interim WBA bantamweight titleholder Nehomar Cermeno defending against Alejandro Valdez. Valdez was involved in a very controversial fight with Fernando Montiel earlier this year, which it initially appeared he had won. That would've been a strong contender for Upset of the Year, but the fight was changed to a technical draw.

Also appearing on the card will be Jose Luis Castillo, who just helped Manny Pacquiao in training camp, and unbeaten flyweight prospect Hernan "Tyson" Marquez.

European junior featherweight titleholder Rendall Munroe overcame something of a slow start to outpoint Italian challenger Simone Maludrottu in a terrific fight today in Nottingham. Munroe won on scores of 116-112, 116-112 and 115-113. Bad Left Hook scored the fight a 114-114 draw.

Munroe's victory not only allows him to retain his title, but gives him the right to a shot at WBC titlist Toshiaki Nishioka. After the fight, Munroe said he was ready for the title shot immediately. The 29-year-old bin man by day from Leicester would be a pretty wide underdog against Nishioka, who has not lost a fight since 2004.

Munroe (20-1, 8 KO) used relentless pressure and his size and in-ring weight advantage to pull out the victory. Neither man was particularly accurate, but both threw tons of punches and showed no stamina issues. Munroe turned the fight around after six rounds, after which I had him trailing 58-56.

It was then that he began constantly pressing Maludrottu (30-3, 11 KO) into the ropes, throwing punches in bunches, and getting rises out of the Nottingham crowd. It was the strategy he would use for the rest of the fight, and what gave him the win.

Maludrottu, 31, used effective activity and some nice counter-punching to stay in the fight, but he had a rough spell between the 8th and 10th rounds especially. In the final two rounds, I felt he came back fairly strong to tie things up at six rounds apiece, but he fell short of that on the official cards.

Maludrotto and Munroe both put all they had into what turned out to be a highly entertaining affair. There were almost no clinches, even though they fought the majority of the bout with their shoulders pressed into one another. The pace was brisk starting in the latter half of the first round, and neither used jabs effectively at all. Munroe targeted the body, while Maludrottu tried to work upstairs on Munroe.

Munroe might well do everything he can to get the Nishioka fight first, but he could really stand to take something else first, I think. He's a really likable guy and certainly came to fight today, and he showed an ability to adjust mid-fight that wound up making the difference. But Nishioka is on a different level than Maludrottu. Maludrottu showed no snap on his punches, only once rocking Munroe's head back noticeably. Nishioka would have capitalized on some of those times that Munroe left himself wide open tonight, because Maludrottu actually did capitalize on them, he just wasn't a strong enough puncher to make anything happen.

All in all, though, the focus should be on a terrific effort from both. They put on a hell of a show, and this will be a contender for Fight of the Month.

6:23 PM Update: Kessler weighed in at 167 pounds, and Ward at 166 1/2. Both looked to be in good shape. Waldo will have more from the weigh-in later.

Where's Waldo? He's in Oakland. Waldo Rastel (better known to many of you as waldo47) is on the scene today for the official weigh-in for tomorrow night's Super Six tournament fight between WBA super middleweight titlist Mikkel Kessler and unbeaten American and former Olympic gold medalist Andre Ward.

Waldo covered the press conference a couple of days ago, and will have live updates again today in the comments section of this post, including the weights as they come in. The whole shebang is scheduled to start at 2pm local time in California, so 5pm ET. No word on whether or not there will be another high school cheerleading performance.

Don't forget that Bad Left Hook will also have live, round-by-round coverage and scoring tomorrow night starting at 10pm ET.

For an in-depth preview of this European junior featherweight title fight, check out our friends at The Boxing Bulletin.

Our live coverage will start at 4:30pm ET with round-by-round in the comments of this post, and real time analysis. If you have an SBN account, you won't need to refresh at all.

RENDALL MUNROE		SIMONE MALUDROTTU
	Main Event

Lately, there's been a lot of noise that Bob Arum is putting out feelers to have a Pacquiao-Mayweather superfight in a location other than Las Vegas.  He's already spoken to Jerry Jones about using the Dallas Cowboys' stadium.  There have been some quieter rumors about looking at Wembley Stadium in the UK.  But at the end of the day, the fight needs to be in Vegas, and it has nothing to do with the fight atmosphere.

Mayweather and Pacquiao are both in it for the money

Heck, Mayweather even goes by the name "Money" these days.  Pacquaio often comes across as being a bit more altruistic, but he cares about the dollars as well.  He threatened to put the kabosh on his fight with Ricky Hatton until Hatton agreed to a 50/50 split of UK revenues.   And whoever promotes the fight, the promoter surely stands more to gain by having the fight in the most profitable location rather than the most significant location.  To figure out where the fight would be held, you need to follow the green brick road.

You can charge exorbitant ticket prices in Vegas

One great thing about the Nevada State Athletic Commission is that they actually publish all of their live gates, so you know how much a fight has made just off the ticket sales.  The all-time high live gate was Mayweather-De La Hoya, which brought in over $18 million in ticket sales.  Mayweather-Hatton brought in over $10 million.  Pacquiao-Hatton and Pacquiao-Cotto both brought in about $8 million.  This means that Mayweather-De La Hoya was able to average over $1,000 per ticket.  Even the lowest of these, Pacquiao-Hatton, averaged about $575 per ticket.  Figure that a megafight of this magnitude would be somewhere in the middle, but probably closer to the record.  Splitting the baby, which I think is conservative, they would be able to sell 17,000 tickets at about $800 a pop.  That brings in $13.6 million in live gate alone.  Nowhere else in the world is there enough money just waiting to be spent that you can average a ticket price that high.

The casinos are willing to pay...

For the biggest fights, casinos are willing to pay massive site fees in order to retain a fight.  If you have a huge fight, tons of people (not just the people buying tickets) end up in the casino, and at the end of the day, the house wins more money than it spends from the extra gamblers.  Mayweather-Hoya was rumored to have a site fee in the $15 - $20 million range, although no official number was released.  Mayweather-Hatton had a $7 million site fee.  Even a dud like Hopkins-Calzaghe got an $8 million site fee from Planet Hollywood.  Conservatively, the site fee for a fight this big should be around $10 million, and it could be much larger than that.  That brings revenues from holding the fight in Vegas up to around $23.6 million, and possibly as high as around $35 million.

...and others aren't

Once upon a time, there were mysterious benefactors who wanted to pay for the biggest fights in order to bring publicity to their countries.  To host the Rumble in the Jungle, President Mobutu paid Don King a site fee of $10 million (about $35 million in 2009 dollars).  I just can't think of any benefactor who would be willing to come up with that kind of coin to have the fight hosted in their hometown.  Bob Arum's been talking for years about having a big fight in Dubai, but it would probably cost someone $30 million out of pocket to make it worth everyone's while to hold a fight over there.  With budget crunches everywhere, it's unlikely that anyone would be willing to pay a huge site fee unless they pretty much know they'll be getting the money back, like a casino.

The fight needs to be indoors

This one's pretty self-explanatory.  In the past, there have been major fights aired in temporary outdoor stadiums, but that just can't happen.  First, the liability is too great these days to have a large temporary stadium.  Second, if a fight gets rained out, everyone loses lots of money.  It wasn't such a big deal when fights were being aired on network TV - if there's a rainout on World Wide of Sports, they can just put the fight on next week's edition, and everyone's pretty happy.  But in a pay-per-view situation, a rescheduled fight would probably require months of remarketing to ensure that they do not lose massive sales.  This precludes a lot of otherwise attractive venues from being feasible. 

To make up the difference, you need a massive venue with high ticket prices

Even assuming that a fight at the MGM Grand would only generate $23.6 million, in order to make more money than in Vegas, you would need to sell out a 100,000 person stadium at an average price of $236 a ticket.  A 65,000 seat stadium would need to sell at an average price of $363 a ticket.  A 40,000 seat venue (i.e., a baseball stadium with a retractable roof) would need to sell at an average price of nearly $600 a ticket.  And to achieve as much upside as Vegas' potential, you'd need to increase those average ticket prices by 50%.  Outside of Vegas, where are you going to find enough people with that kind of money?  In addition, when looking at these averages, you need to keep in mind that you can't charge nearly as much for a majority of the seats in the venue, simply because tens of thousands of people aren't going to pay $300 for nosebleed seats. 

While holding the fight in a huge venue outside of Vegas is an intriguing idea, it's just not that feasible.  Without some deep pocket guaranteeing a lot of cash on the side, it's unlikely that a fight outside of Vegas could generate more revenue than a fight in Vegas.  And in this economy, I don't know if anyone's ego is that big.