- Fernando Montiel had no trouble with fringe contender Luis Maldonado on Saturday in Mexico, scoring a third round TKO to retain his WBO 115-pound title. In a perfect world, this would set up a showdown between Montiel (37-2-1, 28 KO) and WBC/WBA unified titlist Cristian Mijares (35-3-2, 14 KO). It's one of those fights in boxing where you have a very obvious 1-2 in a division, and there's absolutely no reason whatsoever for this fight to NOT be made. There's nothing they can do otherwise that's going to garner them more money. Dan Rafael suggests in this week's scorecard that Versus, if they are serious about improving their boxing coverage, should be the network to make offers for good, affordable fights like this one. That would make perfect sense.
- In more disturbing results from Mexico, faded/beaten up/worn out/danger to himself warrior Oscar Larios won a 126-pound interim title with a TKO over Feider Viloria. Larios, of course, suffered a brain bleed in a brutal loss to Jorge Linares -- who happens to be the full titleholder of the WBC's featherweight division. That means that the WBC will attempt to force Linares to fight the 31-year old Larios (who has the body and reflexes of a much older man at this point after years of battles) again, which is A) absolutely pointless if you saw their first bout, and B) completely irresponsible by the sanctioning body and by Mexico's "boxing officials" who are letting Larios fight at such a massive hazard to his own health to begin with. He's suspended in Nevada, which would make it nearly impossible to fight in the States. If Linares-Larios II happens, the best we can do is pray that Larios doesn't get seriously hurt. Or worse. That might sound sensationalistic, but it's the truth.
- Yahoo! has a rather unscientific poll up right now, but the leader for "Which fight are you most interested in watching?" is currently Pavlik-Lockett at 46% of the total vote. Forrest-Mora is at 28%, with Quintana-Williams II at 27%. That probably does say something about the success of "The Contender," since half of the show's audience probably doesn't know who Kelly Pavlik is. That might also seem sensationalistic, but I also feel that's likely true. Or close to it. No love for Ponce de Leon-Lopez, the diehard's gotta-see fight this weekend.
- Kevin Iole is, perhaps, smoking some pretty powerful stuff over at Yahoo!, also. In his latest article, he claims that Vernon Forrest seems "a cinch" for the Hall of Fame when he retires. Part of me wants to hold back; the other part of me wonders what in the hell Iole thinks Forrest has done that warrants inclusion into the Hall of Fame past two wins over Shane Mosley, which were great wins to be sure. He lost his spot on P4P lists as soon as he got it, falling twice to Ricardo freaking Mayorga, of all people. And since then what's he done? Beaten Baldomir and Piccirillo? Been injured? Been given a massive gift against Ike Quarter in arguably 2006's robbery of the year? Pretty gutsy call, Kevbo. Pretty questionable, too. Maybe he's working for Showtime. Does Tarver make it, too? I'm a Forrest fan, but I find the idea of him making the Hall of Fame a little bit preposterous.
- For those that might have somehow missed it, don't fret, because Paulie Malignaggi will be ready to fight Ricky Hatton this fall. That's a fight I was looking forward to a lot more prior to May 24.
- Did You Know? Juan Diaz goes to college! Awww! I'm honestly starting to get sick of hearing about him and school.
- There's a wonderful article over at Seconds Out by Thomas Hauser that details HBO, their business model, and some of the concern about their product. Choice quote: "There’s something very wrong with the economic model at HBO Sports when the network pays a $2,850,000 license fee for Hatton-Urango and Versus pays roughly five percent of that amount for a doubleheader pairing Hatton-Lazcano with Malignaggi-N’dou."
- Y'know what fight I'd love to see? Mosley-Clottey. Screw Judah. I realize there's not enough money in it and too risky of a tough opponent for Sugar Shane from a business standpoint, but what's Judah done? At least Clottey's earned the right to fight for a vacant title.
- Let's talk welterweights for a second, because it's got some fascinating stuff based on scenarios. If Cotto beats Margarito and Floyd predictably outboxes Oscar again, then I firmly believe we will see Mayweather-Cotto next year. But what if we don't? Then you talk about Cotto-Mosley II, right? Maybe Shane chases Floyd, as Floyd might be more comfortable with an old Mosley than a young, vicious Cotto, not that I think it'd be a much easier fight for Floyd. What if Margarito beats Cotto? Margarito-Mosley? We know Floyd isn't going to fight Margarito. Margarito-Cotto II? Sure, since the fight will probably be great and Top Rank gets to keep all the money there. Then there's Quintana and Williams. Should Quintana win again, maybe he matches up with Shane. If Williams wins, maybe he gets back to wanting to fight Mosley. Maybe the unify with the Cotto-Margarito winner. Then there's Clottey and Judah. There are so many things happening in that division in the next couple of months.