- The biggest "breaking" news of the morning comes from Australia, where a satellite press conference will be held later today to announce a fight between Roy Jones Jr. and Danny Green. I guess the idea must be to go forward with it no matter what Jones does against Jeff Lacy in August, because as mediocre as Lacy is, Jones is no peach himself. Of the three, I will say that I definitely feel Green is the best, and that realistically he's one of the top light heavyweights in the sport. And I still feel Antonio Tarver jerked Green around in 2007 because he just plain didn't want to fight him, as Green was a legit opponent.
- Cliff Rold wrote an article about the Pacquiao-Cotto-Mosley catchweight business that essentially echoes what I was saying yesterday: Having Cotto or Mosley boil down almost guarantees a weaker fight than one with a 147-pound limit.
- The WBA heavyweight title (or some approximation thereof) may in fact be on the line on Saturday when IBF/WBO/IBO titleholder Wladimir Klitschko faces WBA titleholder??? Ruslan Chagaev. Most importantly the Ring Magazine world championship is on the line. Klitschko is calling it his biggest fight. Take note, Floyd: When you make the other guy sound good, you sound good, too.
- Tim Starks of The Queensbury Rules has a post about must-have rematches floating around in the sport. I agree with all of his picks, particularly Donaire-Darchinyan II. Someone needs to start up some sort of grassroots campaign about that. I know Gary Shaw is still all mad about Donaire, but Darchinyan wants it and so does everyone that cares about Darchinyan fights.
- Steve Cofield says the Tim Sylvia loss to Ray Mercer is a big deal. He also links to BLH, and I thank him for that, but he makes it sound like I'm saying, "Eh, Sylvia was out of shape, so big whoopty doo." That isn't the case. I'm not saying it's "not a big deal," I'm saying the fight itself proves nothing about anyone other than Tim Sylvia probably shouldn't look into pro boxing and probably should start taking training seriously no matter who he fights. But I don't think it means anything in an "MMA versus boxing" sense and that's all I said. Then again I don't really think "MMA versus boxing" actually exists, so whatever. But sure, it's a big deal for Sylvia's career, which is now more or less dead in the water as he has been pulled from the August Affliction show, where he was to fight Paul Buentello. Probably a good idea by the promotion. Sylvia's goods are so damaged right now that nobody wins putting him on that show.
- Actually, let me continue with the Sylvia-Mercer thoughts. ESPN's MMA blogger, Jake Rossen, ran with the headline "Ray Mercer beats Tim Sylvia; boxing's death rattle delayed," and then called out boxing promoters with "inferiority complexes" about MMA, saying they'll be reveling in this. Here's the thing: Nobody gave a damn about the Sylvia-Mercer fight except MMA folks that were interested in what Sylvia was up to, and guys like me who are ridiculous weirdos. I really doubt Bob Arum had Mercer-Sylvia on his radar. This fight was a disaster. The fact that it resulted in something highly YouTubeable is meaningless. There are surely numbskulls out there that love boxing and hate MMA and think this mattered, but anyone rational couldn't really care less other than the outcome was memorable. Boxing isn't dead or dying, MMA still has room to grow, and neither Ray Mercer nor Tim Sylvia are likely to play vital roles in the future of either sport. Period. The idea that this fight "meant something" is melodramatic. It was a fat guy that didn't give a crap against an old guy that kinda did and can still throw a punch.
- If you like Fernando Guerrero as much as I do, you can watch him fight online for $4.95 this Friday. I mean, I'm not gonna order it, but maybe you want to.
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