In his latest blog, Dan Rafael discusses who Manny Pacquiao might fight next. In particular, he has been in contact with Arum, who thinks that Manny will fight in the fall regardless of how the elections go.  Rafael writes that Arum has his eye(s) on three possible opponents:

• Antonio Margarito, the disgraced former welterweight titlist who Arum anticipates will eventually get his license back after having it revoked for trying to fight Mosley with loaded hand wraps 14 months ago.

• Edwin Valero, the former lightweight titlist who is moving up to junior welterweight for his next fight. Valero, who has had licensing issues because of a past medical problem, is licensed in Texas, so maybe we'll see a return to Jerry Jones' Cowboys Stadium if that fight is made.

• Juan Manuel Marquez, the lightweight champ who would have to move up in weight. Marquez and Pacquiao have fought two memorable battles with Pacquiao going 1-0-1 in two terrific and close fights in which both decisions were highly controversial. If there is Pacquiao-Marquez III it would mean Top Rank would have to work with Golden Boy, Marquez's promoter, which is always a dicey proposition.

I think that any of these fights would probably do worse than the Clottey fight in terms of casual fan interest or PPV buys. Valero is not well-known enough and Marquez looks shot after Mayweather, or at the very least, he should not be fighting at welterweight.  I know that Arum loves to line his pockets, but this continual talk of Margarito sickens me.  He was caught cheating and his first fight back would be a reward-a huge payday with Manny?

How do you feel about these three names?  If fights with Floyd or Mosley can't, or won't happen, what other options are there for Manny?

Where is Yoshihiro Akiyama?  Is he injured? Taking time off?  He was in the fight of the night at UFC 100 and now he's MIA.  I have yet to hear of any plans for him on any future UFC cards (at least up until 114).  I know that there had been talk of him fighting Wanderlei, but obviously that's not happening at UFC 110.

I miss his intrinsic sexiness.

Thanks in advance for any information.

  Let me begin by saying that I am very excited for this fight.  However, I am surprised by the fact that some in the media, and on this site for that matter, fully expect Berto to beat Mosley.  To me one of the first questions is how will Mosley look?  He is not only a year older, but he has been inactive for that year.  Is he rusty?  Has his age caught up to him?  If these are both the case the night might be all Berto's. 

  However, if Shane still has his speed, power, and great chin (never been stopped), I don't see why Berto would be an easy pick.  Mosley will be, by far, the best opponent he has faced and Mosley outclassed Luis Collazo, who gave Berto everything he could handle in their fight.  Yet that fight, Mosley-Collazo, was three years ago, so the question of how much Shane has or hasn't deteriorated since then is on the table.

  For me another factor is how much more fine tuning trainer Nazeem Richardson can do for Mosley's boxing and strategy in their second fight together. To my own eye, Mosley looked especially sharp in there against Margarito and even his jab made a cameo appearance.  Yes I know that Margarito is not a finesse guy, but still.

  I know that boxing needs its next crop of stars, but I think that Berto might be in waters that are too deep come January 30th, if Shane's beard has not gone gray.

  I was wondering what all of your opinions are on this fight, and thanks in advance for sharing.

Greetings all,

I've read a couple of stories (which might have no credibility, posted over the last 24 hours) about Floyd dropping out of the fight due to Team Manny not wanting to give him the weight wiggle room he enjoyed against Marquez.  However, what weight is or was agreed to remains unknown.  As a fan, I was worried about this possible development.  I don't see why both fighters could not meet at 147, as Floyd is not a huge or even big welterweight.  Unless of course Floyd suddenly feels like coming in over. What do all of you think about the weight issue, and the olympic drug testing that Mayweather's camp wants?

Although Pedro Fernandez of Ring Talk is reporting that middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik has recently entered a rehabilitation center for alcohol abuse, Brandon Wright, of the the Plain Dealer is reporting that fellow Plain Dealer reporter Joe Maxse spoke with Cameron Dunkin, Pavlik's co-manager, who vehemently denied Fernandez's story.

Dunkin responds to the accusations:

"He's not in rehab. He hasn't been in rehab," Dunkin said of Pavlik. "It's not true. Pedro Fernandez is a scumbag. These guys write it, and everyone on the Internet went with it. They're not journalists. They're not accountable to anyone. Who gives this guy any credibility?"

Dunkin also adds that Pavlik has been contacted for comment on the rumors and that his father Mike, his other co-manager, is "furious."

Notes from SC: While we made it clear we were merely sharing a rumor from Pedro Fernandez, Bad Left Hook apologizes if the Pavlik family suffered any embarrassment or hurt from our post. We gladly retract the story and now post this -- gleefully, even, because it means that one of the best fighters in the sport isn't going through anything so serious.

FanShot promoted by SC

I don't know if anyone else posted or addressed this, but Dan Rafael, in his blog, mentioned that Arum wants to keep it under wraps:

For whatever reason, Arum doesn't want to give them out, nor will he allow his partners at Golden Boy or HBO PPV to disclose them. What does he have to hide, anyway?

However, being a resourceful kind of guy with pretty darn good sources in the boxing business and television industry, I got the number, Arum's secrecy be damned. From what my sources tell me, the fight sits at about 825,000 domestic pay-per-view buys with the likelihood that when they're all counted, the total will reach 850,000 or more.

Arum's tactics seem, to me at least, to be a move in fear of giving Floyd any leverage on possible future neogotiations, saying that his fight with Hatton did better, etc.

[The rest is from SC, making this a collaborative piece!]

I think my favorite part here is this quote from Arum: "We did very well. Everyone involved in this event did a good job, but it's nobody's business what the numbers are but ours and the fighters. I'm not gonna release the figures."

In other words, "F*** me, this wasn't the 'record-breaker' I made it out to be and now I look like a dope, so shut up and leave me alone about it!"

The fact is 825-850,000 domestic buys is a remarkable number. As Rafael notes, it is the second-biggest boxing PPV ever that did not have Mike Tyson, Oscar de la Hoya or Evander Holyfield (behind the 915K that Mayweather-Hatton did).

Rafael also says that Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy and HBO's Mark Taffet are going along with Arum's bizarre request to not release the numbers and neither are thrilled about it. Schaefer, who co-promotes Hatton, and HBO must be thrilled with the number, while Arum talks Pacquiao up as if overnight he became Muhammad Ali mixed with Oscar de la Hoya and probably finds it hard to swallow the fact that not every single person on earth was terribly captivated by his eight-round whipping of an old-looking de la Hoya in December. Ask casual fans that watched that fight what they saw -- it's often a lot different than what "we" saw.

Pacquiao is the Top Rank meal ticket, but no matter how successful he is, when you combine a lot of factors (one of which is the recession), he's not going to be Oscar de la Hoya on PPV, at least not immediately, and I think this might bother Arum a little bit. The speculation that he might've wanted to use the Manny-Ricky number to leverage Floyd could also be true.

But he has to realize something else: All Pacquiao did was raise his profile as a "can't miss" fighter with the Hatton bombing. And another thing: He's not going to leverage Mayweather, who promotes himself and like it or not (and I don't, really, because it possibly prevents great fights) he's damn savvy enough to know that they need him for X fight or Y fight. The truth is, if Arum, Pacquiao and Roach want Floyd bad enough, they'll have to back down a little when negotiation time comes.

I say congratulations to Top Rank, Golden Boy, HBO, Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton on the great success of this fight, because they deserve it. Sorry, Bobbo.

First of all, let me say that I am a big fan of this site and the bulk of the posters here.  The people here are more friendly and knowledgable then other sites (Sherdog, etc.).

  I know that a lot of you are big on Lesnar as an MMA fighter, and while I think he has a lot of natural gifts and potential, I can still see him  losing to Mir again (yes I'm aware of the standup issue) or to Carwin or even Junior Dos Santos.

Yes Brock is very big and strong, but he was not able to finish Heath by KO or sub, even though he took his back on numerous occasions.  I also think that dropping Randy, while impressive, does not speak to the quality of his standup skills.

  I'd also like to think that Brock's reach is what caused trouble for Randy.  Chuck got to his chin twice and I think it is Randy's footwork and spacing that kept him out of trouble against Gonzaga and Tim, not his "iron" chin.

Brock is a physical freak with a great wrestling base.  However, I think the move to crown him as the next great heavyweight is a bit quick,  His standup is sloppy, and he does not appear to have added any kind of submission base to his wrestling.

Might he have these tools?  Yes, we only have four fights to judge Brock's ability, so I think any rush to judgement, on either side of the Lesnar debate, is premature.

Besides, Lesnar is older than Mir, and it remains to be seen if his career will be long like Randy's, with productive years into his 40's, or will some of his athletic prowess leave him in only a several years, much as Hughes has suffered a quick decline.

Although Brock has a lot of assets as a fighter, I am not convinced of his evolution as an MMA fighter.  He could very well run through Mir, but I would not be surprised if he is subbed either.

Brock is still new to this sport, and unlike Coleman, who was able to use his wrestling to beat and neutralize other one dimensional fighters early in his career, Lesnar will continue to face opponents who are well-versed in several disciplines.  Although his physical advantages are great, they cannot completely offset what his future opponents will continue to bring to the table, if Brock does not learn and adopt new MMA techniques to catch up with the next generation of fighters.

I look forward to seeing what Brock has or hasn't learned since his first encounter with Mir.  Lesnar might be THE heavyweight for the next several years, but to give him that title now is far too early, at least in my mind.

(Not intended as Brock hate)