Now you do. (h/t friend of the site Kevin)
Here are some other things you'll know about at the end of this edition of Round And Round: the comings and goings of not only the people in the headline, but also Devon Alexander, Juan Manuel Lopez, Mikkel Kessler and a bunch of other boxers whose names you have heard before.
Round And Round
That Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez IV undercard hasn't filled out quite as nicely as we'd like, has it? It could be worse, though. The return of Yuriorkis Gamboa, and against a tough junior lightweight in Miguel Beltran, Jr. — that's a good one. At lightweight, Miguel Vazquez-Mercito Gesta is a quality match-up from the standpoint of two top-10 Transnational Boxing Rankings Board guys, a shitty one from the standpoint of "People's eyes are still bleeding from Vazquez's last fight on HBO" and "Gesta fights like he's half-bored all of the time." And what the heck — Team Snooki Boxing is throwing its star guy (or, the biggest star guy it has) Patrick Hyland in against young featherweight killer Javier Fortuna? That's some adventurous matchmaking, Snooki. Hey, it won't be so bad to have Snooki and Pacquiao hanging together, for either person's profile, Pacquiao in pop culture and Snooki as a boxing figure. So if Hyland loses, she still gets a little internal-to-boxing exposure.
Sticking with Pacquiao for a second: His trainer, Freddie Roach, is already looking past their December welterweight opponent for some reason and saying Brandon Rios should be next, not Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley II. This Bradley-to-Top Rank thing has worked out for him in the short run because he got those enormous guarantees and the Pacquiao fight, but it really hasn't turned him into any more desirable a quantity than it had before, huh?
Let's revisit the big Showtime card from last weekend for a second. Abner Mares-Nonito Donaire is still THE best fight to make at 122 pounds, and Golden Boy says they want to do it, but Top Rank says they are interested only if they don't have to co-promote with Golden Boy. These two companies trade fault back and forth all the time in their running feud, but right now it's Golden Boy back to saying they'll work with Top Rank but Top Rank saying "Nah." (Golden Boy also is pitching Lucas Matthysse-Rios in exchange for stepping aside in Mares-Donaire, but fat chance of that actual best slugfest in boxing happening as long as GBP/TR are feuding AND Rios is in line for a bigger fight against Paquiao.) So, assuming Mares stays with GBP, he can still fight bantamweight Leo Santa Cruz in the latest "really nice consolation prize" kind of bout available to him. Fernando Montiel also wants a piece of Mares but I say that's a request that ought to be ignored.
Moreno, meanwhile, wants to return to 118. Probably where he can be more successful, really. He wants the winner of Koki Kameda-Hugo Ruiz, due up next month. I can dig it.
A few more bits of business around this weight class: Billy Dib says he's interested in facing Adrien Broner or Donaire, but he'll have trouble getting it based on Showtime not being interested in him, although since Broner and Donaire are more on HBO these days, maybe he has a better shot over there. Guillermo Rigondeaux, the other top junior featherweight with Mares and champion Donaire, was in a kerfulffle over a potential fight with Drian Francisco, which would have been fine with me, but I suppose the opponent HBO wanted for Rigondeaux Dec. 15, Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym, is marginally better.
And the last bit of business around the featherweight ranks: The recently-postponed Orlando Salido-Mikey Garcia fight is now due up again January as a potential HBO tripleheader, although a few fights are up in the air. Salido-Garcia is a terrific fight, is all I know, and the struggles Garcia had with Jonathan Barros' pressure makes me lean toward favoring the pressure-fighting Salido, when before I would've picked Garcia. Garcia is prone to cover up when attacked, and when he tried to slug with Barros it didn't go all that great for him. One of the three potential fights, Juan Manuel Lopez vs. Wilfredo Vazquez, Jr. in a Puerto Rican grudge match, is currently dead over the best weight class for it; Vazquez is moving up from junior featherweight, Lopez is moving up from featherweight and Vazquez was understandably not eager to go all the way to 128 like Juanma wanted. I wouldn't be surprised to see the fight revived, though. The third fight figures to feature middleweight Gennady Golovkin, with junior middleweight Gabriel Rosado and Fernando Guerrero two opponents in the running. I don't know why either want the fight, though, unless they just want to cash in on some HBO money, because Golovkin's too big for both of them and better in most every way. I admire the guts, don't get me wrong.
Also revisiting last weekend, it looks like the WBC is set to order Vanes Martirosyan-Erisland Lara II. I'm not saying their first junior middleweight meeting was a masterpiece or anything, but it wasn't as bad as I'd read. There was, at least, some bad blood. I'd watch a do-over if it was as cheap for HBO as the first meeting.
The plan for super middleweight Carl Froch in 2013, according to his promoter, is Lucian Bute/Mikkel Kessler/Andre Ward. Typical of Froch, who's addicted to facing the toughest people he can possibly face. Love it. Kessler hopes to get Ward soon, though, and is saying he'll travel to America again to get it. Whatevs, don't care about that fight. Not that I care about Ward-Kelly Pavlik all that much, either, but it looks very likely now for early 2013.
Not that I've enjoyed Devon Alexander's fights lately, but a welterweight bout with Kell Brook is about as interesting a fight as he can be in, and it looks like a go for January.
Everyone wants junior welterweight Danny Garcia to just get his ass into the ring with Matthysse, but a fight with Zab Judah is booked for January on Showtime. Meh.
Middleweight champ Sergio Martinez has a plan, per his promoter Lou DiBella, and it's A. recover from knee surgery B. fight Martin Murray in Argentina in the spring in a big soccer stadium then C. rematch Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. in the fall. There are a lot of hidden "if"s in there, though. Will he recover from knee surgery all that well at his age? If he doesn't, could he beat a legitimate threat like Murray? And will the ever-fattening Chavez be able to make middleweight by next fall? It's a good plan, otherwise.
Bernard Hopkins is looking at three light heavyweight contenders for his next opponent: Nathan Cleverly, Beibut Shumenov and Tavoris Cloud. I like them in the reverse order. Not that I'm all hyped for a B-Hop fight, but if any B-Hop fight could get me fired up it would be one that features the always entertaining Cloud.
With Sharif Bogere injured, his lightweight clash against Richard Abril is probably going to be postponed until January. I think the people can wait.
The quickly-made/quickly-postponed Tyson Fury-Denis Boytsov heavyweight clash for December could be back on in 2013, says Boystov's promoter, whose candor in admitting that Boytsov wasn't in any shape to fight by then was amusing.
Oh, Peter Quillin-Jermain Taylor (middleweight) could accompany Garcia-Judah. That fight is hideous. Just when you thought Quillin was done taking on run-down types…
(Round And Round sources: BoxingScene; RingTV; ESPN)
