No Quick Jabs column this week. There just isn't anything much going on that I haven't written about. Here's the grand total, other than the most minor of minor tidbits:

• Lou DiBella says Don King's team did some underhanded business and now light heavyweight Tavoris Cloud won't be fighting Glen Johnson on his April 10 show. King rejects the idea that anything funny is going on. I'm inclined to believe DiBella. I'm inclined to believe Cloud can't stop making bad decisions about his promising career. Meanwhile, the featherweight bout between Celestino Caballero and Daud Yordan will replace that fight, and it's an excellent replacement. In other light heavyweight news, we have to wait until August for Chad Dawson-Jean Pascal.
• Old boxer James Toney is moving to the UFC. I don't think his mixed martial arts career will last long at all. As long as it takes someone to put some kind of hold on him. It saddens me to see this happening, and if the UFC argues it got anything more than a "freak show" by signing a boxing legend past his prime, I don't know who they're fooling.

(Floyd Mayweather, left, Shane Mosley, right. Photo: Ed Mulholland, via Fightnews)

Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley hit three cities in three days for the press in advance of their long-awaited May 1 welterweight showdown, filling up news stories with hype and anecdotes that offer opportunities for trite analysis and pop psychology. I'm not about to pass up those opportunities.

Saturday's like the sound a soda can makes upon opening. It marks the return of consistently world class boxing to the airwaves, when Devon Alexander and Juan Urango duel on HBO in arguably the deepest division in the sport, junior welterweight. And I say this knowing full well, by the way, that this fight stands a 90 percent chance of blowing. We've had some good scraps to kick off 2010, but rarely have they been particularly meaningful. I need my vitamins to go along with my candy, and there have been a lot of empty calories to go around, so Alexander-Urango hits the spot. And it gets my love besides for kicking off a good stretch of boxing that runs nearly every weekend through June.

Separately, Alexander and Urango are capable of producing good fights to accompany their wholly different kinds of talent. Alexander is one of the most gifted youngsters in the sport, a complete boxer and true blue chipper who's already climbed to #4 in the division's rankings at age 23. When Alexander is aggressive and has an opponent willing to engage him, he puts on enjoyable exhibitions of the sweet science. Urango likes nothing more to engage. Urango is a gritty banger who sits at #6, and he makes very exciting fights when he gets an opponent who will stand in front of him and swaps leather. When he doesn't get that kind of opponent, he is only in ugly fights. Alexander and Urango are probably going to get ugly.

[The next round of the TQBR Prediction Game starts with this fight. Join in here, and don't forget the rules.]

Here they are: The full, slightly revised TQBR Prediction Game rules.

In case you missed it yesterday, junior welterweight contender Paulie Malignaggi stopped by our Open Thread to say "hi." He did it even though he was tired and repeatedly said he was going to sleep, and he did it even though he didn't quite understand what our site was. He did it merely because a few friends of TQBR on Twitter -- IR, JPF, MJ -- asked him to visit.

Malignaggi inspires a lot of strong opinions. He's a loudmouth, he gets a lot of "Jersey Shore" jokes because of his grooming habits and accent, he's had stretches where he wasn't so fun to watch or even all that inspired in the ring, etc. I'm not insulting him -- he's admitted most of that, and in some of his more public screw-ups, like the ill-fated hair extensions he wore into the ring once and had to be cut off, he couldn't stop talking about how stupid he was.

But at his best in the ring, Malignaggi is pretty damn good, and he's been in any number of very entertaining fights, like his first bout against Juan Diaz or his spirited effort against Miguel Cotto. As much negative attention as he gets for some of his antics outside the ring, you have to admit that just as many of his antics are wildly amusing; aren't you kind of glad he wore those hair extensions, since it gave us all an opportunity to see a boxer get a haircut midfight? He crosses the line occasionally, like his periodic remarks about how so-and-so might be on steroids, but that's the consequence of a guy who constantly speaks the truth as he sees it, and that also means we also get to listen to Paulie saying the impolitic things boxing needs to hear, such as with his epic rant after the Diaz fight about what's wrong with the sport.

Most importantly, you'd be hard-pressed to find a boxer who matches him in his desire to interact with his fans and keep them happy. Paulie kept asking me to tell people to follow him on Twitter, and I'm happy to for a couple reasons: One, it's the least I can do to return the favor; and two, you really won't regret it, because odds are good that if you talk to him, he'll talk to you, too. As IR pointed out, he's also probably reading what you are saying even if you don't directly address him. You'll say "hi" to him, he'll say, "weren't you talking shit about me earlier?" then you can go about having a friendly, all-caps chat with him if you want.

I've been up and down as a fan of Paulie's. I didn't like him at first. After the Cotto fight, I became a big fan. Then, when he went through a period where he looked like boxing wasn't in his heart anymore, my fandom waned. I'm fully back on board after his renaissance from the Diaz fights, and after he took the time to make a small gesture like leaving some comments on this blog.

Go ahead. Follow Paulie on Twitter. Boxing needs people like him, and he deserves our devotion in return for his devotion to us.

Welcome to March's Open Thread. We got the music choice out of the way (I don't care if you think I'm pretentious for liking Animal Collective; I like that freaking song) and now here's some grist for freewheeling discussion.

1. Looking back over the past weekend(ish), we had several young and immensely physically talented boxers -- junior welterweights Victor Ortiz and Kendall Holt, as well as junior featherweight Marvin Sonsona -- who have some recovering to do from losses. Ortiz' was last year, and he's had two wins since, but there have been some mighty divergent opinions on whether he looked good or bad stomping down Hector Alatorre on Thursday. Holt and Sonsona suffered their losses this past weekend, Holt's baffling and Sonsona's somewhat expected. Obviously all the circumstances are somewhat different, and I won't spend a bunch of time revisiting them. But my question is: When do YOU give up on a fighter? Have you given up on these three? Why, or why not?
2. This weekend commences a really nice stretch of boxing from March to June, where almost every weekend offers some excellent card. Look over this schedule (which leaves out the expected Miguel Cotto-Yuri Foreman junior middleweight clash in early June). Which fights are you looking forward to the most? Rank 'em, if you want, or pick out a little gem you think people may not notice.

As plotlines for Fight of the Year-caliber bouts go, "I gotta get revenge on him for the fight we had as kids after he broke my eggs on the way back from the market" is an infrequent one. Featherweight Antonio Escalante's motive was just that, and he and Miguel Roman put together a FOTY candidate for sure Friday night.

Old news, I know, but I didn't see it when it aired originally on ESPN2's Friday Night Fights, and I gather I'm not alone. So when I discovered it was available on replay on ESPN360, I needed to share. So here it is -- just click on the "replay" tab and adjust the next scroll down menu to the proper date.

This was a stupid good brawl, not completely lacking in tactical maneuvering as Roman charged forward and Escalante moved a bit before inevitably standing and trading. By the 8th round, bad blood had turned good. Roman was winning the round, but then Escalante dropped him near the end. When the bell rung, the two men hugged each other out of respect. At the end of the 10th, they put their arms around each other and walked around the ring with their free hands held high, getting a deserved round of applause from the exceptionally gratified audience.

I clearly underestimated Roman by just looking at his record. He's as tough as boxers come. Escalante is tough as all get-out, too, but he was somewhat better, which was reflected in the scorecards, and he's fast becoming one of the most exciting fighters in the sport. Do yourself a favor: Watch the fight now, if you haven't already.

Right when I think I've got my pound-for-pound criteria down pat, along comes a situation like Shane Mosley being out of action for a year -- which normally would trigger his removal for inactivity -- and I'm having trouble justifying removing him. This wasn't like a situation with Winky Wright or Israel Vazquez where there's a prolonged stretch of inactivity and no real prospects for him returning. So I'm going to do what a couple other people do with this rankings, and say that because a boxer (in this case Mosley) has another fight scheduled, he gets to stay on the list.

So, just to revisit here: The main criteria for placement on my pound-for-pound list is record against top opposition, especially most recent wins, although other factors -- like the "eyeball test," for example -- can factor in. Being inactive for a year can result in removal from the list unless a boxer has another fight scheduled, and lackluster accomplishments over the span of a year can result in a slight demotion. The list gets updated every two months.

I still don't think it's gotten to the point of being an unwieldy set of rules, but there you have it. If you want another perspective on the top 20, Scott's recent list is here. There's not a lot of movement on mine from the last update because so few top fighters were active in the first two months.

Some are lamenting not being able to get to see heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko's fight against Eddie Chambers on television -- it's only being webcast via Klitschko.com -- and unless brother Vitali can get U.S. TV money to fight Odlanier Solis, he may be searching for yet another opponent soon. I can't lament it too much. Certainly, it's a reminder once again of the dismal U.S. interest in the heavyweight division. But remember, most of us (including myself) not that long ago were wondering why HBO kept broadcasting Klitschko fights, as they were a waste of money. There hasn't been an exciting Klitschko fight since then, has there? Some meaningful ones, yes, like Wlad winning the lineal championship, and some hopeful ones, like the possibility that exciting Chris Arreola would force Vitali into an exciting fight. But they all sucked. All of them. And they apparently always will.

Now, it's up to you. You can pay $15 to watch Klitschko-Chambers if you want. Really, it's only worth that price if you think there's a remote chance Chambers can pull the upset. But the market has spoken. Nobody wants to see the Klitschkos fight in the United States. So HBO and Showtime and even ESPN are spending their money elsewhere. As important as the Klitschkos are, I'm grateful that instead of dropping millions on the Klitschkos, HBO will have the option of spending money on more desirable fights.

In other Quick Jabby items besides that one and the one in the headline, we'll take a look at an unexpected retirement, a peculiar venue shift and fights in the works for Nonito Donaire, YURIORKIS GAMBOA! and Daniel Jacobs -- among other tidbits.