I might be more optimistic about boxing's 2010 if a summer slump of good match-ups showed any signs of letting up. But, in this week's brief Round and Round, observe:

Former middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik is weighing some options, such as maybe staying at middleweight rather than moving to 168. Kinda makes you wonder why he didn't decide that sooner, considering the rematch option he had for Sergio Martinez. But he is contemplating fighting on the Lucian Bute undercard in October at 168. Reportedly, HBO would approve Librado Andrade as an opponent, and boy howdy I sure as hell would approve of it. That sounds like a barrel of monkeys.

Shane Mosley might be fighting at junior middleweight next against Sergio Mora, but he's open to moving back down to welterweight and fighting Andre Berto, a fight that got canceled earlier this year. I remain very interested in it. Before Mosley's loss to Floyd Mayweather, I figured Berto as a real underdog against Mosley, but every month Mosley ages, and he looked somewhat old against Mayweather, makes Mosley-Berto more competitive.

Middleweight Felix Sturm is looking for an opponent, now that he's free of promoter Universum, and there've been discussions of Kermit Cintron. Cintron promoter Lou DiBella said the amount of money offered has been too little, but it's hard to imagine where Cintron goes next if not overseas for some cash.

Welterweight belt holder Jan Zaveck will be doing a rematch with Rafal Jackiewicz Sept. 4, which is a good thing because the first fight was a bit controversial. Actually, if there's any match ever along the outskirts of the division in fights for crappy belts  it's all controversial -- throw in Isaac Hlatshwayo, Delvin Rodriguez, Selcuk Aydin and Jo Jo Dan and you've got a half-dozen or so close, disputed decisions in the division over the last year or two.

Heavyweight Chris Arreola's return is slated for Friday Night Fights against Manuel Quezada on Aug. 13. Quezada upset Travis Walker a while back, then lost his last fight by split decision to Jason Gavern, and while neither of those fighters are Arreola, Quezada poses a decent test with Arreola coming off his own loss to Tomasz Adamek.

Joel Casamayor is still holding out hope of a rematch with the man who took his lineal lightweight championship from him, Juan Manuel Marquez. That makes at least four name fighters -- Casamayor, Amir Khan, Robert Guerrero, Michael Katsidis -- who want a slice of Marquez next. It doesn't seem like that long ago that Marquez had trouble getting fights. I guess being "the last Mexican standing" and showing some vulnerability will do that for a fighter everyone used to want to avoid.

(Round and Round sources: ESPN, BoxingScene, FanHouse)

(Credit: Rich J. Hundley III, Showtime)

There were at least three entertaining fights on television Friday night, and hear tell, four.

• Welterweight prospect Mike Jones showed me more than ever on ShoBox, although unfortunately his 5th round stoppage win came via a terrible call by referee Randy Neumann. Irving Garcia -- who'd badly hurt and twice floored another welterweight prospect, Luis Carlos Abregu -- was giving Jones a little business, catching him with some hard blows and leaving him with a welt under his right eye. Jones hadn't previously had an opportunity to show off his beard, and he showed he had one. Offensively, he was dynamic. He put his punches together with a crisp fury, especially his uppercut, which hurt Garcia in the 4th. A combo in the 5th had Garcia hurt again, but Jones went low -- very low -- and despite being in perfect position, Neumann apparently didn't catch the nuts-punch. Garcia went down, protested Neumann's count by pointing to the low blow, and for some reason Garcia then allowed himself to be counted out. Jones was probably gonna do in Garcia anyway, and it was a performance that was both fun to watch and confirmed some of the hype of him as a young fighter to watch.
• On the Showtime undercard, another welterweight prospect lost. Antwone Smith got knocked down by Lanardo Tyner in the 9th then refused to continue in a fight he was losing on the scorecards at the time of the stoppage. Tyner had a good game plan -- he'd keep Smith preoccupied on defense with pitty-pat punches as Smith came forward, then land hard one in between. He swelled up Smith's right eye horribly, to the point that Smith was so bothered by it he didn't even want his corner to work on it between rounds. Smith was even on my card going into the 9th, winning a few rounds because he was landing the harder shots and winning another with movement and counterpunching. But he said he had a virus beforehand and maybe that compounded his woes. Anyway, good for Tyner for finally catching a big fish, too bad for Smith but I wouldn't count him out completely, and thanks to both men for a good scrap.
• John Molina might be the worst defensive fighter in the history of mankind, and maybe earlier; he might be the worst defensive fighter since the fishapods. But he has two things that help him overcome that -- he won't stop coming, and he can really punch. On ESPN2's Friday Night Fights, Molina was getting beaten easily by fellow lightweight Hank Lundy, who was using movement to dodge then potshot the piss out of his no-head-movin' foe. But in the 8th, Molina caught Lundy with a big counter right as Lundy got sloppy and knocked him down. Lundy never quite recovered in full, and in the 11th, Lundy stupidly grabbed the rope with one arm -- showboating? -- and got punched a bunch as he did so. Before long Molina had Lundy in trouble again, and when he dropped his arms along the ropes, the referee moved in to stop the fight. I thought it was a good stoppage. And Molina is one helluva likable fighter.
• On TeleFutura, junior middleweight Erislandy Lara scored a 1st round KO as a late sub in the Solo Boxeo main event over William Correa in a bout that was said to be unusually exciting for a Lara fight.

There's not much more than what's in the headline, either. The rest: Roger Mayweather's role in Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao; the deepening of the deep Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz II card; Steven Luevano left out in the cold; and Victor Conte's pickup of another client.

(Nonito Donaire, right; stereotypically decent opponent Hernan Marquez, left. Credit: Showtime)

Whatever you think of the Showtime main event Saturday evening, you aren't without other boxing options this weekend, some of them promising. Especially on Friday. My DVR can't handle a night like Friday.

Neither fully inspiring nor fully disappointing, Juan Manuel Lopez versus Bernabe Concepcion Saturday on Showtime is, on the inspiring tip, a potentially very good scrap between two top-10 featherweights, one of the best divisions in boxing, where one of the men -- Lopez -- is a pound-for-pound contender and one of the most exciting young talents on the sport. Yet, on the disappointing tip, it is a far cry from Lopez-Yuriorkis Gamboa or Gamboa-Celestino Caballero -- two significantly more desirable featherweight bouts -- and Concepcion is a serious underdog, certainly a step down in competition for Lopez from his last opponent Steven Luevano, whom Lopez demolished but Concepcion struggled with in a disqualification loss.

Amid a dry summer stretch for boxing, this sunshower is refreshing, even if it still burns that Top Rank Promotions dangled Lopez-Gamboa then Gamboa-Caballero in front of us only to then snatch it away. At minimum, it's a chance to see a top-flight boxer in action, something in sparse supply of late, and if it works out the way I expect it could, it might be action-packed if not brief.

I've always thought that the idea of sports stars being "role models" is slightly absurd.

There's no reason why someone who's ridiculously good at throwing a ball around (or punching someone else in the face) should be held up as a paragon of virtue.

Indeed, successful athletes find themselves in a situation where it's very difficult to behave well -- they're essentially average people who gain massive wealth and notoriety after years of deprivation, training and anonymity.

In many sports, boxing included, they're also from low socioeconomic backgrounds and have sacrificed a meaningful education to pursue their athletic skills.

That's not to say that being a good athlete is an excuse to be a bad person, just that criticising these athletes and their transgressions on the basis that they're role models is pretty dumb. Stephen Hawkings is a role model. Kobe Bryant is not. James Kirkland definitely is not.

Just as an antidote to the generally negative coverage of boxers' personal lives from the mainstream media, here are the boxers who might make the best role models, if that's what you're into.

Welcome to July's Open Thread, late though it is. As usual, the idea is for you to make things happen, but I'll get us started: Who's underrated, and who's overrated, in boxing these days? Discuss. You can go with boxers or commentators or writers or promoters or networks or whatever. Then, for funsies, let us know who or what you think is overrated/underrated in life. Because Open Thread doesn't just have to be about boxing. Then, for double-funsies, suggest your own topics.

Your computer isn't broken, and the live sound isn't poorly recorded -- this month's music pick, Sleigh Bells, sounds that way. Tip o' the pen to friend of the site Patrick. Not only did he give me a new band to like, but he gave me a new crush. Alexis Krauss, please come to my apartment and dance around like that, much appreciated.

P.S. Tomorrrow and the rest of the week we'll resume predictions and previews and what not, including an entry for the long-dormant TQBR Prediction Game 3.0.

With nothing doing over the weekend, I decided I would quit staring out over the barren international wasteland and instead turn my gaze inward and onto the British fight scene. With the domestic season winding down, it felt like a good time to cast an eye over my current top 20 British fighters to see what’s in store for them as we edge into the second half of 2010.

'MERICA! Happy birthday. You didn't think I'd go out with the Canadian flag like that, did you? My present to you, dear 'Merica, is to review a couple cards from the weekend.

Fights in the works. Let's do this.