By Francisco Hernandez: When Manuel Pacquiao refused to fight Juan Manuel Marquez a third time, Marquez decided to chase Pacquiao into the lightweight and then the Welterweight divisions, hoping to either outshine the Pacman or shame him into a third fight.

Marquez didn’t waste time with small fights or has-been fighters, he wanted big fights that could make the most money and deliver the most prestige. In the lightweight division he challenged and knocked-out two great champions, dangerous fighters who had dominated the lightweight division: Joel Casamayor, and Juan Diaz. When Manny Pacquiao moved up to the lightweight division he challenged a club fighter named David Diaz.

Again when Marquez moved up to challenge the Welterweights he called out Mayweather. Mayweather is a fighter who outmatched Marquez dramatically in both size and speed. Juan Manuel could have chosen easier opponents but he decided to go against a great risk in Mayweather. On the other hand Manny chose to go against the husk of Oscar de la Hoya. In his next fight Manny comatosed the over-rated brit Ricky Hatton.

All this is not to say that Manuel Pacquiao is not an excellent fighter. Despite the low level at which Oscar and Hatton had fallen, the way in which Pacquiao disposed of them was phenomenal. This is the characteristic that makes Manny Pacquiao so exciting, no one else in boxing today disposes of opponents the way Manny Pacquiao does. In his last three fights Manny has dished out severe one-way beatings.

Now Manny has chosen to fight a real risk, Miguel Cotto, just like Mayweather was a real risk for Juan Manuel Marquez. Cotto is a bigger and stronger man, who is at the top of his game. He is younger than Pacquiao and is in top physical shape. Cotto has the boxing technique needed to neutralize Manny’s speed, as he demonstrated against Judah and more emphatically against Shane Mosley. Cotto also has a granite chin. He took the punch of a Clotty who looks like a light-heavy weight. Cotto could not be knocked out by what were probably the plaster reinforced hands of Margarito.

The great Marquez took a high risk against Mayweather and although he failed to pull it off, he fought with great dignity, forcing Mayweather to fight out of a turtle shell; Mayweather was forced to rely on pot shots and was never able to mount a sustained offensive against Marquez. Marquez lost the fight because he didn’t have the power or the speed to mount an offensive himself to force Mayweather out of his turtle-shell. Now Manny is facing his own high risk in the form of Miguel Cotto. This is truly the defining fight for Manny Pacquiao whether it is in defeat or victory. In Cotto, Manny is facing the first fighter who has all the advantages over Manny. By logic, Cotto simply cannot be overcome by Manny.

Manny has been tested in three tough fights, the first fight against Eric Morales (where he was defeated) and the two fights against Juan Manuel Marquez (tie, split decision). In those fights Manny demonstrated a great heart and looked admirably even in defeat. But in those fights Manny was on level ground. Against Cotto Manny will be fighting uphill.

If Manual Pacquiao does the impossible which is to defeat Miguel Cotto, then he will have cemented his place amongst the great fighters. If Manny loses with dignity then he will not lose any of his hard won admiration. If Manny comes apart at the seams, is dismantled by Cotto, then he will have shown that he was not a fighter up for heroic tasks.

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I don't know too many trainers who would be as up front about their fighter's faltering preparations as Freddie Roach

Manny Pacquiao, centre, waves to the crowd during a motorcade in Manila after the humiliation of Ricky Hatton, knocked out in the second round. Photograph: Alanah Torralba/EPA

The smartest move Amir Khan ever made was taking his imperfect but promising game to the United States to learn from the most astute trainer in boxing, Freddie Roach, at his Wild Card gym in Hollywood. It has been the making of Bolton's world champion.

But Roach is no big-hearted Uncle Freddie, doling out his wisdom for no return. He knows he has a gem in Khan – as well as the perfect sparring partner for the star of the stable, Manny Pacquiao. And that is why he wanted to get the Pacman away from the Philippines and sharpen his reflexes against Khan.

In a business brimming with horse manure, Roach smells of roses. I don't know too many trainers who would be as candid about their fighter's faltering preparation on the eve of a major fight as Roach is about Pacquiao. There is tension in the camp, no question, as the Philippines' most revered public figure struggles with the adoration of his 90 million compatriots when he should be thinking only about Miguel Cotto and their fight in Las Vegas on 14 November.

"His focus is just not there right now," Roach says on HBO's 24/7 show, as the Pacman glories in another motorcade, "and I can't wait to get him out of here, get him back to Los Angeles and get him back on track."

Roach has been unimpressed with Pacquiao's sparring – so much so he has offered US$1,000 to any of the hired help who can put him down. There seems a lack of intensity in Pacquiao that Cotto surely will take as encouragement.

Michael Jennings, who was outclassed by Cotto in four rounds, thinks the Puerto Rican wins it; so, too, does Kell Brook, who had to pull out of a British title fight with Jennings because of a virus.

Unless Roach can clear Pacquiao's mind and get him down to some serious work with Khan over the next two weeks, Jennings and Brook could be proved right.

And, if Pacquiao really is off his game, Khan might be picking up an easy grand.

Rodney King wants a rematch

Rodney King's name went around the world when he was on the wrong end of a filmed street beating by four white members of the LA police department 18 years ago.

King, 44, a one-time thief and mugger who now raises money for charity, is coping with long-time alcoholism. Boxing is part of his rehab. The downside is he wants a rematch with his chief tormentor that night, Laurence Powell – in a boxing ring.

It is Powell who is most prominent in the video footage of the attack he and his colleagues visited upon King's cowering body with metal batons after a car chase. Their acquittal the following year sparked riots across the country that lasted six days and cost at least 50 lives.

As yet Powell, who later was sentenced to 2½ years' prison on federal charges of violating King's civil rights, has not responded to the challenge. It would be better if he didn't. King's involvement with an organisation called the Celebrity Boxing Federation smacks of the lowest form of race-driven prurience.

He's had one of these bizarre fights already against "a disgraced, small-town Pennsylvania-cop-turned pugilist", according to the Boston Herald.

It's fine that King has found boxing. I hope it keeps him clean and gives him purpose. But to indulge in this sort of voyeuristic exercise is demeaning and pointless.

GB men and women face US

I'm not a big fan of women's boxing, and I don't want to go over the reasons again here. But, given the sport is in the 2012 Olympics, we should get behind them.

Now the amateur boxing authorities in this country don't always get things right but they are giving two of the best British women – Natasha Jonas from Liverpool and Savannah Marshall from Hartlepool – a decent profile alongside the guys when Great Britain boxes the US in a charity show for the Atlantic Cup at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London on 13 November.

The GB men's team have already beaten the US three times recently, over there, and are clearly on a roll. They will be represented by: the Olympian Khalid Yafai (Birmingham, 51kg), Andrew Selby (Barry, 54kg), Martin Ward (Repton, 57kg), Tom Stalker (Liverpool, 60kg), Stephen Simmons (Edinburgh, 91kg) and Simon Vallily (South Bank 91+kg).

These are just names on a page to many people now. In three years' time, some of them may be heroes – and heroines.

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By Frank Lotierzo

40-0. A perfect track record of big-buy pay per views. Flawless manipulation of the public, the media, and damn near everyone else he’s ever encountered.
And then Floyd Mayweather managed to get taken down by a New York emcee named R.A. the Rugged Man, who outthought, outmaneuvered, and outslugged Money from the opening bell until it was all over. If I’d been Floyd’s cornerman, I’d have pulled the plug after the first few rounds.  There’s no way he should have taken that kind of beating. 
Mayweather was a surprise phone-in guest of the R.A, the Rugged Man’s Sirius Eminem’s Shade 45 Show. After a moment of feeling each other out, exchanging pleasantries, the normally cautious Mayweather walked right into a sucker punch that nailed him squarely on the chin, a mistake he's seldom made in the ring as a fighter.
“So Floyd, when you gonna fight somebody your own size in the top two?”
Maybe like a lot of fighters who get caught cold, Mayweather never recovered from the punch he didn’t see. Not to mention R.A. was Floyd's equal when it came to speed and thinking on your feet.  
As it turned out, R.A. came armed with information - lots of it. This wasn’t some boxing-ignorant radio personality trying to drum up a little controversy. His criticism was pointed and entirely valid. Everything he threw at Mayweather is what many fight aficionados have thought about saying to him had they been presented the opportunity to. Mayweather’s response revealed a lot about how he thinks, how surprisingly easy it is to unsettle him, and the lengths he’ll go to in order to justify why he’s been avoiding certain fighters.
Here’s how he answered the question above.
“It’s not up to me.  Boxing don’t work like that.”  This comes from a guy who is always quick to point out that nobody tells him what to do, that he fights who, when, and where he wants, and that he’s not stuck in service to any promoter.
After explaining how Bob Arum doesn’t want either Miguel Angel Cotto or Manny Pacquiao to fight him, Floyd begins bragging about his decision win over Carlos Baldomir. Could anyone envision Shane Mosley or Miguel Cotto trying to suggest how they're greater than Sugar Ray Robinson by highlighting they beat Carlos Baldomir?  
“Oh man, Baldomir with eleven losses? How about this: why didn’t you fight Margarito when you were offered eight million dollars?”
And the guy who compared himself favorably to Sugar Ray Robinson begins hemming and hawing, arguing with a man he doesn’t know in an attempt to justify himself.  He begins lying.
“Why would I fight Margarito for eight million when I could get twelve million fighting for the title?”
“Who’d you get twelve million for fighting?  I don’t believe you.”
R.A. the Rugged Man is right about that. It wasn’t that he was simply trying to trash Mayweather. As a boxing fan, he was willing —even eager— to concede that Floyd was a great fighter. That was his point: he felt that Mayweather was squandering his legacy.
Floyd tries to suggest that neither Cotto nor Pacquiao is calling him out, but the Rugged Man cuts him off by saying that everybody wants to fight him. He mentions Shane Mosley, then adds that Paul Williams would “smack your ass.”
Floyd’s response is that people are “praying for his downfall.”
No dice. The Rugged Man points out that he was a big fan of Floyd’s. He cites the Diego Corrales fight as an example of what Mayweather could be at his best.
Things go downhill. Mayweather boasts about the miracle of coming back from a two year layoff. It’s pointed out that the layoff wasn't two years and was against a 36 year old featherweight.  Floyd screams, “I’m in my 30s!”
He talks about Mosley’s past steroid use as a reason for not fighting him.  At every turn, he shows weakness.
I’d always assumed that Floyd Mayweather talked the way he did because he’s a businessman first and foremost. And I thought that, at some level, he really believed he was the great fighter he presented himself to be.  Coming from a fighting family and having lived his entire life in a boxing ring, I figured that he was completely secure about fighting anyone, and that it didn’t bother him when detractors challenged him on his legacy.
I was wrong. Floyd Mayweather knows he’s ducking Mosley, Williams, Margarito, and Cotto.  It’s not about money.  He wants money, but he’s heard the whispers and he’s worried that, once defeated, he will have irreparably tarnished his reputation.  He’s made his name on being undefeated, and he’ll do anything necessary to stay undefeated, even if it includes embarrassing himself.
Floyd Mayweather has shown very few exploitable weaknesses in the ring.  He’s fought a lot of good fighters, and he’s remained unbeaten.  But he got knocked out by a radio deejay.  And, in allowing himself to enter into a desperate argument in public, he showed a character chink in his armor that any future opponent may be able to take advantage of. 
No other all-time great had to beg for accolades like Mayweather has. Can you imagine Roberto  Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Marvin Hagler, or Bernard Hopkins arguing with a radio deejay about their legacy and all-time great status?

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