If you guys can catch the Diaz vs. Diaz replay on HBO, do it.  Wow, Diaz fights just like Hatton used to.  If Hatton wern't looking to cash out,  he could have tried to clean up his division by beating the winner of Malinaggi vs. Witter, and then take on the winner of Diaz  vs. Casamayor.  (Ambiguity is intentional. Go watch the fight!)

As bad as the  state of boxing is, which is really depends on how you look at it,  it is far better than the state of Boxing WRITING.  There are a few good blogs that masquerade as crappy online magazines (EastSideBoxing),  but there is really only one place with professional writers. That place is Ring Magazine. And boy are they good.     It's available only on Dead Tree, but you can get an update onling every week.

This had me cracking up:

To everyone who e-mailed in response to my comments in last week’s column questioning the legitimacy of Joe Calzaghe’s 10-year reign as the WBO champion: You can question the legitimacy of a governing body without questioning the authenticity of the fighter. That was my intent. It wasn’t to disparage Calzaghe. I would never do that.

By the way, there is absolutely no truth to the rumor that Frank Warren is screening members of the London Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra for the opponent Calzaghe will face if he pulls out of the Mikkel Kessler fight with a strained areola.

 

I am in Santiago. I just fought off a cold.    Zooloretto, China,  Lost Cities, Ricochet Robots,   Rumbis, Nimmtz,  Citadels,  St. Petersburg,  and Trias.  Yeah, that about sums it up. 

Wow, I just locked up a bunch of geek hits.

I get back this Saturday Morning.  Don't know what the plan is for the week that I am back.  I'm hoping for a sunny sunday.

UPDATE!!

I followed a link on the Ring MAgazine homepage and found a terriffic article at a site called secondsout.com.

A NOTE ON A RELATED MATTER: After referee Steve Smoger gave Kelly Pavlik his instructions in the dressing room prior to Taylor-Pavlik, Mauricio Sulaiman came into the room. Mauricio is the son of WBC president Jose Sulaiman. In recent years, he has assumed an increasingly active role within the sanctioning body. He is now the WBC’s executive secretary and is in charge of the organization’s executive office in Mexico City.

In the dressing room, Mauricio approached veteran cornerman Miguel Diaz and told him, “If Kelly wins, I would like his trunks to present as a gift to my father.” Diaz relayed the request to Mike Pavlik, who responded, “No way.”

After the fight, Mauricio returned to the dressing room and renewed his request.

“Oh, man,” Kelly said. “These are my trunks. Next fight, maybe; but not this one. I just won the championship in these trunks. My blood is on them.”

More people were drawn into the conversation. One-on-ones followed. Some words were exchanged regarding the discretionary powers of WBC officials and their ability to make things easy or hard on WBC champions. Mauricio Sulaiman left Boardwalk Hall with Kelly Pavlik’s bloodstained trunks. In the wee small hours of Sunday morning, he was confronted regarding the matter and the trunks were returned.

“It was a misunderstanding,” Mauricio told this writer. “I was led to believe that Kelly wanted the trunks to be presented as a gift to my father because of his respect for my father and the WBC. When it was brought to my attention that Kelly wished to have the trunks back, I arranged quickly to return them.”

Federal law states, “No officer or employee of a sanctioning organization may receive any compensation, gift, or benefit, directly or indirectly, from a boxer [other than a sanctioning fee].” Violation of this law is a crime punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of $20,000.

When a powerful WBC official makes a request such as the one Sulaiman made of Pavlik, there’s an inherent coercive factor at work. That’s why there’s a law against it.

Craig Hamilton (the foremost boxing memorabilia dealer in the United States) estimates that Pavlik’s trunks from his championship-winning fight could be worth as much as $25,000. The WBC received a substantial sanctioning fee for Taylor-Pavlik. That should suffice for everyone’s purposes.

This isn’t the first time that Mauricio Sulaiman has made a request of this nature. One hopes it’s the last.

Anyone can pump out one article, true, but if the Ring is recommending this guy, he's probably good. My appologies Thomas.