Angelo Dundee, who was arguably the most famous boxing trainer in history, died at the age of 90 at home in Tampa, Florida on Feb. 1. Dundee recently celebrated the 70^th birthday of his long-time friend and most famous fighter, Muhammad Ali, on Jan 14. Dundee’s death represents the end of an era in boxing as he was one of the oldest and most-respected trainers to have ever worked a corner.

Jimmy Dundee said his father was surrounded by family members when he passed away and is glad his dad had the chance to reminisce with Ali before he died. Dundee said his father suffered a blood clot a week before he died and was treated in hospital for it before being allowed to return home to his apartment. He added that his father was having trouble breathing the day he died and family members rushed to his home to spend the last few hours with him.

Dundee was also the trainer and motivator of several other huge boxing stars such as Sugar Ray Leonard, Willie Pastrano, George Foreman, Jose Napoles, and Carmen Basilio. Dundee was one of the most liked and respected men in boxing and always had a smile on his face and a joke on his tongue.

He’ll always be best remembered as being Ali’s trainer though since he guided the former heavyweight champion throughout his professional career. Dundee was more than just a corner man. He often motivated his fighters when they were in trouble during bouts, such as Ali in his first fight with Sonny Liston and Leonard during his first showdown with Tommy Hearns.

Promoter Bob Arum was planning on bringing Dundee and Ali together again on Feb. 18 for a charity gala event in Las Vegas. Arum said Dundee was boxing’s greatest motivator, no matter what the situation was and that’s why Ali loved him so much. During his six-decade career which took him around the world, Dundee trained 15 world champions and was honored by the sport for his magnificent corner work and training efforts in 1992 by being inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Dundee first met Ali back in 1959 in the fighter’s hometown of Louisville, Ky. Dundee was training Pastrano at the time and Ali, who was then named Cassius Clay and was a Golden Gloves champion, phoned Dundee’s hotel room and asked if he could come up and visit the trainer and Pastrano. Ali ended up talking boxing with the pair for over three hours.

Ali then won the gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Italy and ran into Dundee again in Louisville. Dundee asked Ali if he’d like to head down to Miami Beach to train with him at the legendary 5^th Street Gym, but Ali said he couldn’t. However, a few months later one of Ali’s team members called Dundee to see if he’d work with Ali and that was the start of one of boxing’s most famous partnerships. Dundee guided Ali to the heavyweight title in February 1964 against Sonny Liston in Miami Beach.

Dundee, who was born in Philadelphia, always stood by Ali when the boxer was going through tough times with the black Muslims and the government for refusing induction into the army. Dundee was loyal to Ali and never tried to persuade him on his religious and  political views and Ali said that’s the reason he loved his trainer.

There was always boxing in Dundee’s blood. His older brother Chris was a promoter and his brother Joe was a boxer. Angelo followed Chris to New York after the second World war and that’s where he got his feet wet in the sport. By the late 1940s he was handling cuts and tape hands in boxer’s corners and helping out trainers such as Ray Arcel and Charlie Goldman.

Just before Ali retired, Dundee started training Leonard and also trained Foreman for his title-winning fight against Michael Moorer in 1994. The 45-year-old Foreman became the oldest heavyweight champion in history that night with his last-round knockout over Moorer. Dundee will be sorely missed in the boxing game, but stories of his antics and training expertise will never die.

It was a terrible week for boxing. Along with Dundee, famed trainer 88-year-old Goody Petronelli, 63-year-old referee Wayne Kelly, and 21-year-old flyweight boxer Karlo Maquinto all passed away.

There wasn’t any controversy during the WBC Middleweight Championship fight at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas on Feb. 4, but there was plenty of it afterwards. Chavez Jr. defended his title by unanimous decision over Marco Antonio Rubio in a decent, but not overly exciting fight, by scores of 115-113, 116-112, and 118-110.

Chavez struggled to make the middleweight limit of 160 lbs., but he did by weighing in at 159.5 lbs. However he then put 22 lbs. back on overnight and reportedly entered the ring at 181 lbs. while Rubio, who weighed in 1t 159, came into the ring at 171 lbs. The 10-pound difference in their weights was quite noticeable as Chavez was the much bigger and stronger man.

The fight was pretty uneventful until the last two rounds when the two Mexicans decided to slug it out. Chavez’s face was marked up after the 12 rounder as Rubio landed a lot of short, inside shots. The controversy came in the press conference when Rubio’s promotion team accused Chavez of ducking out on the WBC’s mandatory urine test which must be done by both fighters.

Rubio’s team said Chavez flew out of the dressing room after the bout and didn’t leave a urine sample. Chavez was asked about it during the post-fight press conference, but didn’t answer the question. Rubio’s team claimed they also asked Jose Sulaiman, the WBC president, and he simply said that Chavez forgot to leave a sample.

After a fight against Troy Rowland in December 2009, Chavez was suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for seven months because a diuretic known as furosemide was found in the boxer’s blood system. Rubio’s team said that a late sample is better than nothing and is demanding that Chavez leaves a sample since some illegal substances can be found in a person’s system up to six months later. Oswaldo Kuchle, who is Rubio’s promoter, said the WBC should force Chavez to follow the organization’s own rules.

With the win Chavez raised his record to 45-0-1, with 31 KOs while Rubio fell to 53-6-1, with 46 KOs. Both fighters threw a lot of punches, but neither of them landed any big shots and neither of them was hurt during the fight. Rubio was the busier of the two, and Chavez’s face proved he did some damage over 12 rounds, but there wasn’t enough power in the challenger’s shots to stagger the champion.

It was also reported after the fight that Chavez was charged with drinking and driving in Los Angeles two weeks before the bout and has a court date on March 16. Along with his struggle to make weight, these events have led many fans to accuse him of not being mature enough to be a world-class boxer. Many fans believe he’s just living off of his father’s name and will be beaten as soon as he faces a legitimate top-five opponent.

Up until now though, he’s unbeaten, but there are still a lot of questions regarding his skill and dedication. Chavez said he’ll stay at middleweight for the time being and fight Miguel Cotto, Sergio Martinez, or Antonio Margarito next. However, Cotto’s fighting Floyd Mayweather in May and he’s not a middleweight anyway and neither is Margarito. He’s been accused of hiding behind Sulaiman and the WBC and ducking Martinez, and it looks like Margarito could be his next test.

The ‘Filipino Flash’ Nonito Donaire wasn’t too flashy on Feb. 4 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, but still did enough to win the WBO’s vacant Super Bantamweight Championship. Donaire came out on the right side of a split decision over former titleholder Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. by scores of 112-115, 117-110, and 117-110. He also scored a flash knockdown in the ninth round.

The fight started slowly as Puerto Rico’s Vasquez found Donaire’s speed and footwork a little too much. However, he seemed to get more comfortable round after round and started to loosen up. But even when Vasquez did get into a bit of a groove he usually threw just one punch at a time. They didn’t seem to have much power on them, but did cause some swelling around Donaire’s eyes.

Donaire went to Vasquez’s body quite often in the early rounds and landed some solid left hooks there. However, he strayed from this strategy and focused mainly on his opponent’s head as the rounds wore on. Donaire hurt Vasquez in the third round with a good left uppercut and then a follow left to the top of the head. He sensed that Vasquez was hurt and then unleashed a wild flurry with his opponent trapped in a corner.  Vasquez survived the round though and had recovered by the start of the fourth.

Vasquez started to turn the tide in the fifth and sixth rounds when he started to follow up his left jabs with some decent right hands. Donaire came back in the seventh, eighth and ninth and dropped Vasquez in the ninth with another beautiful uppercut and left hook.

Donaire’s generally regarded by most boxing fans and experts to be one of the top five-pound-for-pound fighters in the world, but it was hard to tell against Vasquez. It was his first fight in the super bantamweight division though, so maybe that had something to do with it. With the win, Donaire raised his record to 28-1, with 18 KOs while Vazquez’s record fell to 21-2-1, with 17 KOs.

It’s also possible that Donaire’s mediocre performance could have been the result of a damaged or broken left hand. When he took his gloves off in the ring after the bout the hand wraps on his left hand were soaked in blood. However, it was unclear where it came from. Donaire knew he didn’t fight to his potential and admitted it after the fight.

He said he might stay at the 122 lb. super bantamweight division for a few more fights before thinking about moving up in weight again. There wasn’t any controversy surrounding the fight other than some trash talk in pre-fight press conferences. However, there are millions of fans questioning the score card of Ruben Garcia who judged the fight 115-112 for Vasquez, especially after Donaire dropped him in the ninth and had him on the ropes in the third round.

Donaire’s had two mediocre performances in a row now, both on national television in America. If he doesn’t pick up the pace in his next fight it’ll be hard to justify ranking him as one of the planet’s best pound-for pound boxers.

If you were one of the millions of boxing fans who just knew a proposed bout between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. this spring would implode, then you hit the nail on the head. The two top pound-for-pound boxers in the world were talking about getting it on this May 5 after Mayweather called Pacquiao a punk on Twitter and challenged him.

However, there were too many obstacles in the way of a showdown such as Mayweather’s upcoming jail sentence and an arena large enough in Las Vegas to hold the event. Most cynics felt Mayweather issued the challenge knowing there was no way a fight could be arranged on such short notice. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum more or less officially put the kibosh on the fight on Jan. 30 when he said the bout won’t take place until November at the earliest, if at all.

Arum said Mayweather’s chosen date of May 5 doesn’t fit into Pacquiao’s plans since he’s going to fight on June 9 and Mayweather’s camp isn’t willing to a change since their fighter’s supposed to start his 90-day jail sentence on June 1. Arum also said Mayweather isn’t willing to fight for a 50-50 revenue split, so negotiations are off and he’s out of the picture for the time being.

Mayweather has booked Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 5, but Arum said it doesn’t make sense for the fight of the century to take place in such a small venue. He wanted to build a temporary outdoor stadium in Vegas, but said it couldn’t be finished by early May. Arum said Mayweather can go ahead and fight as scheduled while Pacquiao will box on June 9 and they can meet in November if Mayweather agrees to a 50-50 split.

Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions said everybody’s moving on. However, neither fighter has an opponent booked for their upcoming bouts yet. Miguel Cotto’s been named as a possible opponent for both of them and the undefeated Timothy Bradley has been mentioned as another option for Pacquiao, who already owns a 12^th-round TKO over Cotto.

It appears to most insiders that Cotto will likely end up facing Mayweather since he doesn’t want to drop below 150 lbs. and Pacquiao doesn’t want to go higher than 147 lbs., but nothing’s certain as of yet. Arum said he wants announce the opponent for Pacquiao by Feb. 7, so they can start promoting the fight.

Arum also announced that he’s working on a fight between junior-welterweight champion Lamont Peterson and Juan Manuel Marquez for Dallas’ Cowboy stadium in May or July. Peterson won the WBA and IBF titles with a controversial split decision over Amir Khan in December and the WBA has since ordered a rematch between the two. A Peterson vs Marquez fight will mean Peterson will have to give up the WBA belt.

Mayweather still has to explain to the Nevada State Athletic Commission why he should be granted a license to fight anybody other than Pacquiao since his sentence was delayed so he could engage in a major fight. If Mayweather receives a license another option could be fighting super-welterweight titleholder Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

Even though his boxing career ended more than three decades ago, the cheers of “Ali, Ali” still ring in the Greatest’s ears every time he makes a public appearance. Muhammad Ali, who turned 70 years old on Jan 17, may be stricken with Parkinson’s disease and gets around by wheelchair today, but he’s still got the same energetic fighting spirit that he always had.

Everything that needs to be said and written about the great heavyweight champion has already been done. History hasn’t changed at all and the icon, formerly known as Cassius Clay, will go down in it as one of the most remarkable people to walk the face of the earth, as well as being one of its most recognizable. He inspired thousands of young men to become boxers and is still doing so today.

Former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis wrote a letter to a British newspaper on Ali’s birthday calling him not only the greatest boxer to ever grace a ring, but the best ever sportsman and athlete. Lewis said he studied all of history’s best boxers while growing up, and came to the decision early on in life that Ali was the most brilliant of them all.

Lewis said Ali put boxing on the map and promoted it globally by fighting all over the world and by fighting quite often, even in exhibition matches, to help build up the sport’s popularity. He also said Ali had a huge impact on society as a whole, not just in the sports world. He was just as popular outside of the ring as he was in it.

There’s not really any need to retell the story of Ali’s career, from an Olympic gold medalist to heavyweight champion of the world unless you’re relatively young. And if you don’t know who Ali is and what he’s accomplished in his 70 years then it’s highly recommended that you check out a few You Tube videos and read several articles on his remarkable life.

His triumphs in the ring were always accomplished on the world stage. When Ali fought, millions of eyes were watching and millions of ears from America to Timbuktu were listening to every punch he threw and every punch he ducked. But Ali transcended sport. His boxing career represents just a fraction of what Ali stands for. He was stripped of his title and suspended from the sport for three years after refusing induction into the U.S. Army and stood up for what he believed was right, even if it meant he had to go to prison and give up his career.

Ali’s birthday predictably launched debates around the world as to if he truly was the greatest boxer ever. Some people say his record of 56-5 with 37 Kos shows he lost five fights. It’s true, but he lost three of his last four bouts before retiring. All five of his losses came to men who were at one time in their careers the heavyweight champion of the world. These were Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Leon Spinks, Larry Holmes, and Trevor Berbick. He avenged his losses to Frazier, Norton, and Spinks, and beat both Frazier and Norton twice. However, he was at the end of his career when losing to Holmes and Berbick in his last two fights.

There are thousands of Ali stories to be told and with five parties planned to celebrate his birthday, including television specials and documentaries, we’ll get the chance to hear many of them. But even though it’s more subdued these days, Ali’s amazing journey continues. And the world’s a better place because of it.

With Floyd Mayweather Jr. calling Manny Pacquiao a punk on Twitter and challenging him to a showdown on May 5 it looks like a bout between the two is as close as ever. However, there are many skeptical fans who feel Mayweather’s challenge has been issued because he knows there’s no way a fight can be arranged for that date.

The 34-year-old Mayweather (42-0, 26 Kos) conveniently waited until Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum had announced that the WBO welterweight champion’s next bout would be on June 9 or 16 against either Lamont Peterson, Juan Manuel Marquez, Timothy Bradley or Miguel Cotto. Mayweather, the WBC welterweight king, also knows the MGM Garden in Las Vegas, where he’s scheduled to fight in May, is too small a venue to hold a fight between the top two pound-for-pound boxers in the world. This is a fight that could easily sell 50,000 tickets or more.

However, the 33-year-old Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 Kos) called his bluff by accepting the challenge, but there are many obstacles that need to be worked out for the fight to take place. One of the major issues of course is money. Arum will guarantee Pacquiao’s purse, but Mayweather needs somebody to guarantee his. It’s expected that both men will be looking for paydays of between $50 and $60 million and will share broadcasting revenue 50-50. Also, Arum said he’d want the fight to be held in late May at a temporary venue to be built in Las Vegas.

Mayweather had his jail sentence postponed by a judge in early January though, based in the fact he was fighting on May 5. He’s now scheduled to show up to jail on June 1 to serve his 90-day sentence. Constructing a venue in Vegas will also cost millions and doesn’t make sense when you consider the fight could be held at an existing arena anywhere in the U.S. or the world for that matter.

It seems that Mayweather may have known there are too many issues to hold the fight, but he may have put his foot in his mouth if all of the logistics can be worked out. It’d be hard for him to back out in that case. There’s no need to back out though anyway as he’d probably go into a fight with Pacquiao as the slight favorite.

Arum said if the fight with Mayweather doesn’t come off then Pacquiao will go ahead with his previous plans, which would likely be a June 9 date. However, you can probably strike Lamont Peterson’s name off of the list of potential opponents since the WBA has ordered a rematch between him and Amir Khan after several irregularities during their fight in December, which Peterson won by controversial split decision.

A mega fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather could still take place in May, but don’t count on it until a few more details have been ironed out. On the bright side, this is as close as the two have ever come to an agreement on a potential bout.

There’s going to be some major changes in amateur boxing once the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England have been completed. The biggest one will see the sport get rid of its controversial computerized scoring system and replace it with the controversial judging system, so don’t expect much to change. The AIBA (International Amateur Boxing Association, said it would rather see boxers try to win matches with their style instead of just by landing punches to a specific target area on their opponents’ bodies.

Ching-Kuo Wu, president of the AIBA, said he wants to close the gap between amateur and professional boxing since there are several major differences between the two sports. He believes the first step should be scrapping the robotic computerized scoring system. In addition, boxing’s world governing body said it’s also going to eliminate the headguards that are now worn by male boxers. However, female fighters will continue to wear them. This rule change will also take effect after the Olympics.

The AIBA is planning on launching a new competition known as the APB, which will basically be a professional version of the organization’s events. This pro offering is scheduled to take place in 2013 and it will enable amateur boxers to turn pro and earn money without having to fight for one of the sport’s popular and profitable sanctioning professional bodies, such as the WBC (World Boxing Council), WBA (World Boxing Organization, and IBF (International Boxing Federation).

Amateur boxing has used a computerized scoring system for several years now, but there’s a new one in place for this year’s Olympics, which was introduced for the first time at the men’s world championships in 2011. The scoring system is supposed to reduce the risk of boxing matches being fixed or rigged. Wu said it’s impossible to cheat when using the system, but didn’t really explain how. In most computerized boxing scoring systems a judge is supposed to press a button when the boxers land a scoring point.

However, this is easy to manipulate since a judge can simply ignore scoring shots or press the button whenever he or she feels like it. Even if the scores are averaged out, it doesn’t mean any or all of the judges are scoring the fight properly. But once the Olympics and, the amateur game will see the introduction of the 10-points must scoring system, which we definitely know can be manipulated to the extreme because it’s used in pro boxing.

Wu said judges are simply looking for punches that land in the computerized method and things such as footwork, speed, defense, ring generalship, and style aren’t taken into account. He pointed out that Muhammad Ali might not have always landed the most punches in his bouts, but he often won them because of his excellent boxing style. He said pro boxers do a lot more than just land punches.

Wu added that amateur judges and referees will have to be trained in the point system and this will take some time as they’ll all have to pass a related exam. The AIBA introduced WSB (World Series Boxing) a few years ago in which boxers were paid to fight for one of a dozen city-based boxing franchises. This was the first step into closing the gap with the pro game.

He said the boxers are paid salaries and there’s no reason they can’t fight until they’re about 40 years old when the APB launches. Wu claimed that boxers can still fight in amateur competitions such as Olympics and then return to making money with the WSB or APB.

The World Boxing Association (WBA) has ordered a rematch between Britain’s Amir Khan and American Lamont Peterson after finding several irregularities during their welterweight title fight in Washington DC last Dec. 10. The fight was for Khan’s WBA and IBF Jr. Welterweight titles and fought in Peterson’s hometown. Peterson dethroned Khan by taking the fight on a close and controversial split decision.

The WBA made the announcement on Jan. 13 and said the pair has 180 days to complete the rematch.  Khan’s promotion company, Golden Boy, protested the scoring of the fight because referee Joseph Cooper deducted two points, one each in the seventh and 12^th round from Khan, for pushing during the fight. Cooper also ruled that Peterson slipped to the canvas in the first round after he went down following a punch from Khan. Without the point deductions Khan would have retained his championships since he lost by scores of 113-112 on two cards and won 115-111 on the third.

However, rematches usually aren’t ordered in such circumstances, especially since the referee has the power to deduct points where he sees fit. But there were other issues that prompted the WBA to order the rematch. The most serious was the presence of Mustafa Ameen at ringside. This unauthorized individual was caught in photographs speaking to one of the judge’s during the fight and handling the judge’s scorecards.

The WBA said there were also discrepancies between the scorecards of the WBA and IBF and the Washington athletic commission. The photos that were published in newspapers and on internet sites across the world clearly show Ameen speaking with a judge while the fight was taking place, with the judge not watching the fight. This alone should be immediate cause for a rematch. Any judge who fails to watch the fight he’s scoring should also be suspended.

Richard Schaefer, the head of Golden Boy Promotions, said he’s thrilled that the WBA has ordered another fight and hopes it’s as good as the first one, which was easily one of the best of the year. In addition, the International Boxing Federation (IBF) also said that Ameen didn’t have any business being at ringside and will meet on Jan 18^th to decide if their version of the title will also be up for grabs in the rematch.

Ameen does some work for the IBF’s educational fund and the boxing organization requested a press pass for him. However, he had no other credentials and doesn’t work for either the IBF or WBA. He was also photographed celebrating in the ring after the fight. Ameen has been asked to attend the IBF meeting to explain what he was doing at ringside throughout the fight.

However, just because a rematch has been ordered it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to take place. Peterson could possibly give up the WBA belt or both of them for matter and then look for a bigger-money fight against Manny Pacquiao. It’s been reported that Pacquiao is scheduled to fight on June 9 against an unnamed opponent and Peterson is one of four opponents being considered. The others are Miguel Cotto, Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez.

But Pacquiao could even end up fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. if an agreement can be reached for a fight before Mayweather heads to jail on June 9 to serve his 90-day sentence for domestic abuse. If Pacquiao does meet Mayweather, there’s a good chance Peterson will go ahead with the rematch against Khan.

Shannon Briggs might be a blast from the past, but considering the current state of boxing’s heavyweight division he said he’s returning to the ring as both a boxer and promoter. Briggs has proved to be a pretty durable fighter over the years and has compiled a record of 51-6-1, with 45 KOs since turning pro back in 1992.

Briggs made his promotional debut on Jan. 7 at Hollywood, Florida’s Westin Diplomat Resort as a part of the Mexican “Solo Boxeo Tecate” televised series. The last time Briggs threw a punch for money was in October of 2010 when Vitali Klitschko beat him by decision to retain his WBC heavyweight crown.

However, Briggs, an asthmatic, was at a decided disadvantage since he tore the bicep in his left arm during the fight. Briggs won the linear heavyweight championship back in 1997 when he beat George Foreman on points and then he won the WBO heavyweight title in 2006 by stopping Sergei Liakhovich with just one second left in a fight he was trailing on all three judges’ scorecards.

Briggs said he’s ready to fight again and the report that he suffered orbital bones against Klitschko was untrue. He said it was just normal swelling and it’s healed along with his arm, which he had surgery on to repair. Briggs said he hopes to get back into the ring in March and wants to have a couple of tune up fights before hopefully getting a title shot.

He said he wants to add a human touch to the promotion side of boxing. Briggs claims that after the Klitschko fight he was basically left alone to fend for himself in a German hospital while his promoter was on the first plane back to the U.S. the very next day. He added that he agreed to take on Klitschko for $750,000 but ended up with just $25,000 following his 14-day stay in the hospital.

Briggs said he’s happy in his new job as promoter and is making pretty good money at doing something he’s very passionate about, which is marketing. He said that was actually his favorite part about fighting too, the marketing side of it. He said Don King paid him the ultimate compliment when he was acting as Briggs promoter when he told the fighter he was good at marketing himself. Briggs added that he doesn’t care what people say about him as long as they talk about him and that’s his motto when it comes to marketing himself.

Briggs had just turned 40 years old and it’s hard to say what he has left in the tank at his age. He always seemed to be a boxer that tired as the fight went on, but that can partly be because of his asthma. There’s no doubt that he has a lot of power. In fact, his 45 knockouts in 51 wins is one of the best knockout percentages in boxing history, not just the heavyweight division.

It’ll be interesting to see if he’s true to his word and does in fact return to the ring or if he’ll just stick to his day job as a promoter.

While the average Joe might be serving 34-years in prison right now, boxer Floyd Mayweather can count himself lucky that he copped a plea deal for a 90-day sentence. He then got lucky again when a judge delayed it so he can fight on May 5. Mayweather was facing 34 years in the slammer when he went to court near the end of 2011 on a host of domestic battery charges and made a deal that saw him walk away with just 90 days.

The WBC World Welterweight Champion was supposed to start serving his three months on Jan. 6, but Judge Melissa Saragosa ruled in Las Vegas that he will be free until June so he can fulfill his contractual obligations to fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The Clark County District Attorney’s Office opposed the request of the postponement from Mayweather’s lawyers, but to no avail.

The 34-year-old has the date for his next fight scheduled, but doesn’t even have an opponent lined up yet. A showdown with WBO welterweight king Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines is the fight the world wants to see to answer the question of who’s the best pound-for-pound fighter out there. However, that’s very unlikely to be the scenario in May since Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum has mentioned Timothy Bradley, Lamont Peterson, Juan Manuel Marquez, and Miguel Cotto.

Also, Pacquiao’s next fight will probably be on June 9^th or 16^th and the MGM Grand, where Mayweather’s going to be fighting, is too small for a showdown between the two. If and when Mayweather and Pacquiao do ever meet, it’s likely the fight will be held in a much bigger venue to maximize ticket sales and profits.

Mayweather was sentenced after pleading guilty in December to a charge of felony battery and no contest regarding two charges of harassment concerning an attack on Josie Harris, the mother of three of his children and threatening two of the kids. The original sentence was six months, but half of the sentence was then suspended by the judge.

The judge said one of the reasons that Mayweather’s jail sentence was postponed was because the city of Las Vegas benefits greatly when he fights there. She said that local businesses and hotels typically make a profit whenever major fights take place in the city as the events can often generate between $10 million and $15 million, not including any revenue from gambling.

But before anybody in Vegas can start counting their chickens before they hatch, Mayweather has to be granted a boxing license first since he doesn’t have one at the moment. Nevada officials want to speak to him before a license is issued because of his recent conviction. It may end up being nothing more than just a formality, but there’s still a chance that the Nevada State Athletic Commission could turn him down. The commission reportedly looks at a boxer’s character, integrity, experience, and skill when deciding whether or not to grant a license.

If that’s the case, then Mayweather could be in trouble when his character and integrity are looked at. Mike Tyson was denied a license back in 2002 following a brawl during a New York press conference, so there is a precedent. Perhaps the judge should have waited until Mayweather received a license to fight before she postponed his sentence?