It hasn’t really been a great week for boxing with Wladimir Klitschko beating David Haye by a unanimous boring decision in Germany on July 2 and Paul Williams winning a controversial majority decision over Erislandy Lara seven days later in Atlantic City.

The Klitcshcko-Haye bout, which was to unify the WBA, IBF, and IBO heavyweight titles, was a monumental letdown because of all the trash talking Haye produced before the fight. If he would have fought just half as creatively in the ring as he did when coming up with insults for the Ukrainian giant we might have had a hell of a fight. Unfortunately, his tongue is sharper than his boxing skills.

As for the Williams vs Lara Jr. middleweight scrap at Boardwalk Hall, the consensus is that both of Lara’s hands should have been raised in the ring since was the victim of grand larceny. For those who watched the HBO broadcast on July 9, there was no other way to feel since the commentators Bob Papa, Max Kellerman, Roy Jones Jr., and Harold Lederman continuously told us so.

In fact, according to those four experts, Williams not only lost the fight decisively by a wide margin, but he should also retire. They have the right to their opinions and I respect that. But there were only three opinions that really mattered at ringside and they belonged to the judges who had the fight scored 114-114, 115-114, and 116-114.

I also believe Lara should have been given the nod because he landed the better shots while Williams missed the majority of his, landing just 19 per cent of them. But the real problem with the HBO commentary was the constant questioning of Williams’ place in the sport. Here we have a guy who’s just 29 years old with a 40-2 record with 27 knockouts. His two losses coming by unanimous decision to Carlos Quintana in 2008 and a brutal second-round KO loss to Sergio Martinez in his last fight in November.

But Williams has beaten some top opponents along the way, including a majority decision over Martinez in their first meeting and a first round TKO over Quintana in their rematch. He’s also beaten Winky Wright, Kermit Cintron, Verno Phillips, Antonio Margarito, Walter Matthysse, and Sharmba Mitchell, winning the WBO Welterweight crown with his win over Margarito.

Now, this isn’t a bad record at all, regardless of his gift decision win over Lara (15-1-1, 10 KOs). I thought people like Williams are what the sport of boxing should be proud of, guys with a lot of heart, who are aggressive and give their best effort night in and night out. I also thought that boxing always meant hitting your opponent and getting hit back.

Obviously, boxers try to get hit as little as possible, but that’s what the sport’s about. No matter how good you are you’re going to get hit back. Williams got nailed with some solid shots by Lara, but he never appeared to be hurt or dazed once during the 12 rounds. Williams had a 10 lb. weight advantage, a five-inch height advantage, and about a 12-inch reach advantage. I’m sure if Lara’s punches were bothering him that much he would have changed his game plan to avoid getting nailed with the left hand.

But according to the HBO team, Williams was being battered from post to pillar and the honorable and smart thing for him to do after the fight would have been to retire. This is something I just don’t understand. Did they expect Williams to go 12 rounds without getting hit once and if he did suffer his third career defeat that was sufficient cause to retire?

Just because a fighter gets hit repeatedly during a bout and suffers cuts and a bloody nose it doesn’t mean he’s always in danger. Lara’s punches didn’t seem to have any effect on Williams as evidenced by his 12-round output of 1047 punches to Lara’s 530.

As I said, this isn’t about who won the fight, it’s about going too far when criticizing a boxer’s performance. I’m all for safety in the ring, but saying Williams should retire because of this fight is a little far-fetched. Just compare his heart and effort to that of Haye against Klitschko a week before and ask yourself who is a better advertisement for the sport.

A boxer doesn’t necessarily lose his skills with age. Some of them lose it long before that and realize it’s time to get out of the sport. There are the odd few that can continue fighting at an elite level well into their 40s. In this era, the top two that come to mind are George Foreman and Bernard Hopkins, both who won world titles in their mid-40s.

Others have tried to emulate the success of these two, such as Evander Holyfield and Roy Jones Jr. and have met with varying degrees of success.  Ironically, when 46-year-old Hopkins became the oldest boxer in history to win a world title on May 21^st by beating Jean Pascal, 42-year-old Roy Jones Jr. was getting knocked out half way across the world in Moscow.

While Jones used to be one of the world’s best boxers, he just doesn’t seem to have it anymore. Whereas Hopkins was never spectacular in the first pace, but just keeps on going and going. But Jones didn’t lose it overnight when he got knocked out with a few seconds to go in his fight with Dennis Lebedev of Russia .

Jones’ (54-8,  40 Kos) downfall can be traced all the way back to 2004 when Antonio Tarver knocked him out in the second round. He was brutally knocked out again just four months later by Glen Johnson and then waited a year before fighting again, losing a unanimous decision to Tarver. This was probably the most telling sign he should retire as Jones, a superior boxer, seemed to be gun shy and was outboxed by an opponent he would have easily beaten in his prime.

Jones then reeled off three straight decision victories decent opponents before losing on points to awkward Joe Calzaghe. But he was knocked out in just 122 seconds when he travelled to Australia to take on Danny Green in 2009. In fact, Jones has been knocked out in four of his eight losses and has lost three fights in a row twice. On top of that, he’s lost seven of his last 12 fights.

Things would be different if he was losing fights by close decisions, but he’s been getting knocked out at an alarming rate. He can’t be fighting for the love of the sport anymore because getting knocked unconscious can’t be any fun, no matter how sadistic you may be.

It’s believed Jones went all the way to Russia to fight Lebedev for $500,000, which is money he desperately needs to pay the American tax man. If this is so, it shows how important financial advisers  are to athletes, especially boxers. Jones has made well over $100 million during his career, but is now putting his life on the line to settle issues with the IRS.

Only Jones knows what happened to all of his money, but it’s known that he has financially helped out his friend Gerald McClellan, who suffered permanent brain damage in a fight back in 1995. Being around McClellan, Jones knows all too well what can happen to a fighter who suffers a permanent injury. But after he came to from the Lebedev beating he said he still might carry on boxing.

Jones is caught between a rock and a hard place. He has other interests, such as music and basketball, but realistically he knows it’s a good bet that he can earn big paydays by stepping into the ring. As long as fighters like Jones, who are just shells of their former selves, keep on fighting, there’s a good chance retirement will no longer be an option to them unfortunately.

Manny Pacquiao is not just the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world today, he’s also a massive draw with fellow pros.

But he might just lose his status as No.1 in the hearts of fellow Filipinos soon, if Nonito Donaire continues his rise to fulfill his belief that “God has a plan and I have faith in God’s plan” to see him unify the belts at bantamweight.

Donaire, the newly-crowned WBO/WBC champ, arrived in Manila yesterday morning, his flight having taken the Bohol boxer all the way from Los Angeles to the Philippines to spend three weeks observing the Pac-Man in training.

Manny, who began his high-altitude training sessions last weekend in Baguio City, has also been joined, of course, by his trainer Freddie Roach and conditioning coach Alex Ariza, while British light-welterweight star Amir Khan came in on the same flight.

Khan has been lined up to face Northern Irishman Paul McCloskey back in England on April 14 to defend his WBA crown, but, as he is training under Roach, will join Manny some time over the next few days.

Pacquiao began light training last week as he gets in shape for his bout with American Shane Mosley in Las Vegas on May 7. He has so far put in some morning roadwork, a few games of basketball, and a few sessions in the mitts with long-time trainer and friend Buboy Fernandez.

Also there are the Pac-Man’s frequent sparring partners, undefeated welterweight Shawn Porter, from Akron in Ohio, and David Rodela, who is also Khan’s sparring mate, as well as Filipina WBO bantamweight Ana Julaton – a recent winner against Francesca Alcanter.

However, although these coaches and boxers are there to work with or watch Manny, 28-year-old Donaire – who stopped Fernando Montiel in the second round to pick up the crowns on February 19 – is fast becoming a favorite with a nation now engrossed with their potent pugilists.

Donaire deserves the adulation, too, having become only the third Asian fighter – and second Filipino after the great man – to hold titles in three different divisions, with crowns also in flyweight and super-flyweight.

When Mexican Montiel landed a right to Donaire’s head in Las Vegas as month, the Filipino Flash responded with a devastating left he believes was “the hardest punch of my career” that left his opponent crumpled on the canvas. But Montiel somehow got back to his feet, only for Donaire to rush over and land a left then a right that resulted in referee Russell Mora stopping the bout just five minutes and 25 seconds in.

Now ranked No.3 in the world’s pound-for-pound ratings behind Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr, Donaire – $350,000 the richer after his latest victory – will return to the United States at the end of the month to prepare for his next fight, which he hopes will be a unification bout with WBA holder Anselmo Moreno, of Panama, at the Oakland Coliseum on May 28.

Top Rank chairman Bob Arum is attempting to set that clash up, although no contract has yet been signed, while promoter Gary Shaw wants Moreno to face Venezuelan Lorenzo Parra ahead of Donaire.

With Donaire’s contract with Top Rank up in a few months, there has been speculation that Golden Boy Promotions will sign the in-demand Filipino. But he’s just looking to get back in the ring to face whoever manager Cameron Dunkin and Arum sign up as his next opponent.

No matter who is lined up, though, three boxing legends believe Donaire is poised to become as big a star as Manny – especially after his destruction of Montiel.

Former world champion Roy Jones Jr reckons “God had blessed this kid with wonderful talent”, while Mexican legends Julio Cesar Chavez and Marco Antonio Barrera – while commentating on the fight – said Donaire gave “an amazing performance”.

The rightly confident Donaire described himself as “a monster” after the Montiel fight. Certainly, he’s set to become a monster box office star in the world of boxing very soon.