Bout

Fedor Emelianenko stopped Brett Rogers in the second round in a Strikeforce M-1 Global heavyweight bout Saturday night. Emelianenko (31-1) landed a right hook that sent Rogers (10-1) down to the mat, and Emelianenko followed with a set of punches to Rogers' face. Referee John McCarthy ended the fight at 1:48 in the second round. "If Brett would like to have a rematch, why not?" Emelianenko said through an interpreter after the fight. The win didn't come easy for Emelianenko.

Manny Pacquiao's skyrocketing popularity created chaos that no mere mortal could be expected to balance. Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 knockouts) appeared more human than ever in his last fight, however. As he prepares now for his next bout June 9 against Timothy Bradley, Pacquiao and his trainer acknowledge Everyman's frailty has been his most imposing contender. "All the distractions caught up to Manny in his last fight," Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach said Thursday of the boxer's narrow decision over Juan Manuel Marquez in November.

Herschel Walker used to tell friends at the University of Georgia that he aspired to be considered one of the greatest athletes in history. "And not just in football," Walker recalled this week. Since running the Bulldogs to the 1980 national championship and winning the Heisman Trophy in 1982, Walker rushed for more than 13,000 yards in the USFL and NFL, then retired in 1997 with the second-most all-purpose yards in NFL history. During his pro football career, he also earned a spot on the 1992 Olympic two-man bobsled team, and won television's "Superstars" event three times.

LAS VEGAS — At the end of a tough, long night, Floyd Mayweather Jr. was left staring at a June 1 jail sentence and a boxing landscape that he seems to believe cannot deliver another quality opponent. The unbeaten 35-year-old champion late Saturday said he's leaning "80-20" toward retirement. "If it was my last fight, I gave them a bang," Mayweather (43-0) said after his unanimous-decision (118-110, 117-111, 117-111) triumph over Puerto Rico's Miguel Cotto (37-3) at the MGM Grand.

Cris Arreola's a big underdog now, just like Cassius Clay was to Sonny Liston all those years ago. No one is yet forecasting unbeaten Arreola (27-0, 24 knockouts) as the next Muhammad Ali, but in a heavyweight division and sport looking for greater public interest, the 28-year-old from Riverside is trying to become the first heavyweight champion of Mexican ancestry. "The only guy the general population usually knows in boxing is the heavyweight champion, or a celebrity fighter like Oscar De La Hoya or Sugar Ray Leonard," said HBO boxing analyst Larry Merchant.

Abner Mares has built a boxing career on overcoming adversity. He survived a family migration from Mexico to L.A. led by his mother, withstood a childhood in poverty and then rebounded from a career-threatening detached retina in 2008. So when Mares' scheduled Saturday night opponent, Joseph Agbeko, withdrew from the world bantamweight title unification bout at Nokia Theatre, Mares knew what to do: look for the silver lining. "This is the worst, all the training and hard work put on hold," Hawaiian Gardens' Mares said Thursday at the L.A. Live news conference intended to hype the bout.

Greg Haugen of Auburn, Wash., stopped Charlie (White Lightning) Brown of Sherman Oaks at one minute of the first round in their scheduled 10-round lightweight bout Friday night. Haugen (14-0-1) needed just one punch to stop Brown (27-3). Haugen landed a left hook to the head as Brown stepped into the punch. Brown was up at the count of five, but referee Carlos Padilla stopped the bout.

Local fighter Tim Williams will meet Israel Cole in a 10-round middleweight bout to highlight tonight's fight card at the El Cortez Hotel. After winning his first 10 professional fights, Williams (11-2) has dropped two of three bouts. He will meet South Africa native Cole (5-2-1), who has a professional win over highly regarded Herman Cavasuela and an amateur victory over Olympic silver medalist Virgil Hill.

Undefeated featherweight Robert Garcia of Oxnard will fight tonight before his hometown fans for the first time in his two-year professional career. His opponent in the eight-round bout at the Oxnard Civic Auditorium will be James Dean of Planada, Calif. Garcia, 19, is 9-0 including eight knockouts, and is coming off a second-round KO of Hector Diaz of Mexico in Del Mar on Jan. 8. On the undercard, Shane Mosley of Pomona (8-0, eight knockouts) will face Lorenzo Garcia (20-16) of Caldwell, Ida.

Sugar Ray Leonard, carrying the medical seal of approval from a number of doctors, will return to the ring April 6 to challenge Marvelous Marvin Hagler for the middleweight championship of the world in the richest fight in history, promoter Bob Arum announced today.

LAS VEGAS — The two prime ribs of boxing, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, continue to create their sizzle separately. Their fight of the century, any century, seems to be going the way of the Edsel and the eight-track tape. Passage of time doesn't heal all, but it sure does dull things. It is Mayweather's time now. Boxing is nothing if not a huge attention grab, and Mayweather is in the center ring of the circus he so deeply loves. He will fight Miguel Cotto at the MGM Grand here May 5, and that correctly has the current spotlight.

NEW YORK — A federal court judge sentenced convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to 25 years in prison on Thursday, but in a swipe at prosecutors said there was no convincing evidence that he would have committed crimes they alleged if he had not been the target of a sting operation. Judge Shira Scheindlin gave the 45-year-old Bout, known as the "Merchant of Death," the minimum mandatory sentence for conspiring to acquire and use antiaircraft missiles. She also sentenced him to 15 years on three other counts of conspiracy to kill Americans and conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC.

You won't believe what Mike Tyson's going to do now. The former world heavyweight boxing champion rarely fails to grab attention, whether it be with his powerful brawling style, his stunning fall from sporting grace, his ear biting of Evander Holyfield, the facial tattoo or his appearances in "The Hangover" films. Tyson, 45, now is preparing for some reflection, as defined perhaps only by him. First, he'll enter the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame on Saturday before Wrestlemania XXVIII that night.

In a playground of slides and swings, children dug in the sand next to a string of simple dirt mounds that covered the bodies of at least 40 people. The makeshift graves, which extended nearly from one end of the park to the other, held those killed in the last two weeks of government attacks on this capital of the northern Syrian province of Idlib. "This park used to be for recreation and play. Now it has been turned into a cemetery," a grandmother said, wiping her eyes as she walked along the park's fence.

Tired of being disappointed because there isn't a Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao fight? Miguel Cotto is here to try to slug out your frustrations. "I didn't care about hearing one more thing about that," Cotto said Thursday, appearing in Hollywood to promote his May 5 bout against the unbeaten Mayweather. "My next step is Mayweather. If people want to see that [Mayweather-Pacquiao] fight, they have to wait until I beat Mayweather. " Cotto (37-2, 30 knockouts), the World Boxing Assn.

Spend enough time around hard-core boxing followers, and their opinions begin taking the shape of gospel. Timothy Bradley is stronger and younger than Manny Pacquiao, the argument starts. Some say that Pacquiao was "exposed" as an older, less powerful fighter in his narrow November decision over Juan Manuel Marquez. And that Bradley, 28, can beat Pacquiao, 33, in their June 9 fight at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Wait, what? "It's a tough test, this is a young guy coming up to take on the established guy and being undefeated can make you highly resilient to losing," Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach said about Bradley during a Beverly Hills news conference Tuesday.

A Marine recruit who collapsed from a blow to the head during a boxing match six days ago died from the injury Friday, officials said. Pvt. Paul Resce, Jr., 18, of Romeoville, Ill., died from a blood clot in the brain, a subdural hematoma, suffered during the third round of a bout with another recruit last Saturday at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, a spokesman said. "His parents were with him when he died," Maj. Jerry Broeckert said.

A professional boxer who escaped from the state prison camp at Rifle, Colo., three years ago and was arrested last summer after fighting in a nationally televised bout was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday. District Judge Thomas Ossola imposed the sentence on John Edward Garcia, who pleaded guilty to a charge of escape. Garcia also had his name changed legally Tuesday to Roberto Medina, the name he has used since his escape. Medina was arrested July 20 in Norfolk, Va.

They served lunch Tuesday at a Manny Pacquiao news conference. That was quickly followed by some real food for thought. The official fanfare was for the announcement of Pacquiao's next fight, a June 9 Las Vegas matchup with Tim Bradley of Palm Springs. That was not news. Everybody who cares knows everything about Pacquiao the Top Rank Promotion machine is willing to make public. Its job is to hype and sell, and seldom has a promotional firm had more to work with than the likable, recently unbeatable boxing congressman from the Philippines.

Reporting from Airway Heights, Wash. — Mikaela Mayer can call on a number of weapons each time she steps into a boxing ring. She has a good jab, for example, a strong right hand and a long reach that keeps opponents away. Her most valuable asset, though, may be the giant chip she keeps on her shoulder. Heading into the first-ever U.S. Olympic boxing trials for women, Mayer thought she was being overlooked in a lightweight division headed by five-time national champion Queen Underwood.