Boxing

Heavyweight Brock Lesnar, speaking publicly Wednesday for the first time since suffering a major intestinal infection that could have ended his Ultimate Fighting Championship career, said he expects to return to the octagon in the summer. "I have a different outlook on life from this, but when it comes to fighting, I'll still be dishing out pain," Lesnar said. He anticipates fighting against the March 27 winner of the Frank Mir-Shane Carwin bout. After defending his UFC heavyweight title in July with a second-round demolition of Mir, Lesnar, 32, had to scrap two scheduled bouts with Carwin as he struggled through diverticulitis, a severe intestinal infection that can cause extreme pain and even prove fatal.

Staples Center has made a guaranteed $20-million offer to host the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. mega-fight that has been tentatively agreed on by the boxers to be fought March 13. "This is the biggest boxing event ever, and we're prepared to step up in a big way," said Dan Beckerman, chief financial officer for AEG, which runs Staples Center. Pacquiao and Mayweather have not officially agreed to the fight, but their promoters are already looking to secure a site for the lucrative bout that is the talk of the boxing community.

The official end of hope for a super-fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. came Sunday when Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum announced he had signed a deal to stage an alternate Pacquiao bout against Joshua Clottey on March 13 at Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Texas. Arum said Pacquiao will earn somewhere between $10 million and $20 million for the welterweight fight against Clottey (35-3), who lost a split decision to Miguel Cotto in his most recent fight in June. Cotto later suffered a 12th-round technical knockout loss to Pacquiao in November, as the Filipino star won his record seventh weight-division world title and probably clinched for the second straight time the honor of fighter of the year.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. is still pushing for a mega-fight with Manny Pacquiao, but key people around Pacquiao said Friday the Filipino star fighter's focus has shifted to a replacement foe, Joshua Clottey. "If you concede to whatever Mayweather wants, that's giving him an edge," Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach said Friday. "We're bigger than Mayweather. We don't need him. We don't work for him. "So, the way I feel now, we'll go fight Clottey, then we'll fight the winner of [Shane]

Unbeaten WBC welterweight boxing champion Andre Berto, saying he's "mentally and physically exhausted" from the devastation in his parents' earthquake-stricken home country Haiti, announced Monday he was withdrawing from his welterweight unification title bout against Shane Mosley, scheduled for Jan. 30 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. "I lost several family members to the earthquake and after two days without word was relieved to learn that my sister, Naomi, and her daughter, Jessica, survived but were left homeless," Berto said in a statement.

F eatherweight Bobby Chacon's eyes were glittering as brightly as the rhinestones on his black trunks. Finally, after eight ferocious rounds of one of the biggest and best fights in Los Angeles ring history, he was hearing the words he had been waiting for. Joe Ponce, Chacon's manager, motioned toward the other corner , where undefeated Danny (Little Red) Lopez was struggling to find life in his beaten body . "Danny's done.

Twenty-five years ago today, 4,200 people in a Lewiston, Me., high school hockey rink saw either boxing's most shameful charade or, depending on where they were sitting, a tired, old heavyweight knocked out by a perfectly legitimate punch. The Shame in Maine, some still call it. Others call it much ado about nothing. It was Clay-Liston II, a rematch of the controversial Cassius Clay-Sonny Liston fight 15 months earlier at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

The Golden Boy, at 60: Art Aragon is at his desk in his Van Nuys bail bond office, the one next to the tattoo shop. Through sunglasses in the dark office, he stares through the window at passers-by on Victory Boulevard. The phone rings. "HelloAragon," he mumbles. He listens briefly, then mumbles again, "Sorry, no collect calls," and abruptly hangs up. A visitor asks who it was. "Some guy in jail," he says. "He'll call back." Seconds later, the caller is back on the line--his nickel.

Sixty years ago today, two men climbed into a 20-foot ring in Chicago and for 40 minutes made the world stand still. Dempsey-Tunney II. The Long Count fight. In 1927, they called it the fight of the century. It might well have been. Radio was in its infancy, yet NBC estimated that on the night of Sept. 22, 1927, about 50 million people around the world heard Gene Tunney successfully defend his championship against Jack Dempsey.

As a combined guarantee of at least $50 million vanishes from what was expected to be the most lucrative bout in boxing history, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao voiced their differences Thursday, a day after the fight was declared to be off by Pacquiao's promoter. Mayweather released a statement pointing to Pacquiao as the one holding up the planned March 13 mega-fight and declaring, "I am ready to fight and sign the contract. Manny needs to stop making excuses, step up and fight."

Manny Pacquiao is back in town. Boxing is like phases of the moon, and Pacquiao is in the training phase. There will be a fight, all right. But not the one the world wanted, nor Pacquiao and his trainer, Freddie Roach. "I wanted Mayweather bad, real bad," Roach says. "I'm not angry at Floyd," Pacquiao says. "I just feel disappointed in his allegations." It is a Monday afternoon at Roach's Wild Card Gym in Hollywood. The air is stale, the noise often deafening and the entire place decorum-challenged, unless you are into wrinkled 1972 boxing posters.

Ask Brian Viloria how his boxing career has gone and he's likely to mumble something about Death Valley and Mt. Everest. He has been a world champion twice, the first time for a year, starting in September 2005, and now, starting last April. In between was the pits, known in boxing as the Alameda Swap Meet in South L.A. The facts: Viloria is 29, the International Boxing Federation champion at 108 pounds, and will defend his title in Manila on Saturday night against Carlos Tamara.

Heavyweight Brock Lesnar, speaking publicly Wednesday for the first time since suffering a major intestinal infection that could have ended his Ultimate Fighting Championship career, said he expects to return to the octagon in the summer. "I have a different outlook on life from this, but when it comes to fighting, I'll still be dishing out pain," Lesnar said. He anticipates fighting against the March 27 winner of the Frank Mir-Shane Carwin bout. After defending his UFC heavyweight title in July with a second-round demolition of Mir, Lesnar, 32, had to scrap two scheduled bouts with Carwin as he struggled through diverticulitis, a severe intestinal infection that can cause extreme pain and even prove fatal.

Manny Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, announced Tuesday that HBO pay-per-view will televise the March 13 Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey welterweight fight at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas. More than 1,500 fans plus the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders greeted Pacquiao and Clottey for their news conference Tuesday inside the stadium. Both fighters entered the stadium through the players' tunnel and said they felt like football players. "It was a fun announcement," Cowboys and stadium owner Jerry Jones said.

Unbeaten WBC welterweight boxing champion Andre Berto, saying he's "mentally and physically exhausted" from the devastation in his parents' earthquake-stricken home country Haiti, announced Monday he was withdrawing from his welterweight unification title bout against Shane Mosley, scheduled for Jan. 30 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. "I lost several family members to the earthquake and after two days without word was relieved to learn that my sister, Naomi, and her daughter, Jessica, survived but were left homeless," Berto said in a statement.

A picture is worth a thousand words. So let's make a visual out of the current state of boxing. Close your eyes and remember. October 1993. Las Vegas. The land is needed more than the building, so they fill the venerable Dunes Hotel on the Strip with dynamite, push a button and it implodes. January 2010. The good ol' USA. No dynamite, just stupidity and ego. Same thing happens. Boxing implodes. Last Sunday, promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank announced that Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines will fight Joshua Clottey of Ghana.

The official end of hope for a super-fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. came Sunday when Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum announced he had signed a deal to stage an alternate Pacquiao bout against Joshua Clottey on March 13 at Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Texas. Arum said Pacquiao will earn somewhere between $10 million and $20 million for the welterweight fight against Clottey (35-3), who lost a split decision to Miguel Cotto in his most recent fight in June. Cotto later suffered a 12th-round technical knockout loss to Pacquiao in November, as the Filipino star won his record seventh weight-division world title and probably clinched for the second straight time the honor of fighter of the year.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. is still pushing for a mega-fight with Manny Pacquiao, but key people around Pacquiao said Friday the Filipino star fighter's focus has shifted to a replacement foe, Joshua Clottey. "If you concede to whatever Mayweather wants, that's giving him an edge," Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach said Friday. "We're bigger than Mayweather. We don't need him. We don't work for him. "So, the way I feel now, we'll go fight Clottey, then we'll fight the winner of [Shane]

As a combined guarantee of at least $50 million vanishes from what was expected to be the most lucrative bout in boxing history, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao voiced their differences Thursday, a day after the fight was declared to be off by Pacquiao's promoter. Mayweather released a statement pointing to Pacquiao as the one holding up the planned March 13 mega-fight and declaring, "I am ready to fight and sign the contract. Manny needs to stop making excuses, step up and fight."

What began as a giggle has become a groan. The sport of boxing, the master of such things, has once again tangled the lines on its parachute. The next sound you hear could be the Pacquiao-Mayweather mega-fight crashing to the ground and disintegrating. This was to be the fight of the century, even though the century will only be 10 years and 10 weeks old on the scheduled date of March 13. It was to be the best against the best, former pound-for-pound king against current pound-for-pound king.