Boxing

FOR America's big-league sports, L.A. was a distant outpost for the first half of the 20th century, impressive for an off-season vacation, impractical as a home base. Before jet travel, any team moving to the West Coast would have presented a scheduling nightmare. The Rams, who played only once a week, were the first to make the leap, coming in the 1940s. The Dodgers followed in the late 1950s, the Lakers not until 1960. But boxing was different. Unencumbered by the need to regularly transport a full team a thousand miles or more, boxing found its way here even before the start of the last century.

It came as fast and swift as a punch thrown seconds after the opening bell. Boxer Floyd Mayweather held a media conference call Tuesday to promote his return to the ring Sept. 19 at Las Vegas' MGM Grand in a welterweight fight against Juan Manuel Marquez, but questions about two separate police cases quickly came up. "My main thing is to focus on the fight," Mayweather said. "Anything else, I'm not worried about. I try to focus on positive things." Las Vegas police are investigating a shooting outside a skating rink, and last week seized two handguns, ammunition and two bulletproof vests from Mayweather's home and two cars.

If the DVD highlights of his young career -- 11 knockouts in 15 fights -- aren't convincing enough, spending an afternoon talking boxing with Covina's John Molina will make it abundantly clear that the Southland has a rising star in its midst.

A 19-month layoff hasn't changed this about Israel Vazquez: When he senses urgency, he's at his best. One round after a ringside physician inspected a troubling cut over his left eyebrow, and struggling through a ring-rusted performance, Vazquez rallied to knock down Angel Priolo three times in the ninth round before referee Pat Russell stopped the featherweight fight at the 2:10 mark Saturday at downtown L.A.'s Nokia Theatre. With his cut worsening and two judges scoring the fight even, Vazquez (44-4, 33 knockouts)

Veteran boxing trainer Ronnie Shields has instructed multiple world champions, estimating the number to be 15. He predicts he's working with another champion in Glendale super-welterweight Vanes Martirosyan. A 2004 U.S. Olympian, Martirosyan flashed the powerful, fast right hand and stiff jab Friday night that have Shields excited.

Roy Jones Jr. was just too fast, even in a fight that happened several years too late. Jones pranced and punched his way to a unanimous decision over Felix Trinidad on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York, dominating a 170-pound matchup between two iconic boxers whose primes are well past. Jones (52-4), the sport's erstwhile pound-for-pound king, taunted the Puerto Rican champion while clowning his way through the early rounds of his first significant victory in four years.

The ongoing revival of boxing, boosted by bouts between the best fighters in the world, has an odd man out. His name is Paul Williams. He has a 33-0 record with 24 knockouts, a unanimous decision over former welterweight champion Antonio Margarito last July, and the intimidating tools that come with being a frequent-punching, 6-foot-1 southpaw with an 84-inch reach.

Before pro football came and went, before the Dodgers and Lakers left their hometowns to come here, boxing was the heart of the Los Angeles sporting world. From the early 1930s until the late 1940s, Jim Jeffries' Barn in Burbank drew boxing fans by the hundreds. Although it wasn't nearly as big as the 8,000-seat Olympic Auditorium, L.A.'s other storied boxing mecca, the musty pugilistic monument was as busy as it was beloved.

LAS VEGAS -- Kelly Pavlik didn't beat Jermain Taylor in the punishing fashion he did five months ago. He just won again, unanimously. Unloading a steady diet of jabs, with an ever-present dynamite right that wobbled Taylor in the 11th round, middleweight champion Pavlik remained unbeaten and left the ring unswollen as Taylor walked away disheartened with a puffed-up right eyebrow after the non-title rematch Saturday night in front of 9,706 at the MGM Grand.

Skill, training and determination have allowed Israel Vazquez to become a world champion boxer. The people who inspire those attributes can be found inside a small Huntington Park home, to which Vazquez returned last August after a grueling title fight in Hidalgo, Texas. With his two young children inside, a battered Vazquez first found his wife, Laura. He hugged her, and whispered reassurance: "We won."