Miguel

Nobody would fault middleweight boxing champion Kelly Pavlik for being a bit overconfident going into his match Saturday night. He might think, after all, that he is fighting a mama's boy. FOR THE RECORD: Boxing: Bill Dwyre's column in Tuesday's Sports section said Saturday's Kelly Pavlik-Miguel Espino fight would be an HBO pay-per-view event. It is a Top Rank Productions pay-per-view event. — At least that could be one perception of his opponent, Miguel (Mike)

One problem with talk about the A's relocating is there is no obvious market for MLB to move into. Charlotte and Las Vegas are possibilities but the most viable is probably Portland. There's less talk about a third New York team with the Mets sorting through financial difficulties ? Miguel Cabrera was expected to be a monster with Prince Fielder behind him but has inexplicably expanded his strike zone. He recently went 17 games in a row without a walk, the longest stretch of his career ?

No wonder writer-director Javier Fuentes-León's lyrical, poignant "Undertow" has been chosen as Peru's official entry in the foreign language category at the Academy Awards. Unfolding like a folkloric fable in beautiful Cabo Blanco, in an idyllic fishing community, it quickly casts a seductive, sensual spell. Beautiful Mariela (Tatiana Astengo) and her rugged fisherman husband, Miguel (Cristian Mercado), await the imminent birth of their first child. They are happy and content in this earthly paradise, inhabited by easygoing yet deeply religious people.

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.

Your piece on the death of Miguel Contreras ("Leader Who Restored Labor's Clout in L.A. Dies," Obituary, May 7) noted that he focused on advancing the influence of Latinos while building coalitions with African American pastors and community leaders. In fact, he worked toward true diversity in the labor movement. When I was president of my local, Miguel asked if my name could be put forward for a seat on the executive board of the L.A. County Federation of Labor. His reason? He said he needed more women on the board.

Down a fraying stretch of Wilmington Avenue, somewhere between Watts and Compton, past liquor marts and storefront churches and the spray-painted threats of Crips and Bloods, there is a corral. It is hidden from the street, behind a weathered Depression-era bungalow, up the driveway, through a chain-link fence, then another padlocked gate. Pavement gives way to dirt, thick with dung and feathers. A life-size poster of two barely clad Bud girls, nailed to a plywood wall, says: "Let's Fiesta!"

Guess what? Men and women are at war. The battle is ongoing, and the most lethal weapon in the field is raw sex, and plenty of it. Antonio Serrano's "Sex, Sweat and Tears," presented by Grupo de Teatro Sinergia at the Frida Kahlo Theater, makes that point early on and bludgeons it home for the next 21/2 hours. By all accounts, Serrano's muddled farce was a huge commercial hit in Mexico and later inspired a film.

A 15-year-old boy has been sentenced to four years in juvenile camp for firing a shot into the air that killed a 5-year-old Carson boy more than half a mile away. In a court hearing Tuesday so filled with heartache that even the judge wept, the teen-ager pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter because one of the bullets he fired March 11 hit the 5-year-old.

UFC 145 takes place from Atlanta Saturday night, headlined by a grudge match for the UFC light heavyweight title between champion Jon Jones and challenger Rashad Evans. We'll be providing ongoing coverage throughout the evening, beginning at around 4PM Pacific. UFC light heavyweight title: Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans Jon Jones is universally considered one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world. He has no real defeats (he was disqualified for illegal elbows in a fight that was basically finished in his favor before he threw them)

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.

LAS VEGAS — A big mistake while pondering Floyd Mayweather Jr. is to try to make sense of him. His unpredictability is his only certainty. It is well before noon Friday at the MGM Grand. This is not so much a resort and casino as it is a massive enclosed labyrinth of contrasts. Under the same roof, yet miles apart, unemployed dads lose the rent money to slot machines while Mayweather generates a throng of worshippers that symbolizes why he will increase his already hefty bank account by about $32 million.

LAS VEGAS — The antidote to Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s brash methods of remaining unbeaten might be stored away in a champion who doesn't talk very much. Miguel Cotto, Mayweather's Saturday night opponent in a World Boxing Assn. super-welterweight title fight at MGM Grand Garden Arena, has lost to only two men. The first was Antonio Margarito, who one fight later had plaster-caked inserts confiscated from inside his hand wraps. Fifteen months later, Cotto, after basically training himself, lost to Manny Pacquiao by 12th-round technical knockout.

There will be a rematch. At the end of Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s controversial, borderline-sucker-punch victory over Victor Ortiz in September, HBO boxing analyst Larry Merchant's post-fight interview with Mayweather took a personal turn. Mayweather accused Merchant of never giving him a break, and said angrily that HBO should fire the now 81-year-old, to which Merchant replied, "If I was 50 years younger, I'd kick your [rear]. " When Mayweather returns to the ring Saturday at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas against world super-welterweight champion Miguel Cotto, Merchant will help call the action, and has been assigned to post-fight interview duty even though the sport's top power broker has said he doesn't want to talk to the man. Are you surprised you got this assignment given HBO's reputation for catering to the wishes of Mayweather and his team?

LAS VEGAS — The volatility that defines Floyd Mayweather Jr. is rooted partly in the complex relationship with his father. Floyd Mayweather Sr.'s boxing lessons helped propel his son to unimaginable riches. The younger Mayweather gets another huge payday Saturday for his title bout against 154-pound champion Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. But there's tragedy in the familial connection, too, of lessons outside the ring that were left for the son to learn painfully on his own. On June 1, Mayweather Jr., 35, is scheduled to report to Clark County (Nev.)

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.

MEXICO CITY —Former Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid, who led the country amid economic meltdown and natural disaster in the 1980s but laid the groundwork for freer markets and political opening, has died. He was 77. De la Madrid died Sunday morning at a Mexico City hospital where he was admitted several weeks ago for lung disease. A smoker, he died of complications from the disease, the semi-official Notimex news agency reported. His death was also reported by President Felipe Calderon and the Foreign Ministry, as condolences poured in from politicians across the political spectrum.

Researchers have for the first time performed a successful bone marrow transplant to cure sickle cell disease in adults, a feat that could expand the procedure to more of the 70,000 Americans with the disease -- and possibly some other diseases as well. About 200 children have been cured of sickle cell with transplants, but the procedure was considered too harsh for adults with severe sickle cell disease. Now a team from the National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins University is reporting today in the New England Journal of Medicine that it has developed a much-less-toxic transplant procedure and used it to cure nine of the first 10 patients studied.

There are plenty of reasons to visit Querétaro, but it's the instability and conflict and violence that finally won me over. The instability of 1810, that is. The conflict of 1848. The violence of 1867. All set amid 18th century colonial architecture, surrounded these days by commerce and calm. Coming to this city in Mexico's central highlands, about 130 miles northwest of Mexico City, you get a glimpse of the 19th century days when Mexico was busy breaking free of Spain, losing about half of its land to the U.S., then deposing and executing a foreign-born monarch.

Miguel Cabrera , the Detroit Tigers' third baseman, became a bloody mess Monday when he was struck in the face by a ground ball hit by Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Hunter Pence. There are those who would suggest that the slugger, who hasn't played the position in three seasons, doesn't belong there. He's never been a particularly good defensive player in the major leagues, often hidden in left field or used as a designated hitter. Cabrera, a .317 lifetime hitter who has averaged 32 home runs and 115 runs batted in during his nine-year career, was the victim of an apparent bad hop. The hard-hit grounder took a big bounce when it hit the lip of the infield.

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.