Boxing

Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao have selected their next opponents and - to no one's surprise - they will once again NOT be facing each other.

On May 5, Mayweather will move up to junior middleweight to challenge Miguel Cotto for Cotto's WBA title.

Mayweather, who was granted a license despite facing an 87-day jail sentence, was supposed to begin his sentence on January 6 but the star of Venada pushed his report date back to June 1.

On June 9, Manny Pacquiao will defend his WBO welterweight title against undefeated WBO junior welterweight champion Timothy Bradley Jr..

There's no question that both Mayweather-Cotto and Pacquiao-Bradley are very good fights ... but there's also no question that fight fans would happily trade both for one - increasingly unlikely - Mayweather-Pacquiao bout.

Angelo Dundee, the Hall of Fame trainer who guided Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard and George Foreman to world titles, has died in Clearwater, Florida at the age of 90.

Dundee's other champions included Carmen Basilio, Willie Pastrano, Jimmy Ellis, Luis Rodriguez, Ralph Dupas, José Nápoles, Sugar Ramos, Pinklon Thomas, Trevor Berbick, Wilfredo Gómez and Michael Nunn.

With Dundee's passing, the sport of boxing has lost one of its greatest ambassadors.

More:
The Last Sweet Man in Boxing: The Life of Angelo Dundee - by Dave Kindred, Grantland.com

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. retained his WBC middleweight title with a twelve round unanimous decision over tough Marco Antonio Rubio. Scores were 118-110, 116-112, and 115-113. Chavez Jr. struggled to make weight - and then put on nearly 22 pounds in the 30 hours between the weigh-in and the fight - but looked strong throughout and did not fade down the stretch. However, he reportedly skipped a mandatory post-fight drug test so there may be more to this story. Combine this with his arrest for drunk driving just two weeks prior to the fight and it looks like the 25-year-old Chavez still has a lot of maturing to do before he's ready to face the real middleweight champion Sergio Martinez.

Punch Stats: Total Punches - Chavez Jr.: 237 of 560 (42%); Rubio: 201 of 962 (21%). Power Punches: Chavez Jr.: 209 of 429 (49%); Rubio: 157 of 653 (24%).

In the co-feature, Nonito Donaire, a top five pound-for-pounder, moved up in weight to claim the vacant WBO super bantamweight title with a tougher than expected twelve round split decision over former champ Wilfredo Vazquez Jr.. Donaire dropped Vasquez in round nine with an uppercut, left hook combo but Vasquez popped right up and remained competitive until the final bell. Donaire hurt his left hand early in the bout and - unlike many fighters who claim an injured hand to excuse a poor performance - the tape on Donaire's hand was soaked with blood when his glove was removed after the fight. Scores were 117-110 twice for Donaire and an atrocious 115-112 for Vasquez from judge Ruben Garcia, who somehow only gave four rounds to Donaire. Add Garcia to the long list of judges who should find another line of work.

Punch Stats: Total Punches - Donaire: 231 of 556 (42%); Vasquez Jr.: 163 of 548 (30%). Power Punches: Donaire: 147 of 245 (60%); Vasquez Jr.: 56 of 163 (34%).

Andre Berto suffered a ruptured left biceps while training yesterday. The injury will require surgery and forced the indefinite postponement of his rematch with Victor Ortiz, which had been scheduled for February 11 in Las Vegas. The entire card, which was also slated to include Erislandy Lara vs. Ronald Hearns and Gary Russell Jr. vs. Dat Nguyen, has been canceled.

Depending on how long Berto is sidelined, Ortiz may take an interim bout before the rematch is rescheduled.

Tom Molineaux was born a slave in Virginia in 1784. In 1810, he fought for the heavyweight championship of England in one of the most important fights in the history of boxing. Just eight years later, a penniless Molineaux died of liver failure in Ireland at the age of 34. He was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1997. This is his story ...

A Fighter Abroad - by Brian Phillips, Grantland.com

After a quiet start to 2012, boxing will really begin to heat up in February with the following fighters all scheduled to be in action: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Nonito Donaire, Andre Berto, Victor Ortiz, Vitali Klitschko, Paul Williams, Chris Arreola, Marcos Maidana, Devon Alexander and Adrien Broner.

Check out our complete fight schedule for more details.

Freddie Roach, widely regarded as the best trainer in boxing today, is the subject of HBO's six-part series "On Freddie Roach", which premiered this weekend.

The 51-year-old, who trains Manny Pacquiao, Amir Khan and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., suffers from Parkinson's disease.

HBO does a great job with sports documentaries and this one is no exception. Be sure to check it out.

On Freddie Roach: Preview HBO's behind the scenes look at the day-to-day life of boxing's top trainer.

Heavyweight boxing legend Muhammad Ali turned 70 years old this week. He celebrated at a private fundraiser in the Muhammad Ali Center in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.

How did Ali prove his greatness? By taking on the very best fighters of his era. Ali fought Sonny Liston, Floyd Patterson, Jerry Quarry, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Ron Lyle, Earnie Shavers, George Foreman, Leon Spinks and Larry Holmes a combined total of 18 times!

Today, fight fans will feel lucky if Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. face each other once ...

Floyd Mayweather Jr. was able to get the start of his jail term pushed back so he can fight on May 5 and now he's calling out Manny Pacquiao. So we're finally going to see the super fight that every boxing fan has been waiting years to see, right? Not so fast.

When Pacquaio was steamrolling Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto, it looked like Mayweather was ducking Pacquiao with his requests for Olympic-style drug testing. Now that Pacquiao has looked increasingly vulnerable while winning his last four fights by decision, Mayweather suddenly wants the fight. Pretty Boy turning 35 in February and facing jail time (87 days) are also undoubtedly factors in his apparent willingness to finally risk his undefeated record in order to secure the biggest payday in boxing history.

Unfortunately, now it looks like Pacquiao (or at least his promoter Bob Arum) is the one responsible for avoiding the fight. Over the past few days, Arum has offered a series of excuses for why the fight can't happen in May:

* Pacquiao's cuts from his November 12 bout with Juan Manuel Marquez will not be healed in time. Not buying it.

* Fight fans want to see a fourth fight between Pacquaio and Marquez. No they don't, not compared to Pacquiao vs. Mayweather.

* Let's wait until Las Vegas finishes building a 45,000 seat boxing arena so everyone can make even more money. Somewhat plausible.

What do you think? Will Manny and Floyd finally get it on this year? Or maybe next year? Or will we never see the two best pound-for-pound fighters of this generation face each other in the ring? Vote in our poll.

2011 was another up-and-down year for the sport of boxing with a number of memorable bouts, a heavy dose of controversy and - once again - no super fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr.. With the year almost over and no big fights remaining on the schedule, it's time to start handing out annual awards.

For each category, we'll offer a group of finalists. First up is 2011 Fighter of the Year, and the finalists are:

Jorge Arce (3-0, 3 KOs)
Lucian Bute (3-0, 2 KOs)
Miguel Cotto (2-0, 2 KOs)
Nonito Donaire (2-0, 1 KO)
Hernan Marquez (3-0, 3 KOs)
Manny Pacquiao (2-0)
Brandon Rios (3-0, 3 KOs)
Orlando Salido (3-0, 3 KOs)
Brian Viloria (2-0, 1 KO)
Andre Ward (2-0)

Honorable mention goes to Bernard Hopkins for his age-defying decision win over Jean Pascal in May. Hopkins was left off the list because, in his only other bout of the year, he looked like he was going to be in for a long night against Chad Dawson before the bout ended in controversy.