Now What?

In the wake of probably the best welterweight fight in eight years, we now are left with the task of rebuilding our division depth chart and potential fights.

First, Floyd Mayweather retired a few months back, leaving the top spot for Miguel Cotto, who was stopped in the 10th round in Las Vegas Saturday night by Antonio Margarito in a terrific fight that was a wonderful representation of the skills of two fighters, as well as heart and the raw brutality of the sport. For a fan, it was just fun to watch.

In reevaluating the welterweight division, let's start with Margarito. Forget which organization recognizes which fighter. Margarito, while technically the WBA champion, is the No. 1 welterweight in the world. Call him THE world champion if you may, but he's the best. To be considered the best, all welterweights now need to go through him.

Aside from a Cotto rematch or a too lucrative to pass up fight with Oscar De La Hoya, Margarito's top challengers include Paul Williams, Shane Mosley, or the winner of Saturday's bout between Joshua Clottey and Zab Judah.

Personally, my preference would be a rematch with Williams, simply because Williams is hot and coming off a revenge blowout of Carlos Quintana and doesn't have his next fight signed yet, and there is some intrigue involved because when Williams beat Margarito in July 2007, it was Margarito's first welterweight loss in 11 years. And, it was a very close fight in which Williams dominated the first half of the fight, only to see Margarito come storming back over the second half of the fight.

Will it happen? Probably not. Williams is still 6-foot-2 and still a southpaw, and coming off a devastating knockout win. Margarito can beat Williams, but it's a huge risk with a Cotto rematch a possibility early in 2009.

Mosley would be interesting, but Sugar Shane has a HBO date in the September against Ricardo Mayorga at junior middleweight. Mosley is now 36, and while he can probably still make welterweight, would he have the motivation to do it for a fight with Margarito?

I'm not saying Margarito-Mosley doesn't happen, but it's unlikely and even if it did it would be sometime in '09.

Which leaves the winner of Clottey-Judah, scheduled for Las Vegas this weekend on HBO. Let me start by saying I'm not thrilled by this fight in the least bit. First of all, the fact that it's for a belt is ludicrous, because it's the belt Margarito beat Kermit Cintron for in April, and then vacated so he could face Cotto.

Secondly, I've seen Clottey five or six times, and I will not doubt that he is a solid, top 10ish type fighter, he's not one of the top three or four fighters at 147 pounds. He squeaked by Richard Gutierrez by majority decision in July 2006, which earned him a shot at Margarito. If there ever was a night Margarito was vulnerable it was that night, but after a fast start Clottey fell apart and blamed it on a broken hand, losing a wide decision. He responded with wins over Diego Corrales, Felix Flores, Shamone Alvarez and Jose Luis Cruz. Corrales was a big name because what he did at junior lightweight and lightweight, but he was moving up two weight classes and while a high-profile win for Clottey, he was hardly fighting a great welterweight. Flores was an unremarkable (i.e. boring) 12-round decision, as was his decision over Alvarez, which earned him a manadory shot at the IBF title. He blew out Cruz in a stay busy fight back in April.

But let's face it: Clottey is fighting for the IBF's belt because he's promoted by Bob Arum, who has masterfully manuevered himself into the position of unofficial promoter of the welterweight division. Arum knew if Margarito beat Cintron in April that Margarito would immediately vacate for the shot at Cotto. That would leave the belt vacant and give Clottey a shot at the belt. Arum then searched around for a TV date, found Judah, who was a big enough name to get HBO to sign on board.

Then, there's Judah. Since beating Cory Spinks for the top spot in the division in February 2005, Judah is 3-3 with one no contest, with two of those wins coming in his last two fights, after he lost three in a row to Carlos Baldomir, Mayweather and Cotto, with the no decision again Ruben Galvan thrown in. His two wins since getting stopped by Cotto in June 2007 were over Edwin Vasquez and Ryan Davis. Who?

It's amazing how fast Judah vaulted into the IBF's No. 3 position when HBO accepted him as an opponent for
Clottey.

That being said, should Judah beat Clottey, a fight with Margarito becomes probably an attractive one for camp Margarito because of Judah's name. If Clottey wins, what interest would be out there for a Margarito-Clottey rematch?

So, what will happen. If I had to guess there's a few scenarios:

* Judah wins, and Margarito faces Judah in November or December.
* Clottey wins, and Margarito does get Williams in line for a rematch in November or December.
* Margarito opts for a "victory lap" fight, maybe against someone like Luis Collazo.

As for Cotto, who I believe is still the No. 2 man in the division, he said upon returning to his native Puerto Rico that he'd like to get back in the ring before the end of the year. That's pretty ambitious considering the nature of his first professional defeat.

Does he take an easy fight in Puerto Rico to rebuild his confidence? There are names out there, including Jesus Soto Karass, who recently blew out David Estrada and is also promoted by Arum, or Demetrius Hopkins, who also was promoted by Arum. Kermit Cintron, who is planning a fall comeback fight after his own blowout loss to Margarito could be interesting, especially considering both are from Puerto Rico. Cintron, who is a promotional free agent, is probably the stage of his career where he'll take the most money possible.

As far as Williams goes, what does he do if he can't get a Margarito rematch? He's got a mandatory looming against someone named Michael Jennings. Yawn. There's been talk of him moving all the way up to middleweight for a fight with Kelly Pavlik or Winky Wright. He can wait for the Judah-Clottey winner himself. Either way, given how much trouble Arum and Williams promoter Dan Goossen have dealing with one another, I wouldn't count on Williams getting a fight with a Top Rank fighter any time soon.

The other name that hasn't been mentioned in Andre Berto, who also holds the WBC belt, which is an absolute joke. It's amazing that some consider the WBC's "green" belt as the most prestigious of the belts, because that organization is as corrupt as any and has been doing it right under everyone's noses for years. I love Berto (22-0, 19 KOs) as an up-and-comer, but who has he beaten to deserve any world title claim?

I don't know one person who'd ever seen his last opponent, Miguel Rodriguez, fight and that fight - a seven round blowout for Berto - was for a vacant title? Berto has fought nothing but no-hopers and shop-warn fighters like David Estrada and Cosme Rivera, and both of those guys gave Berto trouble. I don't blame promoter Lou DiBella for keeping Berto away from dangerous Top 10 opposition, because he's not ready yet, but to call him a world champion is absurd.

This all being said, Berto defends his belt against Steve Forbes on the Mosley-Mayorga undercard. Would anybody be surprised to see Forbes outbox and frustrate Berto for a huge upset.

There was a time not too long ago that the welterweight division was considered the best, and the deepest in boxing. In 2008, there's been some very good fights, as well, but with Mayweather's retirement, Mosley's age and Cotto's recent loss and some of the luster is off the top half of the division. And a check through the depth at 147 reveals a lot of no-names as well.

No question, however, Margarito-Cotto was a special night for boxing and for the welterweight division, but what's next remains a huge mystery.

Imagine Pacquiao vs. Hamed

In all the hub-hub surrounding Manny Pacquaio’s supposed ascension to the pound-for-pound top spot on the basis of his eighth-round stoppage of David Diaz for one version of the lightweight championship two weeks ago, my thoughts boxing wise have turned to a name from the not-so-distant past.

Remember Prince Naseem Hamed?

Go back to the late 1990s, up until April 2001, and Hamed was easily the hottest thing under welterweight in boxing — including Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

Back then Pacquaio was a no-name flyweight fighting for peanuts in the Philippines.

Naz had the flashy ring-entrances, the personality and the knockout punch that set the British boxing world on fire long before he knocked out Kevin Kelley in November 1997 in his U.S. debut in Madison Square Garden. It was after that when he became a sensation in the States as well. A can’t miss superstar.

When Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales fought their memorable first fight in 2000, that set the stage for huge fights to come for both against the Prince, as both Mexicans were set to move up from junior featherweight for that purpose.

As it turned out, Barrera exposed almost every flaw Hamed possessed when he undressed and embarrassed him in Las Vegas on April 4, 2001, on the way to a unanimous 12-round decision.

Forget the 12-round decision Hamed earned in his comeback fight against Manny Calvo in London a year later, his career ended that night against Barrera at the ripe old age of 27.

All the hype, all the flash and all the superstardom vanished just like that. It was just the beginning of a long string of negative nights for Hamed, who years after his last fight served time in a British prison for reckless driving that caused a serious injury to another driver.

There are those who followed Hamed from early in his career in Great Britain who say the decline started long before Barrera, however. He was at his best when he destroyed the likes of Juan Polo Perez, Steve Robinson, Daniel Alicea, Manuel Medina and Tom Johnson in a stretch from 1995-97. By the time he invaded the States for the Kelley fight, he wasn’t the same fighter. His lifestyle outside of the ring was affecting his performance in the gym and in his fights.

The same fighter who was knocked down by Kelley and taken the distance by the likes of Wayne McCullough and Cesar Soto was not the Naz that the Brits knew four or five years earlier.

I’m not sure I buy that, however.

First of all, his competition was much better when he left England. Nothing against the Aliceas, Medinas and Johnsons, who most American fight fans had actually heard of as opposed to the rest of Hamed’s early opposition, but Kelley and McCullough are very legitimate, world championship caliber fighters.

It’s hard for me to believe that Hamed was worse when he started being trained by Emanuel Steward than he was by his local trainers back in England.

And finally, Barrera was the only great fighter that Hamed ever fought in his career. He’s the only one close to being a Hall of Famer.

How do I evaluate the career of Prince Naseem Hamed?

I’m tempted to call him an absolute unadulterated fraud.

When finally defeated by a better fighter, his precious ego couldn’t handle it so he took his ball — not to mention millions — and went home.

But there is no question that his departure hurt the sport.

Yes, he was one of the main culprits who took advantage of HBO contracts that enabled him to fight nobodies like Soto and Augie Sanchez and Viyani Bungu for millions of dollars, along with the likes of Roy Jones and Mayweather, which definitely wasn’t good for boxing.

But he was a name, and the Barrera fight was supposed to be the first of a long string of huge fights that would have attracted a lot of attention — and fans — in a time when fans were making a mass exodus from boxing.
Imagine the slugfest he might have had with Morales. Like Barrera, Morales was a better boxer than Hamed, but could he have stayed away from a war, especially with the way the Prince would have goaded him in the prefight buildup. He could have eventually fought Marquez. Who knows? Maybe a super, super fight with Mayweather, who was fighting at 130, just four pounds north of Hamed’s 126, would have taken place.

And this was a thin, thin featherweight too. In his entire career he never fought about 126 pounds. Who’s to say he couldn’t have moved up the way Barrera, Morales, Marquez and Pacquaio have through the years?
Goodness, could you imagine an all-British superfight with Ricky Hatton?

But the fight that almost makes this writer’s mouth water was one that could have eventually happened between the Prince and the Pac-Man.

When Hamed fought Kelley in ’97, Pacquaio was still a year away from winning the WBC flyweight title.

But had Hamed still been around, this is a fight that eventually would have happened. Probably at 126, too. In November 2003, Pacquaio embarrassed Barrera in his featherweight debut. At that point, Hamed was just 29.
Who would have won?

It depends. Pacquaio is a better fighter in 2008 than he was in ’03. Back then he was a seek and destroyer and usually it worked. But something about him changed when he drew with Marquez in May 2004 and lost to Morales in ’05. He developed a Plan B.

Yes, he still likes to seek and destroy, as a limited but courage-filled fighter like David Diaz can attest, but he can box his way around the ring to set up the eventual destruction. And if he doesn’t come, he’s perfectly capable and willing to accept a decision.

It’s hard to imagine, Naz Hamed would have stood much of a chance against this Manny Pacquaio, who is a better boxer and a much busier fighter. Remember Hamed was never a volume puncher. He was much more awkward than he was fundamentally sound. Everything was about the bomb.

Maybe in ’03, however, Pacquaio would have wanted to test his machismo against Hamed. Who really was the hardest hitting 5-foot-4 fighter in the world?

Such a fight may have been electric.

Which gets back to my gut feeling that Naseem Hamed cheated the sport of boxing.

That, above all the else will be his legacy.