By Bart Barry–

DEL RIO, Texas – A few miles south of here begins the Mexican state of Coahuila, and about 40 miles north of here begins Devil’s River State Natural Area, and if you’re wondering which is more hospitable, it is Mexico – by far. There are lovely places whose brochures promise romantic getaways, and then there are mere getaways, places in America where one is likely to be found only by accident and a man on a burro. Devil’s River is the latter.

About 800 miles southwest of here, though decidedly in the same biotic region, Mexican Jhonny “Jhonny” Gonzalez beat down countryman Jorge “El Travieso” Arce, Saturday, causing referee Johnny Callas to wave the match off at 2:43 of round 11, in Arce’s home pueblo of Los Mochis, Sinaloa. Gonzalez, aficionados will recall even if Showtime programmers will not, stretched Showtime-developed titlist Abner Mares in one round, 14 months ago, and evidently got banned from the network for doing so.

Gonzalez-Arce was certain to be a better match than what last brought Arce to American premium cable, when Travieso was served hot to Nonito Donaire 22 months ago on an HBO platter, but Showtime, whose boxing coverage is in a shambles, televised instead another eyesore, this time from a casino in Connecticut, where a slate of shabby Al Haymon-managed fighters were plying their limited wares. Arce, who retired after Donaire iced him in 2012, returned, according to Arce, to win another title in another weight class, and while that might still hold meaning in noble and proud if benighted Mexico, here in the U.S. we measure greatness by a more-sophisticated metric: How many networks have you razed?

Word came last week, on a media shuttle no less, undefeated manager Al “The Annihilator” Haymon, having torn apart HBO in a six-year knockout and having destroyed Showtime in half that mark, has called-out NBC Sports Network, despite its eponymous relationship with a non-cable broadcaster, in a match that promises to include more offensive brilliance from today’s best technician. The Annihilator’s paucity of ruth raises this interesting question: If a pacifist who hated our sport set out to exterminate boxing’s American fanbase, and was willing to spend millions of his own dollars to do it, could that man turn the trick any better than The Annihilator? The match’s outcome is fun, if ultimately futile, for our generation to ponder the way previous generations pondered, say, Muhammad Ali vs. Rocky Marciano.

Meanwhile in Mexico, a country whose broadcasters are still blessedly out of The Annihilator’s reach, or too far below his weightclass, wonderful fighters still conduct wonderful fights, and yes, both Jhonny and El Travieso are wonderful fighters even if their Saturday match was not quite wonderful. Arce who, for being a fighter’s fighter, is more beloved by his opponents than just about anyone fighting today, continues to search for a chance to do to someone else what Michael Carbajal, in “Manitas de Piedra’s” 53rd and final career match, did to Arce 15 years ago. Alas, Arce had his Carbajal moment in 2011 against undefeated super bantamweight titlist Wilfredo Vazquez Jr, but Arce, at age 32, could not take yes for an answer.

Following fellow Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez’s example, Arce has grown himself a Body-by-Memo physique that features the shoulders of a statuesque middleweight and legs of a flyweight, a fitness choice that, for all its rejuvenating enhancements, makes Arce top-heavy as Marquez, causing him to fold over his lead knee whenever he throws in combination. Long known for the brawling style that immortalized him against Hussein Hussein in 2005, Arce actually has never wanted for ring IQ; you don’t get to Las Vegas as a 112-pound Sinaloan with mere toughness, because toughness is guaranteed in Sinaloa, a Mexican state of 2.8 million souls in which there is but one Jorge “El Travieso” Arce.

Toughness is guaranteed by a number of factors that mainly reduce to climate and topography. Once a shallow sea millennia ago, the North American region that ripples out from Sonora Desert comprises some of the Western Hemisphere’s more forbidding terrain. Traipsing towards, then away from, then back towards Devil’s River, Saturday, reminded me of nothing so much as marching barefoot over a rocky beach with a 25-degree incline and cacti needling you every third step. The beauty round such pristine spots is usually called “rugged” – a code word indicating every hour of pleasure must be accompanied by three of unpleasantness. All clichés spring from original truths, and clichés about the West and individualism are no exception; Saturday, 37,000 acres of Devil’s River State Natural Area were inhabited by fewer than a dozen persons, all day, and that ensures hundreds of minutes of solitude for anyone willful enough to wander unaccompanied through the expanse – and another 120 minutes of lacerating solitude for anyone dimwitted enough to misread a map and blaze his own trail through miles of thornbushes.

Jhonny Gonzalez, hailing from Mexico City though born in the more rural state of Hidalgo, is a prizefighter whose ruggedness is tempered by intelligence; Saturday he engaged Arce when the shorter man needed engaging and kept him at range the rest of the match. A man who truly likes to fight and truly knows how, Gonzalez struck Arce with perfectly placed and fully released hooks enough to drop Arce on the blue mat – complemented by a white “Playboy” bunny logo – three times, including a punctuating blow at the end of round 3, when Arce went for the knockout, his or Gonzalez’s, ¡que sea!, exactly as he did against Donaire, with a nearly identical result.

Saturday was a good way for Arce to end his career, as good as he’s likely to get anymore, but as ruggedness is not a synonym for wisdom, El Travieso surely will fight on.

Bart Barry can be found on Twitter @bartbarry

Jhonny Gonzalez retained the WBC Featherweight title with an 11th round stoppage over Jorge Arce at the Centro de Usos Multiples in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico.

Gonzalez scored knockdowns in round’s three, five and nine and the fight was stopped at 2:43 of round 11.

Gonzalez, 126 lbs of Mexico City is now 57-8 with 48 knockouts. Arce, 126 lbs of Los Mochis, MX is now 64-8-2.

Adrian Estrella scored four knockdowns en route to a 12-round unanimous decision over former world champion Celestino Caballero in a Super Featherweight bout.

Estrella dropped Caballero in round five from a hard right hand. A follow up flurry sent Caballero down on his back for a second time in the round. he scored knockdowns in both round;s ten and eleven.

Estrella, 130 lbs of Mexico won by scores of 117-107 twice and 115-109 and is now 19-0. Caballero, 130 lbs of Colon, PAN is now 37-6.

Adrian Young and Edgar Monarrez fought to an 8-round draw in a Super Featherweight bout.

Young, 130 lbs is now 19-1-2. Monarrez, 130 lbs is 18-2-1.

Featherweight world champion Jhonny Gonzalez will defend his Featherweight world title against former world champion Jorge Arce in October 4 in Los Mochis, Mexico, according to Dan Rafael of espn.com

“I will face a strong and experienced fighter, who has won five world titles, so I will prepare as if I am challenging a world champion,” Gonzalez said. “Arce throws punches right from the opening bell. He is brave and strong. We anticipate a war in the ring because I will not take even one step back.”

“I am determined to win and I will win,” Arce said. “I am determined to get my sixth belt. I will celebrate win or lose, but defeat does not go through my mind. It will be a tough fight but I trust my talent and my desires. I know perfectly how to fight Jhonny. We know what to do and how to defeat an opponent who has long arms and is very strong.”

Former multi division world champion Jorge Arce scored a 5th round stoppage over Aldimar Silva in a scheduled 10 round Featherweight bout at Domo de la Macroplaza in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico

Arce dropped Silva in round 3 three with a perfect right hand. He sent Silva to the canvas for 2nd time in round five from an inside left hook. A follow up flurry from Arce forced a referee stoppage at 41 seconds of round five.

Arce, 126 lbs of Los Mochis, MX is now 63-7-2 with 48 knockouts. Silva, 126 lbs of Brazil is now 19-8.

In a battle of undefeated Super Bantamweights, Miguel Carrizosa scored a six round unanimous decision over Israel Lopez.

Scores were 59-55, 58-56 and 58-56 for Carrizosa who is now 4-0. Lopez is 3-1.

In a a battle of pro debuting Bantamweights, Jesus Molina scored a 4th round stoppage over Briguel Galidno.

Molina dropped Galindo in the 4th and a follow up flurry ended things at 2:55 of round four.

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, former world champion Jorge Arce will fight Jose Carmona in a Featherweight bout this Saturday night in Mexico.

“It took me a long time to analyze the situation,” Arce said. “I feel that my body is still responding well and with the support of my family and my promoter [Zanfer’s Fernando Beltran], I have decided to give it one more chance.”

Former four division world champion Jorge Arce’s retirement was short lived as he will be back in action on November 16th when he takes on William Prado in Veracruz, Mexico according to Dan Rafael of espn.com

“It took me a long time to analyze the situation,” Arce said. “I feel that my body is still responding well and with the support of my family and my promoter [Zanfer’s Fernando Beltran], I have decided to give it one more chance.

“My career is over. He is the best man,” Arce said of his career and about his pal Donaire after the fight. “I have a family to take care of. I promised them I would leave the ring if I lost. He’s very good. I am proud to have lost to the best. It fills me with honor.

“I will go home to watch the fighters on TV and to be a commentator.”

FORT WORTH, Texas – The hardest part about this thing we do is not, as novelist Philip Roth once put it, that everything must be written about, but that everything can be. Such a thought visited, Saturday, while sitting near a stage on which Natalie Merchant performed. I forwent a trip to New York City and a boxing-writers dinner and a prizefight, Guillermo Rigondeaux versus Nonito Donaire, that interested me, to see Merchant, tickets to whose concert I purchased months before Donaire fought Jorge Arce in Houston.

Nothing about the previous week’s trip to Ireland haunted me much as this concert did, because I pledged before boarding an Aer Lingus flight nothing about Ireland would find its way in this column. With the year’s largest consequential fight thus far, Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez versus New Mexican Austin “No Doubt” Trout, happening Saturday at Alamodome in San Antonio, though, connections had to be made because that is how columns work, and the connection between Merchant and Alvarez was, and is, grace.

Grace is not a word one freely associates with Mexican prizefighters, or prizefighters of any ethnicity, but in the swirl of impressions that happened Saturday in the Bass Performance Hall of this underestimated city’s Symphony Orchestra, “grace” was the very word that came to mind because of what happened at the press conference announcing Canelo vs. Trout one month ago at Alamodome, San Antonio’s signature edifice that will hold more than 30,000 people Saturday because Alvarez is that popular and Texas, frankly, is the one American state so interested in our sport.

After the usual things were said in the usual way by the usual people – one of the wonders of streaming video: today, no editor expects deadline coverage of such banality – there were side interviews ready to commence for television and television and television, and a local reporter or two, adjusting in no way the hands of what clock tells us what media matters. Before those loopy questions might be asked loopingly, to be televised in loops, though, Alvarez, dressed in a shiny battleship-gray suit and matching tie on synthetic black background, was brought to the stagefront’s extended tongue, to greet admirers for a moment or two of that spirited miming known as Connection with the Fans. But Alvarez began to sign anything handed him with any implement handed him, and while promoter Oscar De La Hoya shyly flapped a wing fans-ward, from a studiously selected perch 15 feet back of the scavengers, Alvarez signed and signed.

Thrice that I counted, Alvarez was asked to stop signing things and attend to the promotionally essential matter of television cameras. And thrice that I counted, he dismissed the request with hardly an acknowledgement – “You want me to be a ticket-seller in los estados unidos, ¿no?” – inconveniencing himself with not two syllables of explanation. Before he finished signing gloves and shirts and posters and programs and hats, numerous items for numerous folks, to tell television cameras he feels strong and is excited to be in, let’s see, San Antonio?, yes, San Antonio, he smilingly saluted the hoi polloi, hundreds strong, smaller and browner and towing a child or two, kept from him by a flat aluminum barricade, promising to sign their items, too, before he left.

What special effects Alvarez brings are natural, meaning authentic, and he appears to realize it: To date, his red hair and freckled complexion have distinguished him most from the large ranks of his countrymen’s prizefighters; Juan Manuel Marquez, for example, still could not sell 30,000 tickets in San Antonio three weeks before opening bell – and no, meritocracy has nothing to do with this, and yes, every ticket is sold: The Alamodome box office had nary an offering Friday morning. And meritocracy returns us to Saturday’s concert.

Natalie Merchant was the lead vocalist for 10,000 Maniacs before her 18th birthday, and possessed two platinum and four gold records before she turned 30, and has grown increasingly obscure since. She will turn 50 this year; her hair is timberwolf grey, not silver, her flat, once-almost-pretty features are overripe, and despite her confessed efforts she has acquired a pound of girth for every year since the 1992 MTV Unplugged performance that likely marked the last time anyone reading this saw or thought of her, if then. She was more effortful, Saturday, than her writing and singing imply; there were more clenched fists, more appeals for audience patience, and more autobiographical exposition than even her best song, “Tell Yourself” – one at whose singing she failed thrice, turning her back to the audience and sobbing, finally – anticipates.

Thirty minutes before, she found a very young boy in the audience, there with his mother and dressed in a dark suit not unlike Canelo’s, and gave him a signed copy of her book of collected children’s poetry, asking if this were his first concert, and when he said it was, Merchant offered:

“You will be proud to be able to say this was your first concert. In 25 years, a whole lot of people are going to be pretending Justin Bieber was not their first concert, and you won’t have to.”

It said much about how Merchant views her place in the canon of popular music, and it has some application to Canelo Alvarez for this obvious reason: He is the nearest thing prizefighting now has to Justin Bieber. His popularity dwarfs his achievement. His popularity dwarfs his potential for achievement, too; if we’re being honest, there is exactly no chance Alvarez will retire more accomplished than Juan Manuel Marquez, but he may outgross him many times over.

Today Saturday’s fight is not about Austin Trout at all, which is why this column has not been either. It says here, though, by the reading of the judges’ last scorecard this weekend, most accounts will treat Trout in the bitter way boxing’s habitués increasingly do everything: “Another robbery!” “Texas-sized Larceny!” “Someone Been Fishin’ in Trout’s Pond!”

I’ll take Alvarez, then, SD-12, in a fight honest hands score for Trout, 8-3-1.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

HOUSTON – Three miles southwest of Toyota Center, where junior featherweight world champion Nonito Donaire took Mexican Jorge Arce’s consciousness with a third-round left hook Saturday, there stands a complex of interesting buildings that collectively house the works of the Menil Collection, a free-admission museum comprising the lifetimes’ worth of collecting done by John and Dominique de Menil. The works are modern or tribal, and the main building itself, a masterpiece by Italian architect Renzo Piano, treats natural light like liquid poured gently from above, not wind for blocking.

What is most gratifying about the Menil Collection is its continuity. Nearby stands this city’s more famous collection – Museum of Fine Arts, Houston – an enormous labyrinth of periods and painters complemented by a wonderful sculpture garden, but a collection that, when contrasted with what the De Menils did, shows itself a product of committee collecting, board approvals and consensus. It lacks, that is, private collectors’ blessed tyrannies of vision. We return to this below.

But first “Filipino Flash” Nonito Donaire. He met informed expectations, Saturday, earning his fourth title defense of 2012, fighting at roughly twice the rate of what other nine prizefighters compose Chuck Giampa’s List, and making a sturdy case for himself as fighter of the year. Donaire, though, as yet inspires few strong feelings. He is exceptionally good at what he does, and now does an important thing by voluntarily subjecting himself to year-round PED testing, and he is a gracious ambassador for our sport, and he provided the Philippines a wee bit of solace by knocking out a Mexican a week after a Mexican disconnected Manny Pacquiao from his senses, but to write more than that is trying too hard.

Because victories come so easily to Donaire, aficionados wonder at his authenticity. But he continues to make deposits of goodwill in an escrow account for the day when a competitive challenger – an Abner Mares or Guillermo Rigondeaux – roughs him up and makes him climb off the mat. On that day, when aficionados can be sure he is more than a product of great matchmaking, there will be a flood of good things written and said about the run he’s had since driving Vic Darchinyan to Judah Street in 2007.

Darchinyan’s name, actually, was in the air last week, as it was what kept folks from climbing aboard the Nonito train and bringing it in full to Houston Station. After the way Darchinyan outclassed a 29-year-old Arce almost four years ago, it was hard to take Arce seriously as an opponent for one of the world’s five best prizefighters at the end of 2012. But good for Arce anyway, earning a last paycheck in the nearest way our sport comes to a pension plan. Arce retired immediately after Donaire knocked him flat, and let us hope retired is how Arce remains.

That’s a doubtful proposition. Arce cited a promise to his children, which means that in 18 months, when he’s bored with life and a calendar that is blank for the next 45 or so years, he might just go hang out at the gym and bring one of his children along. A week of that, and a fight on televisión in Los Mochis, and that child will invariably say, “Dad, why don’t you fight any more?” Promise revoked, Arce will return in a new weight class with a new trainer and a new focus and determination and freshness and strength and whatever the Spanish word is for “cliché,” and unpleasant spectacles will ensue.

In the meantime, we owe him a debt of gratitude for being entertaining without being boorish, for laughing at his own special effects – black cowboy hat, red lollipop, dancing horse – and for somehow finding a way to make a body that does not look at all fat at 150 pounds shrink, for an hour or two, into one that weighs 108 or 112 or 115 or 118 or 122. Arce won world titles in each of those five divisions.

His younger brother Francisco, not as talented but just as desirous of blood, fought in Phoenix 7 1/2 years ago, and Arce was there to show support, and almost no one knew it. Even dressed in black jeans, Arce, who was then between flyweight bloodlettings with Hussein Hussein, looked to be about five weight classes above 112 pounds, and not puffy at all. No one was sure it was him till his craggy front teeth pushed out a smile and it could be no one but “El Travieso (The Naughty One)” – a born showman at the precipice of celebrity. Twenty-one months later Cristian Mijares, a fellow Mexican, undressed Arce in San Antonio, and Arce’s decline was begun. Bless Arce, though, for being engaging and inventive enough still to finagle himself on an HBO main event 5 1/2 years later.

HBO is good a place as any to end this. Saturday night it bade farewell to Larry Merchant, its masterful commentator and voice of reason. Merchant has offered a good meter for at least a decade: With few exceptions, a boxing fan’s intelligence, maturity and sobriety can be measured in proportion to his appreciation for Merchant. The kids and circus barkers never did like Larry much; he didn’t go in for their fashion-conscious hype (a redundancy, that). Because he came out of the written word, ever a more sacred place than television, he understood the meaning of his and others’ utterances. He felt no need to end sentences with unwarranted exclamation marks. He took righteous and rightful umbrage with pacifistic athletes who gouged his employer for millions.

Merchant’s tastes and eloquence are a continuity now out of place at HBO, where on-air consensus-building, often to a point of hectoring, has replaced thoughtful dialogue and meaningful dissent. Farewell, then, Mr. Merchant. You were too good for them anyway.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

Nonito Donaire 121.5 – Jorge Arce 122
Victor Terrazas 126.25 – Juan Ruiz 123.5
Daniel Sandoval 150.25 – Larry Smith 149.5
Jose Felix Jr. 133 – Meachor Major 132.75
Rafael Casillas 122.25 – Tremaine Williams 123.5
Alfredo Contreras 175 – Cedric Agnew 175.75
Eddie Cordova 147.5 – Alex Saucedo 146.5
Yakub Shadiev 150.5 – Jose Trevino 151.5
Pablo Briteas 128.5 – Saul Rodriguez 128.5

HOUSTON (December 13, 2012) The World Boxing Association (WBA) super bantamweight championship fight between undefeated defending champion GUILLERMO “El Chacal” RIGONDEAUX and former world champion POONSAWAT KRATINGDAENGGYM has been canceled from this Saturday’s card at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. Rigondeaux vs. Kratingdaenggym was scheduled to be televised live on HBO® as the co-main event to the NONITO DONAIRE vs. JORGE ARCE World Boxing Organization (WBO) junior featherweight title fight. Donaire vs. Arce will go on as scheduled, televised live on HBO, beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT. The telecast will open with the exclusive replay of last week’s Fight of the Year — MANNY PACQUIAO vs. JUAN MANUEL MÁRQUEZ 4.

“The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation notified us today that they would not issue a license to Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym,” said Bob Arum, CEO of Top Rank®. “I feel very badly for both fighters who trained very hard. Top Rank’s matchmakers are working with HBO to returning Guillermo back to the ring as soon as possible.”

Remaining Tickets to the Donaire vs. Arce World Junior Featherweight Championship event doubleheader, priced at $200, $100, $60 and $30, plus additional fees, can be purchased at the Toyota Center box office (Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.), online at www.HoustonToyotaCenter.com, by phone at 866-4HOU-TIX (866-446-8849) and select Houston area Randalls stores. This prestigious event is promoted by Top Rank®, in association with Zanfer Promotions and Tecate.

For fight updates go to www.toprank.com or www.hbo.com/boxing.

HOUSTON (November 9, 2012) – Houston, Texas is the largest city in the Lone Star State so isn’t it fitting that it get the biggest fight south of 140 pounds?

Top-Five pound for pound fighter and four-division world champion NONITO “Filipino Flash” DONAIRE will risk his World Boxing Organization (WBO) junior featherweight crown against five-division world titlist and former WBO junior featherweight champion JORGE “Travieso” ARCE on Saturday, December 15, at Toyota Center, home of the Houston Rockets, and televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing®, beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT. The co-main event of the live doubleheader will feature undefeated World Boxing Association (WBA) super bantamweight champion GUILLERMO “El Chacal” RIGONDEAUX defending his title. University of Notre Dame champion and light heavyweight contender MIKE LEE, who trains in Houston, will highlight the non-televised undercard.

Tickets to the Donaire vs. Arce World Junior Featherweight Championship event doubleheader will go on sale Today! Friday, November 9, at 10:00 a.m. CT.

Tickets are priced at $200, $100, $60 and $30, plus additional fees, and can be purchased at the Toyota Center box office (Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.), online at www.HoustonToyotaCenter.com, by phone at 866-4HOU-TIX (866-446-8849) and select Houston area Randalls stores. This prestigious event is promoted by Top Rank®, in association with Zanfer Promotions and Tecate.

“Nonito Donaire versus Jorge Arce is a much-anticipated world championship fight which promises to be non-stop action. We are also pleased to have undefeated Guillermo Rigondeaux defend his world super bantamweight title on this card,” said Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum, CEO, Top Rank.

“The fireworks that will be supplied by Nonito Donaire and Jorge Arce in the ring on December 15 in Houston ensures that the season finale of World Championship Boxing will be very special night,” said Kery Davis, senior vice president of programming, HBO Sports.

Donaire (30-1, 19 KOs), a native of General Santos City, Philippines, now living in the Bay Area of San Leandro, Calif., is a consensus top-five pound-for-pound fighter. He enters this fight riding an 11-year, 29-bout winning streak, which includes an International Boxing Federation (IBF) / International Boxing Organization (IBO) flyweight title knockout victory of defending champion Vic Darchinyan, and a fourth-round blasting of former World Boxing Association (WBA) bantamweight champion Wladimir Sidorenko. However, Donaire’s most impressive knockout victory occurred on February 19, 2011, when he stopped defending World Boxing Council (WBC) / WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel in the second round, ending Montiel’s 25-bout winning streak while also claiming his third world title in as many weight divisions. That victory was named the 2011 Knockout of the Year. Eleven of Donaire’s last 14 victories have come by way of knockout. He successfully defended his World Bantamweight Championship last year by blitzing undefeated Omar Narvaez, winning virtually every round en route to a unanimous decision victory. On February 4, Donaire captured the vacant WBO 122-pound title, winning a gritty split-decision battle over former world champion Wilfredo Vazquez, Jr. He unified the title on July 7, winning a dominant unanimous decision over defending IBF champion Jeffrey Mathebula. He enters this fight on the heels of another legacy-making victory, a ninth-round stoppage of WBC Diamond Belt super bantamweight champion Toshiaki Nishioka on October 16, ending Nishioka’s eight-year, 16-bout winning streak.

Arce (61-6-2, 46 KOs), of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, México, is one of boxing’s most exciting and popular fighters. A true warrior, he has been one of México’s biggest attractions for the last decade. Arce is also experienced at the top levels of competition– a veteran of 18 world championship and eight interim world championship fights. The all-action warrior has won world championships or interim world titles in all five divisions between 108 and 122 pounds. A future first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee, Arce enters this fight riding an 11-bout unbeaten streak dating back nearly three years, including victories over Angky Angkota for the WBO junior bantamweight title, Wilfredo Vazquez, Jr. for the WBO junior featherweight belt and Angkota again, this time for the WBO bantamweight crown, the title Arce most recently held. Trained by Hall of Famer Ignacio “Nacho” Beristain, Arce returns to the ring after winning a decisive unanimous decision over former WBO bantamweight champion Mauricio Martinez on September 22.

Rigondeaux (11-0, 8 KOs), of Miami, Fla., had a stellar amateur career, winning Olympic gold medals in 2004,and 2000, World Amateur Championship titles in 2005 and 2001, and Pan American Games gold medals in 2005 and 2003, all at 119 pounds, before defecting from Cuba and embarking on a professional career which began in Miami in 2009. In only his seventh professional fight where both fighters scored knockdowns, Rigondeaux captured the WBA interim super bantamweight title, winning a tough split decision over the vastly more experienced former world champion Ricardo Cordoba in 2010. After successfully defending the interim title last year with a first-round knockout of previously undefeated former European super bantamweight champion Willie Casey, Rigondeaux won the WBA world super bantamweight championship with a sixth-round knockout of previously undefeated defending champion Rico Ramos on January 20. Rigondeaux has successfully defended that title twice since then, blasting once-beaten Teon Kennedy in the fifth round, which included Kennedy suffering five knockdowns en route to the loss on June 9 and winning a dominant unanimous decision over once-beaten conender Roberto Marroquin on September 15.

Lee (11-0, 6 KOs), a native of Chicago who now fights out of Houston, is a 2009 graduate of Notre Dame where he earned a Finance degree from the Mendoza School of Business with a 3.8 GPA while winning the school’s legendary Bengal Bouts boxing tournament three years in a row as well as the 2009 Golden Gloves Championship. Trained by Ronnie Shields, Lee has shown great potential as a fighter while attracting Madison Avenue to the sport as a national spokesman for Subway Restaurants where he has been featured in the company’s nationally-televised advertising campaigns. Lee has also proved to be a powerful box office attraction, packing houses with rabid and loyal University of Notre Dame fans, students and alumni. Lee returns to the ring fresh a unanimous decision victory over Paul Harness on September 15.

For fight updates go to www.toprank.com or www.hbo.com/boxing.

World Super Bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire will defend his crown on December 15th in Houston against former world champion Jorge Arce in Houston in a bout televised by HBO according to Dan Rafael of espn.com

“You know this is a fight we’ve wanted to do and now we are able to do it,” Top Rank chief Bob Arum told ESPN.com. “We didn’t get it done in July, but after the Bradley situation, we went to our television partner and asked them for enough money to make it happen and it’s happening.”

Junior featherweight titlist Guillermo Rigondeaux (11-0, 8 KOs), who has been calling out for a unification match with Donaire, will make his third defense in the televised co-feature.

A two-time Cuban Olympic gold medalist, Rigondeaux, a southpaw, will face former titleholder Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym (48-2, 33 KOs) of Thailand. Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti told ESPN.com that the deal was agreed to on Tuesday.

“I’m emailing contracts to Thailand. We’re done,” he said. “We just went over some final stuff.”

“I’ve always liked the fight,” Cameron Dunkin, Donaire’s manager, said. “Arce’s a great name and Arce’s a tough bastard. He proved it in the fight he had with Vazquez Jr. He was a big underdog, and came back and showed what he was about (by scoring a 12th-round knockout to win a junior featherweight title). Arce will fight his ass off against Donaire.

“He’ll give it everything he’s got and he will be tough, but Nonito is so highly skilled and fighting at such a high level, I don’t see anyone at 122 dealing with him. It’s good for Nonito to get a fourth fight this year. Four times is really neat in these times in boxing where a lot of champions fight only twice a year.”

“It’s healed,” he said. “He hasn’t really done much with it (in training) yet. He’s running and staying in shape and he says if he’s in shape, he can hit with one hand for the first week or so of training and still get in four good weeks of training. That’s all he needs because he has been so active and doesn’t get out of shape.”

“HBO was prepared to go to Mexico, but the extra cost was prohibitive,” Arum said. “Donaire was willing to go there so that wasn’t the problem. The problem was we couldn’t make it work economically. They didn’t have a high-definition truck there that suited HBO and that means HBO would have to drive a truck there. It didn’t make sense for this kind of event.”

“They can say I am crazy, and much more, but I have shut the mouths of the critics in the ring many times, and against Donaire it will be no different,” Arce said. “I am preparing like never before along with the best trainer Mexico has given to the world, Nacho Beristain, and I will win on Dec. 15.”

Said Dunkin, “Nishioka is a great fighter but he was trying to play cat and mouse with Nonito. One thing about Arce, he won’t play cat and mouse. He’s coming to fight. Arce says Donaire is a good fighter but hasn’t fought anyone with any balls, so that ought to tell you how hard he will try. He’s a proud Mexican and will try to turn it into a sensational fight in Texas with so many Mexican fans there. It will be a really fun fight.”

Follow all the action LIVE as Manny Pacquiao defends the WBO Welterweight title against undefeated Jr. Welterweight champion Timothy Bradley. The action begins at 7pm eastern / 4 pm in Palm Springs and 7 am in Manila with a five fight undercard that will feature two world title bouts including Mike Jones battling Randall Bailey for the IBF Welterweight title and Guillermo Rigondeaux defending the WBA Super Bantamweight crown against Teon Kennedy plus an appearance by Jorge Arce.

12 ROUNDS–WBO WELTERWEIGHT TITLE–MANNY PACQUAIO (54-3-2, 38 KO’S) VS. TIMOTHY BRADLEY (28-0, 12 KO’S)

Round 1 Bradley lands 2 body shots…Pacquiao lands a jab…Good left..another lefts..straight Left…10-9 Pacquiao

Round 2 Pacquiao lands a straight left..Bradley lands a body shot..Pacquiao lands a looping left…Bradley drives Pacquiao on the ropes…Left from Bradley….20-18 Pacquiao

Round 3 Pacquiaio lands a straight left on the chin…Body shot from Bradley..2 lefts on the ropes…Bradley gets in one but Pacquiao responds with a hard left….30-27 Pacquiao

Round 4 Bradley lands a left to the body..Right hook from Pacquiao as Bradley gets in a body shot…hard combination has Bradley off his kilter..Pacquiao lands a hard left and Bradley gets in a right at the bell…40-36 Pacquiao

Round 5 Pacquial lands a left…Hard counter left rocks Bradley…50-45 Pacquiao

Round 6Pacquiao lands 3 shots on the ropes..Good left uppercut..60-54 Pacquiao

Round 7 Great back and forth…Pacquiao lands a left…70-63 Pacquiao

Round 8 Pacquiao lands a right and a left…Bradley lands a right…Pacquiao a left..80-72 Pacquiao

Round 9 Pacquio landing straight left and and another..left over the top..90-81 Pacquiao

Round 10 Good left hook from Bradley..straight left from Pacquiao…100-91 Pacquiao

Round 11 Straight left from Pacquiao..Right hook and left..110-100 Pacquiao

Round 12 Pacquiao lands a left…120-109

115-113 Pacquiao; 115-113 Bradley; 115-113 in what maybe the worst decision in boxing history

10 ROUNDS–SUPER BANTAMWEIGHTS–Jorge Arce (60-6-2, 46 KO’s) vs. Jesus Rojas (18-1-1, 13 KO’s)

Rounds 1 HARD LEFT AND DOWN GOES ROJAS…Rojas uppercut…Left hook…10-8 Arce

Round 2 Arce goes down from a low blow and headbutt and remains downs….FIGHT

12 ROUNDS–IBF WELTERWEIGHT TITLE–Mike Jones (26-0, 19 KO’s) vs. Randall Bailey (42-7, 36 KO’s)

Round 1 Not much,..10-10

Round 2 Just backing up.,.Bailey not throwing...20-20

Round 3 Bailey lands a body shot…Bailey lands a right…30-29 Bailey

Round 4 Right from Bailey..40-38 Bailey

Round 5 Jones lands a right…mouse under left eye of Bailey..49-48 Bailey

Round 6 ..Jones lands a right over the top…58-58

Round 7 Jones lands a combination…68-67 Jones

Round 8 Jones countering with jabs…78-76 Jones

Round 9 Good right buckles Bailey…88-85 Jones

Round 10 Jomes lands a combination….BIG RIGHT AND DOWN GOES JONES…96-95 Jones

Round 11 BAILEY LANDS HUGE UPPERCUT AND DOWN GOES JONES AND THE FIGHT IS OVER

12 Rounds–WBA Super Bantamweight Title–Guillermo Rigondeaux (9-0, 7 KO’s) vs Teon Kennedy (17-1-2, 7 KO’s)

Round 1:..Hard shots from Rigodeaux AND DOWN GOES KENNEDY…10-8 Rigondeaux

Round 2 STRAIGHTLEFT AND DOWN GOES RIGONDEAUX…STARIGHT LEFT AND DOWN GOES KENNEDY..20-15 Rigondeaux

Round 3 Rigondeaux getting through with the left hand…30-24 Rigondeaux

Round 4 Rigondeaux lands a straight left (AND FEET GET TANGLED) BUT SCORED A KNOCKDOWN..40-32 Rigdoneaux

ROUND 5: Straight LEFT FROM RIGONDEAUX AND THE FIGHT IS STOPPED

8 Rounds–Super Featherweights–Ernie Sanchez (12-3, 5 KO’s) vs Wilton Hilario (12-2-1,9 KO’s)

Round 1 Sanchez lands hard body shots..Good left staggers Hilario…Big right from Hilario..10-9 Sanchez

Round 2 Sanchez lands hard body work..Hard right from Hilario…20-18 Sanchez

Round 3 Right from Hilario…29-28 Sanchez

Round 4 Sanchez pinning Hilario against the ropes…39-37 Sanchez

Round 5 Sanchez opening up in the corner…Hilario counters his way out…49-46 Sanchez

Round 6 Sanchez landing some shots that is forcing Hilario southpaw…59-55 Sanchez

Round 7 Sanchez landing combinations where Hilario is landing 1 at a time..Sanchez working the jab...69-64 Sanchez

Round 8 Hilario walks away and Sanchez jumps on him..79-73 Sanchez

78-74; 78-74 and 79-74 UNANIMOUS DECISION ERNIE SANCHEZ

8 Rounds–Welterweight–Mikeal Zewski (14-0, 10 KO’s) vs. John Ryan Grimaldo (8-1, 5 KO’s)

Round 1 Double jab from Zewski…Grimaldo working the body..10-9 Zewski

Round 2 Sharp jab from Zewski…20-18 Zewski

Round 3 Right by Zewski wobbles Grimaldo AND DOWN GOES GRIMALDO AND JOE CORTEZ COUNTS TO 10 AND THE FIGHT IS OVER

4 Rounds–Jr.Welterweights–Andrew Ruiz (1-0, 1 KO) vs Taylor Larson (0-2-1)

Round 1 Ruiz Jabbing..Mounder under right eye of Larson…Good straight right..Larson Jabbing..HARD LEFT AND DOWN GOES LARSON…Ruiz working the body… 10-8 Ruiz

Round 2 Ruiz lands a hard jab…Larson working hard…19-18 Ruiz

Round 3 Left from Ruiz…good left…hard left..Good Right..29-27 Ruiz

Round 4 Good action in middle of the ring..Hard right from Ruiz..Larson throwing combinations…uppercut from Ruiz…39-37 Ruiz

39-36; 40-35; 39-36 UNANIMOUS ANDREW RUIZ

LAS VEGAS, NEV. (April 26, 2012) – If the Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley, Jr. World Welterweight Championship pay-per-view undercard was a poker hand it would be two pairs of world title fighters, Arce High! Six gladiators will be going mano a mano in two world championship rumbles and a 10-round junior featherweight brawl.

The three-bout pay-per-view undercard will feature undefeated No. 1 welterweight contender MIKE “MJ” JONES battling two-time world champion and current No. 2 contender RANDALL “The Knockout King” BAILEY for the vacant International Boxing Federation (IBF) welterweight title; undefeated World Boxing Association (WBA) super bantamweight champion GUILLERMO “El Chacal” RIGONDEAUX defending his title against world-rated TEON “The Technician” KENNEDY; and five-division world champion and Méxican icon JORGE “Travieso” ARCE, in his first fight in a Las Vegas ring in more than one year, taking on Puerto Rican knockout artist JESUS ROJAS in a 10-round junior featherweight fight.

These six warriors boast a combined record of 171-15-5 (128 KOs) – a winning percentage of 90% and a victory by knockout ratio of 75%.

The Pacquiao vs. Bradley World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight championship collision will take place Saturday, June 9, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. The event will be produced and distributed Live by HBO Pay-Per-View®, beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT.

Promoted by Top Rank, in association with MP Promotions, Tecate, AT&T and MGM Grand, remaining tickets to Pacquiao vs. Bradley are priced at $1,200, $900, $600, $400, and $200. Ticket sales at $1,200, $900, $600 and $400 are limited to 10 per person and ticket sales at $200 are limited to two (2) per person. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster (800) 745-3000. Tickets also will be available for purchase at www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

“The fight card on June 9 will be a treat for all boxing fans,” said Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum. “These will be great high-action fights as will be our main event with world champions Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley.”

Jones (26-0, 19 KOs), of Philadelphia, Pa., will be making his first world title challenge in a professional career that began with a second-round TKO of Jason Thompson on December 16, 2005 in Philadelphia. The 5’11 Jones, 29, has collected NABA and NABO welterweight titles en route to his ascent to the top of the welterweight ratings, which has included victories over Henry Bruseles, Jesus Soto- Karass (twice), Irving Garcia and Hector Muñoz. Jones, who is co-promoted by Hall of Fame inductee Russell Peltz, returns to the ring after winning a dominating 12-round unanimous decision over Sebastian Lujan in an IBF title elimination bout, at Madison Square Garden on December 3.

Bailey (41-7, 36 KOs), of Miami, Fla., is no stranger to world championship fights having won world titles twice, so far, in his 16-year professional career. He captured his first world title, the WBO junior welterweight championship, in 1999, via a first-round knockout of defending champion Carlos Gonzalez. Bailey successfully defended the title twice, both by knockout, against Hector Lopez and Ray Martinez before losing it via split decision to Ener Julio in 2000 in a very exciting fight. In 2002 Bailey captured the WBA interim super lightweight belt with a third-round knockout of Demetrio Ceballos. Bailey, now trained by two-division world champion John David Jackson, earned his latest title shot with a first-round knockout of Jackson Osei-Bonsu, in an IBF title elimination bout in 2010.

Rigondeaux (9-0, 7 KOs), a two-time Olympic gold medalist and seven-time Cuban National Champion, lives in Miami, Fla. The Cuban southpaw, who made his professional debut in 2009, won the WBA interim super bantamweight title the following year, in only his seventh pro outing, on November 13, 2010, winning a split decision over former world champion Ricardo Cordoba. After successfully defending the title with a first-round knockout of undefeated former European super bantamweight champion Willie Casey on March 11, 2011, he dethroned the previously undefeated WBA super bantamweight champion Rico Ramos in the sixth round of their January 20 title fight. This will be Rigondeaux’s first defense of his world title.

Kennedy (17-1-2, 7 KOs), of Philadelphia, Pa., was an amateur standout, winning gold at the 2004 National Golden Gloves Championships and the U.S. National Under 19 Championships and the 2001 Pan American Cadet Championships. His five-year professional boasts a USBA junior featherweight title reign, which he won in 2009 by knocking out Francisco Rodriguez in the 10th round. He successfully defended that title twice with 12-round unanimous decisions over Jose Beranza and previously undefeated Jorge Diaz in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Kennedy also captured the NABA super bantamweight title in 2010, knocking out Alejandro Becerra in the 10th round. In his last fight, Kennedy was awarded a disputed draw with Chris Martin, on January 13, a fight most ringside observers thought was won by Kennedy.

Arce (60-6-2, 46 KOs), from Los Mochis, México, is one of boxing’s most exciting and popular fighters. The all-action warrior has won world championships or interim world titles in all five divisions between 108 and 122 pounds. A future first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee, Arce enters this fight riding a two-year, nine bout unbeaten streak which includes victories over Angky Angkota for the WBO junior bantamweight title, Wilfredo Vazquez, Jr. for the WBO junior featherweight belt and Angkota again, this time for the WBO bantamweight crown, the title Arce currently holds.

Rojas (18-1-1, 13 KOs), from Caguas, Puerto Rico, enters this fight riding a two-year, six-bout unbeaten streak. Known for his aggressive style, good punching power in both hands, impressive skills and movement and a strong amateur background with close to 200 amateur fights, Rojas, 25, is ready to take the next step in going toe-to-toe with the great Arce.

The Pacquiao-Bradley world championship telecast, which begins at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT, will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View and will be available to more than 92 million pay-per-view homes. The telecast will be available in HD-TV for those viewers who can receive HD. HBO Pay-Per-View, a division of Home Box Office, Inc., is the leading supplier of event programming to the pay-per-view industry.

For Pacquiao-Bradley fight week updates, log on to www.toprank.com and www.hbo.com

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, Super Bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire hurt his left hand during his Saturday night title win over Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. but that hand was deemed ok after x-rays were negative.

“My hand is swollen and there is damaged soft tissue, but everything is good,” Donaire said. “The doctor said I need three or four weeks to get the proper healing and then I can go.”

“The blood was because I popped a little vein in there, near the knuckle area, but it was nothing major, just bloody,” Donaire said. “It was a vein and that’s why it was bleeding a lot. It kept bleeding and didn’t stop bleeding until the next day. My hand kept bleeding after the fight. I guess from all the impact, I popped a vein.

“It looked really bad and it felt so painful for a couple of days, but it was unbearable in the later rounds of the fight. I’m just very thankful that there’s nothing seriously wrong and that I will be ready to go when we get our next date from Top Rank.”

Top Rank, Donaire’s promoter, plans to match him with Mexican star Jorge Arce, who vacated the title Donaire (28-1, 18 KOs) won to move down and claim one of the bantamweight belts Donaire had relinquished. Arce (59-6-2, 45 KOs) would move back up to 122 to challenge Donaire.

“I’m fine with fighting Arce next. That’s a fight I’ve been looking at,” Donaire, 29, said. “Whoever it is, I will be ready. Tell me who I am fighting and I will train to the best of my ability. In three or four weeks my hand should be healed and I will be ready to go. Everything is good. My hand is OK, I got my title and I’m happy.

Jorge Arce proved once again that he is one of the most exciting fighters in the past twenty years as he avenged an earlier defeat to stop Simphiwe Nongqayi to defend the WBO Super Bantamweight tile in Mexicali, Mexico.

Arce dropped Nongqayi in round onw from a left hook and then continued to back the challenger up. In round four, Nongqayi caught Arce with headbutt which opened up a terrible cut around the left eye of the champion.

As usual that only inspired Arce as he came back to freeze2:01 of round four. Nongqayi on the ropes that opened the gates for an unanswered combination on the defenseless challenger and the fight was stopped at 2:01 of round four.

The fight was a rematch of a September 15th, 2009 fight that saw Nongqayi win the IBF Jr. Bantamweight title with a unanimous decision over Arce.

Arce, 122 lbs of Los Mochis, Mexico is now 58-6-1 with forty-five knockouts. Nongqay, 122 lbs of London, South Africa is now 16-2-1.

Victor Terrazas scored a fourth round stoppage over Eduard Becerril in round four of a scheduled ten round Super Bantamweight bout.

Terrazas dropped Becerril in round three from a left hook. Becerril fought back in an effort to stay in the fight but that only lasted another round as Terrazas landed a big uppercut that set off a huge exchange on the ropes for which Terrazas landed a barrage of punches and fight was stopped at 2:12 of round four.

Terrazas is now 31–21 with eighteen knockouts Becerril, 123 lbs is now 13-10-2.

Francisco Kinkin Rios (6-1-2) and Abraham Alvarezozuna (14-1-1) fought to a majority draw in a four round Welterweight bout

Follow all the action as it happens from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas as WBO Welterweight champion and Pound for Pound king, Manny Pacquiao takes on future Hall of Famer “Sugar” Shane Mosley. The action begins at 9pm est/6pm pac with a three fight undercard that will feature a 122 lb world championship between Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. and former three division champ Jorge Arce. Also the return of former Middleweight king Kelly Pavlik taking on undefeated Alfonso Lopez. The night will begin with Jr. Welterweight clash between Mike Alvarado and Ray Nahr.

12 ROUNDS–WBO WELTERWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP–MANNY PACQUIAO (52-3-2, 38 KO’S) VS SHANE MOSLEY (46-6-1, 39 KO’S)

12 ROUNDS–WBO SUPER BANTAMWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP–WILFREDO VAZQUEZ JR. (20-0-1, 17 KO’S) VS JORGE ARCE (56-6-2, 43 KO’S)

Round 1 Pacquiao lands a left…Pacquiao lands a left to the body…Mosley lands a right to the body..Pacquiao a left to the body…Pacquiao 10-9

Round 2 Mosley lands a 1-2; Pacquiao lands a left…Pacquiao lands a left…right hook…left…manny starting to get a rhythm…20-18 Pac

Round 3: Mosley gets in a right…STRAIGHT LEFT AND DOWN GOES MOSLEY...30-26 Pac

Round 4: Mosley lands a body shot and right…Pacquiao a right hook..Body shot…Mosley lands a combination..39-36 Pac

Round 5:Pacquiao lands a right hook…Pacquiao lands a body shot…head clash…Pacquiao lands a straight left…Mosley lands 2 rights to the body…Left hook…..49-46 Pac

Round 6 Pacquiao lands straight left to the body…Uppercut…combination…Mosley lands a right..59-55 Pac

Round 7: Pacquiao coming forward and Mosley doing nothing…69-64 Pac

Round 8 Mosley lands a right…Pacquiao lands a left to the head…Nice right by Mosley…78-74 Pac

Round 9 Pacquiao landing combinations…striaght left …right hooks…right hook..Mosley lands a right..88-83 Pac

Round 10 Combinations by knockdown…The feet get tangled BUT PACQUIAO IS DOWN AND RULED A KNOCKDOWN…Pacquiao drills Mosley with a right and left..Mosley holding on…97-93 Pac

Round 11 Pacquiao landing hard combinations throughout the round.,..Has Mosley in trouble a couple times. Mosley lands once nice counter right for Which lights yet another fire under Pacquiao who comes in with combinations…107-102 Pac

Round 12: Pacquiao lands a straight left..Straight left to the chin..2 right hooks..117-111 Pacquiao

119-108; 120-108; 120-107 FOR MANNY PACQUIAO

Round 1: Arce lands a good left hook…Good left to the body..Vazquez lands a looping right..Arce lands a left that has Vazquez holding on…big right…Vazquez lands a right…Arce lands to the body... Arce 10-9

Round 2:Nice combo from Vazquez…Arce lands a jab…left…right..20-18 Arce

Round 3: Blood from bridge of Arce’s nose..Double left from Arce…29-28 Arce

Round 4: Vazquez lands a counter left…Arce lands a right……BIG LEFT HOOK AND DOWN GOES ARCE….38-37 Vazquez

Round 5 Vazquez lands a right…Arce lands a left..Good body…trading body shots…Vazquez lands a left hook…another one..Arce lands a 3 punch combination..47-47

Round 6: Vazquez lands a right..Arce body..straight right…Vazquez lands 2 left hooks…57-56 Vazquez

Round 7: Going toe to toe on the ropes…Vazquez lands a right…67-65 Vazquez

Round 8: Aece just throwin and throwin…lands a left at the bell…76-75 Vazquez

Round 9: Arce lands a body...85-85

Round 10: Vazquez lands a good right…Hook and uppercut..Arce flurries…95-94 Vazquez

Round 11: Arce lands a left hook..They trade hooks…Arce lands a jumping left backs up Vazquez…Arce all over Vazquez…..104-104 Vazquez wobbles back to his corner

Round 12: Arce all over Vazquez…just unloading..VazQUEZ IN SERIOUS TROUBLE…THEY THROW IN THE TOWEL AND THE FIGHT IS OVER

10 ROUNDS–SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHTS–KELLY PAVLIK (36-2, 32 KO’S) VS ALFONSO LOPEZ (21-0, 16 KO’S)

ROUND 1: Pavlik lands a right…Good left hook…10-9 Pavlik

Round 2: Pavlik lands a left hook..Lopez comes back with a combination…19-19

Round 3: Pavlik works the body…Good right hand…Jab…29-28 Pavlik

Round 4: Pavlik lands a good combination…39-37 Pavlik

Round 5 Good combination from Lopez…Pavlik lands a short hook…48-47 Pavlik

Round 6: Good right from Pavlik..body shots has Lopez holding on..Big right…right to the body..58-56 Pavlik

Round 7: Pavlik gets in a left hook..Lopez working the combinations…Right from Pavlik…Pavlik warned for a low blow…Lopez lands a flurry..67-66 Pavlik

Round 8: Lopez lands a nice combination as Pavlik lands a left hook at the bell…76-76

Round 9: Pavlik lands a good right…Lopez lands a solid right and a short left hook…Left hook..86-85 Lopez

Round 10: Lopez lands a combination…Good body work…Big left by Pavlik buckles Lopez…another left hook..yet another…straight right…Lopping right..hard jab…Blood from right eye of Lopez…Right from Pavlik..95-95

95-95; 98-92; 99-91 PAVLIK BY MAJ DEC

12 Rounds–Jr. Welterweights–Mike Alvarado (29-0, 21 KO’s) vs Ray Narh (25-1, 21 KO’s)

Round 1: Nahr lands an uppercut…Jabbing…Alvarado lands an uppercut..10-0 Nahr

Round 2: Alvarado lands big jabs that shake Narh..19-19

Round 3: Alvarado jabbing…Right hand..another right…29-28 Alvarado

Round 4: NARH QUITS ON THE STOOL AND THE FIGHT IS STOPPED ALVARADO WINS BY TKO

Manny Pacquiao 145 – Shane Mosley 147
(WBO Welterweight Championship)
Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. 122 – Jorge Arce 122
(WBO Super Bantamweight Title)
Kelly Pavlik 170 – Alfonso Lopez 169
Mike Alvarado 139 – Ray Nahr 140

In what looks to be shaping up as the fight card of the year, Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. will defend the WBO Super Bantamweight championship against former world champion Jorge Arce on May 7th underneath Manny Pacquiao defending the WBO Welterweight championship against Shane Mosley

“We’re done, we’re good to go,” said Carl Moretti of Top Rank of the deal with Vazquez promoter Tuto Zabala. “We’ve agreed on everything. We’ll be doing a lot of fights with Tuto and Vazquez.”

We could sign the papers on the night of the fight for all I know. I’ve known Tuto for 24 years. This deal is a result of a relationship that goes way back,” Moretti said. “I trust him and he trusts us and because of what we do on the island, and the opportunities we have coming up, it’s a win, win for everyone, especially [Vazquez].”

“Tuto has seen how we can take guys to the next level on the island and then cross them over in the [heavily Puerto Rican] New York market,” Moretti said. “We’ll make joint decisions on everything about Vazquez. We do what makes sense for the fighter first.”

“Vazquez is in a perfect weight class,” Moretti said. “We have guys who can come up and challenge him, and eventually he will move up to featherweight where there are a lot of good fights. It’s a great situation. He is well liked in Puerto Rico and he has his father’s name as part of the package.”

In addition to the main event, this fight could be on a card that will be a rematch of a fight of what many called the 2010 fight of the year between WBC Lightweight champion Humberto Soto and Urbano Antillon as well as the return of former Middleweight world champion Kelly Pavlik

The always exciting Jorge Arce took out Adolfo Ramos inside of one round of their scheduled ten round Super Bantamweight fight in Campide, Mexico

Arce dropped Ramos with a nice counter right midway through the first frame. Arce jumped on Ramos and froze Ramos with a big right on the ropes and the referee stopped the bout after three more unanswered punches at 2:06 of the round one.

Arce, 121 1/2 lbs of Los Mochis, MX is now 56-6-2 with forty-three knockouts. Ramos, 121 1/2 lbs of Monitos, Colombia is now 16-11-1.

Ramon Garcia remained the WBO Mini Flyweight championship with a twelve round unanimous decision over Omar Soto.

Garcia scored a flash knockdown in round four and hard knockdown in round ten and cruised to the unanimous decision by scores of 120-106; 119-107 and 118-108.

Garcia, 107 lbs of La Paz, Mexico is now 16-1-1. Soto, 107 lbs of Guaynabo, PR is now 15-7-1.

Former world title challenger Jorge Lacierva scored three first round knockdowns en route to a ten round unanimous decision over Joksan Hernandez in a Super Featherweight bout.

Lacierva is now 38-7-6. Hernandez is now 22-3.

Former world champion, Jorge Arce and Lorenzo Parra battled to a draw in a ten round Super Bantamweight fight in Culican, Mexico

Arce stalked for the most part with Parra coming on late and seizing some of the late rounds to get the draw.

Arce, 122 lbs of Los Mochis, Mexico is now 55-6-2. Parra of Venezuela is now 31-2-1.

Humberto Soto retained the WBC Lightweight championship with a twelve round unanimous decision over Fidel Monterrosa.

It was an action filled fight at times with the challenger trying to exchange with the classy champion. The two fighters slipped numerous times on the wet canvas. Soto was very effective going to the challengers body while Monterrosa was looking for one shot in effort to wrestle away the title.

Scores were 118-109, 115-112 and 115-112 for Soto, 135 lbs of Los Mochis, Mexico and is now 53-7-2. Monterrosa, 135 lbs of Barranquilla, Colombia is now 23-2.

Omar Chavez scored a fourth round stoppage over Ricardo Juarez in a scheduled six round Welterweight bout.

Chavez dominated the action and in round four he landed four hard shots to the head that sent Juarez to his knees and was counted out at2:47 of round four.

Chavez., 147 lbs of Culican, Mexico is now 24-0-1 with seventeen knockouts. Juarez, 147 lbs of Tijuana, Mexico is now 16-12-1.

In a bout that should have taken place a few years ago, Jorge Arce scored a one body punch knockout over Martin Castillo in a battle of former world champions in Tepic, Mexico.

The bout was a scheduled yen round Bantamweight bout.

The first round was non-descript until Arce placed a left hand to the body of Castillo and Castillo stayed on all fours until the referee counted ten at 2:56 of round one.

Arce, 120 lbs of Los Mochis, Mexico is now 55-6-1 with forty-two knockouts. Castillo, 120 lbs is now 35-4.

Juan Alberto Rosas won the IBF Jr. Bantamweight title with a sixth round stoppage over defending champion Simphiwe Nongqayi.

The fight was an entertaining battle until Rosas Dropped Nongqayi from a barrage of punches in the sixth. The corner Nongqayi stopped the bout at thirty seconds of round six.

Rosas is now 32-6 with twenty-seven knockouts. Nongqayi of East London, South Africa is now 16-1.

In a battle of pro debuters, Luis Lugo scored three knockdown en route to third round stoppage over Roberto Morales.

Photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank

Last Tuesday while the “Once and Four All” conference call happened, I sat beside Mexican Jorge “El Travieso” Arce. He was at Dave & Buster’s restaurant in San Antonio to promote a different fight, with Eric Morel on June 26 at Alamodome. Arce likes to opine. Saturday’s match is two Mexicans in a historic fourth fight. So I asked him who’ll win.

“¡Híjole!” he said. “It is going to be a fight!”

Right on, Jorge. Saturday at Staples Center in Los Angeles, Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez will make the fourth fight of a rare tetralogy, after their trilogy ended in 2008 with Vazquez leading 2-1. The fight will be broadcast by Showtime.

Not on pay-per-view, mind you. No need to belabor the point, but one of the greatest trilogies in the history of prizefighting happened with no extra charge to Showtime subscribers. The fourth fight happens the same way. That’s a commendable model if boxing ever had one.

Back to El Travieso, whose nickname translates to something like “Naughty One.” Soon as he heard mention of Vazquez-Marquez IV, he said “¡Híjole!” – a word with no apt translation in English. It’s what would happen if you appended the personal pronoun “him” to “boy.” It’s a Mexicanism that makes no more sense in Spanish than English. It’s also a wonderfully expressive term that works like “Wow!” and usually gets accompanied by the speaker shaking his hand as if he just burned it.

Point is, Saturday’s fight is one that finds even Arce – a showman who promotes his own bleeding – using interjections and raising his voice. That says quite a bit about the evenness, drama and suspense of this series.

This says even more. Rafael Marquez won the first fight after Vazquez was unable to continue at the end of round 7. Israel Vazquez won the second fight when the referee stopped it a minute into round 6. The third fight, as you know, went the distance – barely. That’s 24 complete rounds worthy of revisiting old scorecards over.

So I did. Here’s what I found.

In the first fight, I gave Vazquez rounds 3 and 6, with the third going 10-8. Second fight, I had Vazquez winning rounds 2, 3 and 5. Third fight, he got rounds 2, 3, 6, 8, 11 and 12 – with the 12th going 10-8.

First fight on my card, Marquez won rounds 1, 2, 4, 5 and 7. Second fight, I gave him rounds 1 and 4. Third fight, he got rounds 1, 4, 5, 7 and 9, with the fourth going 10-8.

That comes to 226-226. Fitting, no?

Whither “Once and Four All” then? There’s no telling. Jorge Arce shared the conventional wisdom that Vazquez is the more-damaged of the two fighters; that Marquez, despite losing twice, hurt Vazquez in more permanent ways. Maybe.

The old adage says boxers gain weight on their chins more than their fists, and as this match is being made at 126 – four pounds above the weight limit for the first three – it’s worth asking whom that favors. Marquez seems the obvious choice.

After all, he would have won the second fight had he had perhaps a round or two more to work on the cuts above Vazquez’s eyes. He would have won the third fight if he’d just stayed upright in the final 10 seconds. His increased ability to withstand Vazquez’s punches, with the addition of four pounds, seems to portend victory for Marquez.

But what if the only thing that kept Vazquez from finishing Marquez in the final round of their trilogy was the 15 or so extra seconds Marquez’s fantastic right hand bought him over the preceding 11 rounds? That is, what happens if Vazquez tastes Marquez’s right cross early on Saturday and finds more fat on it and less chile?

Marquez says he’s better for the fights that he’s had with Vazquez. “The only thing that is different with me this time is that I am more mature,” Marquez said last Tuesday. He didn’t say but verily believes he would have won the second fight had it continued. He believes he won the third. Marquez, too, hears the whispers that Vazquez is no longer the man he was, that his reserves are spent. But he says, “I have always said that Israel is a great fighter.”

Asked if it’s a negative or a positive to know an opponent well as he now knows Marquez, Vazquez answers, “I see it as a positive . . . I know where to attack him from.” Note that Vazquez emphasizes the offensive benefit: If each man attacks the other’s weak point, the stronger man wins. So goes his calculus.

Rafael Marquez is a special talent. He has won 79 percent of his fights by knockout. His long right cross is devastating as any punch of this era. He is one half of the best brother combination in boxing history. He is one half of the best boxing trilogy in at least 30 years.

Israel Vazquez is a special talent, too. But Vazquez also has a component of will few athletes before him have possessed. When Showtime replays Vazquez-Marquez III Friday night, watch him in the 12th round. Watch him explode off his stool after 33 minutes of combat and a knockdown – with two damaged eyes and a surgically rebuilt nose. Watch him throw right hand after right hand without regard for consequence. It is a performance that, within its proper context, is demonical as any boxing has seen.

That kind of man should not be doubted. All indications are that Vazquez expects this match to be every bit as long and brutal as its immediate predecessor. Marquez might not. His promoter says Vazquez won’t last five rounds.

I beg to differ. This time, I think Vazquez gets to Marquez a half-minute earlier. So I’ll take Vazquez: KO-12.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter.com/bartbarry

SAN ANTONIO – Whoever turns out to be the better prizefighter on June 26, one thing is already certain. Puerto Rican Eric Morel is a much better pool hustler than Mexican Jorge Arce.

That much was established on Tuesday afternoon at Dave & Buster’s restaurant where participants in Top Rank’s “La Furia de México 15” gathered for a rescheduled press conference in the northern part of the city. Morel and Arce posed for pictures, answered questions and expressed lots of mutual fondness both before and after their impromptu pool match, as part of the promotion for their co-main-event fight at the Alamodome in June.

The two rivals confessed to being good friends outside the ring and admiring one another’s accomplishments. Both assured local fans and members of the press, however, they would not fight that way when facing one another for the WBO’s interim bantamweight title.

“Very hittable,” is how Morel described Arce’s appearance in recent fights. He also called Arce a “great fighter who’s very, very tough.”

For his part, Arce emphasized Morel’s background as a Puerto Rican, saying, “All know that when a Mexican and a Puerto Rican fight, it is always a battle.”

Arce, who goes by the nickname “El Travieso” (Naughty One) also spoke of the recent birth of his son, Nazareth. Asked about the name, Arce explained, “It was a promise I made to God that if he gave me a son, I would name him after the birthplace of His son.”

More interesting still was Arce’s explanation for his poor showing against Vic Darchinyan last year in Anaheim, Calif. Arce held up the back of his right hand, which sports a noticeable bump at the attachment of his thumb, and explained, “I have to have my hand wrapped extra tight, with extra wraps of tape, or it hurts when I punch. The week before (the fight with Darchinyan), all those things happened in California with (Antonio) Margarito and the wrapping of his hands. So, before my fight, they’re all standing over me, as a Mexican fighter, and saying ‘no, no, no’ about the extra tape. . . . It hurt every time I hit Darchinyan.”

Whatever happens against Morel next month, Arce, one of prizefighting’s most colorful personalities, is certain to have a colorful explanation.

RAUL MARTINEZ & GABRIEL ELIZONDO
Also taking the stage at Tuesday’s press conference were local bantamweight standouts Raul Martinez and Gabriel Elizondo. Much like Arce and Morel before them, Martinez and Elizondo spoke of their close friendship, with Elizondo saying, “(Martinez) is a good friend of mine. We have been friends for a very long time.”

Martinez took the podium and agreed. He then thanked his team and assured the gathering he would be ready for a “very difficult fight.”

He had better be. Very often when two longtime friends make a match together, the fighting is clean but savage, with the lesser man giving more than expected and the better man having to transcend previous performances.

LATIN FURY 15
The Top Rank pay-per-view event will feature Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. John Duddy as its headline fight and is expected to be the most successful event of the “Latin Fury” brand. The card takes place at Alamodome on June 26.

Jorge Arce tuned up for a world title shot this June with a seventh round stoppage over Cecilio Santos in a scheduled ten round Bantamweight fight in Ciudad, Sinaloa, Mexico.

It was an action filled fight with the bigger Arce getting through and trying to impose his will but Santos, who has three times fought for a world title washitting Arce and even caused a cut over Arce’s right eye.

The two came out firing in round seven until Arce caught Santos with a thudding left to the body that sent Santos on his knees for the ten count at fifty-eight seconds of round seven.

Arce, 119 lbs of Los Mochis, Mexico will now face Eric Morel for a Bantamweight crown on June 26th on the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. – John Duddy card in San Antonio with a record of 54-6-1 with forty-one knockots. Santos, 119 lbs of Mexico City is now 24-14-3.

Joksan Hernandez got through two first round knockdowns to score a stoppage victory over Miguel Beltran in the tenth and final round round of their Super Featherweight bout.

Beltran dropped Hernandez in round one with a left hook and then a left to the body dropped Hernandez for a second time as Beltran seemed to be in control of the contest. Hernandez seemed to be coming on late in the bout as in round seven he got through with two hard uppercuts that knocked out the mouthpiece of Beltran. In the final frame, Hernandez just continued to move his hands and a tired Beltran crumbled to the canvas and took the ten count at 2:08 of the final round.

Hernandez, 131 lbs is now 18-2 with eleven knockouts. Beltran loses for the first time and is now 22-1.

Alonso Lopez remained undefeated with a close unanimous decision over debuting Misael Juarez.

Lopez, the son of former minimumweight king and Hall of Famer Ricardo Lopez, is now 4-0.

Jorge Arce captured the WBO Super Flyweight champion via a technical decision over a nasty cut was opened up over the right eye of Angky Angkota during round seven of their scheduled twelve round main event in Mexico City.

Arce continously cornered the smaller Angkota and wailed away on the game native of Indonesia. Angkota showed a lot of spunk and courage as he would try to fire back some wild shots. Angkota tried to “goad” Arce as he made body gyrations towards Arce in round seven in an effort to convince Arce that his punches were not effective.

Later in that round, the fighters clashed heads and a nasty cut started to drip blood down the right side of Angkota’s face.

When the scores were read, Arce 115 lbs of Los Mochis, Mexico was ahead by scores of 60-54, 60-54 and 58-56 to win a fourth world title and is now 53-6-1. Angkota, 115 lbs of Semerang, Indonesia is now 23-5.

“This is for my baby who was either born tonight or tomorrow”,said Arce

Former world title challenger Eduardo Escobedo scored a ten round unanimous decision over Joksan Hernandez in a Featherweight bout.

Escobedo dropped Hernandez in round three from a nice counter shot. The action was wildly entertaining especially at the outset of round’s eight and ten as the two stood toe to toe which was much to the delight of the crowd.

Escobedo, 126 lbs won his sixth straight fight since dropping a shot at then WBO Super Bantamweight champion Daniel Ponce De Leon in 2007, won by scores of 97-92, 97-93 and 96-93 to raise his record to 27-3. Hernandez is now 17-2.

Alonso Lopez scored a third round stoppage over Sergio Cruz at 2:02 of round three of a scheduled four round Super Flyweight bout featuring debuter’s.

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank