Because everything Floyd Mayweather says is designed to stir up some kind of faux controversy that gets him headlines and helps him make money playing the villain, it’s a worthwhile question whether writers should entirely ignore his antics. But, sometimes, he says something so horrible it requires repuditiation far and wide.

In the above NSFW video, Mayweather indulges in his trademark homophobia but adds some racism to it when talking about Manny Pacquiao, an Asian, making him a “sushi roll,” referring to eating “cats and dogs” and calling him “yellow.”

If Mayweather has any fans left after the last couple months, it would be hard to understand why. Some of his fans have tried to play up that he’s a good person, and that the villain thing is all an act. What I know is that he’s a convicted woman-beater who is also either A. an actual homophobe and racist (which would be ironic, given his accusations toward HBO and others of racism) or B. the kind of person who would use homophobic remarks and racist remarks to sell himself. Even if it’s B., what kind of good person does that? And besides, you’re still stuck with the woman-beater thing.

In recently discussing the nature of fandom, I allowed that someone could be a fan of a performer without being a fan of the person. Yet, Mayweather isn’t performing. He had a chance to fight Pacquiao in the biggest fight in decades, turned it down, and then goes on a despicable trash-talking rant toward the very person he’s apparently afraid to fight. He’s not even sure he wants to fight anymore, he said. If that’s the case, then all Mayweather is, to me, is a gifted former boxer who’s now merely a racist, homophobe woman-beater. Nothing to be a fan of there, either.

There’s another thing. Here we have one of the richest athletes in the world uttering racist, homophobic remarks, and it’s gotten nary a whiff of the kind of national repudiation you’d see if an NFL player said anything similar to what Mayweather did. There have been no demands for apologies. Maybe it’s because news of it just really surfaced yesterday? Maybe it’s because boxing is that irrelevant? Maybe it’s because people know Mayweather is so disreputable and so frequently phony that repudiating him it would be a waste of breath? Maybe boxing just doesn’t register as warranting any kind of outrage of that scope, since it’s the red light district of sports, no matter how big the boxer? Maybe it’s because boxing is the last segment of boxing fandom where tribal allegiances are tolerated?

I don’t know. But that’s my two cents worth of repudiation. I’d be interested in your thoughts. And this being Open Thread, I’d be interested in your thoughts on whatever else is on your mind.

To offset the horribleness of the video above, for this month’s music selection here are two of my favorite artists doing a sloppy, but fun, rendition of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.”

So let’s start by talking about who isn’t on it since last time, and why. (Because it matters!)

I previously had light heavyweight Chad Dawson at #4. It was a “soft” four, though. It wasn’t a real entrenched four, the way Shane Mosley had earlier been a “hard” three and didn’t drop much when he lost in May to #2 Floyd Mayweather, because Dawson hasn’t been a top pound-for-pound guy for very long. Dawson’s gone now because, while he lost to the clear #1 man in his division, that man – Jean Pascal – had no pound-for-pound credentials of his own. This was a real upset, even if some people wisely anticipated it. And Dawson, in the loss, simply didn’t look very good. Even diehard Pascal fans have to admit that, as well as Pascal fought, a Dawson who fights up to his potential probably beats him, but he increasingly appears to have a mental block about being aggressive. Dawson's now just on the outside of my top 20, like the rest of these guys.

I previously had junior flyweight Ivan Calderon at #13, but he'd been falling and his loss to Giovanni Segura pushed him out entirely.

I previously had featherweight Chris John at #14. He’s gone now, too. As of just a few weeks from now – not even to the halfway point of the next update -- John won’t have fought in a year, and he doesn’t have anything scheduled. That’s pretty much an automatic removal. If he comes back with any quality wins whatsoever, he’s back on the list – but with Fernando Saucedo his anticipated next opponent, I wouldn’t expect anything like that soon.

I previously had bantamweight Nonito Donaire at #15. He’s gone, and I’m sure there will be some shrieking about this one. Donaire has all the talent in the world, and I like him very much. But I place an emphasis on quality wins, especially recent ones, and Donaire has a grand total of one marquee opponent on his resume and hasn’t done anything all that impressive in three years since scoring it, with the anniversary of that big win coming since the last update of this list. In July of 2007, Donaire fought Vic Darchinyan and destroyed him, which put him on the map. From July of 2007 to July of 2008, he had one win over a borderline top-10 flyweight whom Darchinyan had knocked out the year before. From July of 2008 to July of 2009, he had a win over a borderline top-10 flyweight and a flyweight prospect. From July of 2009 to July of 2010, he had a win over an unranked, over the weight limit 115-pounder, a blown up strawweight and a blown up flyweight. Some of those wins were good wins, and, paired with the Darchinyan win, were enough to push him up high on some people’s lists. But it’s been, literally, three years.

That said, if Donaire ever fights Fernando Montiel and wins, I think he goes right into the top 10, because that would be a recent win that, when paired with talent and previous resume, would be impressive.

Now, on to who’s on the list, which includes some new additions. As usual, the emphasis is on quality wins, with an emphasis on recent activity.

(Naazim Richardson was the only thing stopping Antonio Margarito from fighting Shane Mosley with loaded gloves. Richardson was not in Miguel Cotto’s corner when Cotto fought Margarito in the fight prior. Cotto looked like this after facing Margarito.)

To answer the headline, I could probably just say, “Antonio Margarito,” and about 90 percent of my work would be done.

However, in an affront to all good writers, I’ve always subscribed to the “why use one word when a thousand will do” school, so I thought I would expound.

In recent weeks, just as I was getting ready to update my pound-for-pound top 20, out of nowhere several friends virtually simultaneously remarked to me or in print that such lists of the best boxers in the world across all weight classes were worthless. It never occurred to me that anyone wouldn't find them valuable. When things like that happen where a fundamental, institutional concept is challenged, I get to pontificating about whether it deserves to be. It's a good thought exercise. Maybe this thing I take for granted deserves scrutiny, I says. So I scrutinizes it. If it makes me rethink matters, that's great, because I've learned something, I says. And if I come out thinking the same as I did before, at least I've now battle-tested the idea, I says.

I did it, and I came out with pound-for-pound lists being the battle-tested kind of thing. Maybe it needs more battle-testing yet, and feel free to battle it. But here's what I'm thinking, as I try to take a break from some negativity in these parts. (It also amounts to the second installment in my "Defending The Establishment" tour, after the first installment.)

Because a whole bottle of wine and two large glasses of whiskey do not make for ideal writing conditions unless you're Jack Kerouac, I figured I'd rewatch the big fight from last weekend -- Giovanni Segura-Ivan Calderon -- with fresh, sober eyes, plus check out Marcos Maidana-DeMarcus Corley and more for some Weekend Afterthoughts.

First, a mild note of self promotion: I've taken to being a guest from time to time on SIRIUS 98 where I talk with Corey Erdman -- most recently on Friday -- so if you're into the radio thing, watch the Twitter feed at right for notification of when I'll be appearing and the occasional mp3 of my segment. Erdman's a good boxing writer and I like him as a radio host, too. (While we're talking radio: I tend not to consume boxing info that way myself, but I did check out Ring Theory for the first time recently and I enjoyed it. Eric Raskin and William Dettloff play off each other well and the format is interesting.)

Try though I might to move on from the whole Antonio Margarito handwraps issue, there's a poisonous element of the debate over whether he deserved a boxing license that is so pernicious I must expand on my previous answer to it. The element is this: Many backers of Margarito receiving a license are labeling anyone who has vocally opposed Margarito receiving a license "sanctimonious," "pious," "self-righteous" and other variants of a description of someone excessively and most likely insincerely condemning the idea of Margarito (pictured below right, next to November junior middleweight opponent Manny Pacquiao) fighting again.

It's hard to even know where to start, and it may be an entire waste of breath. Some of the people expressing disgust at opponents' "outrage" and "whininess" are doing so in endless, repetitive way, to the point that nearly every item on their Twitter feed is about it, yet can't see that to the extent anyone is "whining" or expressing "outrage," they're doing it, too.

In their universe, anyone who is more vocally opposed to Margarito loading his gloves than other boxing infractions is a "hypocrite." In actuality, there are plenty of good reasons to be more vocally opposed to Margarito loading his gloves than other boxing infractions.

Most bothersome of all, they behave as though there's something inherently offensive about someone declaring their opposition to something they consider morally repulsive -- as though that's not a fairly fundamental aspect of public debate, one that doesn't require projections of secret ulterior motives that aren't in evidence virtually anywhere.

For all you ladies out there: You might think that boxing's a good thing to take up for self-defense, but this hilarious 1991 book offers some alternatives. I hope everyone still has their old floppy disks.

While you're practicing how to assault someone with a Sony Walkman, you can also peruse the latest fights in the works, even if it's just some boxer howling into the wind for a fight he'll never, ever get:

After two weekends of action in the kickoff leg of TQBR Prediction Game 4.0, both weekends featuring upset victors, there are more have-nots than haves. Conditions would be ripe for a communist revolt, if any of this mattered.

There are 16 members of the bourgeoisie who have any points whatsoever and thereby can say, per the commercial below, "Opulence. I has it." There are 22 members of the proletariat who are subsisting on actually carpet lint, or less than that, with zero points.

In what is sure to unleash a torrent of entertaining trash talk, the legend is our current leader, as the only person who correctly picked both victors in Giovanni Segura's 8th round knockout of Ivan Calderon and Jean Pascal's unanimous decision win over Chad Dawson. Making matters worse for his enemies, the legend got a perfect 700 for being closest to the actual result in Segura-Calderon, alongside Miggs 88, stickfigure and Unifythebelts. For Pascal-Dawson, only the Quensburry Wench got the perfect 700.

Eleven people got points via Segura; six got them via Pascal. Some of you missed out on points with late predictions, no predictions or less specific predictions than you could have provided, per the rules, so keep all that in mind.

If you're anything like The Ghost With The Hammer In His Hand, aka me, you can't wait to get some points on the board. But we 22 monumental losers will have to hold our horses until predictions for the fights on Sept. 11, when as many as three bouts -- Wladimir Klitschko-Samuel Peter, Yuriorkis Gamboa-Orlando Salido and Anthony Peterson-Brandon Rios -- could qualify for TQBR Prediction Game 4.0.

Until then, your inaugural standings are below. If you see any error in tabulation, please notify me so we can adjudicate:

What was he thinking? Ivan Calderon, the master craftsman of the lower divisions, picked the wrong guy to trade punches with Saturday night, as he opted to go toe-to-toe with the master blaster of the lower divisions, Giovanni Segura, and came up on the bad end when Segura stopped him in eight rounds to claim the junior flyweight lineal championship belt.

This isn't one of those situations where one guy "won" it more than the other. Calderon clearly decided he wanted to stand his ground, and because his fists ain't got nothing in 'em, he lost to the guy who had something in his. He had a massive 24 foot by 24 foot ring, and he said to himself, "Screw it, I'ma try to swap blows with this dude who got 20 wins in 24 knockouts, even though I got six in my 34, and none since 2006." It made for a good, even an excellent, fight. But Calderon, a pound-for-pound contender, essentially gave his first loss to Segura, who appeared winded before ending Calderon's night with Calderon on his knee, refusing or unable to rise.

I'd gathered from many boxing fans that they were all quite sick of talking about Antonio Margarito and his loaded hand wraps, a multi-year saga that's been debated endlessly over that period. So when Texas granted him a boxing license Thursday to clear the path for a November fight with Manny Pacquiao -- which was all but a foregone conclusion -- it didn't seem to be cause for reopening the book on him. But now everyone's talking about it anew, and it's going to be an impetus for some mainstream media attention, so here we go again! Yaaaay.

For those of you just joining the story, here's the background: In January of 2009, before Margarito's welterweight bout with Shane Mosley, Mosley's trainer raised questions about Margarito's hand wraps, whereupon they were confiscated and later discovered to contain foreign substances that essentially added up to -- without getting too scientific -- plaster. Margarito had been considered one of the top five boxers on the planet prior to the incident; he was knocked out that night by Mosley. California revoked his license, and since states usually honor each other's suspensions, he was effectively banned from fighting in the United States. Margarito took and won a low-level fight in Mexico at junior middleweight, then applied for a license in Nevada, which told him to go back to California, which again rejected him. Texas, though, approved.

Here's some of the stuff people are saying about it in Margarito's favor, and my rebuttals.