Quick Jabs: Paul Williams Moves On (Bernard Hopkins Has An Idea For Where To); Fight George Foreman III, Get A George Foreman Grill; The Rest Of The Weekend; More

A few tidbits for the Sept. 12 Floyd Mayweather-Juan Manuel Marquez fight, reportedly at 144 pounds: 1. On Aug. 24, Mayweather will return to do a little WWE business, if you care to catch him there -- it remains one of Mayweather's best traits, the way he gets attention outside traditional boxing fan bases, and I wish some other boxers would learn from him on this. 2. Because of that attention, Golden Boy Promotions' Richard Schaefer is predicting Mayweather-Marquez will be the biggest pay-per-view of the year, which sounds far-fetched to me, but he swears by it and says the fight is getting all kinds of sponsorship deals as a result of Mayweather's crossover abilities (although his claim that it might outdo Mayweather's bout with Oscar De La Hoya, the biggest-selling pay-per-view ever, is beyond laughable). 3. Mayweather does have a charitable side. I believe it, and he deserves praise for it. But I'm not sure that his villainous public persona is entirely manufactured, as his right-hand man would have us believe. Some people who have covered him for a long time say he's always been an asshole, and some of his legal scrapes, which I won't rehash here, are more than a little disturbing. It's quite possible -- probable, even -- that Mayweather is prone to wild swings back and forth between genuine good guy-ness and genuine asshole-ness. 4. The officials for the fight have already been named, so if you're a betting man, you're happy you know who's going to do the judging this far out...

The WBA can't decide whether to make Nicolay Valuev-David Haye for their heavyweight title belt, as John Ruiz remains a barrier, since he says he's owed a mandatory shot and his team has threatened to sue if he doesn't get it. Who would be surprised if Valuev-Haye got canceled? And who would feel sorry for Haye, who stuck it to both Klitschko brothers this year by pulling out of fights with each?...

Junior featherweight Juan Manuel Lopez has re-signed for three years with Top Rank. You have to hand it to Top Rank for locking down several of its best fighters to long-term contracts in 2009 -- Lopez, Kelly Pavlik and Miguel Cotto -- despite some bumps in the road with each...

Junior bantamweight Nonito Donaire and his team have come forward with any number of allegations against weekend opponent Rafael Concepcion. Among them: Concepcion used gloves with less padding, although not illegally; he never intended to make weight, which is why he came in 4 1/2 pounds over; he stepped on Donaire's feet and head butted intentionally (I can't find a link to that allegation, but they said it). I'm inclined to believe most if not all of it is true, despite protests from Concepcion's camp about how weight-drained Concepcion was. Nobody thought he looked weight-drained except Concepcion's camp. Concepcion, I warned beforehand, was going to fight dirty. Based on his track record of abusing the rules, does anyone think it was a coincidence that he came in heavy? I agree with those who have suggested Concepcion should have suffered a greater penalty for not making weight, since it was apparent he was probably trying to game the system by accepting a small cash penalty in anticipation of increasing his ability to win and moving on to bigger paychecks. But you have to write that stuff in the contract when you can, if there are no regulations for severe penalties in place. Likewise with the gloves used -- why was there no agreement on 8 ounce vs. 10 ounce gloves, and on what brand? Also, I kind of think every major fighter should avoid Concepcion, not only for their own safety, but out of principle that the guy doesn't behave like a pro...

So whaddya know. I've been encouraging this webcast-fights thing constantly, but I've also noted that several recent such cards have gone head-to-head with bigger shows on HBO or Showtime. Wouldn't next weekend be the weekend I'm out of town AND a w ebcast card is on, and not against major competition? Middleweight Fernando Guerrero, junior middleweight Shawn Porter and heavyweight Chazz Witherspoon will be on the prizefighttv.com card. I swear it, y'all -- I would buy this card for $5 if I was in America. You should give it a try... 

I wonder why middleweight prospect Matt Korobov has departed from trainer Dan Birmingham and moved over to Robert Garcia. Garcia's a hot trainer all a sudden for the number he's done on junior flyweight Brian Viloria, among others, but Korobov and Birmingham seemed liked a good team. Also, Donaire said he's open to working with Freddie Roach after his promoter Bob Arum criticized his performance, but I doubt it'll happen; Donaire says he wants full attention from his trainer, and he won't get that from Roach. And in other coaching news, Enzo Calaghe said his "nightmare year" almost led him to retire. It was a pretty bad year, wasn't it? I don't have a good sense of how good a trainer Calzaghe is; his son was obviously very talented, but some of his less talented guys haven't done as well, and I'm not sure if it's because of Calzaghe's training or their abilities...

Everyone wants a piece of Chinese boxing. It's a huge potential market, of course, but with China trying to take advantage of all the medals available for boxing in the Olympics, there also is going to be some talent in the pipeline. Promoter Dino Duva, somehow, has gotten a leg up on the competition by establishing early roots in the country. Good for him...

There's a clip of the Shaq-Oscar De La Hoya fight out there, so I pass it along to you here. It's an exhibition for the ABC reality series "Shaq Vs.," and it doesn't tell us much. Shaq is one funny mofo, though. He's taken to calling himself "Manny Shaquiao," among other humorous information available in this piece.

Round And Round

With middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik unable or unwilling to fight Oct. 3 against Paul Williams, Williams' team say they want to fight again this year without him. Unless it's a ploy to force HBO and Pavlik's hand (no pun intended) -- and I don't think it is -- it's sad but understandable. They want to keep Williams busy, which more fighters should do, and he's only fought once this year after fighting five times last year, so I don't blame them for wanting to get another fight in. Bernard Hopkins has offered his services at 170 pounds, and I'm intrigued. Williams' peeps insist he can fight as high as super middleweight, and I buy it as a possibility, since he hurt the iron-chinned Winky Wright a few times out as a middleweight in his last fight. Another option is Sergei Dzinziruk, the junior middleweight Williams was looking to fight before Pavlik talks were revived. If I had a vote, it'd be Shane Mosley at welterweight.

Mr. Mosley continues to be rumored for a Dec. 5 date, possibly against Joshua Clottey but also possibly against Andre Berto. I thought the Berto talks were dead for now over insufficient funds to please both fighters, but maybe the Pavlik-Williams postponement/cancellation opens up some cash? Mosley also says, by the way, he'd fight Williams if Williams becomes available. And Dan Rafael of ESPN reported this week that Kermit Cintron overpriced himself for a Mosley fight. So that's the Mosley sitch. Incidentally, I wish every fighter was willing to take on comers the way Mosley is -- it isn't 100 percent constant, but it is awfully persistent. Mosley's steroid use, even if he says it was accidental, prevents me from being a massive Mosley fan, but boy is he a fight fan's fighter.

Donaire looks very much like he'll end up with Jorge Arce in December for Pinoy Power 3, which is a decent bout. But this comes at the same time that Vic Darchinyan's team -- as opposed to just Vic himself -- is finally talking about the Donaire rematch. I don't suppose it's one or the other. Maybe Donaire can go Arce-Darchinyan-Fernando Montiel. If he did that, whew, what a resume he'd have. Pinoy Power 3 might feature a rematch of the featherweight Steve Luevano-Bernabe Concepcion fight, which I initially said I was fine with but in retrospect actually would be something of an injustice. Luevano says, and I agree with him, that Concepcion shouldn't have his disqualifying foul from the first bout rewarded with another shot at his alphabet title belt. But Luevano says he'll do it if the money's right.