I can't promise you that this week's fights will be as adorable as the one in the video above. In fact, it seems downright unlikely. Still, there are a lot of them, so maybe it's possible. Sergio Martinez seems pretty popular with the female fans and his opponent in this Saturday's St. Patrick's Day middleweight championship bout, Matthew Macklin, has that Irish accent that the womens seem to love.

Apart from that, there's an awful lot going on across the puglistic world. British welterweights Kell Brook and Matthew Hatton are doing battle in Sheffield, Mexican lightweight Antonio DeMarco is fighting in Los Mochis and cruiserweight Giacobbe Fragomeni has a local derby against Silvio Branco. Too much headpunching is never enough. no comments

That's more like it. I second what our Patrick Connor said -- we were due for some mighty good action, and Orlando Salido vs. Juan Manuel Lopez II delivered. But it isn't unmitigated joy that boxing gave us this past weekend. Let us parse the Fight of the Yearness of the bout; the craziness of Lopez' post-fight remarks, and the fallout; the ramifications of the two fights themselves, both past and future; and offer one more brief word on Ricky Burns vs. Paulus Moses, another fight from the weekend that our man Andrew Harrison covered here.
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I won't make any friends with this column, so go ahead and start the hating below. I'm fortified with spiced rum. And I put my motorcycle helmet in the basement so I'm not riding tonight.

Here's the thing: I'm kind of wondering, half seriously, if there shouldn't be some sort of extra scrutiny of boxers seeking motorcycle licenses. Yes, I know that the motorcycle death this weekend of former light heavyweight title-holder Julio Gonzalez in Mexico was a hit and run, or so it is reported as such.

I'm not stupid enough to think this is some kind of trend -- hell, you can look up the list of people who have been killed on motorcycles and it ranges from Duane Allman to Bangladeshi cricketer Manujural Islam Rana. But last year U.K. Boxer Thomas Bradley was killed on his motorcycle in Sheffield. In January Gary Mason died, but he was killed riding a bicycle. And, of course, there was Diego "Chico" Corrales' horrific motorcycle accident (is there any other kind?) in 2007 in Vegas. Corrales, 29, was riding his rice rocket at high speed, probably intoxicated, when he back-ended a vehicle.
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(Orlando Salido finishes off Juan Manuel Lopez; photo credit: Amanda Kwok, Showtime)

We powered through one of those cyclical lulls over the past month or so, where the best we could do is make sense of mismatches and canceled fights. Heading into this Orlando Salido vs. Juan Manuel Lopez rematch on Showtime Saturday, we really were due for something tasty, weren't we?
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(Paulus Moses, left; Ricky Burns, right)

Ricky Burns contained Paulus Moses in Renfrewshire on Saturday evening to affirm his position in the upper echelons of the lightweight class. The Coatbridge fighter was made to work hard in every round at the Braehead Arena, Glasgow, and while the points margins of 119-110, 120-110 and 117-111 suggested an easy night’s work, in truth, Burns never quite managed to keep the Windhoek policeman in his pocket.

Burns (134 ½) was sharpest off the mark. Establishing his jab from mid-ring, he was able to subdue the visitor who, suddenly finding himself on the other side of a cordon for a change was left to push and reach in response. Moses (133 ¼) increased his pace in the 3rd and backed Burns up into the ropes with long and snaking lefts and rights.

Burns, though, remained a step ahead of him. Boxing nimbly, his superior footwork enabled him to land hard jabs and right hooks while evading retaliation. Moses found his timing in round 6 which did cause Burns to lose his thread temporarily; however, he found it just as quickly as it had left him. The home fighter would snap out a brisk jab and then a double right hand – one to the body and a follow-up over the Namibian’s left shoulder, but the final shot was one that he could never quite land plum.

After a brief tug-o-war in round 8 between Burns’s left and his opponent’s right, Burns eased away down the stretch, eclipsing the single, spearing shots of Moses with better placed and more urgent bursts. It was a solid win and an honest night’s toil from both sides.

Burns is an unfashionable sort -- his nickname of “Rickster” is on a par with Ross Gellar’s “The Rossatron” -- yet he’s equal part likable and his continuing growth is a testament to his character. In a hot domestic division, Burns remains the chip leader. He’s also ready for a crack at becoming the best lightweight in the world, whoever he may end up arguing his case against once the top trio of Juan Manuel Marquez, Brandon Rios and Robert Guerrero decide which side their bread is better buttered. no comments

For a fight so beloved -- and it's a genuinely good fight, so it deserves all the fawning and swooning -- Orlando Salido-Juan Manuel Lopez II Saturday on Showtime has an air of "race to the bottom" about it. The first fight was really just expected to be a ho-hum affair with a tint of foul odor, a bout where Lopez appeared to be avoiding a hotly-anticipated featherweight showdown with Yuriorkis Gamboa by taking on a man Gamboa had already beaten. That it turned into such a good fight wasn't so unexpected, but Salido pulling out the win was part of a streak of dramatic upsets in 2011.

Since, Salido has been taking his own token fights, each apparently designed to capitalize on his newfound popularity for striking another blow in the Mexico-Puerto Rico boxing war -- but with the merest fraction of a risk. And he damn near got knocked out in the last one. You get the impression he's doing this rematch now after putting it off for a while because he realizes he could get his clock cleaned at any time, so he might as well take a little extra risk for a lot of extra money and see how it goes. And Lopez, in his last fight while waiting for Salido to give him a rematch, looked like he hadn't changed a damn thing about his sloppy, sluggy self after a Salido loss that should've been a wake-up call.

However precariously, though, these are two of the best featherweights in the world right now. Salido is Ring's #3 man in the division, and Lopez is at #4. More importantly, it's just kind of a can't-miss fight for its entertainment quotient. The first one was a straight-up brawl, really, where the slightly better technician was Salido, which says something because Salido wasn't far removed from his days as a journeyman. But he's a legit contender now, having graduated from a journeyman's mere competence to the ability to beat or at least severely trouble pound-for-pound types like Gamboa or Lopez. He's got just enough skill to go with his grit to make him a formidable foe, even against a faster and more powerful opponent. If Lopez is a little better than last time (he says he didn't spend as much time being a fattie this go around as he did before the last go-round) and if Salido's reflexes are a little duller than last time (never quick, he looked a bit slower than usual in his last fight), then we could have an even better bout than the first one.
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Scotland’s world-rated lightweight Ricky Burns (at right) faces a tricky assignment this weekend on his return to the Braehead Arena in Renfrewshire, Glasgow, after a short campaign on the road. His opponent, Namibian policeman Paulus Moses, is ranked one place above him with Ring Magazine (Moses holds down 6th spot at 135 lbs. with Burns 7th) and is a former alphabet world titlist at the weight (although it should be noted that the same association had simultaneously awarded two other lightweights a similar distinction). Burns champions the interim version of a separate organisation at present, and while the legitimacy of his title claims and the promotional baloney that comes along with it can be taken with a pinch of salt, the challenge he tackles here probably shouldn’t.

Moses, 28-1 (19), is a thorny proposition. A smooth and rangy boxer-puncher, he holds an impressive stoppage victory over the craggy Ukrainian Andriy Kudriavtsev (who British fans may recall gave John Murray a terse evening’s work in Wigan back in 2010) and a brace of wins over the Japanese duo Yusuke Kobori and Takehiro Shimada.

His single reverse came in his own backyard when he was knocked out by the thickset Venezuelan Miguel Acosta. “Aguacerito,” who pushed the division’s heir apparent, Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios last year, invaded Windhoek, Namibia, in May 2010 and, after making the running for five rounds, crunched Moses with a right hook jammed behind his guard in round 6. Rather alarmingly that night in the Khomas Highlands Moses appeared to sit out the count -- a boxing sin that Burns’s countrymen would candidly refer to as a “bottle job.” Moses could only offer the well-worn fighter’s plea of mitigation -- that an imposter had performed in his name.

Burns, 33-2 (9), exhibited no end of gumption when shooting to prominence 18 months back. Bolstered by raucous Glaswegian support he tallied a sterling win over Puerto Rican banshee Roman Martinez in a junior lightweight contest he was heavily tipped to lose. Dumped onto his pants in the opening session, Burns elected to fight fire with fire en route to a scorching come-from-behind decision win.

Burns wields a sturdy jab, shows good mobility and has a fine engine which allows him to sustain volleys of hooks and uppercuts from first bell to last. The Coatbridge man can hold his head a tad high and is prone to counter hooks when his own power shots -- which he tends to throw a little wide -- miss their mark. This will be the home fighter’s second contest at lightweight. In November, he outhustled divisional stalwart Michael Katsidis over 12 action-packed rounds in another startling victory achieved from long odds.

Moses holds a six inch reach advantage yet is the shorter of the two. Aged 33, he’ll also be the older man by half a decade. Both men appear more comfortable when counterpunching, so it will be interesting to see how the setting affects the pair and which one of them it will coerce into making the fight.

Burns looks to have too much going for him to lose this one. While Moses may be able to win rounds with his accurate punch picking Burns should be too tasty for him when they come together to exchange, thanks to his committed and lung-busting rallies. A victory here, most likely on points, will allow him to clamber one step closer to the lightweight summit. Next up, rumour has it, is the man rated 5th – the resurgent Cockney Kevin Mitchell. A “Battle Of Britain” type affair peddled as a world title fight (as almost every televised match seems to be these days) it would sell tickets in their droves. Burns, though, knows that to be the king he needs the crown that he himself once referred to as the “Rocky belt.” Mexican great Juan Manuel Marquez holds it still. Burns continues to climb and is closing in. no comments

Before Yuriorkis Gamboa lost his damn mind, the Internet lost its damn mind. Gamboa didn't show up for the news conference in Miami Monday for his April fight against Brandon Rios, so contradictory, far-flung theories flew like so many chicken feathers as though they were fact: Golden Boy was stealing Gamboa away from Top Rank! Or Mayweather Promotions was! Golden Boy's promised, strangely-hyped "announcement" for Tuesday was to hype this maneuver! The fight is definitely off! And everyone really made up their minds about it, too. Even though nobody had heard from Gamboa or anyone about what his hold-up was, there was incriminating but inconclusive evidence like a photo of Gamboa working out in Mayweather's gym and any evidence to the contrary about everyone's favored theory was aggressively ignored.

Tuesday morning, we finally heard from Gamboa himself. It turns out he was mad about the money he was getting for the lightweight bout against Rios, and about his contract with promoters Top Rank/Arena Box. Maybe it's cuz he wants to sign with GBP or add Mayweather as his promoter. But at the moment we heard from Gamboa, the baton of insanity was handed from the Internet to Gamboa himself (whereupon the Internet collectively pretends it didn't say a bunch of totally wrong things one day ago).

This site has cheerleaded Yuriorkis Gamboa as much as, if not more than, anyone else, to the point of always capitalizing his name and adding an exclamation point at the end. But whatever valid minor bones he has to pick with his current promoters, his position is ultimately indefensible. Until further notice, he will be:

yuriorkis gamboa.

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I wasn't so sure about the whole world ending in 2012 thing until Sonny Boy Jaro beat Pongsaklek Wonjongkam on the weekend. Now I'm starting to think it might happen. The only thing that stopped me from running into the street for a naked looting session was Wlad Klitschko KOing the hapless Jean Marc Mormeck.

This isn't one of those chock-a-block weeks in which we're going to have to insert subliminal messages into TQBR copy to encourage you to stop watching boxing and bathe, but there's one big show on Saturday night. Showtime has the rematch of featherweight Orlando Salido's 2011 upset of Juan Manuel Lopez and it's an intriguing fight in many ways. Apart from that, The Ring's number one middleweight contender, Danny Geale, is fighting in his native Tasmania and there will generally be punches being thrown around the world.
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Our men Patrick Connor and Mark Ortega already covered some of the weekend's action, but in two other weekend fights expected to be mismatches, one went the route of big-time upset -- the one in the video above -- and the other was even more of a mismatch than expected.

Living Thai legend Pongsaklek Wonjongkam struggled with his footing, and with ex-fringe contender Sonny Boy Jaro's aggression, and now we have a new lineial flyweight champion. You know what I haven't seen commented upon quite as much? Shades of Floyd Mayweather, Jr.-Victor Ortiz there, with Pong holding out his arms to make nice and Jaro doing it for half a sec then cracking him, and, a touch later, finishing him off. Not to delegitimize the win -- it's a super-solid win, the frontrunner for an Upset of the Year that will be hard to top.

But heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko didn't get upset one bit. In a 4th round knockout of Jean Marc Mormeck, the Frenchman landed fewer total punches -- three -- than there were rounds in the fight. When you can sell 50,000 tickets to a fight like that, I guess it'll happen, especially with the Germans loving the Klitschko boys unconditionally. But Wlad can do better. We'll discuss him more, later on in the ol' Quick Jabs.

Actually, it's more than Quick Jabs. It's another of these two-for-one deals, with a few Weekend Afterthoughts (see above, ta-da).
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