It was a fallacy to think lightweight sensation Edwin Valero was a one-dimensional puncher, which isn't the same as saying he's a master craftsman in the ring. But he showed off every skill he has Saturday on Showtime in beating up young Antonio DeMarco and forcing his corner to call a halt to it at the conclusion of the 9th round.

It's the punching power that always stands out in Valero's game, but what caught my eye was his exceptional defense. I'd said before the fight that Valero looks vulnerable and wild at times, but I also noted that he's really good at controlling distance and has nice reflexes on D. If Valero fights like this every time out -- and there's no guarantee he does, because even he acknowledged this was his best performance -- I go from being dubious that any lightweight in the world beats him to damn-near certain.

A recap of the fight, followed by a continually-updating list of other Saturday night results:

The old man just keeps plugging along. 41-year-old Glen Johnson will get another shot at a light heavyweight title belt after a 6th round knockout win over 30-year-old Yusaf Mack on ESPN2. As much as I love the amiable, classy Jamaican, and as happy as I am for him in notching this win, I thought he looked older still than before, and beltholder Tavoris Cloud is worlds better than Mack. But, for now, he's surely reveling in another chance after a comprehensive loss in November to Chad Dawson.

In a Friday night that featured knockouts galore on two different channels, welterweight Freddy Hernandez massively kayoed DeMarcus Corley in the 5th of the main event on Showtime, looking better doing it than he did in his previous appearance on the network.

You don't usually expect it to work out for a fighter who protests a bunk decision with one of the alphabet sanctioning organizations, because usually that only happens if there's some technicality. But the WBA is reviewing the bunk decision last weekend that gave Beibut Shumenov (at right in the picture) the light heavyweight title owned by Gabriel Campillo (left), and I think there might be just the right technicality here. The WBA, you see, is upset that only one of its judges was appointed for the fight. It just so happens that that judge, Levi Martinez, is the one who got it right, scoring it 117-111 for Campillo, comparable to the unofficial score of nearly everyone who watched. See, you can't underestimate the egos of the alphabet gang. Observe:

“Unfortunately due to the Muhammad Ali Law approved by the American Congress and applied in the main jurisdictions where WBA world championships are carried out, they have the freedom to approve and appoint the officials of the fights,” said WBA vice president Gilberto Jesus Mendoza. “I’m not trying to generate a controversy but our judges attend yearly seminars to reduce the possibility of controversy and to do justice in the ring. In this particular fight they only accepted Levi Martínez from the WBA.”

I'm not saying the result will be overturned or anything like that, but I feel like I'm hearing "mandatory rematch."

Speaking of Campillo-Shumenov, did you know I was big in Spain? My write-up of that fight led a publication there to say The Queensberry Rules was a "famed" or "famous" boxing blog, per TQBR friends-of-the-site Caitlin, Eugene and Jim, all of whom quickly pounced on translation duties when I put out simultaneous requests. Thanks, Spaniards!

The subjects in the headline, and more besides -- like an array of fights in the works -- await you in this edition of the WORLD-FAMOUS Quick Jabs...

While giving a rundown of the biggest happenings in the sport to one of my roommates the other night (believe it or not, he had not heard a thing about the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather negotiations; sometimes it’s not such a small world), he made a comment that boxers’ names seem to be less interesting than they once were. He yearned for the days when fighters with names like Evander, Riddick and Pernell ruled the world and seemed a little underwhelmed by names like Tim Bradley and Paul Williams.

What he failed to realize is that for every Paul Williams, there is a Yuriorkis Gamboa. Prompted by my friend’s innocuous comment, I gathered what I consider to be the most interesting names in boxing today. I culled the list from the Ring rankings. Get your tongue ready for some twisting and enjoy.

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We've already previewed and predicted the two biggest fights of the weekend but there's a lot happening this week besides. Let me be your Sacajawea. (Also, have I mentioned you need to get your predictions in for the prediction game ASAP? I have, I know it, but I just want to remind you again for Friday's fight you'll need to get it in by 11:59 ET tonight, and Saturday's you'll need it in by 11:59 p.m. ET Friday.)

It's a duel a decade in the making, and it's here: Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Shane Mosley have both signed to fight one another May 1, giving 2010 the best and most important boxing match on its calendar so far.

The welterweight showdown won't heal all the wounds left by the abandonment of Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao, but as consolation prizes go, it's hard to get much better. The top fight that can be made in boxing is Mayweather-Pacquiao, and the next best fight that can be made after that is Mayweather-Mosley or Pacquiao-Mosley. And at long last, Mayweather will be ending a seven-year run of not fighting someone who could arguably be considered the best opponent in his division; Mosley's achieved a lot at welterweight, and some would rank him above both Mayweather and Pacquiao. Even with the general public and hardcore fans angered by the Mayweather-Pacquiao fallout, Mayweather-Mosley is a fight everyone can get at least pretty excited about -- it's a big enough fight that the UFC moved one of its events off the May 1 date to get out of the way, even.

Comes now the major U.S. television debut of Edwin Valero, the electric lightweight who's the biggest puncher in the sport today but has gobs of flaws and a messy life outside the ring. Even though it's his opponent Saturday, Antonio DeMarco, that Showtime has nurtured, make no mistake that Valero is the focal point of the night. How can he not be? Just check out that Charlie Manson look in his eye. Watch how his foes react when he connects on one of his quick, wild, thudding shots. Observe the arrogance with which he carries himself in the ring, the passion he exhibits when he scores a knockout, as he's done in all 26 of his fights. There are Valero believers and there are Valero skeptics and people like me who are somewhere in between, but he has commodities that give him big star potential, if he can even out the considerable potholes and uneven pavement in the road ahead.

DeMarco hopes to be a mighty big pothole for Valero. He's got his own path to popularity, like the chance to become the Mexican boxing hero that he'd likely become if he beat Valero. The 24-year-old really only recently graduated from prospect to contender, and just a couple fights ago, when it was clear he was lining up as a mandatory challenger for Valero's alphabet title belt, the idea of him beating Valero was outlandish at best. But over the course of his last three fights, DeMarco has matured from pure brawler to tentative boxer-puncher to something like a fully realized version of himself.

Dear Friends of Open Thread,

Like Jorge Arce's career from fight to fight, the Open Thread is always just barely clinging to some semblance of life. We count on your contributions to keep Open Thread going. Won't you make a donation to Open Thread by coming up with some provocative topics to discuss? I don't care what. Just make it interesting and/or fun.

Here are a few questions to get us started. I'm not saying they meet my own standard, but the raison d'etre for Open Thread is to tap into your brainpower, not mine:

1. What fighters do you have a soft spot for? Like, they're not your favorite boxers, maybe they're not even all that good, but for some reason you root for them?
2. Since Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones, Jr. are fighting April 3 even though Jones just lost by 1st round knockout in Australia, what can top it in the "least essential rematches" category?
3. Please make your best Beibut Shumenov/Kazakhstan/Borat joke. (You don't have to include all three elements at once.)

And, continuing a tradition for which there is no popular demand, here's my song pick for this Open Thread. I want to marry this woman. I'm so in love with her I love her blinking green outlines. It's the new M.I.A...

If ESPN2 airs a better main event this year than the one it has coming up this weekend on paper on Friday Night Fights, I'll be mighty surprised. Glen Johnson (#3) and Yusaf Mack (#7) are two of the top Ring magazine-ranked light heavyweights in the world, and the winner will get a shot at alphabet title holder Tavoris Cloud (#6). So we're talking a quality fight here, in the significance category. But wait, there's more! I think it has the makings of a good brawl with a dosage of skill. So it could be a quality fight in the action category, too.

It's a fight worthy of an HBO undercard, even if HBO, as the fight was originally scheduled, foolishly wasn't going to air it on the canceled Jan. 30 card headlined by welterweights Shane Mosley and Andre Berto. One of the few good things about that fight getting canceled is that it means Johnson-Mack got bumped to another night, and FNF was there to catch it for us.

(I'm only going to announce this so high just this once to remind everyone who's participating, but this preview and prediction piece triggers the prediction game. Remember the rules. Now, on to the actual preview.)

In a Boxing Monthly preview piece from 1999, Steve Farhood carried out an analysis of boxing "superfights" over a 20-year period. In order to determine just how many of the sport’s biggest nights were what they had been purported to be, the writer used a three-point criteria, which was as follows: Are both fighters in their primes? Are both at their best weights? Are both legitimately great fighters?

The piece is worth a second look because of the recent maneuvering of Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

Mr. Farhood whittled down 33 bouts considered from 1979-1999 to just the following eight bonafide, classic match-ups:

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