That a boxer's on "Good Morning America," even if it's on a Saturday, is one of many signs that despite the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao setback, the American media is still clued into the fact that boxing can matter. Even if the buzz for Pacquiao's welterweight fight with Joshua Clottey this evening has been muted among hardcore fans and even Pacquiao devotees in the Philippines, the fight's gotten some mainstream pub -- including from The New York Times, which ran its article later than the rest but still came around, and Sportscenter this morning, which revisited Pacquiao giving autographed gloves to the Boston Celtics. GMA doesn't like Pacquiao's singing, per the segment. But I didn't know Pacquiao could do such a great Scottish accent. A man of many talents, is Manny.

But there's more going on in the boxing world than Pacquiao-Clottey, even if I wasn't able to get to it this week with the marathon coverage deal. There's the stuff in the headline, plus fights in the works for Devon Alexander, the Klitschkos, and a variety of rematches. And more.

Whether you’re looking for a basic primer or a complete run-down, I’m bringing you the links you need to get fully caught up on the big welterweight fight in Dallas between Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey.

So continues our marathon coverage of one of the biggest fights of 2010, Manny Pacquiao versus Joshua Clottey on Saturday. Previously: why and how Pacquiao-Clottey matters; how good is Clottey?; keys to the fight, parts I and II; the undercard. Next: the ultimate guide.

No use beating around the bush here. You know that scene near the beginning of "Jurassic Park," where they lower a cow into the velociraptor pit by crane, then after some infernal racket, they wheel the cow’s harness back up and there’s nothing left but ragged straps? That’s what I think Pacquiao-Clottey is kind of going to look like.

If ever a boxer was like a velociraptor -- predatory, quick, intelligence on the attack -- it’s Pacquiao (above left). But it’s not that I think Clottey (above right) is some defenseless cow, exactly. In fact, he’s very defense-ful. Defense is what he excels at most. I do think, though, with his tendency to have to plant his feet to punch and the way he covers up so passively when blocking shots will have the effect of Pacquiao making him look like he’s strapped to a harness. And I don’t think he’s going to be pretty at the end of the night.

That’ll make the rest of this anticlimatic, but I do think it’s worth considering the alternatives – the scenarios where Pacquiao has a long, difficult night or even where Clottey wins. Clottey is no schlub. He’s a very good fighter. Even in losses, he has given his opponents hell, to the point that some believe he’s been ripped off repeatedly. It’s not far-fetched that Clottey gets his licks in or even pulls off the win.

(The Bobfather even wears suits on the toilet. Classy.)

Unfortunately for fight fans, it didn’t have to be this way. In addition to Pacquiao-Clottey, Top Rank is promoting a card on Friday night that will air on FSN. That card also takes place in Texas. Given the surprising depth of the FSN card and the lack of depth of the PPV card, I thought it might be interesting to see if the promoters could have put together a better weekend of boxing.

In short, I think they could have.

The following is my reshuffling of the fights in an attempt to make the PPV card stronger without dismissing the free television audience likely to be made of fight freaks who hunt down as much televised boxing as possible (like myself). I also tried to take into consideration the costs of various fights but I’m forced to purely guess on that end.

So continues our marathon coverage of one of the biggest fights of 2010, Manny Pacquiao versus Joshua Clottey on Saturday. Previously: why and how Pacquiao-Clottey matters; how good is Clottey?; and keys to the fight, parts I and II. Next: the final preview and prediction.

It's gotten to the point where I'm not sure why I even dignify Top Rank undercards with their own blog entries on the weeks of big fights. At best, it's an excuse for me to verbally defecate all over how little the company -- like most promoters, for what it's worth -- could give a damn most of the time about putting on a top-to-bottom good product with its $50 pay-per-views. Were these undercard fights occurring anywhere but as the supporting bouts for such a major event, they'd warrant but a sentence or two in a round-up column. Adding insult to injury is that Top Rank boss Bob Arum constantly insists the undercards are, in fact, good, which is like the old aphorism about pissing on my leg and telling me it's raining.

So here's the capsule take on Pacquiao-Clottey undercard: It has a grand total of one fight that could headline even a small ESPN2 Friday Night Fights card, whereas if it was up to me, it'd be more like September's Floyd Mayweather-Juan Manuel Marquez undercard, where one of the fights could have headlined an HBO Boxing After Dark show. What little credit I'll give the Pacquiao-Clottey undercard is that the three major supporting fights are likely to make up for a dearth of significance with what they'll provide in the way of entertainment. I suppose that's progress.

So continues our marathon coverage of one of the biggest fights of 2010, Manny Pacquiao versus Joshua Clottey on Saturday. Previously: why and how Pacquiao-Clottey matters; how good is Clottey?; and keys to the fight, part I. Next: the undercard.

How Pacquiao (above left) and Clottey (above right) match up could be more telling than who's the overall better fighter. Today, we'll look at how they stack up physically, as well as how they stack up in the more mental aspects of boxing. First up was the physical. Now: The mental.

So continues our marathon coverage of one of the biggest fights of 2010, Manny Pacquiao versus Joshua Clottey on Saturday. Previously: why and how Pacquiao-Clottey matters; how good is Clottey? Next: Keys to the fight, part II.

How Pacquiao (above left) and Clottey (above right) match up could be more telling than who's the overall better fighter. Today, we'll look at how they stack up physically, as well as how they stack up in the more mental aspects of boxing. First up: The physical.

So continues our marathon coverage of one of the biggest fights of 2010, Manny Pacquiao versus Joshua Clottey on March 13, culminating in a live blog on fight night. Previously: Why and how Pacquiao-Clottey matters. Next: Keys to the fight.

Everyone knows Manny Pacquiao. Not everyone knows Joshua Clottey, the man Pacquiao is fighting Saturday.

Clottey (above left against Miguel Cotto, photo by Howard Schatz) has a very good reputation, for the most part. Some boxing writers consider him one of the 20 best boxers of today, and he's one of the top men in the welterweight division, clearly. He caught some flack for his showing at the end of the fight against Cotto, but there are a lot of people who thought he got robbed in that bout. And it wasn't that long ago that there was a highly viable theory that Clottey was underrated, the best fighter in the division not to be recognized as one of the best.

Yet the more I look at Clottey, the less convinced I am. I'd had that thought prior to Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach saying the same thing in the "Road to Dallas" documentary that aired Saturday (I swear! Ask the people I hung out with Saturday night, away from the television, when the documentary was airing). But that Roach said it made me feel confident about it, too. I think Clottey has become overrated.

So begins our marathon coverage of one of the biggest fights of 2010, Manny Pacquiao versus Joshua Clottey on March 13, culminating in a live blog on fight night. Today: Why and how Pacquiao-Clottey matters. Next: How good is Clottey?

It's always a good thing when the world's best boxer, who doubles as its most electrifying performer, is fighting. It's all the better when he's fighting a quality opponent. Those are the circumstances Saturday night on HBO pay-per-view when the pound-for-pound king, Manny Pacquiao, locks horns with dangerous Joshua Clottey, ranked #5 by Ring magazine in the top-heavy welterweight division.

Yet despite those conditions... despite the good match-up, which likely will produce nice action... despite the sui generis backdrop of a Cowboys Stadium that will host 45,000 screaming fans... despite the likelihood that Pacquiao-Clottey will be a pay-per-view smash... it feels a touch anticlimatic. It's because March 13 was originally the date booked for what would have been the biggest fight in 20 years or more, Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather.

And you can say all you want, "Why don't we all just move on, already?" Ring magazine's Mike Rosenthal suggested the same thing in a recent column, then twice more mentioned Mayweather-Pacquiao in that same column. Fans of Pacquiao are constantly saying in comments on this blog, "Who cares about Mayweather?" But Pacland, the all-Pacquiao-all-the-time news hub, still lights up with Mayweather-centric articles. And some Filipino news outlets recently had a dust-up with Mayweather's flak over whether they could interview Mayweather about the drug-testing feud that derailed Mayweather-Pacquiao.

So let's consider what Pacquiao-Clottey is, and what it isn't.

Here's something that makes people take notice in the boxing world: When a boxer knocks out a world-class opponent who has a reputation for being impervious to harm. Last year, Shane Mosley and Lucian Bute knocked out the seemingly indestructible Antonio Margarito and Librado Andrade, respectively. Junior welterweight Devon Alexander pulled the same trick Saturday against Juan Urango, knocking down the gritty Colombian with an uppercut that sent him flying in the 8th then putting him down again in the same round, forcing the referee to waive off the fight.

I've been a big believer in Alexander as a future star, even if I haven't gone as far as the biggest Alexander backer of them all, ESPN's Dan Rafael, who recently compared Alexander's talent to that of Floyd Mayweather. But he far exceeded my expectations this evening, and I'm betting the Alexander bandwagon is going to get a little fuller after this performance. We're talking about a serious talent here.