The middleweight champion of the world is back. It is both a glad and potentially dangerous occasion, the return Saturday of Sergio Martinez not only to the ring, not only to HBO, but to his native Argentina, where he's become an athlete worthy of presidential hobnobbing. Martinez is resuming his reign coming off the richest win of his career, a resounding decision win over popular Mexican brawler, Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., and will be celebrated by approximately 40-50,000 Argentines live in Buenos Aires. But the Chavez win was a win that, while it enriched him, came with a cost: a badly injured knee resulting from the final round charge from Chavez, one that required surgery. Reconstructed knees are not kind to 38-year-old late starters who depend upon a special brand of speed and gymnastics, the way Martinez does.

Enter Martin Murray, a top-10 middleweight with similarities to two fellow U.K. 160-pounders who have given Martinez more trouble than some expected, Darren Barker and Matthew Macklin. Murray, whose best performance came in a draw against top middleweight Felix Sturm in a bout that many believed he deserved to win, is fundamentally sound, intelligent, nothing special but with no discernible exploitable flaws like Barker and Macklin. Both of those men kept things close, but ultimately succumbed to the superior speed and power of Martinez. Neither of them faced Martinez coming off knee surgery.

Spooky. Either Top Rank is listening to me, or I'm beginning to think like that promotional company, because here's a series of fights I recently suggested: Manny Pacquiao-Mike Alvarado; Juan Manuel Marquez-Timothy Bradley; and Brandon Rios-Ruslan Provodnikov. Two of the three, both at welterweight, now appear very likely -- Pacquiao-Alvarado for October or November, and Marquez-Bradley for September. Alternately, it's a total coincidence. But I stand by the sequence, because each fight is well-matched. Pacquiao would be fighting a reasonably dangerous yet upward-moving junior welterweight, a straight-ahead fighter who could present him a good opportunity to show off his speed and movement without it being a cakewalk in his comeback from the KO loss to Marquez; Marquez-Bradley is a nice meeting of boxer-punchers who have become action fighters, too. Now give us Rios-Provodnikov at 140 -- which would be the purest action fight of the trio -- and make me look like a super-genius, Top Rank.

Those aren't the only fights in the works, though, of course. We've got the men in the headline, as well as what's next for some of the biggest of the big names in the sport, like Floyd Mayweather, Canelo Alvarez, Nonito Donaire, Wladimir Klitschko and others.

Tyson Fury, the Manchester traveller who represents Ireland as a boxer, delivered such a ham-handed performance on his American debut over the past weekend that it felt almost exploitative. It was an indecorous display that left those deemed associates through living in the same geographical area blushing on his behalf. It felt like packing your children off to relatives for the weekend only to learn that they’d neglected their table manners and broken an heirloom.

Of course not everything converts from pounds into dollars. British institutions such as soccer, tea, Oasis, Robbie Williams -- Tesco, even, have all failed in their quest to “crack” America. The U.S. remains a capitalist playground that can flip provincial hits into global brands. An appealing boxer, though, generally crosses over. If you can fight then you’re all right. British ex-pats generally represent HM and the Crown without incident: Lennox Lewis, Joe Calzaghe, Ricky Hatton, Amir Khan and Carl Froch -- while not quite James Bond in terms of professional etiquette -- all wiped their feet on arrival and left a card on departure. In fact, not since former featherweight king Naseem Hamed hit New York in 1997 have New Yorkers been left to ponder quite what it is to be British.

Hold up. Heeeeeey.... Hope you're ready for the next episode.

Patrick Connor of this here website and James Foley of that there Bad Left Hook website are back with their boxing radio talking after a well-received and well-listened to debut. They discuss the weekend that was and the weekend that will be.

Go consume it now.

(Nathan Cleverly, right, lets his hands go)

If Nathan Cleverly had been hoping to stake his claim for a tutorial with the old master at light heavyweight, Bernard Hopkins, then he could probably have done with looking a tad less unruly than he eventually managed in shutting out Robin Krasniqi on Saturday on Epix. Cleverly, 25-0 (12 KO), Cefn Fforest, Wales, dominated Krasniqi, 39-3 (15 KO), Munich, Germany by way of Kosovo, over 12 rounds at Wembley Arena, London, to take a unanimous decision via scores of 120-108 (twice) and 119-109.

(Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, right, punches Austin Trout; photo credit: Showtime)

“Canelo will be here for a long time,” said junior middleweight Saul Alvarez after defeating Austin Trout in San Antonio on Showtime. It’s hard to disagree with him, despite the third person athlete's tic. Canelo by no means destroyed all the doubts over his superstar status on Saturday, but he answered a lot of questions.

Those looking for a high quality Friday Night Fights card on ESPN2 this week were looking in the wrong place tonight -- at least in the main event. What should have been recognized as a mismatch beforehand, indeed was, as featherweight Javier Fortuna took just over one minute to glue Miguel Zamudio to the canvas with a neck-wrenching left hand. 

But for a fight card that propped up a mismatch in its main event, this FNF felt strangely satisfying, though admittedly it may have also been because many of us psychopath pugilism fans have been stricken with pathogenic anticipation for this weekend's action. 

Sometimes fight cards that are in ways underwhelming can fill the emptiness with a sensational knockout, or even just decent moments from hard-working pugs.