While most of you reading this were busy watching the UFC last night, boxing fans throughout the country tuned in to watch Pacquiao/Marquez IV. It’s still too early to tell which sport came out on top in terms of the ratings, but regardless, boxing fans were treated to a dramatic sixth round knockout from one of its greatest active fighters. And no, Pacquiao wasn’t the fighter dishing it out.

Juan Manuel Marquez arguably defeated Manny Pacquiao during their third meeting, but came up short on the scorecards, losing a majority decision. This time around, Marquez took no chances, knocking out Pacquiao with an overhand right with only one second left in round six. Pacquiao, who has now lost back-to-back fights for the first time in his career (although the Bradley decision was pretty absurd), has no plans to retire, although we’ll have to wait and see what this loss does to his marketability.

Video awaits after the jump.

(Dang, Nate, tell us how you really feel.)

By Oliver Chan

On Saturday night, the sport of boxing goes head-to-head with MMA. No, I’m not talking about another freak-show like when the horribly overpaid James Toney fought the latest guy to be called out by Steven Seagal. (“Anybody seen Randyyyyy? Ah?”) I’m talking Pacquiao/Marquez IV vs. Diaz/Henderson. While the events aren’t really going head-to-head, per se — UFC on Fox starts at 8 p.m. ET, and should be finished by the time Manny and Marquez step into the ring on the HBO pay-per-view broadcast — how viewers tune in this Saturday will speak volumes of the current state of both sports.

In one corner, you have the UFC with a stacked card, but still struggling to live up to the hype as far as ratings go. In the other corner, you have boxing, the aging champ of combat sports. While struggling to stay relevant, it is still a dominant force with two bankable stars who won’t fight each other.

It is no mistake that the UFC has put together a PPV-worthy card to be aired free to the masses. You’ve got a title fight in what is arguably the most competitive weight class in the sport. You also have two legends of MMA taking on two young up-and-comers taking on the sport by storm. Come to think of it, the Penn vs. McDonald and Rua vs. Gustafsson fights are perfect analogies of what MMA is to boxing right now.

(Pacquiao vs. Marquez I, 5/8/04. Videos via HBOSports, props to BloodyElbow for the tip.)

In the lead-up to this weekend’s historic fourth meeting between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, HBO Sports was kind enough to upload all three of their previous fights to its YouTube channel. That’s 36 rounds (and two-and-a-half hours) of some of the highest-level boxing that the sport has seen in the last ten years. Though each fight was decided on a razor-thin margin, Marquez has been unable to get his hand raised so far. Will the fourth time be a charm? And can this latest fight match up to the legendary history of the Pacquaio vs. Marquez rivalry?

Fights 2 and 3 are after the jump…

(Via HBOSports)

Recently we brought you episode one of HBO’s “24/7: Pacquiao vs. Marquez IV” documentary series. The third episode premiers Saturday night so it’s a perfect time for you to catch up and see episode two (above) if you haven’t already.

Other than the elusive white whale of a fight between PacMan and Floyd Mayweather Jr, a fourth fight between the Phillipine’s Pacquiao and Mexico’s Marquez is pretty much the only meaningful pound-for-pound match up in boxing right now. In the latest episode of “24/7″ we once again get uncomfortably close to Pacquiao and his wife Jinky’s embattled marriage and see up close and personal how the Marquez family has come up in the world.

We also get more from the two fighters’ trainers, Freddie Roach for Pacquiao and Ignacio Beristain for Marquez, two of the best and most famous in the sport. There’s Pacquiao dancing Gangman Style and filing for re-election for his congressional post in between Bible meetings, and Marquez starting his Mexico City training camp off early to fight off old age.

Check out Episode Two and then tune in to HBO Saturday night at 9:30EST for the third installment. If you miss that, we’ll have it published on CP later as well because we have to do everything for you guys.

- Elias Cepeda

(Props: YouTube/HBOsports)

Here in the Potato Nation we don’t take time to discuss boxing all too often. But we’d be remiss if we didn’t bring you HBO’s behind-the-scenes look at the next chapter of a rivalry that is already one of boxing’s greatest of all time.

On December 8th, Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez will fight one another for the fourth time in eight years. And no, this isn’t one of those boxing promoter scams where the same decrepit guys get rolled out in wheelchairs to fight one another, over and again, long after interest has died in the match up. Pacquiao and Marquez fill two of the top three pound-for-pound spots in boxing, in this writer’s opinion, and their first three fights have left fans clamoring for a fourth.

As episode 1 of this 24/7 documentary mini-series shows with footage and round-by-round analysis from the fighters, coaches and even a judge, all three fights were extremely close and could have gone one of three ways — a win for either man or a draw, as the first one did in May 2004. Since then, Pacquiao has gotten the nods, with a split-decision in 2008 and a majority decision last year.

(The Jon Jones vs. Vitor Belfort staredown from today’s UFC 152 weigh-ins, via YouTube.com/UFC. The Benavidez/Johnson and Bisping/Stann staredowns are after the jump.)

- Manny Pacquiao Will Take A 45-55 Split, So It’s Time For Floyd Mayweather To Stop Being A Baby And Fight Him Already (Deadspin)

- Vitor Belfort Talk Blackzillians, Representing The Old School (HeavyMMA)

- Roy Nelson, Fabricio Werdum, Andrei Arlovski Open To Facing Daniel Cormier (MMAConvert)

- Tim Kennedy vs. Trevor Smith Added To November Strikeforce Card (Fightline)

- Chris Weidman ‘A Little Shocked, Confused, Disappointed’ Over UFC 153′s Silva-Bonnar Booking (MMAJunkie)

- TUF 16 Looks to Bounce Back After Lowest-Rated Opener (MMAFighting)

- Is Facebook Making You Fat? (MensFitness)

- The 50 Most Infamous Criminals in Sports History (Complex)

- The Ultimate Pole Dancing Fails Compilation (WorldWideInterweb)

- 5 Things You Remember If You’re a 90′s Kid (DoubleViking)

- The Best Aged Whiskeys And Why They’re Better…And So Expensive (MadeMan)

- 25 Awesomely Hilarious Children’s Homework Answers (EgoTV)

Pound for pound boxing champ Manny Pacquiao‘s next fight has been scheduled for December 8th, the same night as the UFC’s next Fox network show. In the recent past when the UFC has had big shows scheduled the same night as major boxing events they’ve has hoped that earlier telecasts on would catch many viewers who were planning on watching boxing later in the evening.

Things may not have worked out that way for the UFC and this development of Pacquiao fighting on a date that the UFC had already set as a Fox event might end up taking away viewers from the MMA programming. Last May, the UFC on Fox 3 featured an exciting card headlined by a spectacular title contender’s fight between lightweights Nate Diaz and Jim Miller. The free to watch event was also followed, on pay per view, by Floyd Mayweather Jr. fighting Miguel Cotto.

The UFC’s numbers ended up going down from their prior two Fox shows, while Mayweather’s win had an excellent buy-rate on pay per view. The UFC’s “come pre-game with us before boxing,” strategy might be more successful this time around if Fox promotes the heck out of the event during football telecasts as it did last year for the Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos heavyweight title telecast.

Otherwise, the UFC had better hope that Fox is taking a qualitative and long-view of things because dropping ratings on network television are never good.

(“I feel bad for the fighters and the judges for being a part of perceived controversy, and I feel bad for Arum being falsely accused…but I’m glad there are passionate fans out there.”)

The June 9th boxing title fight in Las Vegas between Manny Pacquiao and Tim Bradley ended in controversy after Bradley was awarded a split decision despite being routed in nearly every round. Last Saturday many more fans got to see the fight when it was replayed for free on HBO. The sanctioning body for the match’s title belt, the WBO, has announced that they are reviewing the fight, and promoter Bob Arum called for the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) to be investigated after he himself was accused of somehow being involved in corrupting the judges decision.

Basically, it’s another mess for boxing and its beleaguered fans to sort through. We thought it would be a good time to check in with the Executive Director of the NSAC, Keith Kizer, to discuss judging in boxing, the controversial decision itself, how he saw the fight and what, if anything, the state commission is doing to review the fight.
- Elias Cepeda

CagePotato: Thanks for taking time to discuss judging in the Manny Pacquiao vs. Tim Bradley bout. Before we get into that fight specifically, let’s set up some general context. Can you describe how judges are selected in Nevada? Not for specific assignments but overall. How does someone become a judge in Nevada?

Keith Kizer: There are three different ways, basically. Sometimes we bring in outside judges for events. For example, on that very card we had several judges from California. What happens in those instances is I’ll call [California State Athletic Commission Head] George Dodd and ask him to give me a couple names of great judges. He is really good about doing that for us. So what happens after that is I have those judges included on the list that I give to the sanctioning bodies and fighter camps, as I did with this event.

But we also have a regular roster of judges. Another way that people can become Nevada judges is when there might be somebody who is a world class judge but lived elsewhere and moved to Nevada. That doesn’t guarantee that they would be added to our roster, but when there is an opening sometimes they are chosen.

(Timothy Bradley answers questions from his wheelchair victory chariot after “defeating” Manny Pacquiao by split-decision.)

Following the monumental screwjob in Saturday night’s Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley welterweight title match — a fight that veteran HBO boxing commentator Jim Lampley called the single worst decision he’s ever seen — promoter Bob Arum declared that would be no rematch between the two fighters unless Nevada’s attorney general Catherine Cortez Masto launched an investigation into a possible conspiracy. As he told Yahoo!’s Kevin Iole:

“I want to investigate whether there was any undue influence, whether the [Nevada Athletic Commission] gave any particular instruction and how they came to this conclusion…the whole sport is in an uproar. People are going crazy. If this was a subjective view that each of [the judges] honestly held, OK. I would still disagree, but then we’re off the hook in terms of there being no conspiracy. But there needs to be an independent investigation because it strains credulity that an event everybody saw as so one-sided one way all three judges saw it as close. It strains credulity.”

If I was Manny Pacquiao, I’d have no problem refusing the rematch in the first place. He beat Bradley, everybody saw him beat Bradley, and he gains nothing from pursuing a rematch outside of fulfilling a “revenge” storyline made possible by [ALLEGEDLY] corrupt judges. And speaking of [ALLEGEDLY] corrupt judges, here’s judge Duane Ford trying to justify his 115-113 tally of the fight in the challenger’s favor:

A montage of Bradley’s dominance. (Photo: www.pacquiaovideo.com)

By Steve Silverman

One of the worst things about boxing is the unpredictability of the human condition.

Such as when that human condition allows individuals called ‘judges’ to score a fight.

This should not be difficult. For those of us who remember when schoolyard fights took place between two individuals with fists and not weapons, it was fairly easy to tell who won the fight. The kid who left crying or had the bloody nose lost the fight. The kid who threw more punches and hurt his opponent won.

The same holds true in professional boxing. You are supposed to score each round after it is completed and then you add up the totals after 12 rounds. The fighter who wins the most rounds and therefore has the most scoring points is supposed to win the fight.

That is not what happened last night in Las Vegas when Manny Pacquiao seemingly dominated challenger Tim Bradley in their welterweight championship fight. You could easily give Bradley two rounds. You could make the argument that he did well enough to steal two more rounds if you wanted to be generous. But the other eight rounds belonged to Pacquiao.

More on this debacle after the jump.

(Is HBO really counting Bradley’s head-butting ability as one of his advantages against Pacquiao? Good grief. / Props: HBOsports)

By Steve Silverman

Timothy Bradley will get the chance of a lifetime on Saturday night when he faces Manny Pacquiao for the WBO welterweight title at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.. Which begs the obvious question…who the hell is Timothy Bradley?

To casual boxing fans, it may seem like the 28-year-old California native came out of nowhere. But Bradley — the reigning WBO and WBC light-welterweight champ — has been competing professionally since 2004, racking up an unblemished 28-0 record (with one no-contest) along the way. While that may be impressive enough on paper to make Bradley worthy of a title shot in the next weight class, a look at his boxing resume reveals that he has only knocked out 12 of his opponents. You can’t say Bradley doesn’t hit hard, but he hasn’t shown the ability to string punches together that lead to impressive KO performances.

Four years ago, Bradley was nearly out of the boxing business altogether. He and his then-girlfriend Monica were down to their last $11 when he flew to England in May 2008 for his first light-welterweight world title fight against Junior Witter — a situation made more desperate by the fact that he and Monica were caring for her two children. Things got pretty grim during those lean years:

By Steve Silverman

The specter of Manny Pacquiao looms over the boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Miguel Cotto.

Not that Mayweather (42-0) and Cotto (37-2) aren’t capable of putting on a great show in their light-middleweight championship fight, May 5th in Las Vegas, but the boxing world is always transfixed by the best possible matchup. Mayweather vs. Pacquiao has headed that list for a long time.

The 31-year-old Cotto is the real deal and is capable of pushing Mayweather, 35, to the limit. An upset may be a real possibility. Not only does Cotto have sensational power, he is capable of launching a barrage with either hand.

The other factor working against Mayweather is that he may not respect Cotto as a fighter. You can tell that by the trash talk — of which there has been very little. The two fighters have been very respectful of each other and that’s very unusual for Mayweather. In one of the pre-fight press conferences, Mayweather spoke of his admiration for Cotto’s straight-forward and hard-hitting approach. He also used the opportunity to belittle Pacquiao, suggesting that he is barely paying attention to the opponent in front of him.

(That moment when you get hit so hard you shit your pants in front of the whole gym.) 

Having worked with everyone from Manny Pacquiao to Andrei Arlovksi, it’s fair to say that Freddie Roach knows damn near all there is to know about the stand up game.

So when he sat down alongside current WBA (super), WBC, and The Ring super middleweight champion Andre Ward on last night’s edition of Inside MMA, the inevitable question came up: who does he think are the top five best boxers in MMA?

Check out Freddie’s top five, along with his thoughts on GSP vs. A. Silva, after the jump.

(How about $1 Million dollars and an autographed 8×10?”)

Manny Paquiao told reporters during a recent media scrum that Floyd Mayweather recently called him up and offered him a guaranteed $40 million purse, but said he wasn’t willing to share a cent of the pay-per-view cut.

“I spoke with Floyd on the phone. He called me on the weekend. I told him, ‘Let’s make the fight happen and I agree for 50/50 [on the pay-per-view] and whatever blood testing you want, as long as you agree for 50/50.’ And he said, ‘Let’s do this. I’ll give you this amount and no more pay-per-view for you,” Pac Man recalled with a chuckle. “After that, I gave it to my people [to handle]. He was very serious. It’s okay with me that he has a bigger guarantee and I have a smaller guarantee, but it’s 50/50 for the distribution of the pay-per-view.”

According to Paquiao’s manager, the final offer given to Mayweather was a $50 million guarantee for Manny and a 45-55 percent split of the pay-per-view revenue, but “Pretty Boy Floyd” just wasn’t having it.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. must be realizing that the number of fights left for him that people actually want to see at this point in his career are few and far between. Today the soon-to-be-incarcerated WBC, WBA, IBF and The Ring welterweight champion has agreed in principle to face Manny Pacquiao May 5 in Las Vegas.

“Money” took to his Twitter and Facebook accounts this afternoon to call out the WBO and WBC welterweight champ. Pacman’s camp has yet to respond to the challenge, but his promoter Bob Arum is said to be in the Philippines negotiating Manny’s next fight.

Juan Manuel Márquez punches the face of boxing, figuratively and literally. Props: Fox News Latino

With all of the hype surrounding last night’s UFC on Fox, a quick finish in Velasquez vs. Dos Santos was far from ideal. As we’ve mentioned, it left fans, many of whom first time viewers, with an anticlimactic feeling. Immediately following the UFC’s debut on Fox was the main event of that other combat sport’s event from last night: A welterweight title fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao.

Even though Manny Pacquiao is arguably the best boxer alive, many people felt that the 10-1 underdog Juan Manuel Marquez won their first two meetings. An exciting fight between Marquez and Pacquiao could have given boxing some much needed publicity after Dos Santos quickly knocked out Velasquez, and possibly have kept casual fans from jumping over to mixed martial arts. Frankly, the only truly damning result for the sport would be for the fight to end in a controversial decision that gets the crowd thinking that the fight was fixed.

If you’ve followed boxing at all over the past few decades, you already know where this is going.

(Video courtesy of RadioPlanet.tv/KRSP/Shade 45)

Anyone who ever complains about the growing number of MMA fanboys with URL’s and podcasts claiming to be journalists needs to listen to the clip above of two dudes, who are obvious fans of Floyd Mayweather, feeding the boxing champ softball questions. In fact, some of the questions aren’t actually questions at all, but at least we sort of get to hear what Floyd has to say about a few things.

One of the interviewers is a DJ by the name of “DJ Whoo Kid” and the other seems to be DJ WK’s hype man and FMJ’s biggest fan, given his numerous nuthugging statements like “Ortiz got exactly what he deserved after that headbutt.” He obviously wasn’t listening during the first half of the interview as he continually asks the exact same questions as Whoo Kid.

As a public service for those readers who can’t (or won’t) sit through the interview, check out the key points after the jump.

(UFC on FOX video promo via ZombieProphet)

Some fresh details coming in about the UFC’s latest game-changing deal and their November 12th debut on FOX. As first reported by the Las Vegas Sun, the broadcast will be a one-hour live special, kicking off at 6 p.m. PT / 9 p.m. ET., and will feature just two fights along with a full preliminary card. The event is expected to take place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Because of the time-slot, booking the event on the same night as Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez 3 won’t be an issue for home viewers. “We’ll be out of there before Pacquiao even walks to the ring,” Lorenzo Fertitta said. “This is going to be a perfect night for any fight fan. Get together with your friends, watch two big fights in the UFC and then change the channel to ride into the Pacquiao pay-per-view.”

As for the UFC on Fox fight card itself, only one prelim match has been announced so far…

(Video courtesy of YouTube/FightHype.)

Jeff Mayweather, the uncle of IBO, WBC, IBA, IBF and IBO Welterweight World champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. says that he’s confident that his nephew will finally face longtime nemesis and WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao some time in 2013.

“I think [Floyd] will be fighting another couple of years,” he told Fighthype.com. “I think that’s being realistic because I think the [best] fight that’s out there will take that long to materialize.”

If you’re a Mike Tyson fan like I am, one of the toughest things to witness was the once thought unstoppable heavyweight’s fall from grace and prominence in the world of boxing.

Whether or not you think he’s guilty of the charges that saw him spend some of the best years of his life in prison is irrelevant to his place in Boxing Hall of Fame and the trials and tribulations the beleagured former champion has gone through in his life, from falling victim to the trappings of success to hangers on like Robin Givens to losing a child.

The interviews above and below are must-watch material for any current and former fans or for those who want to know what happened to Tyson, beyond what he touched on in his acclaimed self-titled documentary.

I have an autographed pic of “Iron Mike” in his heyday on the wall of my office that I’m looking at as I write this that depicts the champ like I remember him and before all of his troubles outside the ring caught up to him. That’s how I want to remember him, because I’m a fan of his performances in the ring back then.

Check out the other parts of the interview after the jump.

(…so Tiny choked his ass…I know. Can you believe he had the nerve to ask ME for ID?)

On the heels of his latest criminal charges — a pair of misdemeanor harassment counts filed against him last week in Las Vegas, NV,  Floyd Mayweather Jr. is at the center of new lawsuit.

The suit, filed by a Las Vegas strip club bouncer, alleges that one of the boxing champ’s bodyguards choked the complainant outside of his place of work, Drai’s at Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall & Saloon after he asked Mayweather and his entourage for identification before they were allowed entry into the club. According to court documents obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the plaintiff, Clay Gerling is seeking $10,000 in damages.

If you missed Manny Pacquiao‘s latest performance on Saturday night, well, you didn’t miss much. The boxing megastar defended his WBO welterweight title by unanimous decision against “Sugar” Shane Mosley, in a bout that was marked by a disappointing lack of action. It’s not suprising that this CBS Sports highlight reel starts at the end of the 10th round. The only notable moments before that were a knockdown that Pacquiao scored in the 3rd frame — which seemed to convince Mosley to quit engaging altogether — and a trip/shove by Mosley earlier in the tenth that the referee decided to rule a knockdown, just to keep things interesting. Nevertheless, two of the judges ignored the ref’s bad call and gave every round to Pacquiao.

As we told y’all on Friday, the Pacquaio/Mosley match was Gus Johnson’s final play-by-play gig for Showtime, and he made sure to trot out his diverse range of knowledge. At the 0:52 mark: “He kinda throws, in the MMA world, it’s a version of the ‘Superman’ punch.” GuJo‘s just keeping the chops sharp until the UFC comes calling, I guess.

After every mechanical victory by Pacquiao over an outmatched opponent, our thoughts always turn to Floyd Mayweather Jr., and what he might be up to right now. Well, get a load of this…

(“What can I say? Beef jerky and flattops don’t pay for themselves.”)

As the rest of us scramble to get our taxes done in the hopes of getting back a nominal return, the world’s highest paid athletes laugh at us from their million-dollar penthouse apartments as they light thousand-dollar cigars with hundred dollar bills as their accountants write checks to Uncle Sam on their behalf to cover what they owe for the year.

Sadly, what the top ball throwers, dribblers, catchers, hitters and kickers pay out in yearly taxes equals more than many of us will make in a single year as long as we live. According to ESPN The Magazine, former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar is a member of that elite club as well.

(Bob, could you use this staircase to show us where boxing is today compared to, say, thirty years ago? PicProps: Pacquiao-Margarito.com)

The last time we heard from boxing promoter and cantankerous old white dude Bob Arum he essentially dismissed MMA types as “a bunch of skinheads who like to roll around like homosexuals.” In other words, Dale Carnegie this guy is not. Good news is, Arum managed to keep the homophobia under wraps this week when he and prized possession Manny Pacquiao sat down with USA Today writers Sergio Non and Scott Zucker. Unfortunately, when the topic of MMA came up, Arum continued to weirdly define his objections to our sport on the basis of race. It’s almost as if he’s trying to distract us from something else … something like realizing his words are just the impotent flailing of an old man who realizes his place in the world grows smaller each day …

“I don’t want to demean UFC, because they’ve done a marvelous job of marketing,” Arum said, in response to a question from Non about the record-breaking ticket sales in Toronto for UFC 129. “But it’s the same audience over and over. It’s white males, and they have never been able to expand their demographic … Hey, this country is becoming more and more Hispanic, and it’s growing (more) African-American (in the) audience. So the future success of UFC is limited. The success of boxing is not, because boxing reaches those groups. The only demographic that boxing has lost is the white, young males, period.”

("I’mma poke you in yo stupid face if you axe me another stupid question.")

You would think that if you were awaiting trial for assaulting your ex-wife you might try your best to…I don’t know…NOT GET ARRESTED FOR ASSAULT?!

It seems that Floyd Mayweather Jr. thinks that money and fame excuses him from playing by society’s rules.

The Associated Press is reporting that the WBA welterweight boxing champ was allegedly involved in another incident this morning in Las Vegas in which he laid his hands, more specifically his fingers on a security guard in his gated community after the official began writing him parking tickets for a number of vehicles that were unlawfully parked on the street outside "Pretty Boy Floyd’s" home.

Police say that Mayweather became enraged when the the security officer refused to tear up the tickets and began repeatedly and aggressively poking the guard in his face.

(Just pick the one that goes best with your shoes, Manny. PicProps: The Global Herald)

It was only a matter of time before someone published this story, right? In the wake of James Toney’s halfhearted loss to Randy Couture last weekend at UFC 118, BoxingScene.com reports that pound-for-pound boxing king Manny Pacquiao says he’d be interested in bringing his skills to the cage, too. Obviously there’s no chance this ever happens – and we assume the next few months will be full of breathless “(Insert Famous Boxer’s Name Here) Also Interested in MMA!” stories – but it is at least interesting to note that even the best pugilist on the planet is willing to give lip service to fighting in our sport.

It’s also worthwhile to follow the link just to read the few comments on Boxing Scene’s original story. We don’t want to spoil it for you, but let’s just say there is across-the-board agreement from guys with names like “Neck Snapper” that “Pac” would destroy these “UFC fags.” There also seems to be some confusion about the proper use of “there, their and they’re.” Just saying.

(Props: Fightlinker)

If you skipped Pacquiao vs. Clottey because you don’t have the patience to watch a lopsided 12-round boxing match — you and us both, brother — this is really the only thing you missed: Jim Lampley having a stroke in the eighth round and shouting like Emeril Lagasse on a crack binge. Who needs CompuBox when we have this loud jackass?

After the jump: Frank Mir describes the motorcycle wreck that nearly ended his career/life, and Georges St. Pierre gets fruity.

(Left: WEC 47′s ugliest bloodbath. Right: WEC 47′s second-ugliest bloodbath.)

To the general public, March 6th seemed like any other Saturday. But for those of us who watched WEC 47, it was Opposite Day. Miguel Torres fought without his usual aggression and paid the ultimate price. Brian Bowles got absolutely clowned by Dominick Cruz and became the first fighter to be stopped by Cruz in the WEC. Stoppages outscored decisions, 8-3. The Fight of the Night went to a split freakin’ draw.

As you can imagine, few of us did well in our MMA FightPicker pools. Even our great leader Aaron Rampey didn’t win first place in any of his, though he did manage to tack on 112 chips to his grand total, and still sits comfortably in first place. This seems like a good time to mention that I, BG, tied with Rampey in our Contender Pool, while BF failed about as hard as we all figured he would. Surf_Finland won our pool (congrats!), which helped him move to the #2 spot in FightPicker’s current Top 5:

Aaron Rampey: 1,758
surf_finland: 829
Me: 800
Peetee: 800
ToothGuy: 796

Now that that’s behind us, what do we have to look forward to this week?

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

– Frank Shamrock plans to return to competition in March. (MMA Fighting)

– Alistair Overeem makes too much money in K-1 to fight in Strikeforce. (MMA Weekly)

– Shane Carwin’s manager in hot water over "pump and dump" stock fraud charge. (SI.com)

– Brazilian trainer Marco Jara murdered after carjacking. (Sherdog)

– Will Kyra Gracie give MMA a try? (Fightlinker)

– Josh Barnett: The Biggest Loser of 2009. (Bloody Elbow)

– UFC 107 PPV buys: Not too shabby. (MMA Payout)

– Manny Pacquiao threatens lawsuit against Mayweather’s camp due to steroid accusations. (ESPN)

– Top 10 most controversial decisions in MMA. (Bleacher Report)

– The 10 biggest sports betrayals of the decade. (Scores Report)

– "Golden ratio" for feminine facial beauty discovered. (Asylum)

– Everything you need to become a better man in 2010. (Ask Men)

– 25 awesome winter fails. (Holy Taco)

– Jaden Smith gets his ass kicked in Karate Kid remake trailer. (Screen Junkies)

– Best NASCAR Cup races of the decade. (All Left Turns)

– Eight women who are completely off-limits. (Made Man)

– Redneck Christmas barn party fight. (Nothing Toxic)

– Pope attacked by crazy woman during Vatican mass. (Break)

(Props: MMA Hits. Fight starts at the 9:06 mark.)

By now, you probably know that Manny Pacquiao dominated Miguel Cotto on Saturday night en route to a 12th-round TKO victory, becoming the first boxer to win world titles in seven different weight classes, and solidifying his position as best pound-for-pound pugilist on the planet. Cotto was as game as advertised, and kept the contest competitive early on. But the knockdowns that Pacquiao scored in the third round (right hook) and fourth round (left uppercut) turned the tide of the fight for good, and Cotto spent most of the remainder of the match playing defense.

Cotto’s camp nearly threw in the towel after a demoralizing 11th frame, but the fight was allowed to continue to the last round, in which referee Kenny Bayless seized on the first opportunity to stop the fight; the official time was 0:55 of round 12. Immediately after the fight, the MGM Grand Garden Arena began to chant "We want Floyd!" Ah, but does Money Mayweather want Manny? The video is above; watch and be inspired.