FanHouse Floyd Mayweather Jr

We still don't know whether we'll get the dream fight of Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. next year, but we do know this: Mayweather is favored to win the fight, but bettors are feeling confident about Pacquiao.

The online sports book Bodog.com is already taking bets on the fight (bets that will only become valid if they actually fight in 2010), and Bodog decided to set the opening odds at -170 for Mayweather, signaling that Mayweather's undefeated record (not to mention his size advantage) would make him the expected winner if the two best pound-for-pound boxers in the world meet in the ring.

TAMPA, Fla. -- With eyes fixated on perspiration-soaked, WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto's workout, Bob Arum surveyed his latest promotional responsibility at The Fight Factory gymnasium like an artist appreciating his most recent piece.

"Miguel is just a fighter with great, great heart," said Arum, whose 42 years in boxing began with the Muhammad Ali victory over George Chuvalo -- his first of 26 fights involving the man many call "The Greatest" -- and included the George Foreman comeback.

A 78-year-old Harvard graduate and attorney, Arum also handled every fight of Marvelous Marvin Hagler's career, as well as substantial portions of those of Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

FanHouse caught up with Arum on Tuesday during Cotto's training in Florida for his Nov. 14 defense against Manny Pacquiao to discuss the futures of Cotto, Pacquiao, and several other fighters he promotes.

Days after the Floyd Mayweather Jr-Juan Manuel Marquez fight went head-to-head with UFC 103 on pay-per-view, Golden Boy Promotions is declaring that boxing scored a knockout victory over MMA, with four or five times as many buys as the UFC.

It's important to note that Mayweather-Marquez was the biggest boxing match of 2009, while UFC 103 wasn't close to the biggest MMA card of the year. And it's also important to note that pay-per-view buy rates are difficult to nail down.

But Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said that when all the numbers come in, he'll have an impressive buy rate to announce, likely over 1 million.

Despite big nights for the sport like we had on Saturday night, we're constantly hearing that boxing is a dying sport. Two of the biggest reasons for that are that no one can keep the weight classes straight and no one can keep the champions straight.

Ring Magazine deserves great credit for attempting to change that by establishing clear-cut criteria for determining its own champions, but I have two problems with the way Ring does things. The first is that the magazine ranks fighters in 17 different weight classes. That's too many. And the second is that the Ring ratings have so many vacancies at the top tthat only six fighters can be called Ring Magazine champions. That's too few.

So below is my attempt to list boxing's legitimate champions, using only the sport's eight traditional weight classes.

After watching his son dominate Juan Manuel Marquez Saturday night, Floyd Mayweather Sr said he came away more convinced than ever that the boxing match everyone wants to see -- Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Manny Pacquiao -- would be a mismatch.

Bert Sugar is boxing's foremost historian, a journalist who has covered the sport for decades and seen all the best fighters since the era of Joe Louis. So just two days before the biggest boxing match of the year so far, Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Juan Manuel Marquez, FanHouse checked in with Sugar to get his thoughts on the bout.

Sugar talked about the historical significance of Mayweather and Marquez, and how one of them can earn the kind of victory on Saturday night (HBO pay-per-view) that will make history. The interview is below.

When Floyd Mayweather Jr. announced his retirement after beating Ricky Hatton in 2007, he said he was walking away from boxing with a record of 39-0 in part because he had already proven that he was the greatest fighter of his generation. But as Mayweather prepares to return to the ring Saturday night against Juan Manuel Marquez, he says he'll leave it to others to determine where he ranks among the great boxers of all time.

"I'll let the fans judge that when my career is over," Mayweather said in a chat with FanHouse readers this week, when asked where he thinks he ranks. "I want to take on the best competition over the course of my career. I want to control the things I can control, which is to fight the best in my era. I can't fight the people from Ray Leonard's era or any other era, but I want to beat the best in my era."

Juan Manuel Marquez has said that he is willing to walk through fire, to die in the ring in order to take down undefeated six-time champion, Floyd Mayweather Jr., on Saturday night.

"But that fire," said noted boxing scribe, Michael Katz, "might be doused by Marquez's own blood."

Boxing promoter Bob Arum scoffed at Floyd Mayweather Jr in an interview with FanHouse's Ariel Helwani last week, saying, "He's just a problem and a head case." In a chat with FanHouse this week, Mayweather claimed he hadn't heard those comments -- and then proceeded to respond to them anyway.

HBO's 24/7 boxing show is a brilliant way to hype a pay-per-view fight. The four-part documentary takes viewers inside the lives of the fighters, and by the end of it, you can't help but want to see these two go at it.

But while watching the current 24/7 series, which is hyping Saturday night's fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and Floyd Mayweather Jr., you also can't help but want to see Marquez give Mayweather a beating. And that raises a question: Is the show unfair to Mayweather?