Golden Boy, Top Rank need to stop the nonsense

The bantamweight division has some of boxing's best talent, with elite fighters like Nonito Donaire, Abner Mares, Joseph Agbeko, Vic Darchinyan and Anselmo Moreno at the top of a deep list.

But because of the nauseating and childish feud that exists between Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank, don't count on seeing the matter of the best 118-pounder actually decided in the ring.

Donaire is the fifth-ranked pound-for-pound fighter in the world, according to the November Yahoo! Sports ratings. But Mares, who faces a tough test on Saturday when he faces Agbeko in a Showtime-televised rematch from the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., could be a difficult opponent for him.

Mares has already beaten Darchinyan and Agbeko and, with a win Saturday over the gritty Ghanaian, will have a case of his own for being the best 118-pounder on the planet.

A dream bantamweight fight between Mares and Donaire, though, will likely never happen. All you need to know is that Donaire is promoted by Top Rank and Mares is with Golden Boy.

That simple fact alone will scuttle what could have been a sensational battle sometime in 2012.

Golden Boy president Oscar De La Hoya has taken to Twitter to continue his feud with Top Rank chairman Bob Arum. On Tuesday, he referred to Arum as "the snake" in a tweet about a Ring column in which Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer laid into Arum with a few shots of his own.

A little more than a week earlier, Arum was tweaking De La Hoya at a post-fight news conference in Houston, referring to a lawsuit filed against De La Hoya by a New York woman who claimed he wore women's clothes, used drugs and acted extremely oddly.

The three sound more like a group of 13-year-olds rather than businessmen with a vested interest in working together.

Imagine the president and CEO of a leading tire manufacturer feuding with the head of General Motors and refusing to work together to put its tires on GM's new cars.

That kind of idiocy, though, is exactly what is happening with this disgusting feud. Fans are laughing at Arum, Schaefer and De La Hoya for failing to see the harm they're doing to their own business.

Mares would be just another victim if he gets past Agbeko and doesn't get the shot at Donaire.

The first meeting between Mares and Agbeko in August was a highly controversial verdict in which the former was aided largely by a series of questionable calls (and non-calls) by referee Russell Mora.

Mares landed a series of low blows, most of which weren't called and one of which was incorrectly ruled a knockdown. Still, Mares insists he won't avoid the body when they meet again on Saturday.

"I'm a fighter who always likes to go to the body," Mares said. "Agbeko is the kind of fighter who leans down, but you're not going to see any of that [Saturday]. … I'm a perfectionist and I'm definitely going to go to the body. I'm going to throw a lot of body punches. If I see that the ref is saying my punches are too low, then I'm going to stop doing it."

Mares' response shows that he gets it, and that he has learned from his mistakes.

Is it too much to ask millionaires like De La Hoya, Schaefer and Arum to do the same?

• The month of December is going to decide the Fighter of the Year, which is a good thing since so many of the candidates are in action. The leading contenders on my list heading into December are the winner of the Super 6 between Andre Ward and Carl Froch, Amir Khan and Brandon Rios. Ward and Froch fight Dec. 17 in Atlantic City, N.J. Amir Khan meets Lamont Peterson on Dec. 10 in Washington, D.C., and Rios faces John Murray on Saturday in New York.

• I've been highly critical of HBO Sports' recent efforts with its 24/7 series. The Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez series was abominable, and with the exception of the ending of the first episode, so too was the Floyd Mayweather-Victor Ortiz series. But in an abbreviated two-part 24/7 on Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito, HBO hit all the right notes and produced compelling television. Anyone who saw it has to be interested in buying the fight.

• Things didn't go so well for HBO on its fight card last Saturday. It pitted Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, Adrien Broner and Gary Russell Jr., in complete mismatches that ended predictably. This kind of stuff has to stop.

• The 2012 International Boxing Hall of Fame class will be announced on Dec. 6. But it's not too soon to look ahead to the Class of 2013 and one of its most glaring omissions right now is leaving out referee Richard Steele. At his peak – and it was a long one – there was no better referee in the world than Steele, who unfairly came under criticism from fans for his stoppage of the first Meldrick Taylor-Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. fight.

• Here's hoping the discussed heavyweight title fight between Vitali Klitschko and David Haye comes to fruition. Haye talked his way into a title shot against younger brother Wladimir Klitschko earlier in the year, but performed horribly and lost a one-sided decision in which he put up little fight. Haye, though, has the talent to at least make it a fight against Vitali and considering the sparse state of the heavyweight division, his return is welcome even if he did fight horribly last time out.

The ultimate price

I read your "warrior code" article, but disagreed with something you said about a boxer's willingness to "die in the ring." While I'll allow that many boxers say they're willing to die in the ring out of bravado, I'm not so sure about others. Some examples of guys I believe would have been include Joe Frazier, Carmen Basilio, George Foreman in his late career, Meldrick Taylor, and others. I think it's unfair to issue a general statement that ignores the existential will to win evident in many boxers. That said, I think it's perfectly reasonable for a fighter to settle for less than death in the ring, or quit when there's no chance for a victory. Alexis Arguello is one of my favorites, despite electing to quit against Aaron Pryor.

David
Brea, Calif.

David, obviously neither of us can prove this, but I will give you this: There are boxers who are willing to take more punishment than others, but when it comes down to it, do you really think anyone believes a win is so important that they would lay down their life to get it? The reason the vast majority of them fight professionally is to take care of their families. One can't do that when dead, no matter how inspiring that last bout may have been.

Boxing writers are hypocrites

What cracks me up about you and the rest of these so-called boxing sports writers is how all of you are questioning Manny Pacquiao's skills and how now everybody is back on Floyd Mayweather's bandwagon. Where were all you guys two years ago, or last year? You guys were saying how great Manny was, calling him a top-10 fighter of all-time. It amazes me how you all now changed your tunes. I've been saying for three years Manny is a product of great hype, great matchmaking and definitely performance-enhancing drugs. The only person who ever spoke out against Pacquiao is Teddy Atlas. He's been telling whoever will listen that Floyd will beat Manny easily. And he said he didn't understand why Manny wouldn't fight Floyd for $50 million just to avoid taking a few blood tests. So, to all of you so-called experts (don't make me laugh), stop being frontrunners and speak what's on your mind instead of being afraid. Manny was juicing and getting hand-picked opponents for three years. Please call it like it is from now on, and let's see if you have the guts to post this.

Vincent Pontieri
Staten Island, N.Y.

Vincent, I have said many times I think Mayweather would beat Pacquiao. Two, I have been voting Mayweather first in our pound-for-pound poll. And I defy you to show me anything I've ever written that remotely suggested Pacquiao is a Top 10 all-time fighter. Further, your comments about him using PEDs shows that you're just a sheep following the herd. If you had any evidence, I'd assume you would produce it. You can speculate all you want, but I'm not about to defame someone. When evidence exists that Pacquiao used, or likely may have used, PEDs, I'll write that. But until such evidence exists, I'll confine my comments to what I see in the ring. I believe Pacquiao is a terrific fighter and is highly entertaining to watch. And while I disagree with many of his countrymen who want to deify him, his record speaks for itself. He destroyed Cotto, for instance, and Cotto had quality wins over Shane Mosley, Zab Judah and many others. Pacquiao and Mayweather are among the best of this era, no matter how much their detractors would like to argue otherwise.

"Whatever he wants to say, calling me a criminal, saying I had something in my [wraps], it's OK. It doesn't bother me. He's saying it because he knows what happened the last time is going to happen again. He's making his excuses." – Antonio Margarito, on his reaction to Miguel Cotto alleging he's a criminal and wore plaster inserts in his hand wraps when they first met on July 26, 2008, in Las Vegas.

Other popular stories on Yahoo! Sports:
• Oklahoma-Nebraska tops list of all-time defunct sports rivalries
• Week 12 Epic Fails: Eagles, Chargers and Stevie Johnson
• Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito differ on warrior's code