When Antonio Margarito defends the WBA welterweight title against Shane Mosley on January 24, the fight will emanate from Los Angeles' Staples Center instead of Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"We knew Staples was available, and we made a deal figuring we might as well take the fight to where these fighters' fans are," Margarito's promoter, Bob Arum, said.

Frankly, any fight that gets out of Vegas is good by me. It's not that I have anything against Vegas, as it's obviously a wonderful fight city and the epicenter of American combat sports, but it's nice to see fights in other cities, which only serves to get fans in those places anxious to see more boxing when the fights deliver.

Mosley and Margarito are both home based in Los Angeles, and the heavy Latino market should help pump up the attendance if they don't make the ticket prices ridiculous. There's really no reason with reasonable ticket prices this fight can't sell out even a good-sized venue like Staples. Promote, promote, promote, and treat the fans right, because this is almost a sure bet to be a good fight. Build some goodwill.

OK, so you know about Oscar de la Hoya. Everyone does. And you know about Manny Pacquiao. Everyone's starting to learn.

But this Saturday night's pay-per-view event pitting the two in a "Dream Match" main event is going to drain your wallet to the ca-ching-ching tune of $54.99. So what's on the undercard? Is there anything worth seeing?

That all depends on what you like. But rest assured, there will be action, there will be knockouts, and you'll get to see three of the fastest-rising stars in the sport in action at the MGM Grand.

Heading up the undercard action is 122-pound titleholder Juan Manuel Lopez, Puerto Rico's newest superstar export into the sweet science. Lopez's wicked power (21 knockouts in 23 fights, all wins) was on full display when he took the WBO junior featherweight title from Daniel Ponce de Leon in June, knocking the Mexican slugger out in just over two minutes. It was supposed to be the fight of the night -- instead, it was just a huge coming out party for the 25-year old Lopez. In October, Lopez made his first defense, knocking out Cesar Figueroa in 47 seconds.

He'll be opposed on Saturday by Sergio Medina (33-1, 18 KO), a 26-year old Argentinian whose only career loss came on the Oscar-Mayweather undercard in 2007, when he was beaten by Rey Bautista. He's fought five times since, all in his home country and mostly against illegitimate competition. Medina will be able to prove whether he's a contender or not on Saturday.

21-year old junior welterweight "Vicious" Victor Ortiz (21-1-1, 17 KO) may now be best known as the young man that was reported to have "beaten up" Oscar de la Hoya -- his boss, mind you -- in training camp for the big fight. His record is blemished only due to a DQ early in his career, and a technical draw after one round against Marvin Cordova, Jr., in 2007. Otherwise, he's been everything his nickname implies. He's spent his last four fights pummeling veterans like Carlos Maussa, Roberto Arrieta, Emmanuel Clottey and Dairo Esalas.

On Saturday night, he'll take on 31-year old Jeff Resto, who was recently the feature of a great story by Mitch Abramson at ESPN.com. In his younger days, Resto was one of the hottest properties in the sport. Now 31, it would be a vast understatement to say his career didn't progress as planned. In '03 and '04, he lost back-to-back fights against Maussa and Michael Warrick, and this fight with Ortiz is a chance to step back into the spotlight. All accounts right now of Resto are pretty much the same: no one's quite sure where he is mentally, physically, or competitively. He may provide Ortiz some real resistance. He very well may not. He's a wild card.

The opening bout will showcase one of the sport's hottest prospects, as Daniel Jacobs will appear on his fifth straight major card. On September 13, he was off TV on the Casamayor-Marquez undercard. 14 days later, he fought under Mosley-Mayorga, again untelevised. On October 18, he kicked off the Pavlik-Hopkins pay-per-view broadcast with a first round knockout of Tyrone Watson. And on November 8, he was again off TV at Madison Square Garden, beneath Calzaghe-Jones.

Jacobs, 21, is really making the rounds. He'll face Victor Lares, a 31-year old club fighter from Corpus Christi, Texas, in a fight that honestly has no business on pay-per-view in today's age. Lares has no power (14-3, 3 KO), no shot at winning, and no name. Jacobs could have just as easily fought off TV again. I get the idea to try and expose him to a big audience, but no one's going to take this fight very seriously. Golden Boy and Top Rank could've made any number of more interesting fights for an opener, but they chose to pass on that option. As we're all too well aware, it happens.

Now as far as 2008 pay-per-view undercards go, this one is pretty much par for the course. It features some good young talent, but on paper they're all in fights meant more to present them than push them competitively. Medina has a pretty record, but it's a paper record. Resto is a mystery. And Lares is a tomato can.

Maybe the best thing you can say is that without some horrible misfortune, it won't be able the touch the overpowering stink that was the Calzaghe-Jones undercard in November, and it should feature some good action. There's a decent chance all three fights are very short, too, which could lead to some interesting production choices as we wait around for the main event. How many times can one interview Buboy?

The answer: Not enough.

It's consistent with his public claims: he admits to using EPO before he fought Oscar de la Hoya in 2003, but he also denies knowing that it's what he was using.

"I am very relieved that this grand jury testimony has been released because it confirms that Shane has consistently recounted his dealings with [Victor] Conte from 2003 to today," Burstein said in a story posted on the paper's Web site Tuesday night.

Conte, the convicted steroids dealer who founded the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, has said he saw Mosley take EPO during a meeting in which Mosley was told the benefits and risks of performance-enhancing drugs and how to use them.

I've always wondered exactly how the notoriously fitness-conscious Mosley injected himself with a drug without knowing what it was and what exactly it was going to do for him, and what might be in it, but that's for Shane to deal with. It's his life, and even if I remain skeptical, it's not like I'm some righteous pundit about it. It happened; he's not the only fighter that did it, he's not the only fighter that will do it.

I'd say it's time to put this story in the past. Shane has been consistent with his statements all the way. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Junior welterweight champion Ricky Hatton and lightweight sorta-contender Marco Antonio Barrera have weighed in on Saturday night's fight between Oscar de la Hoya and Manny Pacquiao.

Barrera joined the legion of fighters and promoters calling the fight "a farce," and laying into it pretty heavily. Others to slam the fight have been Antonio Margarito, Miguel Cotto and WBC President Jose Sulaiman.

Said Barrera, "What battle? This is not battle. ... The fight is a circus."

This coming from the legend that came back in Chengdu recently to fight Sammy Ventura, over a year after an iffy at best performance in a rematch with Pacquiao. You may recall Barrera fighting merely to survive in that bout, and taking a blatant cheapshot at Pacquiao late in the fight. But to each their own. Marco's a legend and can say what he wants, really. He's also hardly alone.

Still, I think the whole thing smacks of jealousy from so many of these guys. Jealousy that Pacquiao will make by far a career-best payday. Anger from Sulaiman that Pacquiao sits indifferent to his standing as the WBC's lightweight titlist, and won't be paying any sanctioning fees for this bout. In fact, neither man will. Top Rank, Golden Boy, HBO and the fighters are keeping it all. Ha!

Hatton, meanwhile, is for the fight, and is rooting for a Pacquiao win, hoping to take on the man regarded as the sport's pound-for-pound best to lift his crown. He also notes that he feels he has nice negotiating status for a fight with either of the two combatants. Ricky remarked, "I like to think that I'm in a position where I can say to Manny or Oscar, if terms aren't right, I'll f--- off home and fight in front of 100,000."

Not a bad spot to be in, is it?

For Oscar de la Hoya, a reputation hangs in the balance on Saturday.

Those that question his credentials ignore that his losses -- five in 44 fights -- have come to elites of the sport. Only Bernard Hopkins has ever knocked him out, and the only others to hold wins over "The Golden Boy" are Floyd Mayweather, Tito Trinidad and Shane Mosley.

He has held world titles in six weight classes, from junior lightweight all the way up to middleweight. He may not be a truly sensational all-time great talent, but his prime years were not far off from that, either. He is, though, a once in a generation draw for the sport. For all of Oscar's faults, boxing would be in truly dire straits without his presence the last 16 years.

He is, arguably, the last American Olympic boxer to truly captivate the imagination of the sport's fans. And he's the biggest non-heavyweight attraction ever.

If he loses to Manny Pacquiao on Saturday night in Las Vegas, a naturally much smaller man, his legacy will take a serious hit. At 35, he's aged, but he's not washed-up. And if he beats Pacquiao? The minds of many will simply respond, "So what?"

In many ways, Oscar is in a no-win situation against Pacquiao. If he wins, he should have, as the bigger man. If he loses, then how'd he lose to such a naturally, physically overmatched man?

There are more wrinkles than that, of course. Small or not, Pacquiao is a dynamic fighter, and the sport's best pound-for-pound. He has talent and ferocity, and mixes them unlike anyone else in boxing today. If you take the size out of it, there's nothing wrong with Pacquiao stepping up to take this challenge, and there's nothing wrong with Oscar fighting a man that above anyone else, deserves the huge payday that comes with fighting boxing's -- and only real -- drawing card.

There are a lot of ways for Oscar to beat Manny. He could jab, use his size, and keep Manny on the outside, waiting for chances at big power shots. Pacquiao has a habit of leaving himself open, even now that he's become a much better defensive fighter than he was just a few years ago, when he was emerging as such an action star.

Oscar says it would be "a disaster" if he doesn't knock out the Filipino legend. I wouldn't have classed it that way, but now that he has, it's hard not to think that way going in. If Oscar wins a close decision, how many people are going to think he's just plain past it? If he can't win a shootout -- which is what fans want from Pacquiao fights -- who will really want to see him fight on against Ricky Hatton, or in an undesired rematch with Mayweather?

De la Hoya painted himself into the corner of needing to knock out Pacquiao, perhaps, but it's a worthwhile corner to be in, too. Oscar will do himself and the sport a favor by going out and fighting toe-to-toe with Manny. Given his size, he should have the confidence that he wins the war. If the two go balls to the wall, they will at least entertain.

And with the amount of boxing fan backlash against this matchup since the moment it was signed, that might be the very best they can do in the long term. A win for Oscar will never sit well with a lot of people, but it's not like the guy should go out there and do anything less than try to win. Let the haters hate. Fight on.

You know all the sayings. Well, they all apply.

If Manny Pacquiao, whose highest-ever fighting weight came in June at 135 pounds, is to defeat Oscar de la Hoya this Saturday, he cannot let the size become an issue.

Some have painted the size as the reason to call this fight a "circus" or a "joke"; others have decided it's a media myth created by those opposed to the fight for whatever reasons they may have.

But facts are facts. Oscar de la Hoya is a bigger man than Manny Pacquiao. He's four inches taller, has a good amount of reach on Pacquiao, and has never weighed less than 133 pounds for any fight, going as high as 160 against Felix Sturm.

Some will point out that Pacquiao was just 17 when he started fighting professionally at 106 pounds. But do you think Oscar was 106 pounds when he was 17? He won a lightweight Gold Medal at the '92 Olympics in Barcelona, when he was 19. So it's doubtful.

The size can matter. It doesn't necessarily have to, and that's probably at the core of a lot of the belief Freddie Roach has in his fighter.

Oscar is a big welterweight, about as big as Antonio Margarito. But he's also 35 years old and really does seem to have trouble "pulling the trigger," as Roach puts it. When holding his own with the faster, more talented Floyd Mayweather, Oscar lost the ability to land an effective jab and lost the fight because of that.

What is Oscar's last truly big win? Vargas? That was over six years ago. Mayorga was a nice comeback win in '06, but we all know the score with Mayorga. The only other wins on his sheet since Vargas are Yori Boy Campas and the debatable middleweight victory against Felix Sturm.

Pacquiao can win this fight, but he's going to have to be at his best defensively. At some point, Oscar will test his chin. And even if he can't knock Manny out, his natural advantages give him the ability to turn this into a toying session if he plays his cards right. He could jab all night. It probably won't back Pacquiao up for long, but it'll win rounds.

How can Pacquiao win? He has to make it about speed. There is no one Oscar could have brought in that truly spars like Pacquiao fights. Manny is a unique boxer. If you watched the most recent "24/7," you saw Bernard Hopkins in Oscar's gym giving his sparring partners advice on how to fight like Pacquiao, and "make Oscar work harder than he wants to work." Though B-Hop meant that to benefit Oscar, he got what Manny needs to do exactly right.

Manny has to move, throw combinations, and light Oscar up with them. I don't think Manny is big enough to be the first guy besides Hopkins to knock Oscar out, but I do think he can discourage him, frustrate him, and make him fight outside of his game. Oscar isn't the quickest guy anymore, his offensive reflexes looked somewhat shot against Steve Forbes in May, and even if he is training to see things before they come, the lightning-fast Pacquiao is going to hit him.

I'm not trying to say that Oscar is slow or flat-footed or anything, but if the Pacquiao camp hasn't watched tape of Roy Jones' win over John Ruiz, then I think they're crazy. Jones was as close to perfect as he needed to be that night. And while these two have an agreed-upon weight limit, Pacquiao will need to be the same. Also in Pacquiao's favor is the fact that Oscar de la Hoya hasn't fought a southpaw since 1997, when he dominated Hector Camacho. Manny can give Oscar a lot of looks he's simply not used to, no matter how smart and savvy Oscar is by now.

This isn't the only way for Manny Pacquiao to win, of course. There are several ways for it to happen. But when I see Pacquiao's hands raised, I see that it came because he was too active, too fast, and too able to box hard for three minutes every round. I see a frustrated and dejected Oscar de la Hoya who has to seriously think about his career. It's not that this is the only outcome I see, either. But if Pacquiao is to win, he has to take the size advantage away. If Oscar's on his game, Pacquiao can't win being tentative.

Source: LA Times

Promoter Lou DiBella has won a World Boxing Council purse bid for the right to stage welterweight champion Andre Berto's next title defense against New York's Luis Collazo, the WBC announced on Monday.

DiBella, who promotes Berto, told The Times the bout will occur on Jan. 17 at a site to be determined. The fight will be televised by HBO.

DiBella won the bid for $675,000. Collazo's promoter, Don King, came in second at $427,000.

Berto (23-0, 19 KO) is facing what should be a final "ladder step" opponent before he starts taking on the best in the 147-pound division, or at least that's how I see it. Collazo (29-3, 14 KO) has come up short in his two biggest fights, against Hatton and Mosley, and hasn't beaten anyone worth a crap since 2005.

This would be a BIG upset for Collazo, even though he is a step up from the likes of Michel Trabant, Miki Rodriguez, David Estrada and probably even the undersized Stevie Forbes. And it's a fine welterweight lead-in night for January 24's Margarito-Mosley fight, too. Glad it's done, glad it's going down.

Nothing terribly interesting, but it's nice that ESPN is bothering to talk boxing, and another feather in Oscar's cap, as he's apparently the only guy that can actually get himself on the network for more than a 10-second blip.