News and views from boxing

News from and views on the world of boxing:

• With his dominating unanimous decision over Mexico's Oscar Larios (Sunday in the Philippines, Saturday in the United States), Manny Pacquiao showed why he is the premier 130-pounder and most exciting pound-for-pound boxer in the game.

Relentlessly aggressive and eminently powerful, "Pacman" twice dropped Larios and went on to set the table for Pacquiao-Erik Morales III in November, in Las Vegas.

The 27-year-old is the only fighter to have stopped Mexican legends Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera and if he gets past Morales in the rubber match - and if Barrera gets past Rocky Juarez in his rematch on Sept. 16 - Pacquiao-Barrera III looks like a go.

And forget about Pacquiao's WBC International whatever belt, the best part about all of these fights is that the sanctioning bodies don't mean a thing. It's about the boxers. The fans know who the real champions are. They don't need a WBC, WBO, IBF or WBA to tell them otherwise.

• Credit to Larios, who not only jumped up two weight classes from 122 to face Pacquiao at 130, but went the distance with one of the sport's pound-for-pound hardest sluggers.

Even though he showed he could hack it at 130, Larios, now 56-5-1 with 36 knockouts, would be a better fit at 126. Fights with Chris John, Takashi Koshimoto, Juan Manuel Marquez, Injin Chi and Scott Harrison all would be viable options for "Chololo."

• Further credit must go to Pacquiao, 42-3-2 (32), who has fought all of his superfights in the U.S. Unlike former light heavyweight champion Roy Jones, who was unwilling to leave the safety of his own country, Pacquiao will fight anyone, anywhere - a further testament to his greatness.

• It's going to be interesting to see what - if anything - Morales can do different against Pacquiao the third time around. In their first fight, it was more a matter of what Pacquiao didn't do - use his right jab and right hook - than it was what Morales did to win the decision.

In the second tilt, it looked like Morales' ring wars had finally caught up with him and he just couldn't keep off the Pacman.

Along with Barrera, there is probably no prouder fighter in the sport than Morales. So picking a winner for the third fight won't be easy. If Morales has some legs left, he could take a cue from Larios, whose side-to-side movement allowed him to land his jab on the southpaw Pacquiao.

The early view here is that - judging aside - Morales had better pack his lunch. I'll go with Pacquiao by decision.

- As for Barrera, he is being brave - or foolish - for giving Juarez a rematch. In their May 20 encounter, the younger Juarez was originally awarded a draw with Barrera, but after further review two judges' cards were found to have errors and Barrera eeked out a split decision.

Boxing insiders blame the closeness of the fight on Barrera, who reportedly underestimated Juarez. I'm not so sure. While I believe that Barrera deserved the win anyway, I question how much he has left.

Barrera had to dig deep into his bag of tricks and well of experience to survive the pair's first encounter. If nothing else, Juarez is bound to show less respect for Barrera's power this time and turn up the pressure.

Call me crazy, but I'll have to stick with Barrera by decision. Great fighters rise to the occasion. If Juarez steps up and wins, then it's time for Barrera to step down and make way for the next generation.

- Speaking of the "Next Generation" - a nickname which belongs to former world welterweight champion Cory Spinks, Showtime will feature a pair of fights on Saturday, including Roman Karmazin defending his IBF junior middleweight belt against Spinks.

If you will recall Karmazin, 34-1-1 (21), defeated Kassim Ouma to win the title last July. Spinks hasn't fought since May 2005, when he lost his welterweight crown to Zab Judah.

This ought to tell you all you need to know about the relationship between promoter Don King and the IBF. Spinks is King's fighter and since he hasn't fought at 154 pounds, how the hell did he "earn" a title shot against Karmazin, who should be fighting the IBF's No. 1 contender - Stockton's Rodney Jones - since the Russian hasn't fought in a year?

Spinks is ranked No. 15 by the IBF.

I smell something here, and it sure doesn't smell like teen spirit.

- Quick picks: If Spinks is anywhere near as slick as he was a year ago - and there's no reason to think he isn't - he should easily outbox the more powerful Karmazin. Besides, he has King in his corner.

And I'll stick with my earlier prediction and take Guillermo Jones, 33-3-2 (26), via split decision over Steve Cunningham, 19-0 (10), in Showtime's other match. Cunningham, who fights in reverse, took a split decision over Jones in April 2005 and owns a victory over Reno's "Koncrete" Kelvin Davis.

This match will determine who will challenge the winner between cruiserweight champion O'Neil Bell and Chris Byrd.

For his part, Jones is coming off a pair of four-round TKOs - of Davis and Wayne Braithwaite. He'll come forward, Cunningham will back up and counter. This should favor Jones.

- My feelings go out to "Cowboy" Dale Brown. Brown, who was robbed of the - here we go again - IBF cruiserweight belt when three blind mice gave the belt to Bell in May 2005.

Brown should've been the champion and gone on to face Jean Marc Mormeck in the cruiserweight unification match that instead went to Bell. Since that "loss," Brown has been out of the title picture. He recently lost a fight via technical decision, when he was cut against Shane Swartz. Brown deserved better.

- Speaking of deserving better, former junior middleweight champion Winky Wright reportedly turned down a $4 million payday to fight WBO welterweight titlist Antonio Margarito.

According to fightnews.com, Wright passed on the offer and plans on having a fight in Tampa, Fla., before moving up to supper middleweight and challenging world champion Joe Calzaghe.

The Nevada Appeal was unable to reach Wright's trainer, Dan Birmingham, to confirm the story. But if Wright indeed declined the offer, Margarito surpasses Wright as the most-avoided fighter in the game.

- And speaking of avoidance, it would be nice if someone - anyone - would ensure that Evander Holyfield avoids getting in the ring again. The 43-year-old former heavyweight champion, 38-8-2 (25), will face no-hoper Jeremy Bates, 21-11-1 (18), in Dallas on Aug. 18.The fight - if it can be called that - will be shown on "The Best Damn Sports Show Period."

Holyfield still claims he is destined to again become the unified world heavyweight champion.

Holyfield, one of the ring's greatest warriors, is coming off of three defeats and hasn't fought since having his license temporarily revoked. He lost to mediocre Larry Donald in Nov. 2004, was stopped by James Toney in 2003 and before that was slapped around by Byrd in 2003.

Can someone please talk some sense into this guy?