One More Round with Joseph R. Holzer: Segura/Calderon, Lopez/Marquez, Marquez/Katsidis, Pascal/Hopkins, Super Six, Mayweather, Pacquiao, etc...

One More Round is back this week with Joseph R. Holzer giving his take on the latest happenings from the boxing world.

Where to start...

It's been two and a half weeks since the last installment of One More Round, and it seems all hell has broken loose in the boxing world during that time. The sport has offered a myriad of soap opera-style stories ranging from racist rants to the licensing of known cheaters. That's not to mention multiple bout announcements and cancellations, many of which have lineal titles weighing in the balance. It's a script Joss Whedon would envy.

Overall 2010 has been a disappointment.  From the collapse of a certain superfight to lackluster pay-per-views (Mosley-Mora is seriously set for Sept. 18; it wasn't simply a nightmare) and a general lack of high quality bouts, the sport has given us very little to get excited about.

So who's the culprit? Where does the blame fall?  The rifts between promoters have jeopardized potentially superb matchups. Fighters themselves, most of whom relish verbal warfare rather than fisticuffs (can we muzzle Floyd Mayweather and David Haye) have blown chances to salvage the wreckage of eight months.

Yet let's not all cast stones. We as boxing fans aren't without guilt. We bitch and moan about the above antics, but we still tune in weekly. We still follow every dumb move of Mayweather's. Where is the protesting of alphabet organizations and greedy promoters? We are eager to complain, yet unwilling to boycott and with that attitude it should be no surprise that we're consistently given a sub-standard product by the networks and promoters.

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A bright spot in the plethora of boxing goings-on was Giovani Segura's eighth-round knockout of Ivan Calderon to capture the junior flyweight championship. What isn't to like about Segura? He's in a perpetual state of attack and is absolutely unrelenting. To take out a previously unbeaten legend in the light-fisted but equally light-on-his-feet Calderon -- in a 24-by-24 ring, no less -- is an impressive feat, even if the 35-year-old Calderon has lost a step.

This will surely shake up The Boxing Bulletin's recent pound-for-pound list, which has Calderon in the 14-slot. And by Segura's claim in his interview, he wants to compete at 112 and 115. If 2011 wants to rectify the damage of this year, it will give us Segura vs. Vic Darchinyan.

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Collective sigh of relief now:

The Juan Manuel Lopez-Rafael Marquez bout has been re-scheduled for Nov. 6. Sure, the ten minutes they'll be in the ring will be breath-taking, but peep this beauty of a poster. The fact that print will still be available is well-worth the announcement.

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Speaking of Marquez...

Juan Manuel Marquez has agreed to defend his lightweight crown against Michael Katsidis on Nov. 27. It looks fun on paper, but does it go six rounds? If Juan Diaz picked the self-proclaimed descendant of Achilles apart, what happens when Katsidis is across from a pugilistic surgeon like Marquez?

This fight won't be for the squeamish. Katsidis looks like he takes skin-care tips from Israel Vazquez and Vitali Klitschko, and probably eats twice as many punches.

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Know who won in the Marquez-Katsidis deal? Marcos Maidana, who gets a shot at Amir Khan after barely getting by sturdy gatekeeper DeMarcus "Chop Chop" Corley.

Maidana will be well-served to study Khan's first-round KO loss to Breidis Prescott. That's the only chance he's got.

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Somehow Lucian Bute has become the odd man out.

In lieu of honoring his home country with an all-Canadian title bout, newly crowned light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal has opted to face the long-in-the-tooth Bernard Hopkins on Dec. 18.

The thing is, the craftier-than-your-mama's-mama Hopkins has been "old" at least since the time he said he wouldn't fight past 40. That was more than five years ago, and his only loss has been a disputed one to Joe Calzaghe.

B-Hop didn't impress in a win against shop-worn Roy Jones Jr., but did Pascal think this one through? The fight will have Golden Boy backing it, but a loss to the Executioner would cheapen a Bute bout, n'est-ce pas?

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No, there really isn't anything left to say about Antonio Margarito until after Pacquiao knocks him out, either. Next.

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Meanwhile, the Super Six took another liver shot with Mikkel Kessler's pulling out with an eye injury. This tourney has gone down the toilet. It was a great premise that initially excited fans but the injuries, the bickering over who gets home town advantage and the extraordinary amount of time it's taken to -- well, we haven't even reached the second round yet.

The addition of Bute would add some lost legitimacy to it. We're going to see some decent bouts between the four who advance, but is it worth the wait? It was supposed to crown a lineal champion in a deep and overlooked division. With Bute in super middleweight limbo, we might not even get that.

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With that taste in your mouth, let's move on to something truly sickening in Mayweather's racist and homophobic tirade against the man he won't fight, Manny Pacquiao.

It's a shame Mayweather possesses the tremendous boxing skill he does. He's a punk, plain and simple. If not for boxing, he'd be nothing. It should be a crime for the kind of person he is to be making the money he does. Boxing should take note. Another paragraph shouldn't be wasted on him.

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On behalf of everyone at The Boxing Bulletin, our condolences go out to the Arum family on the tragic passing of John Arum.

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Until the next bell...

e-mail Joseph R. Holzer