September could get boxing off canvas

LITTLE ROCK — If the American prizefighting industry is to shed its doldrums anytime soon, September looks fairly promising.

Welterweight Floyd Mayweather (39-0, 25 knockouts) was generally considered the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world when he announced his retirement almost two years ago. He has since changed his mind (why are we not surprised?) and will fight Juan Manuel Marguez (50-4-1, 37 KOs) of Mexico at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sept. 19.

Any publicist tempted to call Mayweather-Marquez "a pay-per-view extravaganza" should visit the dictionary. It seems a "spectacular production" is one definition of extravaganza; another is "a dramatic fantasy characterized by a loose structure and farce."

However, we had anticipated Mayweather's return to the ring since Dec. 6, when Manny Pacquiao, a furious Filipino, put the finishing touches to Oscar De La Hoya's career by knocking him out in nine rounds.

Sure enough, Mayweather promptly announced his comeback.

In our imagination, he'd only been waiting for an opponent with sufficient magnetism to help him earn the biggest pay night of an amazingly lucrative career. If that materializes, it'll be sometime next year. Pacquiao is scheduled to face Miguel Cotto in a pay-per-view 12-rounder Nov. 14 at Las Vegas.

For several years (or at least since Lennox Lewis wiped out Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson and carried the world heavyweight title to England), American boxing has been sustained by charismatic performers from the lightweight class to the super middleweight division.

Since Lewis' retirement in 2003, Eastern Europeans wearing the various heavyweight belts (and fighting mostly in Germany) have pretty much killed American interest in what used to be boxing's flagship division. As you probably know, heavyweight champions from outside the United States used to be the rare exception rather than the rule.

In addition to Mayweather's return, September's fight schedule offers a title bout for the most promising American heavyweight prospect in at least a decade.

Chris Arreola of Riverside, Calif., 27-0 with 24 knockouts, challenges Vitali Klitschko, the oldest, tallest and most injury-prone of the Klitschko brothers, for the World Boxing Council heavyweight title in Staples Center at Los Angeles on Sept. 26.

Wladimir Klitschko, the younger brother in this Ukrainian family, holds the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Organization belts. For what it's worth, Ring Magazine recently recognized him as champ. He is generally thought of as the No. 1 man in a cluttered heavyweight field, although he generates little or no enthusiasm among American fans.

The Klitschko boys will never fight each other. Should Arreola win the WBC title from the older brother, especially if he does it impressively, a showdown between him and the younger brother would become a hot attraction - and in the USA, not Germany.

So far, Arreola hasn't made a wrong move as a pro, but suggestions that he may be "the next Rocky Marciano" are possibly premature and certainly irrelevant.