Muhammad Ali turned 70 years old this week. And even though he has been ravaged by the effects of Parkinson’s Syndrome, and his brilliant ring wars with Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, George Foreman, Ali seems ageless to the generation who grew up watching him. And he remains so to those coming after because his many images are forever preserved in video.

If there is one complaint that trainer Freddie Roach has with Manny Pacquiao's last two fights against Joshua Clottey and Antonio Margarito it is that the Pound-for-Pound king has shown too much compassion for his opponents.

Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. both took center stage this past week in their own versions of bad boys doing bad things. It's an ongoing production with an endless cast of athletes and celebrities that plays out around the world on some level seemingly every day.

For a fight between such little guys, the fallout from the IBF bantamweight title match between Abner Mares and Joseph Agbeko sure is raising a big stink. That's because the majority decision that Mares received, due in large part to the actions of referee Russell Mora, was quite foul.

Count me among the dupes who traveled to Hamburg, Germany last week to see what I thought was going to be the most significant heavyweight boxing match in the last eight years.

by Tim Smith

Andre Berto, the World Boxing Council champion, is stuck in a welterweight No Man's Land. Boxing fan's barely notice if he fights a pretender. The contenders aren't exciting enough to make it interesting. And the two superstars – Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather – aren't interested in fighting each other, let alone a hungry young champion like Berto.

Typically most great Mexican fighters don't come back once they've hung up the gloves. And Erik Morales qualifies as a great Mexican fighter. But unlike some of his pugilistic predecessors, Morales decided that he hasn't had his fill of boxing just yet.

The National Football League is in the midst of labor turmoil. Negotiations on a new contract between the owners and the players have broken down and the whole matter is in the courts.

Yuri Foreman has gone through a lifetime of experiences in the short span of nine months. He realized a dream as the headliner on the first boxing card at Yankee Stadium since 1973. But he lost his world title to Miguel Cotto when he tore up his right knee during the match and it was stopped on a TKO.

Taken all together 2010 was a disappointing year in boxing for me. That's because the fight that everyone wanted to see – Manny Pacquiao versus Floyd Mayweather, Jr. – never happened and by the end of the year it looked like it would never happen.

When you make the claim that you're the best boxer in the world and are rated No. 1 Pound-for-Pound by most experts in the sport there are certain expectations. Number one among those expectations is that you're going to be willing to fight the top rated contenders who would challenge you for that position.

Jean Pascal, the WBC light heavyweight champion, said he didn't become familiar with Bernard Hopkins until Hopkins fought Felix Trinidad in 2001. That was nine years ago and Pascal was 19 years old.

Pascal said he wasn't a fan of Hopkins, more of a Roy Jones, Jr. fan. He never really thought much about the possibility of fighting Hopkins. But time and financial considerations always bring about changes in perspective and thinking.

Bernard Hopkins likes the idea of returning home to train for what could be the last fight of his long, illustrious career.

"It's like I've come full circle,'' Hopkins said as he was getting stretched out before a workout at Joe Hand's Gym in the heart of Philly this week.

Hopkins is 45 years old now. He grew up in North Philadelphia. Instead of being like Will Smith in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,

The last time Zab Judah ran into an Argentine boxer that he knew little or nothing about he ended up surrendering his undisputed welterweight title before a hometown crowd at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

That loss to Carlos Baldomir four years ago was a blow that sent Judah on a downward spiral that he never fully recovered from. He hasn't held a world championship since that night.

Standing in front of a handful of reporters in a small room upstairs at the Friar's Club in midtown Manhattan earlier this week, Kelly Pavlik found himself in an unfamiliar position.

James Toney has always been a bigger than life character, even in the over-hyped, over-exaggerated world of boxing. He is loud and boisterous. If there are three rings at a circus, then Toney would make sure that all the focus would be on the ring where he was performing.

There was once a time when Michael Grant was thought of as the next great young American heavyweight. That was a long time ago. But Grant still hasn’t lost the desire to prove that he can be a heavyweight champion.

There is always a certain amount of trash talking that goes on in boxing. Rarely do you have a match that unfolds where there hasn’t been one of the fighters talking bad about the other or boasting about what he’s going to do during the match.