Right after he finished dismantling Kelly Pavlik, Bernard Hopkins said he was finished fighting younger guys. He almost sounded like he felt bad about tarnishing Pavlik's rising star by schooling him in the finer points of the sweet science.

Those pangs of regret have apparently faded. Or maybe B-Hop just meant he was done fighting young American boxers. Either way, he'll soon be preparing to fight Jean Pascal on December 18 in Quebec City.

The interesting part is that Richard Schaefer told ESPN's Dan Rafael that he hopes to make a deal with Showtime to air the bout. Setting aside the rarity of Golden Boy working with Showtime, this is notable because Rafael reports that HBO has no interest in the fight.

But wait, you say. Didn't HBO just air Jean Pascal's big victory over Chad Dawson a few weeks ago? Right you are, and it's a little strange that HBO would choose that one over this newly signed fight.

Dawson has never been a draw and is usually Exhibit A when boxing writers start discussing guys who are being overpaid to appear on the big televised cards. Even in the twilight of his career, Hopkins is a much bigger name and can probably attract more eyeballs out of curiosity if nothing else.

After consulting with Uatu, we're in agreement that it must be a money thing: Hopkins will need to be paid more than Dawson, and the extra ratings he'll bring won't be enough to make up the extra investment. It's really the only reason that makes sense.

I'm sure Hopkins sees Pascal as a relatively simple guy to beat to add one more title to his resume. I like him to win as long as Father Time hasn't been too hard on him in their sparring sessions, but it's worth noting that Dawson also thought he would beat Pascal without too much trouble, and we all know how that turned out.

Let's do some...

SHOE SHINING

Bob Arum's son is missing, and the promoter has left the Manny Pacquiao-Antonio Margarito publicity tour to head for Seattle for any news. Love him or hate him, I hope everyone will join me in hoping that this story has a happy ending for Arum...

Antonio Tarver will make his heavyweight debut on ShoBox on October 15, site to be determined. I'm a longtime fan of the Magic Man, but I think he's fooling himself if he seriously thinks he can make any noise in the division at his age - especially when he'll be on the small side. I'd like to see him as a full time commentator sooner rather than later...

As expected, the critics have come out firing at Pacquiao for agreeing to fight Margarito, gaining extra ammo when Pac Man said he believed the Tijuana Tornado had to have known his hand wraps were loaded before he was caught prior to the Shane Mosley fight. I'm not saying I don't understand why some people feel queasy that Margarito is getting such a big payday by fighting Pacquiao, but if anyone seriously thought that Manny was going to somehow turn this bout down for moral reasons... I think the word naive comes to mind.

In addition to being an exciting boxer, Amir Khan is a champion tweeter. In fact, Khan posts to his Twitter feed so often that I've considered not following him with the BW feed any more because I can't find anyone else's tweets amidst his long stream of activity.

Be that as it may, Khan does post some interesting stuff, including lots of pictures. And some of those are promoting his own stuff, naturally, so I figured I'd head over to amirkhanworld.com and see what he had for sale.

Quite a bit, as it turns out. Khan has done a lot better job of branding himself than most current boxing stars, and he's got a whole bunch of merchandise available with his stylized "AK" logo. Along with the usual t-shirts, hoodies and hats, he's got keychains, mousepads, mugs, miniature boxing gloves and more.

The actual online shop isn't too user-friendly - I'm not 100 percent sure if you can order stuff to get shipped to the States - but it's still a lot better than what most boxers have. It's worth checking out if you're a fan of King Khan.

Chop Chop Corley lost last night. That's hardly news in and of itself, as the defeat was the 14th of Corley's pro career.

But to reverse and paraphrase a famous line by the Bard himself, I come not to bury Chop Chop, but to praise him. Despite getting knocked down in the seventh round last night by hard-punching Marcos Maidana, Corley stuck around until the end, giving the tough 140-pounder a tough time in the closing rounds - and that was in Maidana's native Argentina, too.

At age 36, Corley is at the point of his career where he is strictly an opponent, albeit one who was once a world titleholder. Boxers who have beaten him over the past year include Freddy Hernandez and Fariz Kazimov, not exactly top contenders.

Still, you have to give it up for Corley, who always comes to fight and definitely is not opposed to fighting anyone. The list of people who have beaten him is like a "who's who" of the junior welterweight division over the last decade: Zab Judah, Floyd Mayweather, Miguel Cotto, Junior Witter, Devon Alexander, Randall Bailey (who he also beat once), and now, Maidana.

I'm not sure anyone has fought a roster of opponents like that over the same length of time (roughly seven years). If Corley won half of those fights, he'd likely still be in the title picture and making some good money. Had he won them all, he'd be looking forward to enshrinement in Canastota.

So here's to you, Chop Chop. A gatekeeper you may be, but a valiant one, no doubt.

Montreal is just about ready for the main event of the final Friday Night Fights broadcast of the season. We've got a pair of one-loss fighters in Omri Lowther and Henry "Hammerin' Hank" Lundy.

Teddy Atlas runs through the Fight Plan with special guest, NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski. Joe Tessitore is also on hand to call the action.

Lundy is 18-1, with his lone loss coming via KO at the hands of John Molina in July. He came in just a tad over the contracted weight and has to forfeit 20 percent of his purse.

Lowther is 14-1 but has won his last five. Both men took this fight on short notice.

Round 1

Lundy stalks and tries to fire the straight left. He is much thicker across the shoulders than Lowther. Atlas thinks Lundy looks tentative as he tries to recover from his first career loss. He gets in close and tries repeated left hands out of a semi-clinch. Lowther has thrown jabs and not much else. Both men land some punches on the inside.

Tylwalk: 10-9 Lundy

Round 2

Lundy methodically tries to make his way inside the reach of the taller Lowther. Both fighters are dodging some punches, though Lundy is getting the best of any brief exchanges. Lundy unleashes a couple of quick left hands in the round's closing seconds.

Tylwalk: 10-9 Lundy

Round 3

Atlas says Lundy could have lost the pound to keep his purse intact, but his people didn't want him to do it. Teddy wonders if that raises any questions about his stamina. Lowther is trying to counter when Lundy comes in, but that strategy isn't paying off too well. Still plenty of missed punches in both directions.

Tylwalk: 10-9 Lundy

Round 4

Keselowski is with the announcers discussing the difficulty in coming back after a crash. That's applicable to Lundy's situation for sure. Not much of interest going on in the ring, with Lundy landing the cleaner shots on the occasions anyone does land. Hank tags his foe with a nice left and chases him back into the corner. Lots of dodging as the round closes out.

Tylwalk: 10-9 Lundy

Round 5

A quick clinch leads to some rough inside fighting. Atlas wants Lowther to go to the body more. Whenever Lundy misses a wild left, he simply charges forward and forces Lowther to clinch. Both men score to the body with 15 seconds to go.

Tylwalk: 10-9 Lundy

Round 6

Lundy reaches over the jab for a left hand before circling away. Three-punch combo by Lundy mostly lands. Lundy goes to the body but is hit by a counter. Atlas likes the way Lundy is controlling range with the jab even though he's the shorter fighter.

Tylwalk: 10-9 Lundy

Round 7

Lowther seems to be picking up the pace a bit, but Lundy lands the first flush shot. Both men connect with hooks but go right back to swinging and missing. Lowther lands a rare right to the head, followed by one to the body. Lundy lets his left hand fly three times in a row. Lundy switches to an orthodox stance after eating another left hook.

Tylwalk: 10-9 Lowther

Round 8

Atlas has it 6-1 in rounds for Lundy. Lowther goes back to reaching with jabs without much luck. Lundy is snapping his man's head back with sporadic straight left hands. Lundy connects with two lefts that seem to stagger Lowther a bit right before the bell.

Tylwalk: 10-9 Lundy

Round 9

BK showed some Marco Huck highlights between rounds. Lundy complains to the ref about something as he stays very patient. More left hands from Lundy. He ducks away as Lowther tries to trap him along the ropes. Lundy blocks about four punches in a row. He smashes Lowther with a stiff left hand with 30 seconds left in the frame.

Tylwalk: 10-9 Lundy

Round 10

Lowther's corner told him (correctly) that he needs a KO to win. Early on it's mostly Lundy who is landing. Lowther comes forward and Lundy simply shoves him down to the canvas. Lundy puts several punches in a row right on the button. They stand and trade with 40 second to go. The crowd likes what it sees down the stretch, but everyone stays standing and we'll go to the cards.

Tylwalk: 10-9 Lundy

Tylwalk: 99-91 Lundy

The judges score it 98-92 and 100-90 twice, all to the winner by unanimous decision, Henry "Hammerin' Hank" Lundy.

Don't expect me to know the names of all the moves, nor can you guarantee an accurate score, but I will be doing a live round by round for James "Lights Out" Toney against Randy "the Natural" Couture.

The fight will probably be the second to last fight, so I will update periodically along the way as to when this fight will go down.

 The first fight of the PPV broadcast is about to begin, Nate Diaz against Marcus Davis.

It has been said before and I will say it again, UFC does an awesome job with stocking its undercards.  I have heard of and seen every single fighter on the main card tonight except for one.

 Something I have always wondered, except for the diffence in the cultures and history, why is it MMA fighters can continue to fight through blood and boxing matches get stopped?  Do the state commissions actually have different rules for the two?  This first fight would have been stopped already if it was a boxing match.

Nate Diaz boxes like Kassim Ouma.

 Diaz takes it by a 3rd round submission.

Next fight up is an important one:  Kenny Florian vs. Gray Maynard.

 It goes the distance.

 Maynard by unanimous decision.

I believe we have one more fight and then it's time for Lights Out.

We have Demian Maia against Mario Miranda.

 Complete domination by Maia.

 Unanimous decision for Maia.

 Mickey Ward in the house.

 It's time for Toney - Couture!

James comes out to B.M.F. Blowin' Money Fast by Rick Ross.

He is sponsored by Sinister Brand only at Kmart.

 James looks his usual muscled up top and softer in the midsection.

 He is not overly fat though. 

Couture comes out to some Van Halen. 

Here we go:

 Couture is 5 years older and 17 pounds lighter with a 3" reach advantage.

Round 1

 James is still some sort of heavyweight boxing champ somehow.

 Couture is low to the ground and circling.  And he shoots almost immediately, down goes Toney and gets the mount within 30 seconds. 

All Randy.  Not really punishing James yet but is working him.  James is punching from the bottom to little effect.  Randy is pressing him.  The crowd is chanting UFC. 

Randy postures up.

 Randy takes him to the cage. 

 This is sad so far.  He is looking like Kimbo.

Randy is choking him out.  2:26 to go.

Randy releases, then pounds him a bit, and chokes him some more.  And then out goes Toney.  It went exactly as expected unsurprisingly and sadly. 

I don't know what this proves, other than Randy is a great MMA fighter and Toney is nothing close at this point.

I don't care about the MMA vs. Boxing deal but it is what it is.  Couture by submission in the 1st round.

Couture is classy in victory,  he says he loves boxing.

Now to James.

James says he will be back and he's not a quitter.

He says Randy fought a great fight.

Shaq in the house.

Me personally, I don't see why Toney couldn't have taken a bunch of warm up fights first.  He fought a guy from the Hall of Fame in his first fight.  Had he been training MMA his entire life, there is no guarantee he could be Couture.  The whole situation was kind of dumb and the deck was stacked against him.  Couture wouldn't be crazy enough to go and fight a Klitschko in his first pro boxing match I wouldn't think.

The main event is Frankie Edgar against BJ Penn for the title over five rounds.

Joe Rogan said that Freddie Roach told him that BJ Penn has the best hands in all of MMA for what it's worth.

First round to Edgar.

 Second round was close.  Probably to Edgar.

 Third round all Edgar.

 4th Edgar.

 5th Edgar.

Edgar wins.

For reasons only the programming gods can fathom, the season finale of Friday Night Fights is coming to us tonight... on a Saturday. At least the card is being held in one of the hottest markets for boxing at the current time, Montreal.

The headliner features Henry Lundy, whose last time on this show ended in a KO loss, against another one-loss fighter in Omri Lowther. Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas are calling the action, while Brian Kenny and Dan Rafael are in the studio.

With a light boxing slate tonight, the first studio topic is James Toney's foray into mixed martial arts. Rafael agrees that the fight tonight at UFC 118 proves nothing as far as "boxing vs. MMA" goes, but he does give him a slight chance to pull off the upset if he lands a bomb with the four-ounce gloves.

Humorously, two states in the ESPN.com poll think Toney will win. A video package gives us some great highlights from the career of Lights Out.

The talk turns to Antonio Margarito's licensing victory in Texas. Rafael explains that Texas was comfortable that Tony did not know what was going on with the loaded hand wraps.

Rafael also discusses Mikkel Kessler pulling out of the Super Six, and he believes that the rumored solution that would see Allan Green dropped and the upcoming fights simply become the semifinals is the one that Showtime will go with. The guys also briefly mention Kimbo Slice and his plans on pursuing a heavyweight boxing career.

The first televised fight is a four-rounder between welterweights Michael Springer and Samuel Vargas. Springer is the journeyman type here, while Vargas is 4-0 after turning pro in February.

The ref is really earning this money as these two guys end up in clinches about three dozen times in the first two rounds. Springer keeps coming in wildly, and Vargas seems a little confused as to how to combat those tactics.

The third and fourth rounds are pretty uninteresting, forcing Tessitore and Atlas to go into an extended riff on quicksand. Atlas says he was honest with the fans about the holes in this card, but he believes the main event will be worth watching. We're going to the cards for the opener.

The judges score it 39-37 Vargas, 39-37 Springer and 39-37 Vargas, so Vargas wins by split decision, though it was hardly an impressive one.

Back in the studio, Kenny shows a graphic that illustrates how Tomasz Adamek has built a following and continues drawing more fans every time he fights in Newark. Rafael narrates highlights from Adamek's victory over Michael Grant. Dan says Adamek will be back in action in November in the hopes that he can fight one of the Klitschkos or David Haye in 2011.

The next undercard bout is an eight-rounder between local boy Nicholson Poulard and former David Lemieux KO victim Alfredo Contreras. Atlas wonders if Contreras will be one of the weak spots on the card he referenced earlier. Poulard is the half-brother of Jean Pascal, by the way.

Poulard is off to a slow start, though he starts finding the range in Round 2. He lands a big right hand with about a minute left in Round 3 that forces Contreras to the mat. Poulard comes right back with another huge right after Contreras beats the count, and that's all she wrote. Poulard wins by KO.

To the studio one more time, and BK sets up a highlight package of the best of 30 years of boxing on ESPN. Tyson, Klitschko, Mancini, De La Hoya, Mosley, Foreman, Judah, Carbajal, Roger Mayweather, Augustus, Morrison, Gatti, Nunn, Toney, Roach, Barkley, Forrest, Ward, Hopkins, Paz, Floyd Mayweather... pretty much anyone who's anyone over the past three decades.

Rafael talks Juan Manuel Marquez and how he's planning on staying at 135 for a possible fall fight against Michael Katsidis. Also it appears that Rafael Marquez and Juan Manuel Lopez will have their fight pushed pack to November 6 following Rafa's thumb injury.

Because I have no better term to describe it. Although "unfortunate" may also apply depending on what happens Saturday night.

Never one to be the shy, retiring type, even the shirt James Toney is going to be sporting for his battle with Randy Couture at UFC 118 is over the top. Yes, that's a large picture of himself on the front. It's hard to see, but Lights Out is sporting one MMA glove and one boxing glove too.

The back of the shirt reads "Talk the talk. Walk the walk." Whether Toney will actually be able to do that inside the Octagon is highly questionable.

And what will it set you back if you want to support James' foray into MMA? One hundred dollars? No sir. For one easy payment of $49.98 (plus $7 shipping), this limited edition shirt can be yours!

To paraphrase Bill Simmons, I will now light the James Toney beanie I bought a few years back (when he was, you know, a boxer) on fire.

(Props to Maggie Hendricks of Yahoo! Sports for pointing out this shirt. Or maybe not...)

California and Nevada decided Antonio Margarito hadn't learned enough from getting caught with loaded hand wraps before his 2009 fight with Shane Mosley. Texas, apparently, has no such qualms.

As predicted by those in the know, Texas granted Margarito a license today, ironically clearing the way for what will almost certainly be the biggest money fight of his career just a year and a half after the hand wrap controversy. That's because it will be against Manny Pacquiao in palatial Cowboys Stadium outside of Dallas on November 13.

Promoter Bob Arum had mentioned Las Vegas, Atlantic City and even Abu Dhabi as potential hosts for a Pacquiao-Margarito fight, but it was clear from early on that the site would be dependent on which state would be the first to grant Margarito a chance to fight again. The WBA light middleweight titleholder has fought just once since getting suspended following the Mosley fight, and that was in Mexico three months ago.

Though Nevada decided to punt on a decision to license Margarito and California barely even seemed to deliberate before denying him, Texas was equally quick to say he was okay to fight. Arum's smug confidence that his fighter would be good to go looks justified now, for better or worse.

So everyone wins: Margarito gets to fight again, Pacquiao has a chance to win another title in another weight class (however dubious) and Arum gets another event to put on in Cowboys Stadium - and without having to negotiate with another promoter. It remains to be seen if the fans will come around, since people haven't exactly been clamoring to see this match-up.

But in a year that has featured one of the least exciting boxing slates in recent memory, they just might.

The Super Six World Boxing Classic has been a worthy experiment, even if it had some bumps along the way. Now, though, it's facing it's biggest hurdle so far: losing a boxer to injury just weeks before the final batch of round robin fights.

ESPN's Dan Rafael is reporting that Mikkel Kessler has withdrawn from the tournament, citing an eye injury that affected him even before his initial Super Six fight with Andre Ward. He expects to be able to return to the ring in mid-2011 and hopes to be able to fight the winner of the tourney.

Showtime has said all along that it has a contingency plan for everything, but this is definitely a setback. It's not just losing a fighter - the event proceeded just fine once Jermain Taylor dropped out - but losing one so late in the game that hurts. On top of that, Kessler was coming off a gutsy win over Carl Froch and would have been everyone's pick to beat Allan Green (except for maybe Green himself).

Speaking of Green, he'd be the big loser under the theory floated in Rafael's piece that the upcoming fights will simply become the semifinals. That's because if he knocked out Kessler, Allan still had a chance to make the semis if everything fell just right. But after his lackluster showing against Ward, Green's chances of doing that would fall somewhere between slim and none, so it would hardly be an outrage if he was eliminated now.

Andre Dirrell would be the big winner, as he was facing an uphill battle against the favored Ward to make the semis. Now if The Matrix pulls off the upset, he could be into the final against the winner of the Arthur Abraham-Carl Froch bout, which certainly looks on paper to be a semifinal-worthy collision anyway. Turning Ward-Dirrell into a semifnal might also help it on the marketing side, a definite concern since neither fighter is a big ticket seller and no date or site had been finalized for the match.

So while this is a depressing turn of events, some good can come of it. I still think Showtime, the promoters and fighters deserve kudos for agreeing to the Super Six in the first place, and they will deserve even more if they see it through to the end despite Kessler's departure.

There's a pretty high profile boxing-versus-MMA bout coming up this weekend that you may have heard something about. In fact, if you've been anywhere within earshot of James Toney within the past month or so, it's a guarantee you've heard about it.

But Strikeforce's K.J. Noons is interested in going the opposite direction. The 27-year old recently told MMAJunkie.com that he'd be interested in fighting a boxing champion in a boxing match while representing Strikeforce and MMA in general.

To be fair, Noons wouldn't exactly be the anti-Toney because he has a boxing background. Fighting mostly as a middleweight or super middleweight, Noons has an 11-2 record as a pro boxer, winning five bouts by KO and suffering both of his losses by decision.

It'd be interesting to see if a boxing promoter would consider putting one of their guys in against Noons just for the extra hype the match would receive from the segment of the population that is obsessed with the whole "boxing vs. MMA" angle, though it would be a lot better if K.J. was a UFC fighter. Since he's not, I'm not sure he'd sell that many more tickets.

Meanwhile, here's a good look at how boxers have done competing against fighters from other combat disciplines over the years by Dave Meltzer of Yahoo! Sports.