It's time! Oh, wait, that's a catchphrase from something else going on tonight...

But it also applies to the third meeting between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, as both men have been looking forward to it for different reasons. Pac-Man wants to shut the door on this rivalry and silence his doubters, while JMM seeks vindication for a draw and a close loss, both of which he believes he won.

Pacquiao has come a long way since the first two fights, turning into a more complete (and physically bigger) champion. Marquez will hope to rely on the knowledge that he's given the Filipino ace more problems than anyone in recent memory.

As The Roots once said, do you want more? Well, the pay-per-view has Timothy Bradley, looking to stay on track for his own possible showdown with Pacquiao, and rising star Mike Alvarado squaring off with one-time Amir Khan conqueror Breidis Prescott. That's a pretty decent night of fisticuffs.

So by all means, gather your buddies and chip in for the PPV broadcast. But if you can't for whatever reason, you can still follow all the action as we recap all the televised fights live on this site. Hit our home page after 9 pm tonight and look for constantly updated posts for each fight as they happen.

Pacquiao. Marquez. Together for the third and final time. See you later tonight! 

Nick says...

In sports of all kinds, there's conventional wisdom that says that when two fierce rivals meet, you can "throw out the records." No matter how two athletes or teams may match up on paper, the rivalry itself is so powerful that it almost guarantees something competitive and dramatic will happen.

If that is indeed the case for Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, their third meeting could live up to the narrow, highly debated outcomes of the first two fights. It's hard to remember two fighters in recent memory having equally strong reasons to want a decisive victory so badly.

Pretty sweet, no? As if Nike hadn't already hooked Manny Pacquiao up with enough swag for being... well, Manny Pacquiao, the good folks at Sole Collector showed off some teaser images of a new hoodie that Pac-Man will supposedly sport later today at the weigh-in for his third battle against Juan Manuel Marquez.

Manny "Pac-Man" Pacquiao

Birthplace: Kibawe, Philippines
Resides: General Santos City, Philippines
Age: 32
Height: 5' 6 1/2"
Reach: 67"
Current World Titles Held: WBO Welterweight (147 lbs.)
Former World Titles Held: WBC Light Middleweight (154 lbs.), Ring Magazine Junior Welterweight (140 lbs.), WBC Lightweight (135 lbs.), The Ring Magazine, WBC Super Featherweight (130 lbs.), The Ring Magazine Featherweight (126 lbs.), IBF Super Bantamweight (122 lbs.), WBC Flyweight (112 lbs.)
Professional Record: 53-3-2, 38 KOs
Record in World Title Fights: 13-1-2, 9 KOs
Record in Fights Going 12 Rounds: 6-1-1
Record at Welterweight: 4-0, 2 KOs

Notable Wins: UD12 Antonio Margarito, TKO2 Ricky Hatton, TKO8 Oscar De La Hoya
Notable Losses: Erik Morales I UD12, Medgoen Singsurat KO3 no comments

Boxing lost a great one yesterday when Joe Frazier passed away at age 67 following a battle with liver cancer. It was a bit of a stunner in the sense that his ailment was only revealed to the world at large a short time ago, and just like that, he was gone.

The former world heavyweight champion was best known for his rivalry with Muhammad Ali, one that saw him hand Ali his first career loss before dropping the second and third fights in the trilogy. The final bout, known as the "Thrilla in Manilla," is quite simply one of the most famous boxing matches of all time.

Though I've seen those fights and Frazier's bouts with George Foreman on video, I'm hardly the right person to write about him or put his career in perspective. Most of Smokin' Joe's career took place literally before my time.

But in the wake of his death, many knowledgeable boxing scribes and personalities are weighing in, so I can at least point you in the direction of all the good stuff:

It figures that on a night when work prevented me from doing a live round-by-round blog for the Alfredo Angulo-James Kirkland fight, I missed out on covering what was possibly the most exciting televised boxing match of 2011. For some reason, though, I was free during the Chad Dawson-Bernard Hopkins debacle. Like I said, figures.

Hopefully you were lucky enough to catch Kirkland's impressive sixth-round stoppage of Angulo live as it happened. Actually, impressive may not be strong enough a word, considering that:

• Kirkland looked like crap in his first TV appearance of this year, when he was knocked out in shockingly easy fashion by Nobuhiro Ishida, a guy who isn't exactly the second coming of Mike Tyson.
• Angulo almost knocked out Kirkland with the very first significant punch he landed, a right hand that brought up memories of the Ishida fight all over again.
• Angulo had never even been knocked down before, much less knocked out.
• The fight was taking place in Angulo's native Mexico, someplace where, let's face it, Kirkland was unlikely to get much love from the judges had the fight gone the distance. no comments

Yep, the title of this post was something of an excuse to embed one of the most awesome music videos of the last decade. But it does accurately sum up the eye-rolling impact of the Pacquiao-Mayweather hype starting up all over again.

The media is partially to blame for this, as it dredges up the potential mega-fight any time either man is about to fight someone else. Since Pacquiao is preparing for a third go-round with Juan Manuel Marquez on November 12, he's had to shoulder most of the burden of answering those (same) questions in recent weeks.

That changed yesterday when longtime Mayweather adviser Leonard Ellerbe told ESPN's Dan Rafael that Floyd would return to the ring on May 5 of next year. Not only that, but Ellerbe specifically mentioned Mayweather seeking "the biggest fight possible" and that it would likely involve "the little fella," which isn't something I would personally call Pac-Man. Oh, and that sound you heard was the hype train getting revved back up.

Since I don't have the energy or inclination to go back over everything we've seen and heard discussed over the past few years, let's stick to things we actually know: no comments

We already showed you how to gear up to prepare for next week's trilogy-completing battle between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez if you are a Pac-Man fan. Now we want to even things out.

Well, sort of, anyway. At the very least, we can point you in the direction of the official event t-shirts and other assorted merchandise. We're guessing both men make money off of these, so it's all good.

Thanks to the Chad Dawson-Bernard Hopkins debacle, we almost had our first real controversy with the old Power Rankings. Namely, should we credit Dawson with points for a TKO, following what is, so far, the official decision? Or should we assume that the fight is eventually going to be ruled a No Contest, which is what just about everyone believes will eventually happen?

Ultimately, it ended up not mattering, because Bad Chad wouldn't crack the top 10 in our "not a pound-for-pound list" rankings anyway. Nor would he crack the next seven waiting just below it, even if given credit for the stoppage.

So we're left with just the usual controversy, which is whether our scores make any sense in the first place. There is some movement at the top this month, with Nonito Donaire jumping up even with a boring win, and two others falling just a bit as they see wins move out of the three-year rolling window.

None of this making any sense? Click here for some more clarity. Otherwise, read on for this month's rankings...

Manny Pacquiao knows speed. And power, and precision.

No doubt with a tip of the hat to the "Bo Knows" advertising campaign from about 20 years ago, Nike has whipped up a trio of "Manny Knows" t-shirts to prepare for his third and supposedly final showdown with Juan Manuel Marquez on November 12. The shirts are available online now at Nike Store for $30 each.