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Saturday at New York

Nonito Donaire W12 Omar Narvaez
Bantamweight
Retains unified bantamweight titles
Scores: 120-108 (three times)
Records: Donaire (27-1, 18 KOs); Narvaez (35-1-2, 19 KOs)
Rafael's remark: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. This main event on HBO's "Boxing After Dark" was a huge disappointment, but not because of Donaire. He was in there trying to entertain the fans, trying to make it a real fight and even dropping his hands here and there and inviting Narvaez in to hit him to get things going. But Narvaez refused to engage, refused to fight and stunk out the Madison Square Garden Theater as what had been a very excited near-sellout crowd of 4,425 spent long stretches of the fight booing relentlessly. Donaire easily won every single round in a forgettable first defense that followed his brutal second-round knockout of Fernando Montiel to win a pair of 118-pound belts in February.

What was so disappointing was that Narvaez, 36, of Argentina, was not some hobo opponent. Although an underdog and smaller than Donaire, Narvaez, a southpaw, was a legitimate foe. He was a two-time Olympian and is a two-division titleholder. He had made 16 flyweight defenses during his 2002 to 2009 title reign (which ran simultaneously, in part, to Donaire's own flyweight title reign) and then moved up to junior bantamweight, where he holds a title. He moved up another weight class to challenge Donaire and instead made David Haye look like he laid it all on the line when he fought Wladimir Klitschko in July. Narvaez just did not fight the way he normally does. He was defensive from the beginning and it got way worse when he went into a permanent defensive shell in the fourth round, which is when Donaire staggered him with a right hand to the head. From then on, Narvaez wanted absolutely no part of Donaire and the goal was simply to survive without getting drilled. While Donaire landed 99 of 666 punches (15 percent), according to CompuBox, Narvaez's output was absolutely pathetic. He landed 74 of just 299 punches (25 percent). That means he threw only 25 punches per round when the bantamweight average is about 60 per round.

The whole miserable display was frustrating for everyone. The fans started to walk out of the arena well before the fight had ended. Donaire was disgusted with Narvaez's refusal to fight, even apologizing to the fans afterward -- even though it was not his fault. But Donaire knows he is a highly regarded pound-for-pound talent and wanted to continue living up to the lofty standard he has set with other tremendous performances. As bad as the fight was Donaire should at least look on the bright side -- he kept his title, won every round and handed a longtime undefeated titleholder his first loss.

The defense will be Donaire's only one of the bantamweight title. He is moving up to junior featherweight for his next fight in the first quarter of 2012 and Top Rank's Bob Arum has plenty of good fights he can offer Donaire, 28, a native of the Philippines who has lived in the Bay Area since he was a kid. At the top of the hit list are potential matches with 122-pound titleholders Jorge Arce of Mexico and Japan's Toshiaki Nishioka. Both have been discussed and both could happen in either order in the first half of next year.

Miguel Angel "Mikey" Garcia TKO4 Juan Carlos Martinez
Featherweight
Records: Garcia (27-0, 23 KOs); Martinez (19-13-1, 7 KOs)
Rafael's remark: Garcia is just 23, but he is ready now for a top opponent or even a title shot. If the Oxnard, Calif., is just little more patient he is going to get one, because he is with Top Rank and it promotes several quality fighters in the featherweight division. Garcia may turn out to be the best of them. He is so ultra poised and professional for a young guy and he has the talent to go with it.

Although his previous two bouts were on HBO, dominant knockout performances against previously undefeated Matt Remillard in March and the late Rafael Guzman in June, the network could not fit in Garcia's fight on this broadcast (other than some highlights) so he fought a bit of a lesser opponent. The result was as expected -- a blowout. Martinez, 29, of Mexico, had won two fights in a row coming into the bout, including an upset decision over former title challenger Bernabe Concepcion in his last fight in May upset. But he was no match for Garcia. Other than swelling his left eye with a punch in the first round, Martinez could do little else but eat Garcia's hard punches. Garcia scored a knockdown with a hard left hook just before the end of the third round. He continued to punish Martinez in the fourth round, landing a big overhand right than dropped Martinez to his rear end. Garcia could not miss with the right and dropped him again. Martinez was game and was able to continue, but Garcia did not let up and referee Harvey Dock called off the fight at 2 minutes, 46 seconds as Garcia was banging him around. Garcia is a lock to receive a title shot in 2012.


Saturday at Ludwigsburg, Germany

Marco Huck KO6 Rogelio Omar Rossi
Cruiserweight
Retains a cruiserweight title
Records: Huck (34-1, 25 KOs); Rossi (17-3-1, 11 KOs)
Rafael's remark: Huck's eighth title defense was one of his easiest as he powered through Argentina's Rossi in brutal fashion. Huck, 26, of Germany, was never in any trouble as he battered Rossi. He landed strong jabs that gave Rossi, 30, a bloody nose in the second round. Rossi's eyes were marked up by the third round during which he lost a point for hitting Huck low. Huck responded by dropping him to all fours with a right hand in the final 10 seconds of the round. After the bell rang to end the fourth round, Huck unnecessarily slammed Rossi with a left hook to the head to drop him. The blow was clearly after the bell and referee Paul Thomas did not rule a knockdown. Instead, he properly docked two points from Huck, even if it would not matter because he was beating the heck out of Rossi. Huck scored two more knockdowns in the fifth round, first on a left hand and later in the round on a body shot. Rossi was brave, but the end was obviously near and then it happened in the sixth round when Huck rocked him with an uppercut and then knocked him out cold with a crushing straight right hand. Rossi, out when he got hit, went down flat on his back and Thomas could have counted to 100. Rossi was down for several minutes before regaining his senses while Huck had an easy defense against an opponent whose resume showed nothing on it to show he deserved the title shot in the first place.


Friday at Mashantucket, Conn.

Edwin Rodriguez W10 Will Rosinsky
Light heavyweight
Scores: 100-90 (three times)
Records: Rodriguez (20-0, 14 KOs); Rosinsky (14-1, 8 KOs)
Rafael's remark: Although the three judges somehow managed to score every single round for Rodriguez for the clean shutout, this was one helluva competitive (and excellent) fight. The Showtime "ShoBox: The New Generation" main event was exactly what the show is supposed to be about -- good prospects being matched in competitive fights. Although Rodriguez, 26, of Worcester, Mass., did deserve the decision there's no way this was a shutout.

Rodriguez clearly won the first few rounds, but Rosinsky did some excellent work during the middle rounds, but obviously got zero credit from the judges. Showtime's announcers scored the fight a draw, and it could have been. Rosinsky, 26, of Ozone Park, N.Y., was in the fight all the way despite the crazy scores. He and Rodriguez were both top amateurs and were once roommates in the unpaid ranks. They did not let any sort of friendship get in the way of a good battle that was the exact opposite of the horrible opening fight between Gabriel Bracer and Daniel Sostre.

Rodriguez, a former two-time national amateur champion, tried to box from the outside while the shorter Rosinsky, also a former amateur national champ, pressured him throughout the fight that featured several hotly contested close rounds. The eight was one of those rounds. Rosinsky was winning it until Rodriguez badly stunned Rosinsky with a left hand near the end of the round and they finished in an exciting toe-to-toe exchange. This is a good win for Rodriguez, who has looked very good as he has worked his way up the ladder. Promoter Lou DiBella believes Rodriguez will get a title opportunity in 2012. And although Rosinsky, who didn't have nearly the national profile of Rodriguez, lost he showed a lot in defeat.

Gabriel Bracero W10 Daniel Sostre
Junior welterweight
Scores: 100-90 (twice), 99-91
Records: Bracero (18-0, 3 KOs); Sostre (11-5-1, 4 KOs)
Rafael's remark: Bracero, 30, of Brooklyn, N.Y., did not fight between 2002 and 2009 while in prison, but he won his 13th fight in a row since being released and returning to the ring. He is a skillful boxer, but as boring to watch as paint dry and carries virtually no punching power. Round after round, this was a redundant fight as Bracero simply outboxed Sostre, 27, of Highland, N.Y., in a sleep-inducing fight that could have cured even the worst case of insomnia. Sostre lost his second fight in a row and dropped to 0-2-1 in his last three. Why this was even on Showtime's "ShoBox: The New Generation" in the first place is hard to figure out.


Friday at Pharr, Texas

Fidel Maldonado Jr. W8 Eric Cruz
Lightweight
Scores: 77-74, 76-75 (twice)
Records: Maldonado Jr. (12-0, 10 KOs); Cruz (13-8-3, 13 KOs)
Rafael's remark: Maldonado, a 20-year-old southpaw from Albuquerque, N.M., knocked down Cruz, 24, of Puerto Rico, on a straight left hand 15 seconds into the fight on the first real punch of the bout. And that turned out to be the winning margin in the close bout that headlined Telefutura's "Solo Boxeo Tecate." Cruz went down to his backside and was up quickly and did not appear hurt. Rather than a quick end, it turned out to be a pretty good fight. Maldonado, a Golden Boy-promoted prospect who was facing by the far the best opponent of his career, was a bit more aggressive and seemed to tire some in the second half of the fight, but Cruz could not take advantage.


Friday at Bangkok

Pongsaklek Wonjongkam W12 Edgar Sosa
Flyweight
Retains a flyweight title
Scores: 117-110 (twice), 116-111.
Records: Wonjongkam (82-3-1, 43 KOs); Sosa (43-7, 26 KOs)
Rafael's remark: Wonjongkam, 34, the Thai hero and longtime flyweight titleholder, scored one of the biggest wins of his career in turning back mandatory challenger (and former longtime junior flyweight titlist) Sosa, 32, of Mexico. Wonjongkam, who has only one loss since 1996, is likely going to the International Boxing Hall of Fame, with this being one of his signature victories. He made 17 defenses of a flyweight belt during a 2001 to 2007 reign. He reclaimed that belt in 2010 and now has made three defenses. He and Sosa turned in a pretty good fight, but one that Wonjongkam was clearly leading from the outset. With the terrible WBC open scoring system being used, Wonjongkam, who countered Sosa with ease, worked the body well and landed many combinations, knew he was comfortably ahead after the fourth (40-36 twice and 39-37) and the eighth round (80-72, 79-73 twice). Sosa, who had predicted a knockdown, did pick up the pace in the final few rounds to draw slightly closer, but Wonjongkam was in command. In the ninth round, an accidental head clash opened a small cut over Sosa's eye. Under another stupid WBC rule, in the event of a cut being caused by an accidental head butt the uncut fighter loses a point, so referee Massimo Barrovecchio docked Wonjongkam, although it did not make a difference in the final score.

Imagine being junior middleweight Carlos Molina right about now and trying to understand something that often simply makes no sense: the business side of boxing.



First, a little background to understand why Molina has every right to be disgusted.



After sitting idle for almost two years during the prime of his career while working through a nasty promotional dispute with Don King, Molina finally returned with a vengeance in March.



As a big underdog, the 28-year-old Molina fought to a majority draw with Erislandy Lara in an ESPN fight. A draw was a big enough accomplishment for Molina, considering how hot Lara was, but many believed Molina had clearly won. The draw looks even better when you consider that in Lara's next fight, he faced Paul Williams on HBO in July and was on the wrong end of one of the worst decisions of the year (for which the judges, in an unprecedented move, were suspended by New Jersey officials for their horrible scoring).



Just a month after drawing with Lara, Molina jumped at the chance to fill in on short notice to fight Allen Conyers in another "Friday Night Fights" main event. Molina looked great as he knocked out Conyers in the seventh round.



Those two strong outings led to the biggest opportunity of Molina's career, a fight on Showtime in July against former welterweight titlist Kermit Cintron on the Brandon Rios-Urbano Antillon undercard.



Cintron was the clear favorite, but Molina (19-4-2, 6 KOs) pulled another surprise. He took the listless Cintron apart. Schooled him. Left no doubt. Basically beat him like a drum for a lopsided unanimous decision, 98-92 on all three scorecards. It was Cintron's second consecutive loss. A year earlier, he had fallen -- some say jumped -- out of the ring against Williams and showed no effort to continue in what became a fourth-round technical decision loss.



Molina's strong three-fight run following the layoff helped launch him into the 154-pound division's top 10. Nobody handed him the status. He earned it.



In a fair world, Molina would be one of the top candidates to land a title shot, based on his recent résumé. At the very least, he would rank ahead of Cintron, who came off the loss to Molina to record a lackluster decision against Antwone Smith in a forgettable August fight.



Yet instead of Molina getting the call for a title shot, incredibly it is the wholly undeserving Cintron who will lace 'em up for a shot at titleholder Saul "Canelo" Alvarez in an HBO main event on Nov. 26.



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"That sums it up right there, the way boxing is," a dejected Molina said. "I won the fight and they give the shot to the guy I beat. They didn't even offer me the fight. Why?"



Leon Margules, who co-promotes Molina with Luis DeCubas Sr., is also ticked off -- and I don't blame him, or Molina.



"I understand that fighters don't want to lose. That's understandable," Margules said. "But what about HBO letting Alvarez take the easier road by fighting a guy my guy just beat? He destroyed Cintron and, despite that somehow they are putting Cintron in while Carlos' phone doesn't ring. What happened to serving the paying customers by putting on the best fights between the best fighters? Carlos will fight anyone in the world at 154 or 147 pounds."



Margules told ESPN.com he has let HBO and Showtime know that Molina will literally fight any junior middleweight or welterweight they want him to fight.



With "Friday Night Fights" off the air from August until January and the premium networks booked up with no room at the inn for Molina, he has had no luck securing a fight, despite discussions for a whole slew of them that went nowhere.



Margules listed the fights that were discussed but not made.



He said there were "preliminary discussions" with Top Rank's Bob Arum about matching Molina with welterweight contender Mike Jones on the Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito HBO PPV card on Dec. 3, but ultimately that fight went to Sebastian Lujan.



Margules said he had similar talks with Arum about matching Molina with junior middleweight contender Vanes Martirosyan and with co-promoters Artie Pelullo and Gary Shaw about a fight with former junior middleweight titlist Sergiy Dzinziruk.



Margules also said there was a discussion with promoter Dan Goossen about a fight with Williams, but he isn't fighting for the rest of the year. Margules said he also proposed a rematch with Lara to Golden Boy and had a conversation with Showtime about matching Molina with junior middleweight titlist Cornelius "K9" Bundrage on the network's Dec. 31 card, which remains unsettled.



"Carlos was ready to fight anybody," Margules said. "But nobody would fight him. You've got a fighter who comes back from two years off and scores [a huge win and a draw against] two top guys and knocks out another well-thought-of fighter on ESPN in impressive fashion. It's a Cinderella story. Carlos is an exciting fighter who comes forward and throws a lot of punches.



"He outboxes these guys with old-school techniques. So why is he getting stepped over for a shot at Canelo?



"It's not like HBO tried to make the better fight and Carlos wasn't available. His phone never rang. Situations like this are a problem for our sport. It's disgraceful. Maybe with the new regime beginning over at HBO, these kinds of things will no longer happen."



To make ends meet, Molina has taken work as a sparring partner. He helped middleweight Andy Lee prepare for his Oct. 1 victory against Brian Vera.



So while Cintron was at a media conference in Mexico City on Wednesday announcing his six-figure title shot against Alvarez, Molina was left wondering why it wasn't him.



"Hopefully, one of these other guys on top will have what it takes to fight me," he said. "I'll just stay in shape and wait it out."



Life isn't fair. Boxing is even less so.