Rodriguez collapsed shortly after his super bantamweight title fight at Philadelphia's famous Blue Horizon boxing hall was stopped at the end of the 10th round. He was rushed to a hospital for brain surgery, but never regained consciousness and died on Sunday night. The very small silver lining to his story is that he was able to donate so many of his organs to those in need.

"My brother was so strong and healthy," Alex Rodriguez said. "His heart and lungs were in perfect condition. It would have been a terrible waste not to share his life with others. How could we not help another family?"

I don't know if this story is supposed to make you feel good about humanity or terrible, but there it is. Rodriguez (14-3-1, 8 KOs) was a five-time Chicago Golden Gloves Champion, who had beaten Kennedy once as an amateur. He is survived by a wife and five-month-old daughter.

Fallen boxer Francisco Rodriguez's gift: Organs will help eight people [ESPN Chicago]
Fighter Copes With Opponent's Death [Fanhouse]

Producers recently released the full trailer for Pacquiao's latest movie—his 10th according to IMDb—and it is a doozy. The film is called Wapakman, and appears to be a semi-autobiographical tale of Manny's life as the world's greatest (only?) Pinoy superhero. It's got monsters, bikini babes, adorable kids, explosions and punching. In other words, it is awesome. Judging by the many homages to classic films in this clip, Wapakman looks like Ghostbusters, Spider-Man, Desperado, Superman, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Cider House Rules, every Jackie Chan movie ever, Rocky III and V (but not IV), Clash of the Titans, Gladiator, and Leonard, Part 6 all rolled into one.

Sadly, the film might be banned from the Metro Manila Film Festival, where it was set to debut next month, because the seven-time world champion is planning to run for congress next year and Filipino election law forbids candidates from appearing in motion pictures. This is outrageous. If a fair and open electoral process doesn't allow an elite boxer-congressman to do battle with CGI crustaceans on his days off, then what's the point of even living in a democracy? If that's what it takes to get this movie released stateside, then bring on socialized medicine!

WAPAKMAN Trailer! [YouTube]
Manny Pacquiao Starring in the Greatest Movie Ever [Last Angry Fan]
‘Panday,' ‘Wapakman' may be banned from Metro film fest [Manila Bulletin]

The allergic reaction caused Pavlik's temperature to reach 104 degrees, prompting the 27-year-old boxer to check into the hospital. A specialist at the Cleveland Clinic (which I assume is in Cleveland) informed Pavlik's father, Mike, that the situation was looking pretty grim.

Pavlik says he doesn't remember everything that happened last month, only bits and pieces.

He recalls a doctor telling him that he wasn't going home right away, and that every step he took toward the emergency ward was more difficult than the last. He remembers his skin crawling, his heart feeling like it would jump right out of his chest.

He doesn't remember the steroids doctors gave him to make the reaction subside.

"I don't remember that day, that's how bad it was," Pavlik told The Associated Press. "They told me it was pretty serious. It was the worst form of reaction you could have."

The staph infection, although cleared up, has prompted Pavlik's trainer, Jack Hoew, to cancel Pavlik's December 5th bout against Paul Williams. The fight had already been pushed back, amid contentious negotiations between the two fighters' camps.

Pavlik first noticed something wrong while playing basketball last March, a few weeks after he defeated Marco Antonio Rubio in his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio.

He was playing basketball on a warm March day when the knuckle split open. After a few minutes, Pavlik looked down to see a colorless ooze where there should have been blood, and a trip to the doctor confirmed the bacteria.

A month went by and antibiotics weren't doing their job, so Pavlik had surgery in Youngstown to clean out the infection. When the stitches were removed, the hole was still there. Further tests revealed MRSA, a sometimes fatal strain of staph that resists broad-spectrum antibiotics.

"I was ready to say right there, chop the hand off," Pavlik said.

Man, that doesn't sound like a very good situation. This recent development involving Pavlik certainly begs the question: what is going on with Cleveland and all of these high profile staph infections? Many of you may recall how six players for the Cleveland Browns have been treated for staph infections since 2003, including Kellen Winslow and Joe Jurevicius, who subsequently sued the Browns organization because of it.

What gives? Is there anybody out there who can shed some light on this perplexing issue?

Pavlik says he nearly died from allergic reaction [Yahoo!]
Another Staph Infection? [Waiting For Next Year]
Joe Jurevicius staph-infection lawsuit highlights growing legal threat to non-health-care facilities [Cleveland Plain Dealer]
(Previously on Deadspin) Okay, Perhaps Kellen Winslow Is A Soldier

The interview was ostensibly a commercial for James Toback's "Tyson" documentary, but there were some interesting moments—like when he told the story of his first fight, against a bully who killed one of his pet pigeons. (For real.) He choked up when talking about Cus D'Amato. He talked about not really regretting chewing Holyfield's ear off, and how his incredible rage made him such a great fighter....and a pretty lousy person.

In this clip, Tyson talks about the infamous Barbara Walters interview where Givens flat out called him an abusive husband while he sat there quietly saying nothing. You can imagine how that went over later that night. Mike claims she was just as abusive to him as he was to her—which is probably true—but her fists aren't lethal weapons.

Hard to believe those two kids couldn't work it out.

Oprah Talks to Former Heavyweight Champion Mike Tyson [Oprah]

For those of you missed it, Mayweather utterly dominated his smaller opponent, Juan Marquez, over 12 rounds on Saturday night. So the elephant in the room was Mayweather's selection of a smaller fighter, and his refusal to drop to Marquez's weight for the fight.

Floyd Mayweather is a simple man: he just wanted to thank his sponsors and enjoy the victory. But Kellerman had to pop his neatly groomed head into the ring to antagonize poor Floyd: "Why don't you pick on someone your own size, like Shane Mosley?"

Mosley happened to be standing 2 feet away. He grabbed the mic and demanded Mayweather accept his challenge to "get it on."

The potential confrontation between Mosley and Mayweather appeared to be the minor spark boxing needed after an uneventful, grossly over hyped fight.

But when Mayweather tried to respond—in what surely would have been a dangerously entertaining, buzz-producing fashion—Kellerman tore the mic away in a panicked frenzy. Mayweather, now agitated, ripped into Kellerman: "Let me talk — you do too much talking." But Kellerman, turning white with fear, cut off Mayweather's rant, ending the interview before it could devolve into something actually worth watching.

Afterward, Kellerman was kind enough to forgive Mayweather for "his behavior."

I just want to address Floyd's behavior. It seems to me that in certain ways he can't get out of his own way. I'm friendlier in my disposition to Floyd than most in the media because I enjoy pure boxers and he's an all-time great pure boxer. And yet he seems to feel persecuted by even me, who really enjoys his craft.

Boxing, meet your savior, Max Kellerman. And people wonder why pro wrestling draws better ratings.

***
Max Kellerman's Rap Video:

If you're rich, you're a rich [n-word]," he said. "If you're poor, you're a poor [n-word]. If you're smart, you're a smart [n-word]. At the end of the day, they still look at me as a [n-word]."

That was the, um, highlight of Mayweather's press conference in advance of his bout with Juan Manuel Marquez in Vegas. Seems he's not too pleased with coverage of investigations into his role in a recent shooting, as well as multiple run-ins with the IRS. He says none of this would be an issue if he were white, and he uses Oscar De La Hoya as a totally illogical example.

This country needs to be more positive," he said. "We're already at war. We're in a recession, we're at war and we continue to be negative. The fans in the UK showed me more love than in my own country. That's crazy ... Sometimes I'll sit back, I'll be in my theater sometimes, and I'll think: 'Imagine if I was the same fighter that I am, and I was the same person that I am, and I was from another country. Can you just imagine how big I'd be?'

"But I wouldn't change my life for nothing in the world. There's nothing like being young, black and rich. But there are certain things you think about. If Floyd Mayweather was white, I'd be the biggest athlete in America. The biggest, the biggest. I know that for a fact."

That's funny, because the biggest athletes in America are Tiger Woods and LeBron James. And the last time a boxer was the biggest name in sports, it was Mike Tyson.

Not content offending the majority of potential PPV buyers, he turned to the team broadcasting the fight.

Larry Merchant don't know nothing about boxing," Mayweather said. "What's that other guy's name [at HBO]? [Emanuel Steward]. He's an Uncle Tom.

Silly Floyd, don't you know America moved past racism completely and forever on election day?

Mayweather Lashes Out At Perception [ESPN.com]

Just to explain what we're dealing with here, the 77-year-old boxing promoter held a press conference at Yankee Stadium today to announce a fight that's taking place in Las Vegas. So that gives you some insight into his living in the past mentality. Arum wants to bring fights back to the Bronx—but not if they involve Floyd Mayweather, who Arum thinks is not entertaining because he fights "scared." So that's a good start.

Then his one-on-one interview with Fanhouse's Ariel Helwani got really uncomfortable, when Helwani asked Arum about UFC and if its head-to-head matchup with the Mayweather-Marquez fight would hurt either pay-per-view haul.

For me, I look at the UFC audience and the boxing audience as being two different audiences entirely. Our audience in boxing is ethnic. Hispanic, Filipino, Puerto Rican, Mexican, and the hardcore boxing fan who can't watch ... like me ... can't watch UFC. UFC are a bunch of skinhead white guys watching people in the ring who also look like skinhead white guys.

Naturally, Helwani (a white guy!) took offense and tried to point out his feelings on the matter—but Arum helpfully set him straight.

And you don't have any tattoos. Ninety percent of the people in the audience wear tattoos. I don't care. That's up to them. But those aren't people that would have any interest, at any time, in boxing.

For me, and people like me, it is not something they ever care to see. They've watched it. It's horrible. Guys rolling around like homosexuals on the ground. It is not a sport that shows great, great talent.

And he says that like it's a bad thing! Arum went on to further explain how MMA is "garbarge and junk" and if you have any interest in it at all, you're probably garbage too. Oh, and UFC lies about their revenue figures. (But they're great businessmen! Some of his best friends are MMA promoters!) But Bob Arum's generation—and the Mexicans!—aren't buying it.

You should really watch the whole thing, because when it comes to angry old man rants, they just don't make them like this anymore.

Bob Arum Blasts Floyd Mayweather, MMA [Fanhouse]

The documentary series is following Marquez as he prepares for his showdown with Floyd Mayweather on September 19 and thanks to their intrusive, omnipresent style, viewers are finally clued into this utterly disgusting training technique. Marquez explains that a lot of vitamins in your body get expelled through urine, which is sorta true, so he figures the best way to get them back is by drinking your own piss.

Has he considered—and I'm just spit-balling here—maybe, I don't know ... taking more vitamins? (Yes, I have considered the possibility that Marquez is simply fucking with all of us [and Mayweather] but the man does get punched in the head for a living.)

The Weekend Ahead [The Queensberry Rules]
Marquez drinks his pee for fights [ABS-CBN News]

The Brooklyn fighter acknowledged that he was facing a stacked deck in the days leading up to the fight against Juan Diaz in Houston. Taking on a popular fighter in his own hometown, Malignaggi faced additional obstacles like a lowered weight limit, a smaller ring, a questionable referee, and most importantly, some serious hometown judging. Malignaggi saved his harshest words for judge Gale Van Hoy.

"118-110 was Gale Van Hoy d*cking it to me. He bent me over and he f*cked me. I said before the fight that this guy never goes against a Texas fighter in the state of Texas. I complained about him and he did it to me on purpose. There is no way that anybody won that fight 118-110. I didn't beat Juan 118-110 and Juan didn't beat me 118-110. Gale Van Hoy filled out his score card and said 'let me f*ck Paulie Malignaggi' because he talked sh*t."

Having seen the fight it's pretty easy to understand why the Magic Man is so pissed off. That scorecard in particular was absurd—and an insult to the sport—while the decision itself was questionable. Malignaggi went on to express his concerns on the state of boxing as a whole as they relate to last night's decision.

Boxing has no f*cking integrity left. It's been happening for years. That's why this sport has no popularity left. That's why nobody watches this sh*t because every year there are decision like this and probably even worse than this. I don't really know how close this fight was. People get f*cked constantly. Nobody watches boxing anymore because of sh*t like this.

Those of course are the most damaging words of all. Those, and not the criticisms of the judge, are what will resonate with boxing enthusiasts and those within the sport itself.

Boxing Scene

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