Jokes are supposed to be funny, unless you are Tyler Perry or Jay Leno. Vitali Klitschko’s recent punchline was met with silence when it was announced that he will be defending his WBC heavyweight title against Albert Sosnowski in May. Unfortunately for the boxing community, Klitschko was not kidding and this is not a joke.

At first glance, Sosnowski seems credible enough with a record of 45-2-1 (27 KOs), but a deeper look into his fight resume shows that his record is as padded as a middle school girl’s bra.

Albert Sosnowski carries a 2008 blowout loss to Zuri Lawrence on his record. Zuri Lawrence: The Don Flamenco of the heavyweight division. Good luck finding a meaningful win on Sosnowski’s record.

This fight was made possible when negotiations for Vitali Klitschko vs. Nikolai Valuev fell apart over money. Vitali Klitschko will now defend his title against Sosnowski in Germany on May 29.

Vitali plans to retire by the end of the year, but he may as well call it a career now if these are the kind of fights he’s going to entertain.

2004 Olympic silver medalist Amir Khan will make his American debut on May 15 when he travels to New York City to face Paulie Malignaggi. Madison Square Garden will host the fight, which will be for Khan’s WBA light welterweight title. Khan will travel from his native United Kingdom into dangerous territory as Malignaggi is a native New Yorker.

HBO will televise the fight, likely accompanied by a light welterweight co-feature pitting Nate Campbell against Victor Ortiz.

A press conference is scheduled for Friday in London to formally announce the fight between Amir Khan and Paulie Malignaggi.

Manny Pacquiao battles Joshua Clottey this Saturday on HBO PPV in what is being billed The Event. The night of fights kicks off at 9pm ET with an undercard that features Alfonso Gomez vs. Jose Luis Castillo and Humberto Soto vs. David Diaz. This will be the first boxing event in the newly built Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Inside Fights will have live coverage of The Event on Saturday so come back for a full recap of all the fights.

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The latest episode of The 13th Round airs tonight at 9pm ET. Join the Inside Fights staff as they welcome Edwin Rodriguez to the show. You can listen live right here. If you would like to call in to the show, and we strongly encourage you to do so, the call-in number is (646) 716-8734. You can also send questions or comments to round13radio@yahoo.com and we will read them on the air. Use the player below to catch up on our recent episodes.

Floyd Mayweather Jr and Shane Mosley will fight on May 1 in boxing’s biggest fight so far in 2010. Naturally, HBO will give the pay-per-view event their 24/7 treatment.

24/7 is an award-winning series that chronicles two fighters as they each prepare for their superfight. The series began in 2007 prior to the bout between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

24/7 Mayweather/Mosley will begin on April 10 at 10pm ET. The second episode of the four-part series will air April 17 while the third episode is scheduled to begin on April 24. The last episode will air on April 30, the eve of fight night.

Filipino journalist and commentator, Chino Trinidad, has found himself at the center of a manufactured controversy surrounding claims that Floyd Mayweather Jr’s publicist, Kelly Swanson, intentionally snubbed the Filipino media during the Los Angeles portion of the Mayweather-Mosley publicity tour.

Trinidad alleges that he and another Filipino journalist were directly told by Swanson that the Philippine media was essentially banned from accessing Mayweather Jr at the press conference.

Of course, some dim-witted bomb throwers were bound to latch on to the issue and milk it for some cheap publicity. At the expense of any sense of fair play or journalistic ethics, a Pacquiao fan boy at The Examiner immediately pounded fingers on keyboard and produced a poorly thought-out, incendiary article aimed at taking dig number one million at Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Knowing the writer in question’s work (a writer who once threatened to stab me in a Twitter disagreement), I’m sure the article was only designed to bring traffic his way and ingratiate himself to a Pacquiao inner circle that he so desperately wants to be part of. However, if you have any sort of journalistic integrity, you simply can’t just blindly lob accusations of racism without being willing to hear both sides of the issue.

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WBC Champion Devon Alexander annexed Juan Urango’s IBF title and staked his claim as one of the top fighters at 140 pounds.

Boxing behind a steady jab and mixing in swift combinations, Alexander steadily broke down the rugged Colombian banger and ended up bombing him out.

Devon Alexander retained his WBC light welterweight title en route to claiming the IBF strap from Juan Urango Saturday night. Alexander stopped Urango in the 8th round after the ref halted the bout after the second knockdown of the round for Devon Alexander. Urango was stopped for the first time in his career and fell to 22-3-1 (17 KOs) with the loss. Devon Alexander improved to 20-0 (13 KOs) with the win.

Vic Darchinyan successfully defended his super flyweight titles with a unanimous decision win over Rodrigo Guerrero. Darchinyan moves to 34-2-1 (27 KOs) with the win while Guerrero becomes 13-2-1 (9 KOs) with the loss. Darchinyan won with scores of 120-108, 118-110, and 117-111.

It’s official: James “Lights Out” Toney, one of boxing’s modern day greats, is now a member of the UFC.

Of course, the UFC isn’t getting the James Toney that outclassed most of the best middleweights and super middleweights of his generation. They’re not even getting the post-prime Toney who floored, and ultimately beat, Vassiliy Jirov at cruiserweight or the one who humiliated a shot Evander Holyfield at heavyweight. But, nonetheless, Toney represents the biggest name to ever cross the imaginary border between boxing and mixed martial arts.

Toney’s been looking at a move to the UFC for a few years now, claiming that he just can’t get the big fights in boxing.

Technically, he’s right; But, realistically, he just doesn’t have the juice anymore to beat the top dogs at heavyweight and lacks the draw to entice the young lions to try him out. So, with nowhere to go in the sport and his internal clock ticking away, he’s packed his bags for a try at the UFC octagon and one last power grab at making some real headlines.

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Boxing returns to HBO this Saturday when Devon Alexander and Juan Urango meet in a light welterweight unification bout. The fight emanates from Uncasville, Connecticut with the HBO Boxing After Dark broadcast beginning at 9:30 pm ET. Read on for a breakdown of the fight as well as staff predictions.

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