The Ultimate Fighting Championship made an interesting move this week with the signing of boxing great James “Lights Out” Toney, adding the boxing champion to the list of boxers looking to make a statement in the sport of mixed martial arts.

Speculation surrounded the situation between Toney and UFC President Dana White for several months and reached a high point at the beginning of the year when the two discussed a possible deal that would make Toney the most notable boxer to make the move to any mixed martial arts promotion.

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There were a lot of championship fights in Mexico last night and Paul Magno has a recap of all the action. See if Giovani Segura and Elias Rojas were able to hang on to their titles. Also in action were Daniel Ponce De Leon vs. Orlando Cruz as well as Lucas Matthysse vs. Vivian Harris. Read on for all the results.

According to nearly every credible source, the rumored Tomasz Adamek-Chris Arreola fight will cease to be a rumor in a matter of hours.

Apparently, contracts are signed, fighters are ready and all that’s left is the official press conference to kick off the countdown to the proposed April 24th date. That official press conference is scheduled for Friday, February 19th, on Arreola’s home turf of Southern California.

While this fight won’t be as significant to the heavyweight division as Wladimir Klitschko-Eddie Chambers or, even, David Haye-John Ruiz, it will be the first time in a long time that fans are getting an evenly-matched, entertaining battle between two guys on the verge of being considered legit threats in the heavyweight division.

A good homework assignment would be to try and remember the last time we were treated to something as all-around good as Adamek vs. Arreola.

If you can come up with an answer, by all means post it in the comment section here because, honestly, I’m having a hard time coming up with anything in recent memory.

In any case, both fighters have a lot to lose on April 24th.

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2010 is upon the boxing world.

While the biggest fight in recent memory has apparently fallen through, that doesn’t mean it won’t happen at all this year. Whether or not Pacquiao vs. Mayweather comes off in March or September, there are plenty of other good fights out there to be made. Here are ten fights that can help boxing continue down its road to redemption.

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As Christmas approaches, families join together to spread holiday cheer. The fighters that make up this list need not to bother themselves with such things; they should be training for the step up in class we know they need. These guys need to step up and face the real challengers in their divisions, or start filling out job applications. Without further ado…….

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The incompetent 119-110 score issued by judge Pierre Benoist after Saturday’s Paul Williams-Sergio Martinez bout has inspired a lot of articles and reports about the awful state of judging in the sport we love.

Just one week after Ali Funeka was robbed of a world title by a pair of suspicious 114-114 scores against Joan Guzman, Benoist’s wide score completely ripped off the scab that had been healing since Gale Van Hoy incomprehensibly saw Juan Diaz utterly dominate Paulie Malignaggi back in August.

But as amateur and professional boxing pundits alike gnash their teeth about bad decisions and their negative impact on the sport, the wheels keep turning and absolutely nothing is being done to alter an obviously broken system.

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By now it has sunk in.

Manny Pacquiao is the greatest boxer on the planet not named Floyd Mayweather Jr. He also might be the worst singer ever to put out an album and sing in a band. Here are ten other thoughts to ponder after Pacquiao’s dismantling of Miguel Cotto.

1. Pacquiao can take a welterweight’s punch.

For me, this was the most important question coming in. How would Pacquiao react when Cotto hit him with clean shots to the head and body? Well Pacquiao laid those questions to rest in the first round when by his own admission, he set out to “feel Cotto’s power”.

Come to find out, he wasn’t all that impressed with Cotto’s power, and preceded to thump him for it. In a potential upcoming fight with Mayweather, whether or not Pacquiao can take a welterweight punch is not a question anymore.

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With the Super Six Tournament kicking off Oct. 17th, Inside Fights will be previewing each of the fighters involved. In this profile, we will feature “S.O.G.” Andre Ward. “Son of God” is an undefeated former gold medalist in the 2004 Olympic Games.

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As September 19^th draws near, the Juan Manuel Marquez bandwagon seems to be picking up steam.  Whether it’s from trainers, promoters, or boxing writers, people are not so sure Floyd Mayweather will keep his undefeated record for much longer.

Oscar De La Hoya said so in his weekly blog over at Ring Magazine. Here are some snippets:

I feel Marquez’s style is well-suited for Mayweather.

Marquez is not a slow fighter at all; he’s faster than people think.

I also feel Marquez won’t respect Mayweather’s power at all because he’s been in there with hard punchers. I’ll tell you one thing: Mayweather does not hit hard.

But De La Hoya isn’t alone in his sentiments. HBO sports programming head Ross Greenburg thinks Marquez can pull it off as well. In an interview with Newsday.com, he had this to say:

“There are certain people in boxing who will tell you that there has never been a boxer who has been able to adjust like JMM can during a fight.”

“Look at the Diaz fight. He was getting beat and then he took him out. He’ll also fight in rounds six through 12 as if he is fighting in the first 30 seconds of the fight, fresh as a daisy.”

These sentiments are also starting to spread to boxing writers as well.  Gabriel Montoya at Maxboxing had this to say in his weekly mailbag about the fight and Mayweather’s recent drama:

I’ve been pretty upfront about Marquez’ chances (slim and none and slim left town) but after hearing all this, I am starting to turn the corner a little bit. Juan has a giant Mexican chip on his shoulder coming into this bout.

Now before you go betting your hard earned rent money on this fight, let me bring you back to reality.  De La Hoya is a promoter. You can throw what he said out of the window. He is trying to sell a fight that isn’t selling well. Part of that is the belief by many fans that Mayweather is too big and too good for Marquez to defeat.

With that perception, it’s hard to get people to spend their money on this fight. Why would Mexican fans spend their money to see their fighter being set up to lose on Mexican Independence day?

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In a razor thin fight that was surrounded in controversy long before the fighters ever stepped into the ring, Juan Diaz edged Paulie Malignaggi with a unanimous decision in his hometown of Houston, Texas.