by David P. Greisman

Last week’s legal settlement between Bob Arum’s Top Rank and Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions may have been the biggest news in combat sports since the March announcement that mixed martial arts promoter Ultimate Fighting Championship was acquiring competitor Pride Fighting Championship.

One-on-one sports produce the prospect of dream matches, bouts that leave everyone from fans to journalists salivating at the idea of a great fight and/or a great event truly and finally occurring. For mixed martial arts fans, the infusion of talent from Pride FC means that the sport’s best can finally be decided, for the creation of a virtual promotional monopoly means that no company will prevent a bout from being made because of an unattractive risk-reward ratio.

Top Rank and Golden Boy’s contentious relationship had been an insurmountable roadblock that kept many top fighters from facing their divisional rivals, the quarrel between the Capulets and Montagues affecting the careers of their brethren. The two companies last worked together in November 2004, when Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales wrapped up their excellent trilogy with Barrera winning a razor-thin majority decision. Since then, it seemed as if Top Rank and Golden Boy were, at best openly ignoring one another, or, at worst, working against each other.

The drama culminated in a feud over Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino junior lightweight superstar who is among the most exciting (and thus most marketable) stars today. Both companies asserted promotional rights to Pacquiao, and both were willing to battle for him in court.

Instead, they went into mediation. The result? Both won.

Pacquiao’s bouts against marquee Golden Boy fighters will be co-promoted by Top Rank and Golden Boy, a press release announced last week. When Pacquiao faces those not within the Golden Boy stable, his matches will be promoted by Top Rank and Golden Boy will retain a promotional interest.

First up, a rematch of Pacquiao’s November 2003 stoppage of Barrera, set for Oct. 6 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. In their first go-around, Pacquiao overwhelmed the veteran Barrera, knocking him down twice and forcing Barrera’s corner to save their fighter. Pacquiao captured Barrera’s featherweight championship – and, even more painfully, he damaged Barrera’s pride.

Barrera had been beaten so badly that he sought any method possible to reclaim his dignity. When Pacquiao entered his trilogy against Erik Morales, Barrera proclaimed his support for his bitter rival – not so much out of nationalistic backing for his fellow Mexican, but because he had defeated Morales twice (thrice in his own mind). By simple math, Morales winning meant that he was greater than Pacquiao. In turn, Barrera could believe he was better than both.

Not that Barrera should’ve worried about his standing. Since losing to Pacquiao, he had won six fights in a row and captured two 130-pound titles before falling in March to Juan Manuel Marquez. He is a lock for the Hall of Fame, a highly respected warrior slowly riding off into the sunset. Revenge against Pacquiao, however, would be a fitting conclusion.

It won’t come easy.

Pacquiao has been nothing less than phenomenal since late 1999, when he leapt from flyweight 10 pounds north to junior featherweight. He has lost once – a competitive decision to Morales, avenged twice over – drawn with Marquez and was stuck with a technical draw against the late Agapito Sanchez. That’s 21 bouts and 18 wins, 17 by way of knockout, almost all against top-notch competition. At 28, he’s been fighting professionally for a dozen years, yet he hasn’t looked worn from wars or the drain of making weight.

Pacquiao-Barrera 2 is easy to sell, even if it isn’t as appealing as Pacquiao-Marquez 2.

Marquez is currently booked for a September pay-per-view against Jorge Barrios. Though he will doubtlessly answer that Barrios is his only concern, he’s sure to be thinking about potential rematches against either the Filipino Firebomber or the Baby Faced Assassin.

That’s just the beginning, for the Top Rank-Golden Boy settlement has opened up plenty of other doors both at junior lightweight and beyond.

Arum had been building toward pairing Pacquiao with Top Rank fighter Humberto Soto, especially after Soto kayoed Bobby Pacquiao last month. Although Soto may once again be headed toward the backburner, there are plenty of other options for him now: Along with Barrera, Barrios and Marquez, Golden Boy also promotes Joan Guzman and Rocky Juarez.

Top Rank is working toward pitting Miguel Cotto against Antonio Margarito for welterweight bragging rights. Should Margarito get by Paul Williams, the winner of Cotto-Margarito in a superfight against Shane Mosley could be on the horizon.

Other possibilities: Jose Luis Castillo, should he choose to continue fighting, rebounding against Francisco Bojado or Juan Lazcano; Fernando Montiel or Z Gorres challenging Jorge Arce or Martin Castillo; Brian Viloria against Hugo Cazares; and any of a number of prospects cutting their teeth against those fighting under the opposite banner.

Boxing has, depending on whom one asked, always been about one of two things: pride or money. Much of the strife between Top Rank and Golden Boy had been as a result of pride. Together, they, the fans, the journalists and the fighters can revel in the prosperity.

The 10 Count

1.  Heavyweights, part one: Boxing’s marquee weight class hasn’t seen unification since Lennox Lewis, who grabbed three of the division’s four titles in November 1999. Lewis subsequently ditched the World Boxing Association belt and, later on, the International Boxing Federation bauble, and his retirement brought an end to the lineal championship that dated back to Larry Holmes.

Things could begin to change with October’s announced bout between WBA beltholder Ruslan Chagaev and World Boxing Organization titlist Sultan Ibragimov. The winner will hold half of the four belts and, with the World Boxing Council strap tied up in mandated matches, will probably demand a shot at the winner of this month’s Wladimir Klitschko-Lamon Brewster sequel. The man who comes out on top of that could then claim himself as the true champion, a distinction that The Ring Magazine would likely agree with.

It’s taken long enough to get to this point. Let’s just hope that sanctioning bodies and greedy promoters don’t get in the way.

2.  Heavyweights, part two: The man who Lewis defeated to unify the belts, Evander Holyfield, won his fourth straight fight by taking a 10-round unanimous decision Saturday over fellow forty-something Lou Savarese.

Holyfield spent nearly two years out of the ring because the New York State Athletic Commission suspended him after a lopsided November 2004 loss to Larry Donald. Holyfield has proceeded to fight regularly since his return, stopping Jeremy Bates last August, outpointing Fres Oquendo in November and toppling Vinny Maddalone in March.

He’s still no closer to a title shot, and probably won’t be until one of the four beltholders is offered major money to fight a 44-year-old man.

Holyfield-Savarese, which was aired as a pay-per-view, will be shown on ESPN Classic at 8 p.m. Eastern Time this Saturday.

3.  Heavyweights, part three: Sticking with the aforementioned Larry Donald, the former contender lost a 10-round decision on Saturday against hyped prospect Alexander Povetkin.

Donald last fought in October 2005, dropping a majority decision to then-WBA titlist Nicolay Valuev that some regarded as controversial. Povetkin turned pro in June of that year, and has since run off 13 straight victories against increasingly difficult competition.

His run at the top may still be years away, but Povetkin, so far, is yet another fighter from the former Soviet Union to garner serious attention.

4.  Heavyweights, part four: Michael Grant returned last week from a two-year layoff, achieving what a comebacking Riddick Bowe could not by scoring a fifth-round stoppage over journeyman Billy Zumbrun.

Bowe, who came in grossly (a rather accurate term) overweight, looked quite unimpressive in his April 2005 split decision win against Zumbrun and has not fought since. Grant checked in at 255 pounds, slightly above his best fighting weight, and took the first step toward overcoming the dubious distinction of having once gone from the Next Big Thing to the Latest Big Bust.

Grant was undefeated going into his challenge of aforementioned heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. That changed quickly, with Lewis knocking Grant down thrice in the opening stanza and then finishing him off in the closing moments of the second round.

Grant took 15 months off before fighting again. It took less than a minute for his next bout to end. Jameel McCline landed his first punch, a left hook that floored Grant and caused an ankle injury that meant Grant could not continue.

Grant’s last moment in the spotlight came four years ago against Dominick Guinn, when the then-heavyweight prospect put Grant to the canvas four times en route to a technical knockout victory.

5.  Heavyweights, part five: Last week also saw Zuri Lawrence climb back between the ropes, with the feather-fisted fighter notching a six-round unanimous decision over some dude named Harvey Jolley.

Lawrence, who hasn’t scored a single knockout over his 21-win career, was a journeyman measuring stick until October 2005, when he surprisingly outpointed Jameel McCline. That win earned Lawrence a February 2006 bout with Calvin Brock, who proceeded to knock Lawrence out cold with a fantastic, frightening single shot. Lawrence sat on the sideline for about a year, but his chin didn’t profit from the rest, as Dominick Guinn floored Lawrence twice to gain a second-round stoppage.

6.  Heavyweights, part six: Whatever happened to Superfighter? The pay-per-view heavyweight tournament was delayed multiple times last year until it was ultimately postponed, according to the event’s Web site, until early 2007.

It’s now July.

7.  Boxers Behaving Badly: Ahmed Kaddour, a quarterfinalist on the first season of The Contender, was arrested last month for allegedly entering his ex-wife’s home illegally, according to suburban Houston newspaper The Tribune (via FightHype’s Ben Thompson).

Kaddour, who has only fought three times since losing to Alfonso Gomez in the second round of the boxing reality series, was hiding in his ex-wife’s closet when she arrived home, fleeing afterward with two large bags of property, police said.

Along the way, Kaddour reportedly called and text messaged his ex-wife several times, threatening to harm her and the police, authorities said. An officer searching for Kaddour found him walking down a bayou, but Kaddour ran away, police said.

Law enforcement eventually caught up with Kaddour, taking him into custody and, one imagines, recovering whatever was in those two large bags.

No word yet on whether it was Kaddour’s pride.

8.  Felix Sturm successfully defended his middleweight strap on Saturday, taking a unanimous decision over undefeated but inexperienced challenger Noe Tulio Gonzalez Alcoba.

Sturm, who two months ago beat Javier Castillejo to regain the WBA belt, is mandated to next face top challenger Randy Griffin in a match that will do little for the 160-pound weight class. With Jermain Taylor and Kelly Pavlik likely to face each other before both then make the jump to super middleweight, Sturm should look to face IBF titlist Arthur Abraham in a profitable and important unification bout between men who fight out of Germany.

9.  Darnell Wilson scored a highlight reel knockout over fellow cruiserweight Emmanuel Nwodo in the main event of ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights, winning in the 11th round on a picture-perfect left hook.

The fight should never have gotten to that point.

Wilson floored Nwodo in the 10th, putting Nwodo into survival mode for the remaining minute of the round. Wilson then hurt Nwodo again in the following stanza, and Nwodo literally turned his back and ran, unable to defend himself intelligently. Yet Nwodo’s corner and referee David Fields failed the fighter, leaving him to take more punishment and a punch that frighteningly left Nwodo unconscious.

Wilson is clearly in the right division, for the cruiserweights seem to promise action and excitement every time out. In his past four outings, he has kayoed Nwodo and stopped Kelvin Davis, Dale Brown and Daniel Judah. If ever a match deserved to be made for Boxing After Dark, it is Wilson against another slugger.

10.  Kelvin Davis, by the way, is recovering after going under the knife for 11 hours last week for injuries suffered while jogging on the roads of New Zealand, according to the Nevada Appeal.

Davis, last seen trading shots in May against heavyweight Terry Smith, was scheduled to face undefeated Kiwi prospect Shane Cameron last week. But Davis, while doing roadwork west of Auckland, was forced to jump from a narrow bridge to avoid an oncoming truck.

He fell approximately 30 feet, breaking his neck and his back and lying unconscious under the bridge for two hours until he awoke and crawled up a hill, where a passing motorist saw him.

David P. Greisman’s weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. He may be reached for questions and comments at fightingwords1@gmail.com