by David P. Greisman

Don King – a man who, if he cannot get on camera, will still find a way to get on television – was prattling loudly during the Luis Collazo-Ricky Hatton welterweight title fight, reviving the centuries-old ghosts of America’s Revolutionary War.

King was telling anyone within an enormous listening distance that Americans – unlike Kostya Tszyu in his fight last year against Hatton – will not quit. The amplification of his usual nationalism into a hopeful repelling of Hatton’s British Invasion resulted, of course, from his duties as Collazo’s promoter. Yet what made it all the more amusing was that, had Hatton been one of King’s men, the wiry-haired one could have shown up with the Union Jack in hand, spoken of tea times and the superiority of Clive Anderson over Drew Carey in their respective versions of “Whose Line is it Anyway?” and it would have seemed just as par for the course.

While King recalled 1776, though, Collazo and Hatton were battling in the latest skirmish in the War of 147, a clash that is going on for reasons of bigger money and body mass. In this conflict, it is not redcoats coming, but instead junior welterweights invading.

On one side are the aggressors: Arturo Gatti, Zab Judah, Hatton, Sharmba Mitchell, Miguel Cotto and Floyd Mayweather Jr., all of whom have moved up to welterweight in the past two years (except for Cotto, who is expected to do so soon).

Outnumbered are the defenders, fighters like Collazo, Carlos Baldomir and Antonio Margarito. In the face of their opposition, these three are under siege and underrated, naturally bigger men who have spent a majority of their careers in the 147-lb. division.

Whereas 140 had once been among the deepest divisions in boxing, its biggest names have now migrated seven pounds upward due to various reasons.

In the cases of Judah and Mayweather, they left for what they perceived as bigger and better opportunities:

For Judah, it was the chance for (and later the accomplishment of) the true welterweight championship, a crowning achievement years after Kostya Tszyu made him dance. And with Mayweather, 147 was a nice midpoint at which he could entice junior middleweights like Shane Mosley and Oscar De La Hoya with possible mega-paydays, all the while tempting Cotto and Hatton to follow just for the chance to challenge him.

Yet for the double-T triplets of Gatti, Hatton and Cotto, the extra seven pounds is all about comfort and health, the delight of no longer draining their large frames as low as they could once go. At welterweight, the thinking went, they would still be larger than a majority of their foes between fights, helping them to retain much of the power advantage provided by dropping poundage.

That has never been a problem or a concern for Judah and Mayweather, boxers whose walking weights were usually near to what they compete at. Their pop is amplified by their speed, both of which are essential for counterpunching their slower opposition.

But the slower opposition is also sturdier and stronger than previously expected.

In January, Baldomir withstood Judah’s early assault, touching his own chin and taunting that he wanted more. Then he made Judah pay for his overconfidence. Despite Baldomir’s meager 12 knockouts in 41 wins, and taking into account Judah’s infamous glass jaw, it was still surprising when Baldomir wobbled Judah with a clean shot to the mouth.

Collazo-Hatton provided a similar situation. Entering the Hatton fight, Collazo’s only noteworthy knockout (out of 12 total) came against an ancient Miguel Angel Gonzalez. Hatton, on the other hand, had a nifty 75 percent KO ratio and looked to shine in his HBO debut. But Collazo took what Hatton gave him for 11 rounds, excepting a flash knockdown in the first round, and returned the favor in the twelfth, stunning Hatton and nearly flooring him.

So often, people decry the existence of 17 weight divisions for adding to the misery of four major sanctioning bodies. But so often, a few pounds can make a big difference.

By the turn of the millennium, Mark Johnson had already showed his future Hall of Fame credentials at flyweight and junior bantamweight. Yet for all of his skills and experience, bantamweight Rafael Marquez was still too big and too strong for “Too Sharp.”

And the seven pounds that Antonio Margarito is now counting on for his own advantage proved to be a disadvantage when he stepped up to junior middleweight in 2004 to challenge Daniel Santos.

Similarly, Shane Mosley was a very good welterweight, but after ascending to junior middleweight he realized he had jumped one division too many. Aside from outpointing Oscar De La Hoya – also a former champion at welterweight and below – Mosley was outsized against Winky Wright, a natural 154-pounder whose true strength wasn’t revealed by his number of knockouts.

Nevertheless, for boxers who turned professional at lower weights and grew into their bodies, as well as for fighters who drop dozens of pounds before stepping on the scales, success has come via their tried-and-true formulas. De La Hoya, Mosley and Mayweather all left their prime weight classes long ago, only to translate speed and skill into strength and staying power.

Meanwhile, Baldomir, Margarito and Collazo are hoping to hold their ground against the invasion. While Collazo lost a close decision this weekend to Hatton, he showed that he belonged in contention. Baldomir will follow his upset of Judah with a July defense against Gatti, and Margarito is constantly striving to get Mayweather in the ring.

Whoever wins the War of 147 will decide the fate of the welterweight division. Will it be a way station en route to prestige and prosperity for the littler guys, or will it hold up as a weigh station, a stopping point at which the big trucks will remain in order to make their presence felt against the undersized intruders?

The 10 Count

1.  Speaking of making weight, Ricardo Mayorga tested positive for the diuretic Furosemide (also known as Lasix) following his knockout loss to Oscar De La Hoya. Diuretics, which are used to lose weight quickly or to conceal the use of other banned substances, likely assisted Mayorga in making 153.5 pounds for the weigh-in and then gaining 18.5 back by fight night. But on the off chance that Mayorga was hiding steroids, one has to feel for De La Hoya. After De La Hoya stopped Fernando Vargas, Vargas was suspended for steroid use. And after De La Hoya lost his rematch to Shane Mosley, Mosley’s name came up in the BALCO probe, although it must be written that nothing has been released since implicating Mosley in anything illegal or improper.

2.  Lasix was similarly found in the system of former flyweight Rosendo Alvarez following his knockout loss to Jorge Arce last month. Alvarez, who hadn’t made 112 in a year and a half, came in three pounds over the limit and was fined for doing so. Now he is another $2,000 lighter in the wallet and has been suspended, a move that could force the aging veteran closer to retirement.

3.  But the real Boxer Behaving Badly this week is Naseem Hamed, whose latest comeback will only happen if he takes up prison boxing or somehow loses weight while incarcerated. The former featherweight titlist will spend 15 months in jail for dangerous driving, the sentence coming from an incident last year in which Hamed crashed his sports car, seriously injuring another driver.

4.  The Mayorga-De La Hoya pay-per-view did 875,000 buys, bringing in $43.8 million in revenue. After $4 million to Don King, half of which went to Mayorga, and some money for HBO and the undercard fighters, that’s still a tremendous payday for De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions, the kind of earning power that could make Alex Rodriguez jealous. A-Rod is paid over $150,000 per three-hour game, but De La Hoya received millions for each three-minute round.

5.  With all that clinching during Collazo-Hatton, and with the fight occurring in Boston, I couldn’t think of a more (and less) fitting tribute to John Ruiz. On that note, I wonder whom Massachusetts’s residents would rather be infamous for: John Ruiz or Rosie Ruiz.

6.  I was skeptical about lightweight Monty Meza-Clay, just like I have been about junior middleweight Joe Wyatt and featherweight/junior lightweight Verquan Kimbrough. All three had been regulars at shows in the small West Virginia town of Chester, a boxing scene of ham-and-eggers and blue-collar pugilists who recycle tomato can opponents. Although Wyatt’s rumored title shot against Daniel Santos never came through and Kimbrough was knocked out last month by Jose Alberto Gonzalez, Meza-Clay finally got his shot at the big time on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights, proving himself with a gutsy effort against Edner Cherry. Although Cherry came through with a stoppage victory, Meza-Clay performed well against an upper-level opponent in a manner that fellow Chester-alum Brian Minto has yet to do in this scribe’s eyes.

7.  While light heavyweight titlist Clinton Woods is busy knocking out unworthy challengers and Roy Jones is scheduling a comeback fight against Prince Badi Ajamu, Glencoffe Johnson is drifting back into anonymity as the most-avoided, most-deserving 175-pounder out there. If anybody deserves to win the Joe Calzaghe sweepstakes, it’s Johnson, and it is precisely for that reason that Johnson will be passed over and forced to continue taking on fringe contenders.

8.  With Jesse Brinkley’s stoppage loss to super middleweight prospect Joey Spina, the contestants from the first season of The Contender have come close to losing their credibility as, well, contenders. Sergio Mora is still more of a middleweight prospect than a contender, Alfonso Gomez is pretty much a welterweight scrapper and Ishe Smith has disappeared from the face of the Earth. Perhaps a half-dozen of the Contender alums have enough talent to appear on smaller televised shows, and the most impressive performance to date was Peter Manfredo Jr. knocking out a Scott Pemberton that needs to retire as soon as possible.

9.  That being said, I still want to give Mora, Gomez, Smith, Manfredo and Miguel Espino time to develop, and I still want to see their fights. I am eagerly anticipating the second season of The Contender, too, so I guess that despite my complaints, the executives in charge of the show have been successful so far.

10.  R.I.P. Floyd Patterson, 1935-2006.