by David P. Greisman

This Memorial Day weekend, millions of Americans fired up their backyard barbecues and cooled down by flocking to beaches and swimming pools – routines that indicate the symbolic beginning of summer. But the weather in the United States isn’t the only thing heating up; boxing, too, has its temperature rising in June, with a handful of important or highly-anticipated bouts on the schedule.

Although the solstice isn’t for another three weeks, the sweet science – like the Sun – has been approaching its high point for the past few months. And with June’s four major fights, it can reach its apex, from where the sport hopefully can maintain its momentum, finishing up 2006 in a stronger fashion than the manner in which 2005 fizzled over its own second half.

On June 3, Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo will wrap up their trilogy with its rubber match, completing the most exciting series since Micky Ward and Arturo Gatti went head-to-head while going back-to-back-to-back. Had Corrales not suffered a rib injury in training, the duo would have concluded their in-ring rivalry in February. But instead of fighting three consecutive times like Gatti and Ward, Corrales received some much-needed recuperation time. Meanwhile, Castillo got a relatively easy replacement, staying busy with a unanimous decision over Rolando Reyes.

Now, Corrales and Castillo can set the tone that their peers should have to follow. Like their preceding 14 rounds, violence is guaranteed. Neither man is willing to give an inch, even if changing strategies would help one party to achieve victory. But if the non-stop brawling of the last two fights is to carry over, the one thing that must stay behind is controversy.

For all the celebration over their warrior-like efforts, the glow of the previous bouts was tainted for some by Corrales’ mouthpiece spitting and Castillo’s coming in overweight in their first and second fights, respectively. Since this will be the final chapter before each man moves up in weight to new wars and title challenges, any decision or destruction must be perceived as legitimate and conclusive to all but the most radical partisans.

Their collisions brought a spotlight to the lightweight division, and now a new group of willing prospects and contenders are waiting in the wings for Corrales and Castillo to move on to the next stages in their careers. Junior welterweight awaits, with intriguing match-ups present for both, and no matter the outcome on June 3, Corrales, Castillo and boxing fans will come out as winners.

One such match-up involves 140-lb. titlist Miguel Cotto, whom promoter Bob Arum would like to see paired up with stablemate Castillo. But first, Cotto must step into the ring on June 10 to deal with Paul Malignaggi.

Both Malignaggi and Cotto turned professional in 2001, but their careers have followed markedly different paths. Cotto has been the HBO-sponsored prodigy, fighting on pay-per-view and televised undercards since his early days as a prospect. But to his credit, the kid was being groomed to become a titlist, facing a series of fading names in crossroads fights and then moving on to fellow contenders until he was ready for his coronation.

Since knocking out Kelson Pinto in September 2004, Cotto has made five title defenses, winning each by kayo, but he has also raised question marks about his chin, even while raising his record. Thanks to his fights with DeMarcus Corley and Ricardo Torres, people view Cotto with a sense of uncertainty similar to that following Wladimir Klitschko in recent years.

Looking to exploit that perceived weakness is Malignaggi, a boxer seen as having fleet feet and feather fists. In terms of past quality of opposition, Malignaggi is still a prospect, but his brash mouth issued a challenge and then followed it up with enough chatter to make people view Cotto-Malignaggi with interest. Either Malignaggi will prove to be a mirage, or he will end up as a sort of Antonio Tarver, a man who used words to get a fight and then his abilities to win the bout, as well as respect.

Respect is the key word for Antonio Tarver and Bernard Hopkins, whose pay-per-view will be competing against the Cotto-Malignaggi PPV on June 10. To both, members of the boxing world have disrespected them despite their accomplishments, and each has been extremely willing to provide lengthy quotes arguing for their places in history.

After outpointing Roy Jones Jr. last October, Tarver demanded praise for going 2-1 against Jones and splitting his two bouts against Glencoffe Johnson, especially as his two losses came on close, controversial decisions.

For Hopkins, his streak of 20 middleweight title defenses brought the respect that had evaded him until his one-sided dismantling of Felix Trinidad. At last, he was recognized for his combination of dedication to his craft, his intelligence in the ring and his ways of subtly controlling the action while also getting away with anything he wanted to do.

But as he got older, he became more frugal with his output, meanwhile falling in love with the idea that he was champion and master technician. Together, these factors came back to bite him in his two bouts against Jermain Taylor. Believing that Taylor had to take his titles, Hopkins played a waiting game, leaving his fate in the hands of the judges and losing.

Amazingly, Hopkins is stubborn enough that he’ll repeatedly do things his way until he gets his desired outcome. Changing strategy would be admitting to being wrong. But the careful veteran is now taking a chance in stepping up to light heavyweight to face Tarver, a bigger, stronger, fresher opponent.

If Hopkins defeats Tarver, he will have added that final flourish to an already hall-of-fame career, but not if his victory comes from a close decision via a boring feint-fest.

It is uncertain what Tarver has to gain. If he wins easily, people will note only that he was bigger, younger and stronger. He wants respect, but he seems to believe that it will come from pay-per-view buys and million dollar checks. Where once Tarver had dropped his belt to take on the top challenger in Glencoffe Johnson, he now chooses to face a named middleweight instead of other, more-deserving light heavyweight contenders, including a rubber match with the oft-avoided Johnson.

Nevertheless, Tarver-Hopkins is intriguing precisely because both parties have reputations as top-notch talents, but yet they are still fighting for appreciation. Hopkins wants to accomplish what his idol, Sugar Ray Robinson, could not do in rising from middleweight to capture a light heavyweight title. Tarver hopes to prove that Hopkins is just like the people he perceives as taking him and his accomplishments too lightly. With two big mouths and two big goals, someone will have to fail, even if neither will ever shut the other up.

Nobody can accuse Jermain Taylor of not taking on his top challenger. After eking out two close decisions over Hopkins, he is moving straight on to Winky Wright. Although Taylor’s official coronation as middleweight king came when he usurped the throne from Hopkins, a decisive performance against Wright would finally bring a vote of confidence from his critics.

Taylor, an intelligent, eager, capable champion, is still a work-in-progress with loads of potential for improvement. As such, he has brought in Emanuel Steward to train him for Wright. Considering Taylor’s past admissions of getting confused or hesitant against Hopkins and Raul Marquez, Steward is the perfect addition, a man who designs perfect game plans for victory.

But for Wright, whose career saw him journeying the globe while being avoided by the big names, Taylor is the obstacle between himself and the spotlight, even if he is admittedly in the twilight of his career. Until he outpointed Shane Mosley twice, Wright had toiled in near-obscurity. Even after those wins, Wright had to shut out Felix Trinidad in order to prove that he was more than a jabber with a defense and that he had enough power and size to belong at middleweight.

Wright is reportedly training to throw 100 punches per round. With that kind of activity confronting him, Taylor cannot be afford to be hesitant, but he may also finally be willing to show the same explosiveness and ability he displayed while rising as the middleweight heir apparent.

With the anticipated action of Corrales-Castillo III, the style match-up and intrigue of Cotto-Malignaggi, the battle for respect between Tarver and Hopkins and the middleweight power struggle between an always-improving Taylor and an experienced Wright, June looks to be a hot month for boxing. The fireworks, should they come, will arrive a month early for Americans, but any bursts of brilliance will be appreciated by the whole of the boxing world.

The 10 Count

1.  Fres Oquendo earned a painful-to-watch unanimous decision win over Javier Mora on Thursday, his second victory following a 22-month layoff taken after consecutive losses to Chris Byrd and John Ruiz. After nearly getting a stoppage against Mora in the first round while pummeling him against the ropes, the fight settled into the typical Oquendo awkward-fest. Amazingly, Oquendo told the Fox Sports Net commentators that he blamed his lost chance at the spotlight on his controversial decision loss to Byrd, completely forgetting his being knocked out by Ruiz. Then again, had Oquendo received the nod against Byrd, he likely would’ve defended in his next fight against someone else in Don King’s endless stable of heavyweights instead of being part of Don King’s endless stable of heavyweights for Ruiz to face. 

2.  Mora, by the way, is James Toney’s protégé, and it shows in his stomach but not in his boxing ability. After weighing in at 232 pounds for his March upset over Kirk Johnson (a technical knockout win that should’ve gone to the scorecards for a technical decision after a freak accidental injury to Johnson), Mora tipped the scales at 256. With Mora’s sizable gut and breasts, Toney, who was in the arena to add occasional commentary to the broadcast, must have been proud.

3.  Moving on to a topic that, frighteningly, is somewhat related: In an interview with Greg Leon, junior welterweight DeMarcus “Chop Chop” Corley mentioned his recent commercial venture.

“I’m working on my own women’s line of underwear,” Corley said. “I’m going to get models to model it for me, and I’m going to model it as well.”

I just hope that Corley’s modeling doesn’t have him entering the ring to Sisqo’s “Thong Song.”

4.  Junior middleweight titlist Sergei Dzindziruk won a unanimous decision over Sebastian Lujan, his first defense of the belt he won from Daniel Santos last December. This marks Lujan’s sixth fight since he nearly had his ear punched off by Antonio Margarito. Lujan, though, has another five bouts to go until he ties Evander Holyfield’s record for post-trauma ear retention.

5.  Speaking of Margarito, welterweight prospect Paul Williams called out the man that some have dubbed the “Tijuana Tornado” following Williams’ stoppage of Walter Matthysse. With the penchant that both have for throwing plenty of punches, Margarito-Williams is a fight that I would love to see.

6.  On the main event of Boxing After Dark, Jhonny Gonzalez won a split decision over Fernando Montiel to retain his bantamweight title. I scored the bout 115-113 for Gonzalez and could have understood a draw or a 115-113 card for Montiel, but Chuck Hassett’s scoring of the bout as 118-111 for Gonzalez seemed ridiculous.

7.  The Boxing After Dark crew was much better this time around, although they still need work. Fran Charles disappears on play-by-play, Max Kellerman stumbles over lines and Lennox Lewis picks up the slack as if someone is telling him through his headset to do so. But it was much better than their initial broadcast together for April’s Acelino Freitas-Zahir Raheem card, and there was no cliché filled laugher from Lewis. His best quote, for humor’s sake, concerned the rangy Paul Williams: “When you have that reach advantage and that height advantage, you definitely have to use it to your advantage.”

8.  I don’t know if I’m the only one, but I’m looking forward to the Tyrone Harris-Koba Gogoladze bout on this week’s Wednesday Night Fights on ESPN2. Gogoladze is a decent measuring stick for lightweights and junior lightweights, while Harris is a prospect who was knocked out on ShoBox in January.

9.   There is no Friday Night Fights this week. Thankfully, Telemundo comes to the rescue with a fight card that includes Jameel McCline against the latest in his line of heavyweight tomato cans and journeyman fighters. At least Marcus Rhode, who has been knocked out in 24 of his 29 losses, gives McCline less of a chance of losing than McCline’s surprising decision defeat last October to Zuri Lawrence, who was 19-10-4 with an astonishing zero knockouts.

10.  Nicolay Valuev defends his heavyweight belt on Saturday against Owen Beck. Beck is an undeserving title challenger, aside from his belonging to Don King’s aforementioned endless stable of heavyweights. Valuev, on the other hand, is extremely tall but extremely limited. It’s a good thing that Corrales-Castillo III is on this weekend