By Jake Donovan

Fighter A enters a title fight with the possibility of a bigger fight in his very next ring appearance. Fighter A loses the fight, but the plan doesn't change as he still lands the aforementioned fight.

Sound familiar? Once upon a time, it was on the verge of becoming a blueprint for Top Rank, who applied the formula in piecing together Manny Pacquiao-Erik Morales II and Floyd Mayweather-Zab Judah.

It's once again resurfaced and once again involves Zab Judah, who despite dropping a decision to Joshua Clottey this past weekend, has somehow emerged as the frontrunner for Antonio Margarito's next fight, tentatively scheduled for November 1.

Chances are that the cut Judah suffered in the loss to Clottey won't allow him to return to the ring that soon, though there's an outside chance that an exception is made. It's too early to tell at this point whether or not Judah is given one more (undeserving) opportunity sooner than later.

What remains crystal clear for the moment is that Margarito's next fight will not be to avenge an old loss. That means the vacant linear welterweight champion won't be crowned anytime soon – if at all.

The pair of welterweight fights offered in the past two weekends were top notch matchups, both of which provided satisfactory results in their own way. Margarito's knockout win over Cotto was a performance and fight that speaks for itself – a wonderful battle with an ending that upset the odds and gave the division an instant makeover. Clottey's technical decision over Judah was a bit anticlimactic, but still fun while it lasted. More so, it was conclusive – Clottey was winning the fight handily, with no hint of a Judah rally down the stretch at the time the fight was stopped.

The downside to the fight was that Clottey reportedly suffered a torn bicep, which would greatly minimize his chances of landing a rematch with Margarito on the suggested November 1 date. Of course, the probability of his landing the assignment were always somewhere between slim and none, with slim on his way out of the door, as last weekend's fight was made with the hope that Judah would prevail.

That didn't happen, nor did Judah even remain unscathed, which means that the hunt is conceivably on if Margarito is to fight again in 2008. However, it's almost a moot point if he's able to keep the date, because the one guy that should be standing in the other corner – Paul Williams – has instead become a victim of boxing politics.

From the moment Floyd Mayweather split from Bob Arum, fighters like Margarito and Cotto were effectively denied the chance to challenge for the division's top prize. The relation was similar to the Cold War that existed between Arum's Top Rank and Oscar de la Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, only the latter affected the industry as a whole until they kissed and made up last summer. The Money May-Bobfather beef "only" affected the welterweight division, until Mayweather decided to call it a career earlier this year.

His departure freed up what's believed to be the deepest division in the sport. Margarito-Cotto was already in the works, but at the time jokingly billed as a Mayweather elimination bout, meaning that Floyd would've had no choice but to fight the winner, politics or not. His retirement made their fight the biggest welterweight match of the year, even if not defining the division as a whole.

The winner would be proclaimed the best welterweight in the world, which is where Margarito presently stands. But no matter the outcome, Paul "The Punisher" Williams was always going to have a say in who would eventually be named the next linear champion. Cotto stood a greater argument to receive honors by default had he emerged victorious. A win over Margarito would've followed victories over Shane Mosley, Zab Judah, Oktay Urkal and Carlos Quintana, all consensus top 10 welterweights at the time they faced the Puerto Rican.

More importantly, he didn't have a loss against Williams, which is more than could be said for Margarito. Granted, he still has plenty of notable wins on which to hang his hat – in fact, he boasts more wins over Top 10 welterweights than any other welterweight of this decade.

But the loss to Williams remaining unchecked is tough to overlook. Even more so with the southpaw emphatically avenging his lone defeat, overcoming a disappointing decision loss to Carlos Quintana earlier this year to stretch him in less than a round this past June.

With both Margarito and Williams expressing an interest in taking on all comers and often putting something behind such words, you'd think that a rematch would be a no-brainer.

Instead, The Punisher is being punished for negotiations falling part for a rumored fight against linear middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. Yes, middleweight. What does that have to do with a welterweight fight?

Nothing, unless you're Bob Arum, who was offended by what he claimed to be "unprofessional behavior" exuded by Williams' advisor and Arum's longtime nemesis, Al Haymon.

Granted, negotiations between a middleweight champion and welterweight titlist should have never taken place, since there are plenty of other challengers naturally closer to Pavlik's weight that could be contending for one of the sport's most prestigious crowns. But it instead conveniently becomes grounds to freeze out from the mix the biggest threat to Margarito's current status as the world's best welterweight.

The irony is that Pavlik's next middleweight title defense won't even take place until sometime in 2009. His next fight will be against Bernard Hopkins in what has become boxing's unofficial 18th weight class, also known as the HBOPPV weight limit of 170 lb. 

Failed negotiations between Pavlik and Williams were a small part in the top middleweight prize being put on ice for the remainder of 2008. They've now become grounds for slowing down welterweight momentum as well, which functionally leaves the division in no greater shape than when Mayweather held the top spot ransom during his reign.

A pattern will be detected by more than a few at some point, and the powers that be (one in particular) will eventually have their hands forced to put aside their differences in putting together the most meaningful fights. But until enough of a demand is created for Margarito-Williams II, expect more of the same from the sport and its top players.

What it ultimately means is that end results don't matter. It's why Paul Williams' name should be the only one mentioned in what's left of the remaining sweepstakes, yet guys like Zab Judah can receive one more unearned opportunity after another.

KELLERMAN TO THE MAX

Not sure what crawled into Max Kellerman's keester prior to the Clottey-Judah broadcast. Whatever it is, let's hope he brings to the mic every time from here on out. Last weekend's call was by far his best performance as a color commentator, keeping it real before, during and after the lone live bout offered.

His pre-fight remarks regarding Floyd Mayweather were 100% on the money. Even as a documented long time Judah fan, his calling of the action was even-handed. But it was his conduct in the post-fight interview, as well as his post-fight summary, that sealed the deal.

During the Q&A session, Kellerman asked Judah about the end of the fight, to which Zab immediately intervened, venting about addressing the headbutt issue beforehand yet Clottey – according to Judah and referee Robert Byrd (who had an off-night, to put it mildly) – was still guilty of the infraction.

No sooner than Judah finished the rant, Max went straight to the videotape, which showed an uppercut and straight right, but no headbutt, immediately prior to Judah reacting to the cut and his visibility becoming compromised.

A picture says 1,000 words; the camera cutting back to a live shot of Judah standing dumbfounded and mouth agape told the entire story. Kellerman snuck in a quick counter shot commenting on Judah's body language following Clottey's punches suggesting a different story than the one Zab was preaching as gospel, before the former two-division champ went into spin mode, claiming an earlier butt caused a small cut, with the punches caught on camera opening it up bad enough to justify a stoppage (though it was Judah's three unsuccessful bids to pass a ringside physician's eye exam that truly ended the fight).

If there's a single critique of his performance, it would have to be his referring to Margarito as THE welterweight champion, though such a debate could possibly come down to semantics. Margarito is the man to beat in the division, but as mentioned earlier in the column, failure to secure a rematch with tall Paul leaves the linear title vacant for the moment. Still, it's hardly enough to deter from a performance that for the moment sets the standard for color commentating as it should be done today.

Jake Donovan is a voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.