By Michael Katz

Photo © Mary Ann Owen/FightWireImages.com

The great matchups roll along this weekend with the Big Sleeper of the Year, not as in yawn but as in overlooked, between undefeated Joan Guzman and rough-and-ready Humberto Soto, so it is understandable that the rotting underbelly of the game is, thankfully, being overlooked.

But not here. Sorry, readers, go stick your heads where the darkness doesn’t blind, but it is my duty to point out that even on a night headlined by the intense excellence of Miguel Cotto’s victory over Sugar Shane Mosley, the stench can not be ignored. The 25th anniversary of the fatal Ray Mancini-Duk Koo Kim fight should jolt everyone back to reality, which is that despite the many wonderful matches this year, and don’t be too surprised if Guzman-Soto eclipses most of these, it is good to be a curmudgeon.

Cynicism should be politically correct after the pay-per-view undercard from Madison Square Garden. There were two mismatches that resulted in first-round blowouts and one fight that unfortunately went 12 empty rounds to wind up with one of the best recent examples of why judges should be hanged.

I have long been a rabid Joel Casamayor fan and though my longtime guru, the great Johnny Bos, thought from ringside that Jose Armando Santa Cruz simply did not do enough to win the REAL lightweight title, for my $50 I couldn’t give the 36-year-old Cuban more than three rounds, and most of my esteemed colleagues who were on site would have said that was overly generous.

Casamayor, off 13 months, did nothing but move on very old legs and clutch. He grabbed with both hands as if he had just graduated magna cum lousy from the John Ruiz School of Boxing. At the final bell, I was shocked to see him raise his arms as if he thought he won.

But the feeble New York State Athletic Commission, and its leader, Ron Scott Stevens, appointed three judges whose experience must have been garnered in that upstate institution known as Sing Sing. Stevens appointed another virtual novice to the Cotto-Mosley bout – someone named Wynn Kintz. Worse, he named a Puerto Rican ref, Benji Estevez, to work a fight featuring a Puerto Rican icon, and when Estevez halted action momentarily in the tenth round when it appeared Cotto was in serious trouble, dirty little thoughts crossed some minds. That there was a legitimate reason for the stoppage, water on the canvas in the area where Mosley would later slip and fall in the 12th, could not change the APPEARANCE of impropriety.

There was unquestioned impropriety in the matchmaking for the two other pay-per-view prelims. Golden Johnson, a faded lightweight who had been off for exactly a year, was of course just fodder for Bob Arum to make Antonio Margarito look like a legitimate welterweight contender – which he already was anyway. And Carlos Maussa, a 36-year-old former paper tiger, did not exactly show great determination in trying to get up from a single blow from Arum’s talented prospect, Victor Ortiz.

These so-called “fights” should be investigated by the Better Business Bureau.

Cotto and Mosley did not register a true fight of the year candidate, at least not for a year that has been blessed with many worthier candidates (the leader in the clubhouse, for me, remains the rematch between Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez). But they showed their class in and out of action. Mosley took his close defeat with his usual grace, calling Cotto a “young lion on his way to greatness.” I find it is more unusual for winners to be gracious than losers who have just had their egos bruised, but Cotto doffed his hat to the old warrior and while he may have shown enough flaws for Oscar de la Hoya to indicate to Newsday’s Wallace Matthews that the Golden Boy could be thinking his next fight could be against Cotto if Ricky Hatton, Oscar’s opponent of choicefails to upset Floyd Mayweather Jr., the 27-year-old undefeated Puerto Rican proved a worthy addition to most pound-for-pound top tens.

He showed a fine jab as part of unexpectedly great hand speed and an ability to counterpunch while moving backwards. But, yes, he was open for right hands to the head and, as de la Hoya noted, seems to resent being hit to the body.

There was enough ebb and flo to make it a terrific fight. If Cotto was outjabbing Mosley, then the old man reversed roles by stalking the normally aggressive youngster. In the ninth and tenth rounds, it appeared that Mosley was on his way to a late knockout. But Cotto seems to use adversity as an incentive and fought back. I thought he gave away the last round, foolishly listening to a corner that foolishly thought he was way ahead, and came up with a draw on my card – matching a couple of my esteemed former New York colleagues, Tim Smith of the Daily News and George Willis of the Post. But if I judged the fight as one 36-minute round, I believe Cotto deserved the victory.

Next, he deserves at least de la Hoya. Oscar is the only one who makes it economically understandable if Cotto doesn’t now face the winner of the Dec. 8 Mayweather-Hatton in Vegas, where I am guessing that Wynn Kintz will not be imported as a judge.

Mayweather is the REAL welterweight champion, but unlike Ring magazine, he would not remain as such unless he fights his most legitimate challenger. There was a wonderful debate on the HBO pay-per-view telecast between Mad Max Kellerman, who blindly follows the Ring leaders in loyalty to the ludicrous premise that champions can lose their titles only in the ring, and Emanuel Steward. The hall of fame trainer asked Kellerman if Mayweather, should he beat (as expected) Hatton, then refused to fight the Cotto-Mosley winner, should still be considered champion. “Yes,” said Kellerman. Later, Steward said if Mayweather didn’t fight Cotto next, “Max can have him – I don’t want any part of him.”

Steward understands: You’re not a REAL champion unless you fight your REAL challenger.

In fact, I would make Casamayor more of a REAL champion than any quack who ducks Cotto. Casamayor, obviously, is no longer the best lightweight in the world – Juan Diaz should be a 5-1 favorite over him – but at least he is not avoiding any legitimate claimant. Instead, he is calling them out.

Ring magazine, Mad Max and their flock of sheep are of course all rebelling against the toxic alphabet soup that allegedly sanctions champions. They can all be excused for looking for better ways, but not defending titles against legitimate challengers is not one of them. But as if to underline their legitimate concerns, the leading gang of Bandidos is having its annual convention (seems to me they have one every few months) in the Philippines and almost upon arrival, the Godfather of the WBClowns, Jose Sulaiman, warned the local hero, Manny Pacquiao, if he didn’t next fight his 130-pound champion, Juan Manuel Marquez, no one would remember the Pac Man in 25 years. A couple of days later, Don Jose (Danny DeVito would be wonderfully cast as him in my next boxing film) awarded Pacquiao the title of “champion emeritus.”

To appreciate that honor, remember, Vitali Klitschko was named heavyweight champion emeritus – and thus eligible to cut the line and challenge for the WBClowns title upon resuming his career – by these same idiots. Dr. Iron Fist’s WBC title career consisted of three fights – he lost to Lennox Lewis, won a vacant crown against Corrie Sanders, the South African golfer who was kind of playing through the heavyweight division, and defended it one (1) time (once) against Danny Williams.

A veritable Joe Louis or Rocky Marciano type career, n’est-ce-pas?

Don Jose’s boys, of course, stripped Casamayor of the lightweight title he won against Diego Corrales, only to later give the Cuban the WBClown “interim” championship, whatever the hell that is.

Sulaiman should have long ago been retired to the OUTHOUSE, if for nothing else than wrong-headedly cutting championship fights from 15 rounds to 12, thereby giving boxers another excuse not to train hard (“Hell, if I can go 10 rounds, I can go 12”), for his judges giving Julio Cesar Chavez a draw against Pernell Whitaker, his attempt to steal the heavyweight title from Buster Douglas (“he was knocked out first by Mike Tyson”) and his current campaign for “open scoring.” If there had been open scoring at the Garden last Saturday, hopefully the crowd would have rioted during the Casamayor-Santa Cruz larceny.

PENTHOUSE: Kevin Iole of Yahoo.com for his terrific piece on the 25th anniversary of the Duk Koo Kim fatality in which Ray Mancini’s sensitive nature shines. Of course we all question whether or not boxing is worth the danger; at the time 25 years ago, I was still in Miami, where most of the boss scribes had gathered for the Aaron Pryor-Alexis Arguello masterpiece that also almost ended in tragedy. But I have concluded that no one forces these brave young men, and women, into the ring and so I celebrate not the danger, but the courage in facing it. If it were not dangerous, could there be such valor? Yes, we see valor in tennis matches, say, where the physical perils are more corporal than capital. But somehow, I think boxing raises human dignity (see Mosley and Cotto) to the stars….Of course, Cotto and Mosley deserve to be included in here, too.

OUTHOUSE: Okay, besides the Alphabets, Dandy Dan Rafael makes it here for telling his freaks on an espn.com chat that he prefers Las Vegas to New York. He should be permanently banned from the Carnegie Deli, Sam’s Roumanian, Jimmy’s Corner and the Bronx Zoo.

A BOY NAMED JOAN: Never mind what happened to Irene Pacheco or Vivian Harris, Joan Guzman still has a name to make for himself as one of boxing’s elite. But it’s getting late in the game. The Dominican fighter is now 31 and while undefeated, he has stumbled haphazardly through a poorly managed (early) career and, while he has been calling out Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, he could easily be derailed this Saturday by Humberto Soto, 27, in a key junior lightweight matchup. In a way, this HBO Boxing After Dark main event, to follow the taped replay of Cotto-Mosley for all you cheapskates who didn’t buy it, is almost like Beethoven’s Fourth, a nonpretentious yet elegant symphony that comes between two of the Master’s great works, the Eroica and the fateful Fifth. Overshadowed perhaps by the Joe Calzaghe-Mikkel Kessler and Cotto-Mosley bouts that precede it, and muffled by the noises to come from the high-decibel Fernando Vargas-Ricardo Mayorga and Mayweather-Hatton bouts to come, it is like a perfect gem surrounded by the Crown Jewels, not as big as the Hope Diamond, but probably just as brilliant.

Do not think, by the way, that this WBOgus title bout is strictly for purists. The entertainment value will be as high as a choreographed Rocky movie fight; imagine a Mayweather shadowboxing session somehow crossed with Barrera-Morales.

I have no idea who will win. Soto erased the “0” from Rocky Juarez’s ledger; he could easily do the same to Guzman’s. Both guys are pushing the envelope a bit at 130. Guzman isn’t that far removed from being a dominant 122-pound fighter. The Dominican is one of my favorites, a flashy boxer who throws straight punches from inventive angles and who has been dubbed “El Pequeno Tyson.” I suspect Soto is more solid, that Guzman can be chipped away and made vulnerable by the sturdy Mexican. Maybe. Maybe Soto’s chips will not find the mark, there are times when Guzman boxes so brilliantly he looks almost unhittable.

This will be Soto’s fourth fight of 2007. Guzman hasn’t been active since last December. This activity reflects their careers. Both turned pro in 1997; Sotto’s record is 43-5-2 with 27 knockouts; Guzman is 27-0 with 17. I believe Soto is the puncher here, Guzman the boxer, his last six victories having come on points. Soto has won his last six by stoppage, including one of Pacquiao, except it was Manny’s far-less-talented brother Bobby. Guzman should take an early lead, but where the fight goes from there I haven’t a clue. Since outpointing Juarez, who just went 12 with one eye against Juan Manuel Marquez, Soto has not beaten much. On the other hand, he hasn’t lost since early 2002 to Kevin Kelley. Guzman has outpointed such as Javier Juaregui and Jorge Solis.

Even up, I guess I’d have to go with the speed and that’s Guzman. But Soto is more than just a puncher. He outboxed Juarez.

DIS AND THAT: There is some conjecture that if Hatton gets eliminated by Mayweather from the de la Hoya sweepstakes, Oscar would turn to Cotto, despite his Puerto Rican wife’s please not to fight a landsman. Maybe we’ll see who really wears the pants in that family, though it is no certainty that Mayweather wins Dec. 8. Hatton has under-rated foot movement. Despite those dancing appearances on television, Mayweather might find his Achilles heels in his feet; sometimes, he gets caught off balance or out of position. I think that’s why Jose Luis Castillo was able to give him trouble. Hatton’s feet look quicker than Castillo’s. At least, he doesn’t bleed from his feet….Dino Duva’s six-month suspension by New York State for looking at the scorecards during Samuel Peter’s long-count victory over Jameel McCline may be drastically reduced. The promoter is down in the Philippines at the WBClown convention, hoping Sulaiman forces Oleg Maskaev to fight Peter on Feb. 2 at Madison Square Garden as now scheduled…..The split itself seemed amicable enough, both sides saying nice things about the other, but I don’t know if it’s enough to get rid of Emanuel Steward for Jermain Taylor to reverse his loss to Kelly Pavlik at the February rematch. Taylor’s amateur trainer, and second throughout the former middleweight champion’s pro career, Ozell Nelson, will take over – this time as head man. Paging Pat Burns. Ozzie Nelson without Harriet, Ricky and David is not enough of a show….On my Cox cable pay-per-view station, the Cotto-Mosley fight was followed immediately by “Sexstarved Prison Girls.”…When they finally meet Jan. 19, Roy Jones Jr. will have celebrated his 39th birthday and Felix Trinidad Jr. his 35th. Legends? Jones has won two fights in almost four years. Trinidad has won one – against clueless Ricardo Mayorga – in almost six….It’s not that I don’t want to see Mosley fight again – he would still be hell for Mayweather, Margarito, Paul Williams, Kermit Cintron and Zab Judah in the wonderfully deep welterweight division – but I can’t wait to find out how good a trainer he will be. There are plenty of talented 147-pound fighters, not that many good trainers.