Wladimir Klitschko is expected to face Alexander Povetkin in August. (Nadine Rupp/Bongarts/Getty Images)

• In a shocker, Russian promoter Vladimir Hryunov won a purse bid for the right to promote Wladimir Klitschko’s future heavyweight title defense against Alexander Povetkin with a whopping $23.3 million bid, far more than K2 Promotions ($7.1 million) or Sauerland Event ($6.01 million) put up. Assuming both Klitschko and Povetkin make it through their upcoming bouts, the fight will take place August 31 in either Moscow, Berlin or Las Vegas. Under the terms of the bid, Klitschko would receive $17.5 million with Povetkin entitled to $5.8 million. As big as Hryunov’s bid was, it falls well short of the $32.1 million Las Vegas businessman Steve Wynn put up to secure the rights to Buster Douglas’s title defense against Evander Holyfield in 1990.

The obvious question: Can Hryunov come up with the cash? Occasionally, a promoter will come in and submit an outlandish bid for a fight, and then default. Don King has done it twice in the last year, first with a $1.1 million bid for the right to promote a heavyweight fight between Cris Arreola and Bermane Stiverne and later with a $1.5 million bid for Marco Huck and Ola Afolabi. King would default on both, losing the ten percent deposit he was required to put down. Sources involved with the bid told SI.com that Hryunov, who is being backed by a Russian-based businessman and real estate developer, will spend the next few weeks exploring ways to monetize the fight.

• Some numbers from a busy boxing weekend: Last Saturday’s Showtime-televised fight between Saul Alvarez and Austin Trout peaked at 734,000 households and 1.061 million viewers, a modest increase from the 1.031 viewers Alvarez attracted for his September fight with Josesito Lopez. Meanwhile Saturday afternoon’s fight on NBC, headlined by heavyweights Tyson Fury and Steve Cunningham, did a strong overnight rating that translated to 1.2 million viewers. Expectations are that when the full numbers come in later in the week, peak viewership will exceed 1.8 million.

• I love Juan Manuel Marquez-Tim Bradley. Like most, I was surprised that Marquez didn’t take a fifth fight with Pacquiao. Despite all the rhetoric, I figured Marquez would go for the biggest check. But in fighting Bradley, Marquez can still cash a big check and give himself a chance at history by becoming the first Mexican to win titles in five weight classes. And if he beats Bradley — and Pacquiao gets past either Mike Alvarado or Brandon Rios — a Pacquiao fight will still be there.

• I don’t think I’ve ever been less interested in a notable fight than this Saturday’s heavyweight bout between Deontay Wilder and Audley Harrison. It’s another absolute joke of a fight for Wilder, a 2008 bronze medalist whose résumé as a pro is pathetic.

• If Danny Garcia beats Zab Judah on Saturday, I think he becomes the favorite to face Floyd Mayweather in the fall. Mayweather clearly isn’t overly interested in facing Saul Alvarez; if he were, he would have agreed to face him already and fought together on the May 4th pay per view. I’ve been told that during negotiations with HBO and Showtime Mayweather’s representatives mentioned Garcia often as a possible opponent.

• Ishe Smith-Carlos Molina: The very definition of not-made-for-TV.

• Golden Boy’s ability to get Bernard Hopkins’ upcoming title defense against Karo Murat on premium television could get interesting. The fight stinks. Murat (25-0-1) is not a particularly big puncher and a complete unknown in the U.S. And everyone knows that at this stage of his career Hopkins (53-6-2) needs a certain type of opponent (Tavoris Cloud, Jean Pascal) to look impressive. I’m told Showtime is interested in showing the fight, but will require a strong co-main event to make it worth their while.

• There is still nothing to make me think that a fight between Nathan Cleverly and Bernard Hopkins will be anything but dull.

– Chris Mannix

Gennady Golovkin (above) will defend his middleweight title against an opponent to be determined on Jan. 19 in New York at the Theater at Madison Square Garden. (AP)

Some quick jabs …

• I’m told HBO is now considering two possible opponents for Gennady Golovkin’s Jan. 19 middleweight title defense: Fernando Guerrero, a one-time prospect who is represented by Al Haymon, and Gabriel Rosado, a rising junior middleweight who is currently the IBF’s mandatory challenger for Cornelius “K9″ Bundrage’s title. To me, the decision is an easy one: Guerrero — who beat Rosado in a controversial eight-round middleweight fight in 2009 — has done nothing recently to warrant this kind of opportunity. Rosado, meanwhile, beat three quality opponents in 2012, all on NBC Sports Network, all by knockout. Rosado is the definition of a television-friendly fighter. A matchup with Golovkin would be a war.

• Super featherweight Teon Kennedy’s injury forced Main Events to find a new opponent for undefeated prospect Jerry Belmontes in the co-feature of the Dec. 8 card on NBC Sports Network. On Monday they announced that Eric Hunter (16-2) would step in. Hunter has been on the shelf for most of the last two years, fighting once (last July) since December of 2010.

• Kudos to Seth Mitchell for accomplishing a lot in boxing despite not picking up the gloves until he was 24. But this experiment is probably over. You can’t teach a chin and in his last two fights Mitchell has been buzzed by Chazz Witherspoon and knocked out in two rounds by Johnathan Banks. There are things Mitchell can do to improve — he still has no idea how to hold when he gets hurt — but if light hitters like Witherspoon and Banks can wobble him, he’s a sitting duck for one of the Klitschko brothers.

• Speaking of Banks: I’d like to see him face one more quality opponent before looking for a fight with Wladimir or Vitali Klitschko. A matchup with Tyson Fury, David Price or his preferred choice, Alexander Povetkin, next year could make Banks some money and, if he wins, give him some momentum heading into a major title fight.

• I’m looking forward to Miguel Cotto-Austin Trout on Dec. 1 at Madison Square Garden, but that undercard is horrendous. Jayson Velez and Danny Jacobs — questionable choices for a televised undercard to begin with — will fight separately on Showtime’s broadcast in fights that do nothing for me. Velez (19-0) will face Salvador Sanchez II (30-4-3), nephew of Mexican legend Salvador Sanchez, while Jacobs (23-1), the former prospect and cancer survivor who will fight for the second time in three months, gets Chris Fitzpatrick (15-2).

• I don’t know what has gotten into Carl Froch, but after another impressive knockout — this one over handpicked challenger Yusaf Mack — I just don’t know how Lucian Bute can beat him. Froch is just too strong.

• Bring on Adrien Broner-Ricky Burns.

• Thank you, Fred Sternburg, for sending out 400 emails letting everyone know that Manny Pacquiao gave away free turkeys last week. My overflowing inbox extends its regards.

• Hey British promoter Frank Maloney: Your comment that Wladimir Klitschko would be happy not to have to pay Emanuel Steward his 10 percent after a one-sided win over Mariusz Wach last week was disgusting and classless. Steward, a longtime mentor and trainer for Klitschko, lost a battle with cancer last month. Maloney should be ashamed.

– Chris Mannix

Tony Harrison (left), shown here with Emanuel Steward in July, fights on the undercard of Saturday’s Wladimir Klitschko fight. (Christof Koepsel/Getty Images)

HAMBURG, Germany — As the godfather of Detroit boxing, Emanuel Steward touched the lives of thousands of kids trying to make it in an unforgiving sport.

“He sure did,” said Tony Harrison. “And he never asked for a penny.”

The 22-year old Harrison is the latest potential star to come out of Steward’s stable. With crushing power and pinpoint accuracy, Harrison, Steward told me once, fought like a young Tommy Hearns. For the last year, Steward brought Harrison along to Klitschko camps and put him on the undercard of his fights.

Like many, Harrison was rocked by Steward’s death last month.

“It’s devastating,” Harrison said. “It came too quick. Everyone was expecting him to heal and get through it. But God called on him. Sometimes He just calls on you. But he’s resting now. He fought a hard fight and now he is upstairs, resting.”

In Harrison — who will face veteran Daniel Urbanski on the undercard of Wladimir Klitschko’s heavyweight title defense against Mariusz Wach on Saturday — Steward’s legacy has a chance to live on into the next decade. A rising junior middleweight, Harrison (10-0) has won eight fights by knockout, cruising to comfortable decision wins in the other two. Members of Team Klitschko say that in sparring Harrison has given Johnathan Banks — a heavyweight preparing for a showdown with Seth Mitchell later this month — all he could handle.

With Steward gone, Harrison is on his own, operating for the first time as a professional without a head trainer or manager.

“I’m speaking for myself now,” Harrison said. “That’s why it’s important for me to go out in this next fight and look good. [Manny] taught me a lot and I learned a lot. Now I’m just taking what I learned and try to get to the next level. It’s going to be hard to do alone. It’s why it’s important for me to win big in this next fight.”

Like Klitschko, Harrison has a little more fuel for this fight.

“I’m going to the ring with a chip on my shoulder,” Harrison said. “I wish he was here so bad. I miss him. This fight is for him.”

– Chris Mannix

Lucian Bute (right) showed little in Saturday’s points win over Denis Grachev (left) that suggested a rematch with Carl Froch would go any differently. (AP)

Some quick jabs …

• Lucian Bute needed a win to regain his confidence after last May’s devastating knockout loss to Carl Froch. But nothing I saw in Bute’s unanimous-decision win over Denis Grachev on Saturday convinced me Bute will beat Froch in a rematch, tentatively scheduled for next March. Bute looked tentative at times, was backed up way too often and looked clueless when forced to fight on the inside. Put it simple: If that Bute shows up against Froch, it will be lights out again.

• A quick thought on Grachev: I believed he was a good fighter when the Bute fight was made, and I still do. The fight was close — the 118-110 card submitted by Canadian judge Claude Paquette reeked of hometown scoring — and Grachev was the aggressor throughout. The super middleweight division is loaded and I would have no problem seeing Grachev in a big fight next year.

• Maybe it’s just me, but I’m really looking forward to Wladimir Klitschko’s fight against undefeated 6-foot-8 challenger Mariusz Wach. I think it has the potential to be a pretty good fight.

• Count me among the many disappointed that Tyson Fury’s fight against Denis Boytsov has been called off. Fury-Boytsov was just the kind of fight the heavyweight division needs: a matchup between two undefeated, would-be contenders that would bolster the resume of the winner and weed the loser out of the division rankings. What’s worse, Boytsov pulled out because, according to his promoter, he wasn’t going to be in shape for the fight. Not in shape? Then why did he agree to the fight in the first place?

• Marco Huck’s entertaining cruiserweight title defense over 42-year old Firat Arslan was fun to watch but provided incontestable proof that Huck should not go anywhere near Wladimir Klitschko. Huck is young (27) but is showing the wear and tear of a fighter who doesn’t know how to duck. A matchup with Klitschko — which Huck has publicly pleaded for — would be criminal.

• Hey, look, Jean Pascal is coming back. That is until Pascal — inactive since losing to Bernard Hopkins in May 2011 — finds a reason not fight. Between Pascal and Andre Dirrell, I’m not sure who has wasted more prime fighting years.

• Almost four pounds over the light heavyweight limit. Way to be professional, Allan Green.

• This 50 Cent-Floyd Mayweather feud is pretty entertaining, and it only figures to get better. History suggests that 50 will soon release a track bashing Mayweather and Mayweather will use the press tour for his next fight to verbally smack 50 around all over the country. Still, in a battle for the boxing industry, my money is on Mayweather. Floyd is a marketing genius with the biggest draw in town — himself — in his stable. 50 Cent has an unwatchable fighter in Billy Dib, an inactive one in Andre Dirrell and another, Yuri Gamboa, who may be on his way back to Top Rank. 50 is a gifted recording artist but he doesn’t seem to have a clue about how to make it in boxing.

• Memo to Tom Loeffler: Keep Gennady Golovkin away from the super middleweights. The latest intel has Golovkin returning in January against either Edwin Rodriguez or Thomas Oosthuizen, two 168-pounders. Golovkin is powerful and seriously skilled but he is not a particularly big middleweight (5-foot-10) and it makes no sense for him to be moving up. I admire Golovkin’s willingness to take on all comers, but a better fight — with the understanding that neither Daniel Geale or Peter Quillin will face him — is Matthew Macklin. Golovkin-Macklin would sell a lot of tickets at the Madison Square Garden theater and be a pretty good fight.

– Chris Mannix

Marco Huck (above) is stepping up his efforts in an ongoing campaign for a shot at reigning heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. (AP)

For the past few months, cruiserweight titleholder Marco Huck — who lost a competitive decision to Alexander Povetkin in February — has been campaigning for a shot at unified heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. On Thursday, Huck’s promoter, Sauerland Event, upped the ante, issuing a press release offering Klitschko five million Euros — roughly $6.5 million — for the fight.

“Bernd Boente, Klitschko’s manager, has been talking to Marco directly about the possibility of fighting Klitschko,” promoter Kalle Sauerland said. “Now we have used the official channels to approach them with an offer. Of course, we are now expecting them to come up with a counter-offer. We are always willing to hold personal talks to discuss the terms for such a fight. Then we will see if they will actually put their money where their mouth is. We definitely want to make this fight happen.”

According to Sauerland, if Huck (34-2), who will defend his title against Firat Arslan on Saturday, wins, he wants Klitschko to be his next opponent.

In a telephone interview with SI.com, Boente scoffed at the offer.

“The offer was ridiculous,” Boente said. “The offer to us would be a buyout. We would give up all rights. We have an exclusive deal with [European network] RTL to broadcast all Klitschko fights. They work with ARD. We have been working with RTL since 2006. It doesn’t matter if the offer was $100 million. We cannot breach that contract. They know that.”

“[Sauerland] always does these things before a Huck fight because they know no one is interested in a Huck fight. They are trying to use the Klitschko’s for p.r. It was not a serious offer.”

– Chris Mannix

Renowned trainer Emanuel Steward (left) helped more than 40 fighters to world championships, operating with a dignity all sportsmen can aspire to. (AP)

“You know what Chris,” Emanuel Steward told me recently. “I really hope Chris Arreola gets his s–t together.”

It was last March, and Steward was sipping on a cup of coffee in a hotel ballroom in Dusseldorf, Germany, just days before his prized pupil, Wladimir Klitschko, was set to defend his heavyweight titles against Jean Marc-Mormeck. It wasn’t that Steward was especially excited about a fight with Arreola, a fringe contender who Klitschko would probably put down before the final bell; it was about where that potential fight would take place. Mormeck would be Klitschko’s seventh straight fight in Europe and, well, Steward was hoping he would find a fight on U.S. soil.

“I’d really like to fight closer to home,” Steward said. “New York, L.A., anywhere. Just home.”

Here’s the thing about Steward, who passed away on Thursday at the age of 68: He loved Klitschko, the man he morphed from a tall, chinny heavyweight into the most dominant big man of his era. But he loved everyone else the same. He loved Tony Harrison, his 22-year-old junior middleweight prospect, as much as he loved Tommy Hearns, loved Oscar De La Hoya as much as Lennox Lewis. He loved all the kids who came out of his famed Kronk gym. He bragged about his fighters like a father brags about his sons and he hated to be away from them for too long.

Steward will be remembered first as a brilliant trainer, then as a polished, insightful commentator but what I’ll remember most about Steward was that he was, undeniably, a good man. Anyone who has walked the halls of a Las Vegas hotel with Steward, who has watched it take him 50 minutes to go 50 feet because he is stopped so often to pose for a picture or sign someone’s shirt, all without a trace of complaint, knows this. Anyone who has worked a press room with Steward, who has watched him take the time to do interview after interview, whether it’s with Sports Illustrated, ESPN or a blogger with a camcorder, understands this.

Steward enjoyed arguing about his legacy, particularly his connection to the jab. Oftentimes when Steward’s name was connected to a fighter it’s because that fighter lacks that defensive, set-up weapon that Steward made Lewis and Klitschko so dangerous with. But Steward never wanted to be known as a finesse trainer, one content with decisions. Yes he taught the jab, Steward often told me. But he liked knockouts more.

In Detroit, Steward turned Kronk into a welterweight factory, churning out contender after contender like he was piecing them together from body parts of past legends. “They had a lineup of guys,” said promoter Bob Arum, “that was absolutely unbelievable.” But what many remember about Kronk was that with Steward, simply winning was not what it was all about.

“He tried to instill in all of them a sense of sportsmanship and camaraderie,” Arum said. “Manny would call me and say ‘Join me for dinner in Detroit.’ Well, he would have 20 to 30 people at dinner with us, mostly fighters from the Kronk gym. He was there for all of them.”

In his dying days Steward wanted to be there for Klitschko, to work his prized pupil’s corner when Klitschko fought Mariusz Wach on Nov. 10, to be a teacher one last time. He held out hope that his body would grant him one more chance to be there for someone he cared about. Klitschko knew his mentor was failing but he kept his cornerman spot open for weeks, hoping for a miracle. He knew Steward was almost gone but he could not close the door on that chapter of his life.

Steward is gone but his memory will remain, as strong as ever. The true measure of a man is how he he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good, and inside that oft repeated quote lives the reason why Emanuel Steward will be remembered as one of the most beloved men in boxing.

– Chris Mannix

David Price (right) made quick work of Audley Harrison (left) on Saturday in Liverpool, scoring a first-round knockout to retain his British heavyweight title. (AP)

Three quick thoughts from David Price’s 82-second knockout of Audley Harrison on Saturday night in Liverpool …

It didn’t prove much, but Price did exactly what he needed to do. The new hope in British heavyweight boxing proved coldly efficient against Harrison, the 2000 Olympic gold medalist whose professional career has failed to realize once-great expectations. A thudding straight right exploded on Harrison’s chin less than a minute into the fight, triggering a punishing flurry capped by a right hook that sent the 40-year-old crashing to the canvas with a broken nose and concussion. Thus Price (14-0, 12 KOs), who turned pro after winning Olympic bronze in 2008 and captured the vacant British heavyweight title last year, passed the first real challenge of his career — a devastating showing that required less time than his spine-tingling ringwalk to “You’ll Never Walk Alone” which electrified the sellout crowd of 8,000 at Liverpool’s Echo Arena. The general thinking is the 29-year-old Price is too raw and inexperienced to challenge Wladimir or Vitali Klitschko, the brothers who collectively rule the division. But given the dearth of fresh challengers at heavyweight and Price’s formidable size — at 6-foot-8, 245 pounds, he’s one of the few contenders who can look down at the champions — many within boxing are bullish on the Liverpudlian’s chances to one day inherit the title. “I think he’d beat the klitchkos now,” tweeted Ricky Hatton after the fight.

It’s time for Harrison to retire. The faded veteran getting served up to the young lion is a tradition as old as boxing itself, and Saturday’s latest episode was no less cruel. Many had called for Harrison (28-6, 21 KOs) to quit the sport in 2010, after he capitulated so weakly in a third-round knockout loss to David Haye in which he threw just one punch. Those suggestions will only intensify after Harrison was booed from the ring Saturday night, a desultory farewell for a fighter who fell from national hero to figure of public ridicule during a 12-year career marked by mystifying underachievemnt. ”If I lose to David Price, I’ve got no future,” Price had said this week. “It’s over for me as a professional fighter if I lose to David Price. This is my door. This is the door I have to walk through. This is the last-chance saloon for me and I would not want it any other way.” After a showing that couldn’t have been any less competitive, Harrison’s decision should be easy.

Price should fight Tyson Fury. Though Price is tentatively slated to return on December 8 against Matt Skelton (who won on Saturday’s undercard), Frank Maloney, who promotes the Liverpudlian, wasted no time in calling out British compatriot Tyson Fury in the aftermath of Saturday’s laugher. Maloney offered £500,000 to Fury (19-0, 14 KOs), who last year vacated the British heavyweight title rather than face Price, who was the mandatory challenger. Since then, Fury has appeared to change his tune, prodding Price and campaigning for the bout via social media. (“He needs to get off the Twitter, stop Twittering and take this fight,” Maloney said.) Less than an hour later, Fury responded in a foul-mouthed TV interview with Channel 5 from ringside during the James DeGale-Hadillah Mohoumadi bout, expressing his willingness to make a fight the public wants to see, one that could potentially fill a stadium in the U.K. “I’ll fight David Price any day of the week,” Fury chirped. “It’s personal between me and you and I’m going to do you some serious harm, you big stiff idiot.”

– Bryan Armen Graham

Gennady Golovkin (above), one of the most intriguing and buzzed-about names in the middleweight division, will likely return to action on Dec. 8 in Europe. (AP)

Some quick jabs …

• I have to admit, I was bitterly disappointed when Golden Boy, on behalf of undefeated heavyweight and former Olympic bronze medalist Deontay Wilder, turned down an offer to fight rising heavyweight prospect Bryant Jennings last week. In case you missed it, Wilder and Jennings have been in a Twitter beef, during which Wilder called Jennings out. Jennings’ promoter, Main Events, responded by offering Wilder the slot opposite Jennings on its next NBC Sports Network show on Dec. 8. Yet Wilder’s team quickly shot it down, saying the money (likely around $25,000, though there was room for negotiation) wasn’t enough for that kind of fight.

Now, I understand that a year from now, Wilder-Jennings could be a pretty big fight. But that’s only if both continue their respective ascents. The fact is, neither Wilder or Jennings has fought anyone notable and there is a strong possibility one or both will get beating which would take much of the shine off of a matchup (see: the vaporized Juan Manuel Lopez-Yuri Gamboa megafight). The winner of a showdown in December would take a big step in the heavyweight division, probably vaulting himself up in the rankings and certainly becoming more attractive to the higher-paying premium networks. Unfortunately, Wilder, who frankly has accomplished nothing in his four-year professional career, sees it a little different.

• Here’s why Wladimir Klitschko may never fight in the U.S. again: More than 16,000 tickets have already been sold for Klitschko’s title defense against Marisuz Wach in November in Hamburg, Germany.

• Speaking of hot tickets, Top Rank reports that 13,000 seats have already been sold for Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez IV in December. It seems despite the lukewarm response the fight received from pundits, there is still a strong interest from fans to see these two future Hall of Famers in the ring.

• Looks like Gennady Golovkin will return to the ring on Dec. 8, when he will defend his WBA middleweight title somewhere in Europe. Golovkin hoped to land an HBO date, but the network is booked solid in December and Golovkin is determined to fight before the end of the year. Main Events lobbied Golovkin hard to fight on either its Dec. 8 or Dec. 22 shows. However Golovkin’s promoter, Tom Loeffler, believes he can get a better deal fighting in Europe.

• There is some debate over when Wladimir Klitschko owes a mandatory defense of his WBA title. Sauerland Event, which represents WBA “regular” titleholder Alexander Povetkin, claims Klitschko must face Povetkin by the end of February. Klitschko’s manager, Bernd Boente, says the fight isn’t due until next July. My opinion: Who cares? Klitschko has chased Povetkin for years and, after Wach, doesn’t have any viable opponents on the horizon. Cut a deal — March sounds pretty good — and make the fight.

• Sign me up for more Kubrat Pulev. Pulev’s 11th-round knockout of 6-foot-7 Alexander Ustinov on Epix last weekend — which followed a knockout of 6-foot-7 heavyweight prospect Alexander Dimitrenko before that — has established the Bulgarian as a legitimate heavyweight contender. Pulev will likely face the winner of Tomasz Adamek-Odlanier Solis in December, with a win positioning him as the IBF’s No. 1 contender for Wladimir Klitschko’s title.

• Let me join the chorus of those who think Don King’s $1.1 million purse bid for Chris Arreola-Bermane Stiverne is nuts. Neither Arreola or Stiverne has done much of anything lately, certainly not enough to warrant that type of payday. There is a good chance Arreola-Stiverne on HBO or Showtime but there is no way King is going to get his money back in the license fee. It’s simply not that significant a fight.

– Chris Mannix

Former welterweight champ Victor Ortiz (above), who is coming off back-to-back knockout losses, could be pairing with Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach. (AP)

Some quick jabs …

• Victor Ortiz, who parted ways with longtime trainer Danny Garcia after last June’s loss to Josesito Lopez, has reached out to Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach. Roach says he will meet with Ortiz once the former welterweight titleholder recovers from the broken jaw he suffered against Lopez.

• With Emanuel Steward battling a serious illness, Wladimir Klitschko will begin training camp for his Nov. 10 heavyweight title defense against Mariusz Wach without a chief cornerman. Klitschko’s manager, Bernd Boente, says that Klitschko is hoping Steward will be able to join camp in late October and work his corner for the fight.

• A dark horse candidate to face super middleweight kingpin Andre Ward: Denis Grachev, who will face Lucian Bute in November. Grachev (12-0) is coming off a stunning knockout win over top prospect Ismayl Sillakh last April. If Grachev beats Bute, he will likely become a very appealing possibility for Ward.

• I still think Kelly Pavlik is the most realistic big-name opponent for Ward.

• Miguel Cotto picked a dangerous tune-up opponent in Austin Trout. Trout isn’t exciting — his win over Delvin Rodriguez in June was as dull as it was decisive — but he is slick and savvy in the ring. If Trout isn’t overwhelmed by the moment, he has a great chance at an upset.

• What a wasted year this has been for Gary Russell Jr. For Andre Dirrell, too.

• While Cornelius Bundrage’s IBF junior middleweight title defense against Andre Berto isn’t done yet, I’m told it’s very close to being finalized for Nov. 24 on HBO. On paper, Berto, who has not fought in over a year after testing positive for a banned substance during training for his scheduled rematch against Victor Ortiz, would appear to be a big favorite. But Berto will be moving up in weight to face Bundrage, whose aggressive, awkward style could give Berto problems.

• The winner of Berto-Bundrage will be obligated to defend the title against Gabriel Rosado, who earned the position of mandatory challenger with a knockout win over Charles Whittaker last Friday. A year ago, high-profile opponents would have done everything they could to avoid Rosado. But because Rosado’s profile has risen considerably on the heels of three straight knockout wins on NBC Sports Network — wins that have sparked interest from the better paying premium networks — expect him to get that shot early next year.

• I like Main Events plan to focus on moving fighters up the IBF rankings. The IBF is regarded as the most respectable of the sanctioning bodies, which is to say if a fighter is ranked No. 1, he is going to get his title shot.

• Ricky Hatton has sold more than 18,000 tickets to his comeback fight in November — and he doesn’t even have an opponent yet. Incredible.

• Roy Jones-Kimbo Slice? Pass. Pass, pass, pass.

• Thoughts and prayers are with the family of former heavyweight champion Corrie Sanders, who according to police was shot and killed while celebrating a family member’s 21st birthday party in Cape Town, South Africa. Sanders was 46.

– Chris Mannix

Wladimir Klitschko improved to 58-3 with Saturday’s win. (ALESSANDRO DELLA VALLE/EPA)

BERN, Switzerland — Three thoughts from Wladimir Klitschko’s sixth round knockout win over Tony Thompson …

1. Well, that was predictable — In 2008, Klitschko knocked Thompson out in the 11th round. It only took six this time around, and after an awkward first three rounds Klitschko started to tee off, putting Thompson down with a crushing — a crushing — right hand in the fifth and dropping him again in the sixth. Thompson beat the count, but couldn’t walk without the help of the rope and the referee wisely stopped the fight.

The outcome was expected: Thompson is 40 and doesn’t have the kind of power a 6-foot-5 heavyweight might be expected to have. Klitschko’s team didn’t want any part of this fight, preferring some fresh meat. But Thompson was the IBF mandatory and Klitschko is never voluntarily giving up a piece of the title. Thompson came, he saw, and he went down, which given his status as a 33-1 underdog, is not at all surprising.

2. Can Klitschko be beaten? — Anything can happen in boxing; Buster Douglas proved that. But Klitschko is so big, so disciplined, so powerful — that right hand he drilled Thompson with in the fifth round was the hardest punch I’ve ever seen — that beating him is going to be more complicated than a Rubik’s cube. At 36, Klitschko has little wear and tear on his body and is poised to be fighting at a high level into his early 40s.

But let’s play the obligatory ‘who’s next’ game, shall we? The pool of opponents is pretty shallow. There is Chris Arreola, who is sending signals that he isn’t interested in fighting Klitschko this fall. There is Tomasz Adamek, who is available but unlikely, due to issues between the two promoters. There is Seth Mitchell, Bryant Jennings and Deontay Wilder, but none of those three are ready for that kind of fight.

There is one intriguing opponent: Dereck Chisora. Chisora, if you recall, was scheduled to face Klitschko twice, only to have those fights canceled for various reasons. Next week, Chisora has a grudge match with countryman David Haye, who he brawled with after his loss to Vitali Klitschko in March. If Chisora wins that fight, he would seem like an ideal opponent for Klitschko.

Klitschko, however, doesn’t sound interested. When I asked him about possibly facing the winner of Chisora-Haye, he answered tersely.

“Two Klitschko losers are fighting,” Klitschko said. “Why should I care?”

3. Got motivation? — There are a couple of things that keep Klitschko training at a high level. First, the undisputed championship. Klitschko’s brother, Vitali, holds the WBC belt, the lone piece of the heavyweight pie Wladimir doesn’t have. Wladimir doesn’t begrudge his brother for having the belt, but those around him say he wants it. Badly. Vitali is scheduled to defend his title in September, after which he will turn his full attention to the Ukrainian parliament elections. It’s possible he could retire, vacating the belt and giving Wladimir the opportunity to become the undisputed champ.

The other thing is his legacy. Joe Louis holds the heavyweight record for consecutive title defenses, with 25. The win over Thompson was Klitschko’s 13th defense. Reaching that mark, friends say, is important to Klitschko, and will help to keep him sharp when it seems like so many of his opponents are overmatched.