On the undercard on May 5, Canelo Alvarez will defend his WBC junior middleweight title against Shane Mosley, who officially received his license today (as did another undercard fighter, Carlos Quintana), basically by promising that he will fight better this time.

[ Mayweather vs Cotto Referee and Judges Named ]

Jay Nady has pulled referee duty for Canelo vs Mosley. Nady doesn't have the overall respect of a Tony Weeks or Kenny Bayless, and this will actually be the first male world title fight he's worked since Vitali Klitschko vs Albert Sosnowski in May 2010, when he went to Germany for the fight.

The judges for the bout will be Jerry Roth, Glenn Trowbridge, and a Texas judge named Reyes whose first name was missed, but may be Jesse Reyes, who has worked a lot of fights but hasn't been on a world title fight since 2009, when he judged Edgar Sosa vs Carlos Melo in Mexico. He also judged Sosa vs Brian Viloria in 2007. I'd question this decision more, but whatever, really -- it's not like experience has proven to be a benefit any more than inexperience has proven to be a hazard. I mean, who else were they going to assign? David Sutherland? Gale Van Hoy? They had to have a Texas judge for this one. Pick your poison.

Roth and Trowbridge have been rewarded with another big fight because of their excellent performances in the Rios vs Abril robbery shining example of just how this sport can be so darn FUN!! because one guy says "Hey! That dude didn't land any punches really! No way HE won!" and then the judges say "Yeah but he's supposed to win and there's more money behind his career so I say give it to 'im!" :) Boxing is a hoot!!

Roth scored Rios vs Abril a completely absurd 116-112 for Rios, while Trowbridge had it a completely absurd 115-113 for Rios. Trowbridge also managed to find eight rounds for Manny Pacquiao against Juan Manuel Marquez in November, which also raised a lot of eyebrows.

The good news here is that if Mosley manages to thwart Canelo over the course of the fight, there's still two guys who might understand that it would be "good for the sport" if Alvarez were to stay unbeaten, since he's 21 and Mosley is 40, and besides, we already get our shiny happy Mosley moment back in 2009 when he beat the shit out of Tony Margarito.

I'm not saying they're on the take, or will be, or ever have been. I'm just saying darn it all, it would be best for everyone if Canelo Alvarez wins this fight, because he's a superstar young phenom and Shane Mosley is a crusty old dude, and sure we all like Shane, because he's great, but when a racehorse breaks its leg you put it down, and in boxing, sometimes a racehorse pulls an upset and you're forced to put him down right before he crosses the finish line because that upset wouldn't help anyone.





Other notable fights recently worked from these judges: Mayweather vs Ortiz (both Roth and Trowbridge); Maidana vs Morales (Roth, 116-112 Maidana); Pacquiao vs Mosley (Trowbridge, 119-108); Khan vs Maidana (both, Roth 114-111 and Trowbridge 113-112, both for Khan); and Cotto vs Mayorga (Roth, 107-102 Cotto at time of stoppage).