BY MICHAEL KATZ

Photo © Ed Mulholland/FightWireImages.com

They're threatening to put Mike Tyson in prison and thought about giving Foul Pole Golota a title shot. Meanwhile, the fall schedule for which we had as much anticipation as the "plop plop" from a bottle of ketchup, if you recall those wonderful Heinz ads of years ago, has become a headache, more like Alka-Seltzer's "plop, plop, fizz, fizz." Oh, what a relief it is to have a major fight Saturday.

In the meantime, I haven't watched a minute of the Contender, ever, and I refuse to look at "Dancing With the Stars" to check out Floyd Mayweather Jr. We know he can dance and, as one scribe (can't remember who, otherwise of course I'd give him credit) noted, he just can't punch. Mr. 24/7 thinks he's better than the original Sugar Ray, who was in fact a professional dancer (try it with taps on, Floyd). Robinson could also knock you out with either hand - going backwards. There were middleweights back then.

I'm beginning to suspect that Saturday's HBO main event is more significant because it is a legitimate middleweight championship bout between two undefeated fighters - not because it's a matchup of compelling talents. How good REALLY is Jermain Taylor after his recent struggles with immigrants from the 147-pound class? And should we take Kelly Pavlik at face value when hall of fame trainer Emanuel Steward thinks he's just another "over-rated, hyped" fighter?

I don't buy those loud squawks of confidence eminating from the Taylor camp that this is a stroll on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City. Taylor says Pavlik is "nothing." Steward, his trainer, thinks his guy should be done with business by the third round. Taylor's promoter, Lou DaBully, denigrates Pavlik as nothing more than a "white" fighter - "hey, they call him the Ghost."

I'm not so sure. Do I believe my eyes or Steward's? I was as suspicious of Pavlik as I am of all carefully nurtured prospects, but it was not that he dispatched the hyped Edison Miranda so enthusiastically when he stole the show in Memphis from Taylor last May. It was the calm, professional demeanor in which he beat down the wild Colombian.

Later that night, Taylor added to his string of non-knockouts by struggling to a split decision against Cory Spinks, the weak-punching exile from the welterweight division. The Next Generation has not only the family jewels, he has been afflicted with the Spinks Jinx, weak whiskers. Zab Judah, a welterweight, had no trouble hurting him in two fights, yet Taylor never had Spinks in any kind of trouble. Off television, I had the fight a draw, ignoring the hype from the HBO announcers who, with a colleague training Taylor, naturally favor the Arkansas traveler.

Taylor, whose last knockout came in February 2005 against Daniel Edouard - who has done nothing since to indicate this was a quality result - could not trouble Kassim Ouma, who after challenging for the 160-pound title said he would be much more comfortable at welterweight. Ouma, who punches like a lightweight, in fact had the much bigger Taylor backing up most of the fight from the sheer volume of blows.

Since Steward has replaced Patrick Burns as the champion's head trainer following Taylor's lucky draw with Winky Wright, the man from Little Rock seems to have regressed from the prospect who went 24 tough, if not exactly scintillating, championship rounds with the ancient warrior, Bernard Hopkins. Yes, he's faced three unorthodox southpaws in a row, but that's not a good enough excuse for me.

He'll be in with a guy, who like Ouma, will press the action and throw punches. He will not be able to husband his strength the way he did against the older Hopkins and Wright. This could be another very awkward matchup.

The odds would seem to indicate that the gamblers think this, too. Pavlik has been around even money against an established champion, though Miranda has been by far his biggest victory. The bettors do not seem to hold the Youngstown, Ohio, product in the same light as does Team Taylor.

"They think I'm a slow white kid from the Midwest and I just come straight ahead," said Pavlik.

In any case, after the plethora of injuries that abridged boxing's highly anticipated end-of-the-year schedule, we finally have a fight this weekend.

OUCH: We might have had two, but Showtime's dueling date was hit by the injury bug when undefeated slugger Adrian Diaconu had to pull out of his challenge of light-heavyweight title-holder Bad Chad Dawson and will be replaced by the 31-year-old Colombian Epifanio Mendoza. It should enable Bad to look good without much danger….Actually, most of the postponements were not to be decried. The only one I'll miss is Samuel Peter's challenge for bad-back Oleg Maskaev's heavyweight title belt. I have to admit that when I first read about the withdrawal, I tended to suspect foul play - hey, the announcement was made by Dennis Rappaport and in one version was embellished by reports of an ankle injury….I can sympathize with Peter, but Dino Duva should lose his promoter's license, along with his good buddy and partner, Don King, for suggesting that Peter face the amazingly undeserving Foul Pole Golota to save their Oct. 6 card at Madison Square Garden. How about three cheers for Showtime not going along; it's not clear whether the WBC would have sanctioned a title bout involving an unranked fighter. In an example of the much lesser of two evils, the organization with a permanent dictator anointed Peter as "interim" champion….Peter could still be waiting if the WBC had been able to insert its champion "emeritus," Vitali Klitschko, in the front of the line, which became moot when, of course, the Big Brother came up lame again….There was suspicion about lagging ticket sales being behind Juan Manuel Marquez's hand injury that caused postponement of his fracas with Rocky Juarez, but the pictures of the badly swollen right knuckle made it unnecessary to call in Oliver Stone…Appropriate of course that Fernando Vargas-Ricardo Mayorga be postponed until the day after Thanksgiving, traditional for leftovers….Can't wait for Floyd Mayweather Jr. to injure himself shaking his hips.

COLLAR AROUND THE RING: Imagine that Don King - or Bob Arum, in his pre-Great Reconciliation days - bought the Ring magazine. You might have likened that to the fox in charge of the coop. Well, I am not one of those naïve cheerleaders who believe it will be any different now that The Chicken is in charge of the hen house.

Oscar de la Hoya says no one from Golden Boy Promotions will interfere with the editorial policies of the old rag. He has not kept his word too often for me to believe him now. Besides, like King and Arum, he is far more of a boxing promoter than a part-time superstar. Truth is a major underdog in this game.

I used to call him Chicken, not for his bravery in the ring - okay, he ran from Felix Trinidad Jr., he didn't get up against Hopkins, but he has proven himself over and over to be one of the worthiest warriors in history - but his inability to face people he was firing. Until he hears differently from the fighter himself, Gil Clancy can go to sleep every night believing he is still de la Hoya's trainer.

His first pro managers, Bob Mittleman and Steve Nelson, were in their bungalow at de la Hoya's Big Sur camp when someone slipped a note beneath their door saying their services were no longer needed. They could not reach him by phone, so they drove over to his home in an attempt to tie up some loose ends. As soon as their car pulled up, they could see de la Hoya scurrying away.

It was the same with trainers Jesus Rivero and Emanuel Steward. If I were Nigel Collins, Ring's talented editor in chief, I would get my resume ready for distribution. Collins was quoted as saying he has been assured that there will be no interference with Ring's ratings or editorial policy, "these are intelligent men who realize that a lot of the value in the Ring is in its integrity." Sure, just like Nat Fleischer, the inventor of the envelope and Johnny Ort, who helped rig ratings. And Golden Boy has never influenced judges in Nevada (see Demetrius Hopkins vs. Steve Forbes, Daniel Ponce de Leon vs. Gerry Penalosa). Sorry, even the appearance of a conflict of interest is flat-out wrong.

De la Hoya's purchase underlines my reluctance to give knee-jerk support to Ring's attempt to become the sport's arbiter. Yes, the sanctioning bodies should be replaced, even by a rusty rake, but certainly not by a rag with a past as checkered as Richard Nixon's dog. When I pointed out its historical failings, I was admonished that the current administration (Ring's, not Washington's) was honorable. Yes, but it was also FUTURE administrations that worried me and that has come to pass - a major promoter now own the Ring. Collins did the right thing by expanding his ratings panel from a couple of dwarfs to maybe 30 so-called "experts," but there is no guarantee - I'm not listening to Richard Schaefer, who gave us the concept that Mayweather-de la Hoya was going to save boxing - of future integrity. As far as I'm concerned, Ring is nothing more than Chicken shit that no one needs to tell us that Jermain Taylor is the real middleweight champion. If we wanted a magazine in charge of boxing, I suggest searching for Good Housekeeping and its seal of approval.

MR. CLEAN: Speaking of sanctioning bodies, the WBO has the ball in its court and hopefully this little gang of banditos will give Kendall Holt another chance, outside Colombia, at Ricardo Torres - maybe in an hermatically sealed bubble where beer bottles can't hit the contestants. Gino Hernandez, the Chicago ref who did such a great job of ignoring Holt's knockdowns and the debris being tossed in the ring, can only be looked upon as a WBO stooge. Meanwhile, terrific job, as usual, of reporting the mess from Baranquilla by krikya360.com's Keith Idec.

Incidentally, I for one do not care one way or another, but I am nonetheless certain that those pictures of de la Hoya were phony - the Chicken is no hen.

PENTHOUSE: Showtime, for refusing the Foul Pole.

OUTHOUSE: Don King, for even suggesting Golota….Dishonorable mention: That boxing website that likes to brag that it's always the first, even when it's not, still advertising to bet on Maskaev-Peter….If Sultan Ibragimov loses to Evander Holyfield next month, John Hornewer wants to know if New York State will pull the Russian's license.

EXIT STRATEGY: No, this is not about Iraq, though Marco Antonio Barrera, as he gets ready for what he says will be his last big fight, showed world-class diplomacy on a teleconference call to promote next weekend's rematch with Manny Pacquiao. Out of curiousity, I asked him who he thought won the spectacular draw between his two unavenged conquerors, Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez. The 33-year-old former pre-law student quickly answered, "The fans." Then I asked him to name the best Mexican fighters in history and he reeled off 12 names, beginning with Julio Cesar Chavez, Salvador Sanchex, Ruben Olivares, Carlos Zarate, Ricardo Lopez and ending with No. 11, his bitter rival, Erik Morales, and, modestly, himself at No. 12. Personally, I'd put Olivares No. 1 and Barrera somewhere in the top seven or eight - with Morales.

Barrera wasn't so kind to Freddie Roach, saying Pacquiao's man was "not a very good trainer." This was in response to a question about Roach worrying about the thickness of Barrera's hand wraps. "He should worry about his own guy," said Barrera. "I've fought in Las Vegas. I've never had any problem with my wraps. Freddie's not very good. He lost with de la Hoya and look what he did with Israel Vazquez. He got knocked out (by Rafael Marquez, then Roach advised against taking a rematch, Vazquez did but switched trainers and knocked out Marquez in turn)."

De la Hoya and Bob Arum, co-promoters (ah, peace!) of the pay-per-view card at Mandalay Bay, said if Barrera could avenge his knockout loss a few years ago to Pacquaio a rubber match would be huge. Barrera said it won't happen, that he had made up his mind.

"This is the last big fight I'm doing," he said. "If I do lace them up again, it's going to be for a farewell fight. I don't want to do any more big fights."

He said he had an excellent camp in Guadalajara and sparred with his new buddy, WBA 130-pound titlist Edwin Valero. The young Venezuelan has called out Pacquaio, saying he saw "many flaws." Barrera said they discussed these alleged weaknesses, but no, he didn't have to watch tapes, such as the one time Erik Morales beat the PacMan (as opposed to El Terrible's two knockout losses).

"I know the guy," said Barrera of Pacquiao. "I see him in my sleep."

He is more than a 3-1 underdog - which figures since Pacquiao ran over him in their first match and, according to Barrera, has gotten better, "is more of a complete fighter." Barrera has gotten older, but he has been counted out before only to surprise.

He said he is inspired by the "naysayers," that he loves to "shut their mouths." He said "throw the last fight out the window."

"I had a bad night, I'm not going to make any excuses," he said. "I'm really inspired for this fight."

No, he said, he's not going to do anything different. ";I'm 33 years old, there's not much I can change. But I'm going to make it a good fight."

I believe him. I don't know if he's going to win, but I believe he's going to put up a good fight. And with Maskaev injured, there'll be no temptation to stay home to make sure I can watch the dueling dates next weekend.

FAVORITE SON: His father was a class act, so it was never a surprise to find Buster Mathis the son - he's not a "Junior" - one of the nicest kids ever to grace a ring. The guy who went into the ring against Riddick Bowe and Mike Tyson knowing there was no way in hell his soft punches could hurt them called a couple of months ago to say he had graduated from the University of Miami's sports management program and with his degree was looking for a job. When he called back, though, he had left Florida for his old home in Grand Rapids - the best fighter from there, as far as I'm concerned, remains Stanley Ketchel - and at the age of 37 was going to give boxing another chance. The former pudgy heavyweight said he had lost over 150 pounds and was going to get down to 175 and hoped for a match with Antonio Tarver. I wish him the best, though he should not put all his hope in one basket. By the time young Bus could position himself for a big match, there's no guarantee Tarver will still be around. I'd still hope some wise promoter, TV network or casino, hires Mathis to work the other side of the ring….Mathis would have been a great companion for Mike Tyson, maybe would have kept his nose clean. I hope Mike gets his wish and is given a suspended sentence on his coke charges in Arizona. By the way, what was he doing in a shul on Rosh Hashanah? Looking for loopholes?….Condolences to the Goossen family for the loss of their matriarch, Ed Keenan for the loss of his father and Kevin Iole for the loss of his brother.