[Salvy_Mic]

Well, I haven't posted in a good while (work, ugh), but considering that we're now heading into the home stretch of what's been an incredible couple of months of big boxing fights for the last few months (Pavlik/Taylor, Pacquiao/Barrera II, Diaz/Diaz, Calzaghe/Kessler, Cotto/Mosley, Guzman/Soto, and coming up in 2 weeks, Mayweather/Hatton), its probably time to start looking forward to next year and what it holds in store for boxing as far as big fights go. Now, nothing is set in concrete yet except for these few, big fights:

Roy Jones/Felix Trinidad- Honestly, I don't care much for this fight as I think both of them ought to be retired, and considering the layoff Trinidad is coming off of, plus the high weight, I can't see this fight being competitive at all. I know Afro and Harlem will heartily disagree with me here, but I'll tell you right now that this fight won't be getting a buy from me.

Wladimir Klitschko/Sultan Ibragimov- Finally, a heavyweight unification bout in February, and about time. It should be on HBO, I believe on Feb. 23.

Kelly Pavlik/Jermain Taylor II- Even though its not a title fight, it should still be another good fight, one that I expect Pavlik to win. On PPV on Feb. 16, if I'm not mistaken.

Israel Vasquez/Rafael Marquez III- This is the one I'm looking forward to! For the true super bantamweight championship of the world, and the rubber match to what's been an all-time great series of fights. On March 1.

And of course, there are the rumored fights for next year, including Paul Williams/Kermit Cintron to unify their respective WBO/IBF welterweight titles, Oscar de la Hoya is supposed to be fighting on May 3 at Dodger Stadium, who knows against whom, and Manny Pacquiao is supposed to be fighting on March 13, hopefully against Juan Manuel Marquez.

Cotto's next fight would probably be a title defense against Antonio Margarito (but I'd LOVE to see him fight Hatton if he beats Mayweather next month), we could get to see Joe Calzaghe/Bernard Hopkins, Samuel Peter will finally get to fight Oleg Maskaev, and for those of you who are fans of the little guys, I keep hearing rumors about a fight between Fernando Montiel and Cristian Mijares to unify their WBO and WBC super flyweight titles.

2007 has been great, especially towards the end. Here's to hoping 2008 is better. Boxing needs this momentum.