Note to Mayweather & Boxing: The Battle is Over, and You Lost

Compare that to boxing, where the best guy in the division isn’t holding any of the four “major” belts in any of the 17 weight divisions. And with a twice-a-year schedule due to limited dates and the ever-changing “championships,” it can be downright confusing.

Sometimes I’ll check the schedule of upcoming boxing bouts and wonder “Wow! What if guys like Pacquiao, Cotto and Mosley fought four times a year? There would be some tough choices to make with pay-per-views.” And then I laugh myself to sleep.

With Mayweather taking on Marquez at a 144-pound catchweight, there is no discernible “belt” or “title” at stake, and Floyd fights a former featherweight titlist who has never competed above 135.

It would be a decent comeback fight for HBO’s Championship Boxing showcase, but as a pay-per-view, it’s just another example of the sucker fan getting rooked. Particularly in the era of the interwebs, where anyone with a mouse and a little know-how can watch fights for free that same night (yeah, I said it). On a related note that will further infuriate the Luddites, you can also place ads on Craigslist for free, instead of getting jacked-up rates through your local newspaper. If anything, the pay-per-view model might be doomed itself, but that’s another topic for another time.

Boxing fans can point to the quality undercard Saturday night in rebuttal, which has three compelling bouts (in my book that’s anything less than a 3-1 at the betting window). To which my answer is, “Congratulations! You just described pretty much every MMA undercard I’ve ever bought.”

Because with every Mayweather bout, the question isn’t just how much it sells. It’s who would want to buy it again. That is why mixed martial arts succeeds -- along with coherent storylines and contenders getting title shots.

Mayweather is a rare talent, despite his inflated opinion of himself. The man can fight, but he has dramatically squandered a once-in-a-decade skill set through inactivity and repeated run-ins with everyone from reporters to the law. To say nothing of fans.

The buildup to his bout to pay-per-view snoozers against Carlos Baldomir, Zab Judah and then De La Hoya were like hearing a snake oil salesman pitch an unsuspecting widow on buying a case of the new and improved stuff.

And the only reason Mayweather unretired is because the IRS reportedly slapped him with a $6-million tax lien (despite what he and his quasi-intelligible uncle said on HBO’s 24/7 show. Unlike fight publicity hacks, the IRS is not known for sending out meaningless pronouncements). For his sake, he’s lucky he’ll have a big-money foe available after the Miguel Cotto-Pacquiao bout Nov. 11. For fans, not so much, because you’ll have to wait another six months to see it. If it happens. Meanwhile, MMA will continue to flourish, and its flagship promotion, the UFC, will continue to make fights fans want.

Got a matchup fans don’t like, such as Dan Henderson-Rich Franklin II? Replace Henderson with Vitor Belfort.

Got an injured fighter in a main event card? Put in a top-flight substitute on short notice (if you need examples, click back to the boxing page you came from, where such efficiency is unknown).

Need to get Brock Lesnar in the cage again? Scrap Cain Velasquez-Shane Carwin and give Carwin a go at the biggest name in the sport.

And so on. And check your cable guide while you’re at it -- MMA is on everywhere. Where are the meaningful boxing bouts of years past?

Every time Lesnar fights, the “heavyweight champion” of the world question is more likely to be a guy in MMA rather than one of the three beltholders in boxing, none of whom can trace their lineage back to John L. Sullivan and haven’t been able to do so since Lennox Lewis retired in 2003. It’s been six years since the biggest title in sports lost the name associated with it, a massive break in continuity that MMA will invariably fill. Throw in this week’s debut of “The Ultimate Fighter 10,” complete with heavyweights, and that’s more nails in boxing’s coffin for this so-called “battle” that was won four years ago.

And while we’re at it, think about Strikeforce’s incremental growth and the signing of Fedor Emelianenko. The UFC was doing well without meaningful stateside competition. Imagine them with their feet to the fire (which is exactly why Lesnar-Carwin was made). Love them or hate them, they played a solid game when nobody was paying attention to them. Think about how they’ll play now with a potential emerging rival.

Very little of this type of thinking is going on in boxing, which is why Saturday night is anything but a showdown. Boxing has already been surpassed. Mayweather and Marquez might even have a decent fight, surprising the more hardened watchers of the sweet science.

But either way, by the time boxing’s best get back down to business again in matchups that truly define the best against the best, MMA will have outdone them five-to-one in those same kinds of fights.

I told you so.