Just say, for laughs, that you decided to see what kind of weird and cool stuff you can buy on boxers' official web sites. Most of the top fighters these days have their own sites, and many of those have a menu item labeled "store" or "merchandise." Yeah, about half of these link to pages that say "coming soon!" But, hey, it's a lot easier to wish you had decent merchandise and a reliable online commerce operation than to actually have those things. And then there are sites like Robert Guerrero's, which has a lot of merchandise, but all of it is sold out. 
Let's start with clothing. Samuel Peter's home page prominently advertises his line of P.O.W.E.R U apparel. But it looks to be just a bunch of different color t-shirts with his stylized P logo on them. By the way, according to the site, P.O.W.E.R. stands for Punishing Opposition Will Earn Respect. And "the U stands for YOU."
Arturo Gatti's site links to a line of clothing called ATG that seems to have nothing to do with Gatti or boxing. It's baby clothes and things. I love the shirt Yuri Foreman sells that features his lion-in-a-Jewish-star logo, with Brooklyn written in Russian. But probably the most sophisticated t-shirt at a boxer web site is over at klitschko.com, where you can design your own shirt (top left). Each design detail adds to the price. I got up my cost up to $47.Fernando Vargas links his web site to a separate site for his clothing line, nawshisclothing.com.
"Why Naswshis? Because it's sick!" Even better than being sick -- and available at Vargas' online shop -- is a bobblehead of Fernando (above right) for just $15. But a Fernando Vargas bobblehead that doesn't look a lot like Vargas is hardly the weirdest thing available at a boxer web site. The golf towel they sell for $10.70 at Oscar De la Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions site isn't either. We're
getting closer, though!I thought I'd found the #1 oddity when I came across the Markus Beyer mousepad at his fancy German website. It seems like a pretty good deal for 8 euros. But there was more exploring to do. Over at German Arthur Abraham's tri-lingual web site, through a series of clicks you can get to a page where he is selling framed prints of a strange cartoon depicting him in the ring
-- for just 199 euros! What's that, like $300?It seemed implausible that any item available at a boxer web site could top this work of art.
But I was wrong. And suddenly, I had to look no further. At Ricky Hatton's site, among the posters and shirts, selling for just 3 British pounds, there it was: a car air freshener in the shape of Hatton's boxing pants. I'm sorry to say that at this late date it's probably too late to purchase one for Father's Day. But there's always next year.
In the news: Chuck Johnson at USA Today previews the Paulie Malignaggi -- Lovemore N'Dou lovefest slated for Saturday night on HBO. Tim Smith takes a look too, in the N.Y. Daily News. Michael Hirsley salutes Chicagoan lightweight champion David Diaz in the Chicago Tribune. David Mayo of the Grand Rapids Pioneer Press compares Floyd Mayweather and Tony Soprano. "They took their starring roles about the same time, Mayweather as a world champion in late 1998, Gandolfini as Tony Soprano in 1999," he writes, and now both have left the big stage without giving fans closure.
Nice debut: Philly guys Dean Rubenstein, Jeff Izes and Mike Cassell did a terrific job in their TV boxing broadcasting debut Thursday night, bringing three bouts (from earlier in the month at the Blue Horizon) to viewers on Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. CSN will air the show on SportsNets in other regions -- check your local listings. The first of several planned telecasts from the Blue was done live to tape, but Big Dean says they may go live eventually.
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