NEW YORK — Manny Pacquiao and his trainer Freddie Roach wanted the exact same thing that boxing fans everywhere wanted: Floyd Mayweather Jr.

They got Antonio Margarito instead.

Pacquiao and Roach said Wednesday that they agreed to every demand put forward by Mayweather for what could have been the richest fight in boxing history. But the former pound-for-pound king chose not to accept the fight, leaving Pacquiao to look elsewhere for a fall opponent.

He’ll face Margarito, the former welterweight champ, on Nov. 13 at Cowboys Stadium.

“I don’t need him, he needs me,” Pacquiao said of Mayweather, during a stop Wednesday in New York to promote his upcoming fight. “Compare my achievements in boxing to his achievements.” (continue reading…)

The world will have to wait on the Pacquiao/Mayweather superfight… again…

Former welterweight titlist Antonio Margarito was licensed to box by Texas regulators on Thursday, paving the way for him to meet Manny Pacquiao for a vacant junior middleweight belt.

Margarito’s application for a license in Texas was approved despite California denying him a license on a 5-1 vote earlier this month. Margarito’s license was revoked in the wake of his January 2009 knockout loss to Shane Mosley in which Margarito’s hand wraps were found to be illegal before the fight.

Margarito and Pacquiao will meet Nov. 13 on HBO PPV at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. It will be Pacquiao’s second consecutive fight at Jerry Jones’ $1.2 billion home of the Dallas Cowboys, but against a far more controversial opponent than Joshua Clottey, whom Pacquiao easily outpointed there on March 13 in defense of his welterweight belt on the arena’s first boxing card. (continue reading…)

The new trailer for NBA 2K11 made its way to the Internets and West Coast veteran Snoop Dogg got the nod for the official musical intro.

Nice track, but let’s hope he doesn’t start brokering for an appearance on it like he has been for HBO’s “True Blood.”

As for the game, your initial look at Mike Jordan is here too, as are a number of other Hall of Famers including Dominique Wilkins, Patrick Ewing and James Worthy. Embattled baby daddy/chronic alcohol consumer Shawn Kemp also makes an appearance.

Getting back to his Airness, it’s not clear via the following clip, which one of him the game will feature. For starters, he has hair and sports the original Air Jordans. That said, chances are there will be a variety of him to choose from.

October 5th… mark that.

TRAILER INSIDE

All signs continue to point toward the eventual divorce between Carmelo Anthony and the Denver Nuggets.

League sources say it is now a matter of when, not if, Anthony and the Nuggets will go their separate ways.

Anthony is weighing whether to sign a three-year, $65 million extension offered by the Nuggets. His dilemma, league sources say, is what affords him the best chance of continuing his career elsewhere. Anthony could sign with Denver and convince the team to then trade him. His other option would be to not sign the extension, thereby forcing the team to move him rather than risk losing him next summer as a free agent.

During his annual basketball camp in Colorado on Saturday, Anthony said he had no timetable on when he’ll decide whether to sign the extension. (continue reading…)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Relatives and friends of Lorenzen Wright gathered Wednesday and grieved for the former NBA player who has been missing for 10 days.

Wright’s uncle, Curtis Wright, told The Associated Press that police called the player’s father, Herb Wright, on Wednesday afternoon with the news he had died.

Sgt. Alyssa Macon-Moore of the Memphis Police Department wrote in an e-mail to the AP that police were investigating the death of an unidentified man beside a wooded area about 15 miles south of downtown Memphis.

Asked if the man was Wright, she wrote they could not confirm the victim’s identity Wednesday night. But Thursday, the Commercial Appeal of Memphis cited law enforcement sources confirming the man was Wright. (continue reading…)