By Jim Dower: The promoters for the September 19th bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Manuel Marquez appears to have made a serious blunder by choosing the same date as the UFC 103 event, which will be taking place in Dallas.

The Mayweather-Marquez fight is having problems enough just getting diehard boxing fans interested in wanting to shell out the big bucks to watch this fight on pay-per-view, but when factor in that the fight will be competing with UFC 103, a cheaper alternative, it doesn’t look like the Mayweather vs. Marquez bout will be doing well financially. It’s pretty dumb to stage a major boxing event, one that hasn’t been doing well to begin with, against an upcoming sport like MMA.

It’s unlikely that the promoters for the Mayweather-Marquez bout will try to change the date of the fight, but they really need to consider doing this unless they’re okay with getting a lot less money than they thought they would get when they arranged the fight.

On paper, the Mayweather vs. Marquez bout seems rather dull, matching two counter punchers against either. Mayweather hasn’t fought in two years and has made no secret about the reason why he’s decides on coming back – to get money. Mayweather has never been known for having a crowd pleasing style of fighting, preferring to hit and run, and that makes this fight even less interesting to watch.

Marquez, 35, will be moving up in weight from the lightweight division to fight Mayweather at welterweight. That’s another reason why this fight isn’t likely to do well. Boxing fans wanted to see Mayweather fight Manny Pacquiao, not Marquez. However, Mayweather instead opted for a fight against Marquez, which in a way will be a tune-up fight for Mayweather to shake off the rust.

Mayweather seems to be mainly interested in fighting smaller fighters rather than fighters his own size these days. He defeated the smaller Ricky Hatton by a 10th round TKO in Mayweather’s last fight in December 2007. And after Mayweather fights the equally small Marquez next month, if successful, Mayweather will come gunning for the winner of the Miguel Cotto vs. Manny Pacquiao fight which takes place in November.

It’s doubtful that Mayweather will fight Cotto if he emerges the winner, because Mayweather might decide on looking for a smaller fighter in the lightweight or light welterweight division to fight rather than face a difficult opponent like Cotto.

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Suspected Triggerman Arrested for Forrest Murder

The third suspect was arrested last night in Atlanta for the murder of boxing star Vernon Forrest and is currently being held without bail, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The suspect, 30-year-old Charman Sinkfield, is being charged with murder, felony, armed robbery, assault and possession of a firearm. Police say that Sinkfield tried to disguise his identity by wearing a wig at the time he was arrested. Sinkfield is the suspected shooter of Forrest.

With this arrest, this is the final suspect that the Atlanta police were looking for. They previously arrested Damario Ware and Jquante Crews. The three suspects will appear in court on August 19th. Forrest, 38, was shot to death on July 25th after being robbed of a ring and a Rolex watch while at a service station in Atlanta. Forrest attempted to pursue the suspects after the robbery, but was shot down in the process.

The news of Forrest’s murder was shocking blow to the boxing community, as former stars Alexis Arguello and Arturo Gatti have also died in the past month.