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Saturday, 11:50 p.m. -- It's time
Only the main event remains. The crowd is jazzed after the heavyweight clash.
It's been a fun blog. Time now to switch to round-by-round.
Saturday, 11:45 p.m. -- Wow!
Andrew Golota and Mike Mollo just put on a fight for the ages. What an incredible display of will, determination and fortitude. Mollo, the smaller man, at times looked gassed and ready to collapse as much from exhaustion as from the effort of swapping punches with Golota. Golota's left eye is completely closed, and by the end of the fight his was a face that I'm not sure even a mother could love. It's painful just to look at him right now. But he gutted out the win, by unanimous decision. But both men emerged victorious tonight. What a fight.
Saturday, 11:25 p.m. -- It had to happen!
Half way through the co-main event, and the first fights are erupting in the crowd. During an Andrew Golota bout! Imagine! It's kind of a Garden tradition, really.
Meanwhile, Mike Mollo looks like he's outweighed by 30 pounds, but he is taking it to Golota as best he can. Good old-fashioned heavyweight rumble!
Saturday, 10:55 p.m. -- The rise and fall and rise and fall and rise of Andrew Golota
Andrew Golota would give Lazarus a run for his money. Despite all the disappointments he's suffered in his career -- the one-round losses to Lennox Lewis and Lamon Brewster, the DQs against Riddick Bowe, quitting against Mike Tyson and Michael Grant -- he keeps getting chances. Here he is now in the co-main event of a pay-per-view. And judging by the roars of the crowd, he still has his a fan base. Before Madison Square Garden becomes a slice of Puerto Rico, it's being transformed into a little corner of Poland.
Saturday, 10:50 p.m. --Goodnight, Roman
What was that I said about the Roman Karmazin-Alex Bunema contest not setting people alight? That was before Alex Bunema brought matters to a dramatic end in the 10th round. I swear Karmazin was actually out cold in the corner when the final right hand landed.
Bunema was overjoyed with his victory, leaning over the ropes to yell with joy at the HBO announce team, then bounding around the ring and demanding to be lifted up his handlers, who were backslapping each other themselves. An unexpected and emphatic win.
Saturday, 10:35 p.m. -- Winky and Roy
The Roman Karmazin-Alex Bunema contest isn't exactly setting the crowd alight so far. Fans are finding other ways to be entertained: A presumably Puerto Rican contingent up in the nosebleeds is playing drums and singing. And a few are snapping pictures of Winky Wright, who is making his way to his seat.
In media row, there's some chuckling over the media release about the resolution of the gloves issue. Roy's a member of a fraternity? Don't you normally have to, you know, go to college to do that? What's less believable, a couple of us wondered aloud: That Roy was in a fraternity; that he actually used the word "obstinate" or that he would really actually ask Big Roy to help him with well, anything?
Saturday, 10:05 p.m. -- Alexander speaks
Devon Alexander had this to say after his unanimous points win over DeMarcus Corley:
"It felt great to go 12 rounds with a former world champion. It was hard because it was my first 12-rounder. I was pressing hard early, trying to get the knockout. But my coach told me to just settle down and do what I do. I'm ready for more. I'll do even more in the future. I want everyone in St. Louis to know: I came back with the win."
In the telling stat of the bout, Alexander landed 204 of 485 power punches, a connect rate of 42 percent.
Saturday, 9:50 p.m. -- Tito and Roy are in the house
The arena is taking a long time to fill up. There are still large sections of empty seats, although people are continuing to stream in through the doors.
The jumbotron above the ring just showed footage of the two fighters arriving at the Garden, Trinidad at about 9:10 p.m. and Jones just a few minutes ago. As expected, given the Puerto Rican fan base in New York and Trinidad's many great nights at the Garden, Tito was met with loud cheers, and Roy with lusty boos.
Saturday, 9 p.m. -- The swimmer can punch
Don King calls lightweight Angelo Santana "the swimmer," claiming he swam all the way to Florida from his native Cuba.
The émigré doesn't make that claim for himself, but if he didn't arrive in the United States quite the way his promoter claims, he announced his arrival in the boxing world with emphatic force tonight.
In his professional debut, Santana was all over Kenny Keaton of Indiana, putting him down and causing the referee to wave it off after 33 seconds of the very first round.
Earlier, there was some anxiety at the end of the second round of a heavyweight contest between former cruiserweight contender Ezra Sellers and Emanuelle Nwodo. Nwodo put Sellers down along the ropes (his cause aided by a big blow to the back of the head) and then again at the very end of the round. Sellers remained on the canvas for several minutes, but appeared to be OK, and was met with applause when he rose to his feet.
Former welterweight titlist Luis Collazo won a unanimous decision over Edvan Dos Santos Barrios in a spirited affair.
Check back later for a full undercard report from Dan Rafael. Right now, DeMarcus Corley and Devon Alexander are in the ring, Jim Lampley is making final pre-fight comments to camera, and we are getting ready to roll with the televised portion of the evening.
Saturday, 8:10 p.m. -- Family way
Harold Lederman, HBO's "unofficial official" will be scoring the bout alongside the commentary team of Jim Lampley, Emanuel Steward, and Max Kellerman (who are, as I write, posing for photographs for HBO photographer Will Hart.
Poor Harold never seems to be asked to join in the group shot). But he won't be the only Lederman ringside for the main event.
His daughter, Julie, will be one of the, er, official officials on the ring apron for the Jones-Trinidad bout. The others will be Nelson Vazquez, and Tom Kaczmarek. Referee for the catchweight contest will be Arthur Mercante Jr., himself the scion of a famed New York boxing family; his father, Arthur Mercante Sr., was the third man in the ring for many of the most famous bouts in this arena's storied history, including perhaps the greatest of them all, the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier contest on March 8, 1971, a match-up so monumental it was called, simply, "The Fight." -- Kieran Mulvaney
Saturday, 7 p.m. -- Big G
There's a huge banner advertisement outside the Garden, featuring former champion sumo wrestler Konishiki. Apparently, this is supposed to make you want to buy a certain type of car.
On a completely unrelated note, the first fight of the evening featured Pensacola-based heavyweight Gabe Brown. The man who concisely and accurately dubs himself "Big G" weighed in at a svelte 340 pounds yesterday. But I thought he out-jabbed and outworked Paul Marinaccio, who is perhaps best known for losing to Chris Byrd in the Bahamas last year. I thought he might have nicked the eight-rounder, and one judge agreed, but the other two scored it a draw.
Meanwhile, the Garden is still pretty empty, but that's to be expected. It's a fairly lengthy card, and the main event probably won't start for at least four hours. -- Kieran Mulvaney
Saturday, 6:15 p.m. -- Glove issue: Resolved!
Don King has just announced that the glove dispute, which flared briefly following yesterday's weigh-in, has been resolved.
Actually, to quote the press release, "The world's greatest promoter, Don King, spent his Saturday morning mediating a glove dispute "
The contract stipulated that the fighters wear Everlast gloves, but when it appeared that Trinidad was slightly over the 170-pound limit, Jones announced that he would let the weight slide if he could wear his favored Grant gloves.
When Trinidad wouldn't budge, Jones relented. Both men will wear Everlasts, as originally planned.
"I wanted to wear the gloves to represent my fraternity, Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE), the largest fraternity in the world," Jones said. "I wanted to wear my [Grant] gloves because they were made to match my outfit -- the colors of TKE -- burgundy and gray I tried to do good for the TKE, but Tito's father was obstinate and Tito wouldn't even talk to me. Tito wouldn't even give me the courtesy of a conversation. He sent his daddy and his daddy's lawyer up to my suite to talk to me. If I knew his daddy was going to be talking so much, I would have brought my daddy, Big Roy, here to fight him."
Besides, said Jones, it was OK for him to wear Everlast gloves, "so Tito will get an everlasting lick upside his head." -- Kieran Mulvaney
Saturday, 5:30 p.m. -- Thirty minutes until doors open
The doors open at 6 p.m., and the first bout starts shortly afterward.
Right now, the staff at Madison Square Garden is wheeling the last of the food and drink to the concession stands. Security and ushers are receiving their last-minute instructions on who is allowed where, and which credentials mean what. Media members are scanning the list in the press room to see who is sitting at what seat ringside, and who has been banished to the bleachers. Jim Lampley, who never has to worry about where he is sitting, is running through his opening piece to camera.
Outside, it's a cold New York night. Inside the arena, the evening will, hopefully, soon catch light. -- Kieran Mulvaney
Saturday, 8:30 a.m. -- The calm before the storm
It's the morning of the big fight, and we will have all the action right here from the first punch of the first fight. Be sure to watch the non-televised undercard live on ESPN360.com, starting at 7 p.m. Throughout the night, I will be blogging here with reactions from fighters and others. Then, switch over to my live round-by-round for the main event.
The first bell is at 6 p.m.
Let's get ready to rumble! -- Kieran Mulvaney
Kieran Mulvaney covers boxing for ESPN.com and Reuters.