RECENTLY THE NATIONAL Association of Black Journalists held a convention at Bally's Hotel in Las Vegas. During the convention, one of the press conferences included a meeting of the minds about boxing with Don King, Bob Arum, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and executives from Showtime.

During the course of their conversation, mixed martial arts was discussed. The question was asked if mixed martial arts would overshadow boxing.

Showtime is promoting mixed marital arts and it is also reinvesting in boxing. This, indeed, doesn't mean that boxing will have the same popularity as it once did, but it's not going anywhere.

Promoter Don King and Bob Arum both agree that there needs to be a new revitalization in the heavyweight division. Bob Arum said that when the Internet is perfected there will be more boxing cards. He said that when "we don't have to pay the big money for television" and we can broadcast on the Internet, you'll see more boxing.

Top Rank, on the other hand, is promoting club fights on the Versus Network. The most recent fight was at the Hard Rock Hotel, which featured heavyweight Tye Fields (38-1, 34 KOs), who won a unanimous decision over Dominic "The Spoiler" Jenkins (12-7, 3 KOs). Fields, ranked No. 6 by the National Association of Boxing Federation and former United States Boxing Association, the former U.S. heavyweight champion came off a 10-round, unanimous decision win against Kendrick Releford before he fought Jenkins. Although Fields' boxing style is awkward, he is a natural left-handed puncher, which gives him the edge against his opponents.

The undercard at the Hard Rock displayed a very promising Bantamweight with Josef Agbeko, who fought Fidencio Reyes and TKO'd him in 1:37 of round four.

According to Bob Arum, it's just a matter of time before boxing moves up the scale of popularity that it once had. Furthermore, Mexican fighters will continue to be a part of that popularity in the lower weight classes.