Bert Sugar speaks on Donaire's Golden move and the Pacquiao-Martinez debate.......

The headlines for the past couple of days have been chalked full with various storylines on Nonito Donaire's recent signing with Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions. Despite having just won his most significant bout as a professional under Bob Arum's Top Rank banner last month, the Filipino-American fighter felt that a change was in order and made a move that has taken the boxing world by storm.

But this story is just beginning it seems. Arum has let the world know that he still has a binding contract with the 28-year old bantamweight champion, through at least June of next year, and has his ace attorney Daniel Petroceli working behind the scenes. If Donaire wants to be Golden it won't come without a dogged fight which looks to be coming in the form of a bitter legal battle.

Wanting to talk about the matter further, I reached out to renown boxing historian and former Ring Magazine editor Bert Sugar, who could be found inside of the Sheraton Suites in Alexandria, Virginia in advance of the upcoming Armed Forces Boxing Tournament he is to be a part of. Asked to drop a few cents on Donaire's recent move, Sugar can't deny how vested of an interest he has in the ongoing saga.

"You almost need a scorecard to figure out who's with whom," said Sugar. "But again, the battle of the promoters is becoming as interesting as the battle inside the ring, isn't it? [Golden Boy is] just scrapping for a little bit of action with the best fighters and Donaire is one of them. I don't know. There is always the feeling that this will play itself out in court."

Sugar than stated the obvious.

"Everybody in this world wants to make more," he noted of Donaire's lucrative signing. "So I don't find this different than anybody whether it is NFL players or Wall Street brokers and bankers. He just wants to make more and maybe that's his reasoning and maybe that's his excuse."

While Donaire is making headlines outside of the ring, 42 pounds north Sergio Martinez is still gaining rave reviews from his latest performance, an 8th round TKO over previously undefeated WBO junior middleweight champion Sergiy Dzinziruk in Mashantucket, Connecticut. The win follows up victories over the likes of Paul Williams and Kelly Pavlik last year, all the more reason that the Argentinean's stature is rising like the Phoenix.

Count Sugar in as one of those being truly smitten.

"He's magnificent," Burt explained. "[The victory over Dzinziruk] didn't tell me anything. It was a reemphasis of what I said I already knew. He is an unorthodox in more ways than one fighter. Besides being left-handed he's fast, he's athletic, he's got a punch, and he looks like he'll be at the top of that middleweight division for a little while albeit he's 36 I think he is. But he's the cream of the crop. He is one hell of a fighter."

In the wake of Martinez's latest showcase, there had been a string of insiders itching for him to take claim as the world's number one fighter. Before digging into the endless pound-for-pound debate, I first asked Sugar what his exactly those three words mean to him.

"Everyone is the same size and it means I can judge them all," an enthusiastic Sugar revealed. "It was first used to describe Jimmy McLarnin and later Sugar Ray Robinson, and neither of them were heavyweights. What it's saying is that the premier fighter is the best pound for pounder. It's a way of assessing them on an equal weight basis."

In recent times Manny Pacquiao has been looked at as Numero Uno on that list for his string of convincing victories against formidable competition at least in the eyes of many, after moving up in weight. I asked Sugar if the reigning WBO welterweight champion was atop his own personal perch.

"Yes. End of paragraph. You don't lose the pound-for-pound best by winning. How can you do that?," a bemused Sugar asked.

Pacquiao is on course for a May 7th date against Shane Mosley at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, a fight that hasn't been the easiest to stomach for those connected to the sport. I finished up our conversation by asking Sugar what this specific assignment against the 39-year old means for Pacquiao and whether it was important for him to produce another type of benchmark performance.

"I haven't see him in anything but a great performance for so many years now. The only question I have in my mind's eye is 'Can he be the first man to stop 'Sugar' Shane Mosley?'. Mosley has only been down twice in his career, both in the same round against Vernon Forrest in their first fight. To me that's the big question going into that fight."