Dan Rafael reports:

Mayweather put on a pure boxing clinic, pasting Juan Manuel Marquez in as comprehensive a performance as you will ever see in a unanimous decision victory before 13,116 (mostly Marquez fans on Mexican Independence Day weekend) on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

There wasn't one minute of true competition in the fight, as Mayweather simply ran roughshod over the smaller man.

"I've been off for two years so I felt like it took me a couple rounds to really know I was back in the ring again," he said. "And I know I'll get better."

That's the scary part. But the frustrating part was he missed a golden opportunity to close the show in style.

He left Marquez's face a swollen mess. Gave him a bloody nose, too. Oh, and he also deposited him on the canvas in the second round after landing a hybrid left hook/uppercut on Marquez's chin.

It wasn't just that Mayweather was bigger; he was also more technical and faster. The numbers, particularly in this case, do not lie:

Still, the CompuBox statistics were eye-catching in their landslide nature.

Mayweather landed 290 of 493 (59 percent) blows to Marquez's 69 of 583 (12 percent). Mayweather's jab was also dominant as he connected with 185 of 316 (59 percent) to Marquez's 21 of 288 (7 percent).

As for entertainment value, my sense of things is that the fight was captivating in its domination if predictable after a few rounds. Mayweather did turn up the heat in the later rounds, something he can do but generally avoids, but was never able to put Marquez away. That result prompted Dana White to offer a rather unfair, less than complimentary review of the fight:

"It sucked just like I thought it would, just like I knew it would," White said of Mayweather’s unanimous decision victory over Juan Manuel Marquez in his first fight in nearly two years.

"It was a horrendous. It went to a 12-round boring decision."

As for what's next, Bad Left Hook takes a look at possible contenders. Like Atlas, most fans want Pacquiao to defeat Cotto thereby setting up a mega fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao.

So the obvious question: who won the night, UFC 103 or boxing? We'll have to be patient as the true PPV numbers roll in, but the early (if somewhat crude) signs of Google trends point toward Mayweather winning the day:

If we have to pick a winner judging from the top ten its a decision for Mayweather/Marquez. The return of ‘Money’ Mayweather to the ring gets the top spot–specifically the term ‘Mayweather vs Marquez play by play’. The UFC shows up in 7th place with ‘Rich Franklin vs Vitor Belfort fight video’, but boxing gets another term in the top ten with ‘Shane Mosley’. Mosley challenged Mayweather in the ring after his dominating unanimous decision victory.

Today on "MMA Nation" we'll be joined by UWC promoter Marcello Foran. We'll talk to Foran about the upcoming UWC 7: Redemption event October 3rd at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA. We'll also be giving away tickets and potentially VIP passes, so this is your opportunity to call in and win.

We'll also be talking about UFC 103: Franklin vs. Belfort, from the main events to your calls to how it will sell compared to boxing's Mayweather vs. Marquez. We'll also be talking about what happened at yesterday's PBF vs. JMM weigh-in.

"MMA Nation" airs every Saturday 7:00pm EST to 9:00pm EST on 106.7 The Fan. TODAY THE SHOW WILL BEGIN AT APPROXIMATELY 7:30 pm EST to accommodate University of Maryland football. To listen live over the Internet, go to The Fan's website and click "Listen Live".

I'm also now on Twitter: @mmanation.

"MMA Nation" is also available by podcast on iTunes.

Number to call: 800-636-1067

Email here.

Talk to you then.

While the majority of readers of this site will undoubtedly choose to watch UFC 103 over the Floyd Mayweather/Juan Manuel Marquez scrap I do think it is important to pay attention to the boxing card.  This is a fight between two of the top three pound-for-pound boxers in the world and as such it does matter both in terms of combat sports in general and as far as what the Franklin/Belfort card is up against in the battle for PPV buys.

Scott Christ over at Bad Left Hook has done a great series of write ups of what is, in the boxing world, a very solid PPV undercard.  Here are the installments with highlights from each:

Know Your PPV Undercard, Pt. 1: Cornelius Lock v. Orlando Cruz

Neither Lock nor Cruz are afraid to mix it up, so there's a decent chance we'll get a pretty good scrap out of this, even though it really doesn't belong as part of the undercard that was to prove to boxing fans that the promoters actually listen and understand our problems with past PPV shows being $50 for one decent fight.

Know Your PPV Undercard, Pt. 2: Michael Katsidis v. Vicente Escobedo

Dear friends, have you yet to meet Mr. Katsidis? He likes to throw down. Rumble. Go to war. Get hit in the face. Not be able to defend. Hit people in the face. Bleed. These are his turn-ons. Turn-offs include mean people and coffee (yuk!)

...

I wonder to myself if a lot of people will be picking Katsidis simply because he's the bigger name, having been featured on American TV more often. I think that's a fool's bet.

Know Your PPV Undercard, Pt. 3: Chris John v. Rocky Juarez II

Chris John and Rocky Juarez first met on February 28, a disputed 114-114 draw across the board in Juarez's hometown of Houston, a fight city whose reputation plummeted last month after building nicely with one of 2009's best cards on that February night. I scored the bout 115-113 for John, but Juarez made an impressive late run and nearly stole a win. It was a good, back-and-forth fight, and most importantly, it finally brought Indonesian Chris John to American soil.

Check out the full pieces on each fight (they're great) and check out Bad Left Hook for more news and analysis of boxing's biggest show of the year.

Scott over at BadLeftHook posted early this morning that Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s uncle and trainer Roger Mayweather was arrested and charged with coercian with force and battery strangulation in Las Vegas.  He goes on to explain how this could lead to a delay in the fight:

From a boxing standpoint (since I don't know much about the law other than how to not break it and that things like murder are wrong), what really worries me is Floyd Jr. could surely use this distraction as an excuse to bail again. Mayweather-Marquez was called off the first time officially due to a rib injury to Floyd, and a lot of the other rumor was that it just wasn't selling tickets and the buzz wasn't there. I don't think the buzz is there this time, either. Let's face it: This is a big fight in boxing, but not beyond that. Now matched against UFC 103, PPV numbers would take a hit.

And it's all about how many sales you can bring up at the negotiating table if Mayweather-Pacquiao ever really gets discussed.

Of course, Floyd has his father there as a very capable fill-in if Roger winds up in a lot of trouble, and I don't think Floyd is learning a whole lot in camps these days anyway. He could probably train himself and let me talk to him in the corner and be fine.

It's obviously too early to know if the fight will be postponed but the possibility is out there.  Knowing Floyd and his ego I could very easilly see him using this as an excuse to get out of having his PPV go head to head againt UFC 103.  There was a lot of talk that much of the UFC's strong push to get Fedor on the roster was to have a Lesnar/Fedor fight to demolish Mayweather/Marquez in terms of PPV buys.

Now we're looking at Vitor Belfort vs. Rich Franklin as the headlining fight which is an okay draw but it's a good enough fight and the UFC is hot enough right now that it's still likely to beat Mayweather in a head-to-head.  They already found a way to postpone the fight once already and managed to get the fight scheduled for Mexican Independence Day which should have done extra buys as the Mexican crowd tunes in at parties..etc.  It has become more and more clear that Floyd/Marquez won't win the buyrate battle and rather than having to face facts I'm willing to bet that he pushes the fight back and talks a lot about how they would have outdrawn the UFC if it had gone off as planned.