The Americans had only a handful of seconds left to run out the clock and advance a step closer to the Olympics. With the pressure building with each tick, victory slipped away. Right off their hands. The United States, known for producing top goalkeepers such as Brad Friedel, Kasey Keller and Tim Howard, found themselves done in Monday night when substitute Sean Johnson couldn't handle a long shot from Jaime Alas of El Salvador in stoppage time. The ball bounced off his hands, up over him and into the net, and El Salvador ousted the United States from Olympic qualifying with a 3-3 tie. "This is probably the worst feeling I've ever felt in my life so far as a pro athlete," U.S. captain Freddy Adu said. "This is going to be hard to get over. But at the end of the day things like this happen. For me, I never want to feel this way again, and I'm going to do whatever it takes to never feel this way again." The Americans had to win to reach Saturday's semifinals in Kansas City, Kan., and they led 3-2 on Joe Corona's goal in the 68th minute. Officials added 4 minutes of stoppage time onto the game, and U.S. coach Caleb Porter said they were "seconds away" from closing out the win and taking the top spot in Group A. A television clock showed the ball going in 4 minutes, 14 seconds into stoppage time. What happened is something U.S. midfielder Mix Diskerud said no one wants to experience in life, something he couldn't believe. "The last 20 minutes after our third goal, all those minutes felt like very, very long hours. But I thought we were going to make it. Everybody thought we were going to make it.," Diskerud said. "One shot." Alas stunned the Americans, who missed the Olympics for the second time since 1976 and second time in three Games. Several Americans dropped to the field in exhaustion and disbelief after the score, and Porter had to try to rally them back to their feet for one last gasp chance that didn't materialize. Porter said he hugged Johnson after the game. The 6-foot-4 keeper did not speak with reporters. "He feels like he's let everybody down, let his teammates down, and I told him he didn't," Porter said. El Salvador reached the semifinals, putting it a win away from its first Olympic berth since 1968. Canada, which tied Cuba 1-1 earlier, finished second. Lester Blanco and Andres Flores also scored for El Salvador, a team coach Mauricio Alfaro pointed out had less than two weeks to prepare for this tournament and didn't have the whole roster together until late. "It was just incredible," Alfaro said of the win through an interpreter. But Alfaro also said he had told his players to shoot more in the second half to try to pressure Johnson and the El Salvadoran coach said he did feel Johnson made a mistake on Alas' kick. "The shot didn't have much power," Alfaro said through the interpreter. Terrence Boyd scored twice for the U.S., and Johnson replaced keeper Bill Hamid in the 39th minute. After a 2-0 loss to Canada in the second of this three-game, round-robin tournament, the Americans needed to win to advance. So did El Salvador, and the crowd of 7,889 was about evenly split between the countries keeping the U.S. from a true home-field advantage at LP Field, home of the NFL's Tennessee Titans. El Salvador survived a physical game with plenty of yellow cards on each side. Boyd went to the sideline with blood on the front of his shirt late in the game. Diskerud said both he and Adu were bitten and showed reporters marks as proof. "Part of the game, I guess," Diskerud said. The U.S. had a little bit of time left to try and go ahead but couldn't get anything going before the game ended. The result leaves the Americans adding 2012 to 2004 and 1976 as years they failed to qualify for the Olympics, missing out on a 15th appearance overall. Boyd got his first start in this round-robin tournament with Juan Agudelo recovering from surgery in New York to fix torn cartilage in his left knee, and Boyd gave the Americans the scoring boost they missed against Canada on Saturday night. The Americans attacked from the start, Boyd scored 61 seconds into the game. Brek Shea dribbled out of three defenders and sent a cross over to Boyd who scored off a left-footed volley. And Boyd nearly scored twice more. His header went over the crossbar in the 10th minute, and he had a breakaway chance in the 11th only to see keeper Yimy Cuellar come out to break up the play. Hamid rolled covering up a ball and appeared to hurt his ankle midway through the first half. El Salvador took advantage by scoring two goals in two minutes to grab the lead and the momentum. Blanco scored on a header off a corner kick over Hamid's hands in the 35th minute, and Flores beat Hamid in the 37th minute off what had been a weak shot by Alas that turned into a cross. U.S. coach Caleb Porter pulled Hamid in the 39th minute, putting in 6-foot-4 Johnson for his first appearance in this round-robin tournament. Boyd tied it up with his second goal off a pass from Adu in the 65th minute. Joe Corona, whose mother is a native of El Salvador, scored off a header just inside the left post off a pass from Adu. Johnson smothered one strong kick from Isidro Gutierrez but couldn't stop the ball when it mattered at the end.

Sergio Martinez (48-2-2, 28 KOs) defended his WBC Diamond Belt against a tough opponent in Matthew Macklin (28-4, 19 KOs). In a crowd that was mainly backing Macklin—due to his Irish background—it was as if Martinez was fighting in his opponent's backyard. It was a fight that started off slow-paced, where there wasn't that much action from either fighter in the opening rounds. Martinez would throw a couple of jabs at Macklin, back out and circle around to try and find the best position to attack. Macklin's strategy was to start the fight cautiously and slowly put the pressure on Martinez. Martinez didn't look like the highly touted pound-for-pound fighter that sportscasters have praised him to be. Just like in his last fight against Barker, he didn't offer a lot of action early on in the fight and was more focused on counter-punching Macklin. While he did land some good shots, it wasn't as effective in stopping the challenger, who was eight years his junior. From the third round on, Macklin seemed to take control of the fight. He started to land some hard shots on the inside while Sergio tried to dodge and counter them. It also helped that the crowd erupted in a cheer every time Macklin hit Martinez. Sergio would go on to land some pretty hard shots too, he would occasionally rattle Macklin and back him up with a left straight. During the eighth round, Macklin was able to knock down Martinez by having him touch his glove to the canvas after being hit. It was an arguable knockdown that looked like it was a push. The ref counted it, though, because Macklin was able to hit Martinez before he touched the canvas. This fired Martinez up and he went on the offensive to try and make it a 9-9 round by charging Macklin. Before the bell rang to end the round, it looked like it was going to be an all-out brawl. Macklin came into the ninth round confident, but from there on out, everything was Sergio Martinez. He became more offensive-minded: he started attacking more and launching more combinations at Macklin. His left straight was beginning to land at-will and Macklin was beginning to wear down. This continued on until the 11th round, the same round where he KO'd his last opponent Darren Barker. Martinez was beating Macklin down and was looked physically spent as the round went on. In the final minute of the round, Martinez landed a straight left onto Macklin's chin that send him to the canvas. With a few seconds left in the round, Martinez chased Macklin and threw everything he had to go for the KO. He landed another left straight right before the bell rang to knock Macklin down again. He was able to get up again, but his face was bloodied and he was exhausted. His trainer knew better than to have his fighter carry on with this beating and called it off, giving Martinez another KO in 4 straight fights. With another win under his belt, Martinez is now faced with the difficult decision of what to do with his next fight. Will he stay and continue to fight at middleweight, despite not being able to fight the other titleholders? Or, will he go down to the junior middleweight division where there are plenty of big money fights? Whatever his choice may be, Martinez will come to fight and will not let his age slow him down one bit.

  Boxing former best pound for pound is looking to cause a bit of controversey by adding his two cents in the current debate on the best pound for pound fighter in boxing between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. In an interview with Boxing Science, Boxing Legend Roy Jones Jr. comments:

  Throw away size, weight, and age out the window, we asked the legend himself Roy Jones, Jr. how he would’ve done against today’s top two boxers, Manny Pacquiao, and Floyd Mayweather, Jr.  in his prime.

  Based on style, the boxing writers’ 90′s Fighter of the Decade said he believes he would’ve beaten Mayweather, but would encounter more of a challenge figuring out Pacquiao.

  “The young Roy Jones, Jr. would probably beat Floyd Mayweather, Jr., because basically Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and James Toney fight with the same style. My style is a little different than their style,” Jones said on dBoxing Source Radio show.

 “But when you come back and start talking about Manny Pacquiao, he’s a whole different animal. He’s a southpaw who throws bombs,” Jones said, and continued, “You got to survive his power first, then you deal with him. That’s still yet to be seen. Of course with my size I’ll beat him, but if I was in his weight class, that would be a good fight to see.”

 When I asked when would enough be enough in terms of calling it a career as a pro boxer, Jones said he had one goal left, which is to become a cruiserweight champion, something he has yet to accomplish in his storied career.”

   All I can say about this matter is numbers don't lie. This will definitely be a contest we will never see happen; therefore, we'll just leave it to fans to draw their own conclusion on.