When Samuel Peter and Vitali Klitschko climb through the ropes tonight for their World Boxing Council heavyweight fight at the O2 World Arena in Berlin it brings together two serious punchers in a division that is barely recognisable as the place where the greats of the ring once performed.

There are often two ways to view a fight, and that was most definitely the case on Saturday night in Dusseldorf when Matt Skelton failed in his bid to win the World Boxing Association heavyweight title from Ruslan Chagaev.

Lloyd Blankfein has been named as the new chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs, making him the most influential banker on Wall Street and putting a former trader in charge of what is increasingly being called the biggest hedge fund in the world.

Ismail Haniyeh, Prime Minister of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, promised yesterday to start paying salaries to government employees in the aftermath of angry demonstrations by security officers over the non-payment of their wages.

Henrik Larsson's introduction made the decisive difference in winning the European Cup for Barcelona but the Swedish striker remained adamant after the match that he will quit the club and return home this summer.

On Saturday Lennox Lewis announced that he was making a comeback, but yesterday he made another announcement that he was staying retired.

En route to Las Vegas for the world heavyweight title fight between Vitali Klitschko and Britain's Danny Williams, there is, inevitably, an old stirring of that anticipation which is familiar to almost anyone who has attended a big fight. But there is an ache too.

Here, where the genius of Muhammad Ali was taken off the streets and nourished 50 years ago, they are preparing the last rites of heavyweight boxing.