Berto is counting on fighting Ochocinco

Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco uses boxing as an off-season training method and, Chad being Chad, he’s duly impressed with the results.

“So when I get in the ring and knock out [Andre] Berto, and people are like, ‘I didn’t know Chad could fight,’ I just told you,” he told the Sporting News.

Berto, WBC welterweight champion, didn’t take long to fire back via BoxingTalk.com. “Chad Johnson, Ochocinco, or whatever his name is, the two of us have been going back and forth for a while behind the scenes,” Berto said. “I’m here to say that when his season is over, which should be before the playoffs start, I’ll give him the beating of his life. . . . By the time I’m done with him, he’ll want to change his last name to No Mas.”

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Trivia time

Who was the first player selected in the initial Major League Baseball draft?

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Spit the bit

In his first NFL appearance, Washington Redskins rookie quarterback Chase Daniel completed six of eight passes for 58 yards and two touchdowns along with scrambling for a 22-yard gain. But it took him a while to get into a groove, behaving like a nervous newcomer on his first snap. “Mid-cadence, I’m saying ‘Green 80,’ my mouthpiece falls out, and I catch it, right above the center’s butt,” Daniel told the Washington Post. “I’m going, ‘Oh my God, I can’t stop with it,’ so I throw it behind me about 10 feet. And ‘Green 80’ I get the snap, get the handoff. So I don’t have a mouthpiece for those three series. Pretty bad.”

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Called for traveling

Here-today and gone-tomorrow. NBA guard Quentin Richardson has been traded four times in seven weeks -- from the Knicks to the Grizzlies (June 26) to the Clippers (July 2) to the Timberwolves (July 20) to the Heat (Aug. 13).

Writes Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times, “For those of you scoring at home, his $8.7-million contract has racked up 5,592 frequent-flier miles.”

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Stars in the owners’ suites

Serena and Venus Williams have bought into a Miami Dolphins ownership group that already includes Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez and Jimmy Buffett.

“The big problem,” writes Brad Dickson in the Omaha World-Herald, “will be people mistaking the owners’ boxes for the set of ‘Hollywood Squares.’ ”

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Trivia answer

Arizona State outfielder Rick Monday, chosen by the Kansas City Athletics in 1965.

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And finally

From Greg Cote of the Miami Herald: “Memphis must vacate all 38 victories from the 2007-08 Final Four season for using an ineligible player thought to be Derrick Rose, the news shaming coach John Calipari, now at Kentucky.

“Kentucky vs. Louisville will be an historic matchup this season as cheat-branded Calipari and sex-scandalized Rick Pitino set an NCAA record for most combined embarrassment.”

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mike.penner@latimes.com