Money or Manny? - BoxingScene’s Pound for Pound Top Ten

By Cliff Rold

It’s déjà vu all over again.

Beginning with the decline of Pernell Whitaker in the second half of the 1990s, and through the first few years of the 00’s, the pound-for-pound debate revolved around Roy Jones Jr. To the naked eye, Jones was king. He was the fastest, the most athletic, the hardest to hit, in a word the most talented.

He wasn’t always the most challenged. Accused, rightfully sometimes and wrongfully others, of cherry picking his foes for highlight reel affect, many in the boxing world looked for an alternative. Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad, Shane Mosley, and Bernard Hopkins all were cited as challenges to his supremacy for the mythical idea of best in the world if the world was all the same size.

They all appeared to challenge themselves more often while Jones managed, for a lengthy stretch at Light Heavyweight, never to fight the next best man in his class. Inevitably, most of the men noted lost while Jones did not. De La Hoya lost to Trinidad and Mosley, Trinidad to Hopkins, Mosley to Vernon Forrest. Jones was winning against what could be argued as too many men like Glen Kelly, Derrick Harmon, and Richard Hall so alternatives remained sought. No one could have known, but by the time he got to a Heavyweight clash with John Ruiz and seemed to stamp the debates over for good, it was really Jones time which was all but over.

There are striking similarities between the Jones arguments and arguments in recent years about Floyd Mayweather. Some of the criticism has been fair, some of it unfair. Now that Mayweather is officially back, their volume will increase. Since at least 2005, Mayweather has been the center of all pound for pound debate; the measuring stick for the game. Like Jones, the eye test indicates superiority over most of the field.

Unlike Jones, Mayweather’s primary challenge to the throne has never felt as forced as Jones mythical foes. Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad just never felt like they belonged in the same sentence as Jones. Manny Pacquiao is a different matter. Pacquiao passes the eye test too. His speed is comparable to Mayweather’s and his journey from Flyweight to Jr. Welterweight champion is historically unprecedented. That Mayweather and Pacquiao are currently only seven pounds apart makes a match between the two feel inevitable, an answer pending to a worthy question.

They are the best offensive and defensive fighters of their time. With Mayweather fully active again after a dominant victory over Lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez on September 19, does he merit the top spot or does it remain with Pacquiao?

These are the Boxing Scene Pound for Pound ratings.

1) Manny Pacquiao (49-3-2, 37 KO’S)
Age: 30
Current Titles: World Junior Welterweight (140 lbs.)
Career Titles: World Flyweight/112 lb. champion (1998-99); World Featherweight/126 lb. champion (2003-2005); World Jr. Lightweight/130 lb. champion (2008); additional alphabelts at 112, 122, 130, and 135 lbs.
Last Five Opponents: Ricky Hatton, Oscar De La Hoya, David Diaz, Juan Manuel Marquez, Marco Antonio Barrera

Next Opponent: November 14, 2009 vs. Miguel Cotto (34-1, 27 KO)

The Take: For now the top spot remains with Pacquiao. His accomplishments are unparalleled in his time or any in terms of titles won. No fighter in history has ever reigned as lineal Flyweight champion and then added the historical crowns at Featherweight, Jr. Lightweight, and Jr. Welterweight. In each of those classes, he beat the best man available and that helps as well; his challenges to lineage didn’t go through any Zsolt Erdei’s. It is not to say Pacquiao is beyond criticism. David Diaz was the weakest available titlist at Lightweight when they met for a belt. Oscar De La Hoya was a cynical fight from start to finish, made on the question of whether De La Hoya, at a catchweight, was shot enough to lose to a man as small as Pacquiao (he was). However, Ricky Hatton was coming off one of his best wins in years and had never lost at 140 lbs. Pacquiao’s knockout win remains 2009’s most jaw dropping highlight. There is little to critique in the Hatton win. There is in the Cotto match. Pacquiao has drawn comparisons to Henry Armstrong for his daring do across the weight scale and yet negotiated a catchweight of 145 lbs. with Miguel Cotto. There’s nothing Armstrong about that. Homicide Hank regularly gave up substantial weight to top fighters and won anyways. The Welterweight limit is 147 lbs. It’s where Cotto-Pacquiao should be taking place. While Pacquiao may have turned pro below 112 lbs., the day before weigh-in isn’t enough rationale. Roberto Duran turned pro in 1968 at a similar age to Pacquiao weighing 119. 21 years later, in the day before weigh-in era and nearing 40 years old, Duran asked for no pounds and gave no quarter in taking a Middleweight belt off of the much larger Iran Barkley. Is Pacquiao signaling that outright Welterweight fights are too much for him? If so, why take them? November looms large on the calendar. Cotto is still a definite challenge. Whether it is all of the challenge it could be remains to be seen.

2) Floyd Mayweather (40-0, 25 KO)
Age: 32
Current Title: None
Career Titles: World Jr. Lightweight champion (1998-2001); World Lightweight champion (2002-04); World Welterweight/147 lbs. (2007-09); additional alphabelts at 130, 135, 140, 147 & 154 lbs.
Last Five Opponents: Juan Manuel Marquez, Ricky Hatton, Oscar De La Hoya, Carlos Baldomir, Zab Judah

Up Next: TBA

My Take: He’s back and if it feels like “Money” never left it’s probably because his return was so obvious. It probably felt disrespectful to some when his return bout against Juan Manuel Marquez was labeled as a tune up but ultimately it was. It was the perfect choice of foe, high on name value but too high on the scale to even be marginally competitive. And yet, no one at any weight had ever dominated Marquez. No one had ever decisively beaten him. There was evidence Mayweather has not lost the speed or reflexes which once carried him to victory against the likes of Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo. So what keeps him out of the number one spot? Mayweather has been a Welterweight since facing Sharmba Mitchell in 2005. While Marquez deserved high praise in pound for pound terms, his short tenure at Lightweight and the rest of his career at Featherweight didn’t mean a thing at Welterweight. When Floyd takes on someone in his division, the world will have a better gauge of just how ‘back’ he really is. If that someone works out to be a Pacquiao coming off a win over Cotto, it could be the most profitable fight available as well. Of course, there is another option. Contrary to what Floyd had to say at the post-fight presser for Marquez, Shane Mosley is not locked into a fight right now. Mosley is regarded by many as the top dog at Welterweight right now. It’s a fight which could happen with enough time left to make a summer showdown with the Pacquiao-Cotto winner if Mayweather wants. And that is the crux: Mayweather can have the Mosley fight if he wants it. All he really has to do is say yes and the numbers will get worked out if waiting around for the result of Pacquiao-Cotto doesn’t suit him. For now, Pacquiao’s performances, before and while Floyd was away, keep him in the top spot with each man able to claim they beat a common opponent (Hatton for Pacquiao; Marquez for Mayweather) more decisively.

3) Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1, 32 KO)
Age: 44 Years Young
Current Title: None
Career Titles: Ring Light Heavyweight/175 lb. titlist (2006-2008); World Middleweight/160 lb. Champion (2001-2005); Alphabelt titles at 160 lbs. from 1995-2005
Last Five Opponents: Kelly Pavlik, Joe Calzaghe, Winky Wright, Antonio Tarver, Jermain Taylor (twice)

Next Opponent: TBA

The Take: While inactivity could see Hopkins removed from this list soon, it is no commentary on his quality. There were some dull performances from Hopkins in recent years, performances that made him look like his age was catching up to him as defense came too often before offense. The win over Pavlik was the opposite, Hopkins best performance since the Trinidad fight and, all things considered, perhaps even better than that gem. Given the proof that Hopkins is still capable of fighting at the level he showed against Pavlik, and given the retirement of his most recent conqueror in Calzaghe, there is no way he can rest anywhere else amongst the world’s best fighters than near the top. Consider this as well in appreciating Hopkins: all of his last four foes were near universally rated in the top ten’s that populate Boxing going into their bouts with Hopkins. The losses to Taylor were both highly controversial and the wins over Tarver and Wright were not close. Furthermore, they can’t be viewed as performances from an ‘old’ fighter anymore…at least not in the normal context of ‘old.’ The win over Pavlik, particularly the sheer dominance of it, casts Hopkins recent run in a whole new light and provides compelling evidence that, at 44, he’s still an active all-time great rather a historical one. He gets full credit for the distinction. While he has not beaten a Light Heavyweight since Antonio Tarver in 2006, his last two wins were still of high quality, two pounds above the Super Middleweight limit at 170 lbs. Should he ultimately decide to compete against Light Heavyweights again, the winner of Chad Dawson-Glen Johnson II is the only respectable choice. Dawson would represent the best young fighter in class; Johnson would mean a rematch of a 1997 blowout Hopkins victory. Johnson has gotten much better since and it would be exciting to find out just how much better versus Hopkins. A Cruiserweight title challenge of Tomasz Adamek would also be great theatre.

4) Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 KO)
Age: 38
Current Title: WBA Welterweight
Career Titles: World Welterweight (2000-02); World Junior Middleweight (2003-04); Additional Alphabelt at Lightweight
Last Five Opponents: Antonio Margarito, Ricardo Mayorga, Miguel Cotto, Luis Collazo, Fernando Vargas (twice)

Next Opponent: TBA

The Take: It is a sad commentary when a 38-year old fighter off of a career redefining win is forced to resort to almost begging for fights. It is also a bit of a compliment. Mosley’s destruction of the iron chin of Margarito created enough stir and scare to keep him on the shelf for what seems certain to be the rest of 2009. He’ll have options when the New Year rolls around. WBC Welterweight titlist Andre Berto is one option. As noted above, Mayweather is a better one. Few fighters have ever moved up in weight for an extended time only to come back down and sit near the top the class. Emile Griffith couldn’t do it. Ray Leonard couldn’t make it back to Jr. Middleweight. Talent and experience say a lot; the strategic mind of trainer Nazim Richardson and his ability to work older fighters into huge wins speaks volumes as well. Could Richardson and Mosley solve the Mayweather riddles?

5) Paul Williams (37-1, 27 KO)
Age: 27
Current Title: None
Career Titles: Two alphabelt reigns at Welterweight
Last Five Opponents: Winky Wright, Verno Phillips, Andy Kolle, Carlos Quintana (twice), Antonio Margarito, Santos Pakau

Next Opponent: December 5, 2009 vs. Kelly Pavlik (35-1, 31 KO)

The Take: At 6’1, with speed, fluidity, and an off the charts work rate, Williams will challenge Kelly Pavlik for the World Middleweight title. It’s the sort of fight that could make or break either man’s career. Pavlik needs a win to remind the world he’s out there. Williams needs a win to make all the momentum he’s generated continue. So far, he’s been the goods all but once, defeating Antonio Margarito, stopping Verno Phillips for the first time in two decades, and avenging his lone defeat to Carlos Quintana with a first round knockout. It might be the case that, putting resumes aside, it is Williams who is the best active fighter in the sport right now at any weight. Pavlik will test the theory.

6) Chad Dawson (28-0, 17 KO)
Age: 26
Current Title: IBF Light Heavyweight
Career Titles: Another Alphabelt at 175
Last Five Opponents: Antonio Tarver, Glen Johnson, Epifanio Mendoza, Jesus Ruiz, Tomasz Adamek

Next Opponent: November 7, 2009 vs. Glen Johnson (49-12-2, 33 KO)

The Take: This Light Heavyweight star in the making has put together an impressive run since toppling veteran Eric Harding in 2006. His win over Adamek was almost bell to bell control; Adamek has since established himself as the best Cruiserweight in the world. Johnson and Tarver give him wins over two recent, popular choices for Light Heavyweight champion of the World. The Johnson bout in April 2008 could have gone either way but he survived a war and came out a better fighter for it, showing the improvements in handling a game Tarver last October. An endorsement from Floyd Mayweather as the sport’s best fighter while he was out may be premature, but Mayweather knows his Boxing. He sees something special. At this point, so should everyone else. The Tarver rematch was better than anticipated but for some that has worked against Dawson, leaving him open to criticism. His response appears to be taking a rematch of the longest night of his career versus Johnson this fall. It’s the right thing to do.

7) Miguel Cotto (34-1, 27 KO)
Age: 28
Current Title: WBO Welterweight
Career Titles: Alphabelt reigns at Jr. Welterweight & Welterweight
Last Five Opponents: Joshua Clottey, Michael Jennings, Antonio Margarito, Alfonso Gomez, Shane Mosley

Next Opponent: November 14, 2009 vs. Manny Pacquiao (49-3-2, 37 KO)

Is he all the way back from the loss to Margarito? It’s impossible to say but he certainly showed positive signs in the win over Clottey. There have been criticisms that having such a hard fight is not indicative of one of the world’s best fighters. It’s silly thinking. The evidence suggests Clottey as a handful and more for every top Welterweight he’s ever fought. What mattered is Cotto weathered some storms and made it to the next major platform for his talents. While he has been treated as almost an opponent in the broader hope for Mayweather-Pacquiao, he should be anything but. There could be a case to have Cotto higher than this and his opposition is the strength of the case. Cotto consistently fights the highest level of opposition since the height of the Oscar De La Hoya years and thus far fallen short only once. If Shane Mosley is not the world’s best Welterweight, than it is Cotto and in the sports best weight class that is high praise.

8) Juan Manuel Marquez (50-5-1, 37 KO)
Age: 36
Current Title: World Lightweight/135 lb. Champion (2008-Present)
Career Titles: Alphabet titles at 126, 130 lbs.
Last Five Opponents: Floyd Mayweather Jr., Juan Diaz, Joel Casamayor, Manny Pacquiao, Rocky Juarez

Next Opponent: TBA

The Take: It may seem unfair for Marquez to drop in the ratings. He made a bold move, challenged the scale, and lost to a man who probably beats him at any weight. Life, much less boxing, is not fair and the calendar has much to do with his fall on this chart. The list of men who moved up in middle age, took a bad loss, and returned to be champions is short for a reason. Shane Mosley, as noted, has done it but Marquez isn’t quite the same caliber athlete. History says his best days will be behind him, particularly faced with the speed of young Lightweights. He could prove the world wrong but he’ll need to do so to move back to where he was. As it stands, he is a testament to patience. A fighter who waited years for his first belt, still more for a chance to be a star, has gone from good fighter to Hall of Famer all since 2004. The loss to Mayweather cannot change that.

9) Ivan Calderon (33-0-1, 6 KO)
Age: 34
Current Title: World Jr. Flyweight/108 lb. Champion (2007-Present)
Career Titles: Additional alphabelts at 105 & 108 lbs.
Last Five Opponents: Rodel Mayol, Hugo Cazares (twice), Nelson Dieppa, Juan Esquer, Ronald Barrera

Next Opponent: TBA

The Take: You’ll read from many a knowledgeable scribe that this diminutive Puerto Rican champion ‘might be the best pure boxer in the sport.’ Calderon can do it all in the ring short of knock opponents dead, making his inability to lose thus far all the more remarkable. His game is all skill with just enough thrill (usually) to make his fights worth watching; this is no Sven Ottke. After years as the uncrowned king at 105 lbs., Calderon outboxed and outgutted a much larger (at the opening bell) Cazares in August 2007 to cement his foothold among the game’s elite by capturing the World title at 108 lbs. The similarly small Ricardo Lopez was marvelously underrated for years of his prime; no need to make that mistake twice with Calderon facing the near end of his. Over the last year, it appeared his biggest challenge could come from Ulises Solis but the rousing upset of Solis by former titlist and U.S. Olympian Brian Viloria for the IBF belt has changed the state of the class. Despite his quality over the years, Calderon drops a few slots after two lackluster performances against Mayol. That he took two fights with Mayol was its own indictment. His speed is fading and his razor reflexes may be starting to dull. A fight with Viloria could prove otherwise. So could a battle with a WBC titlist Edgar Sosa or a move up the scale. He needs something before time runs out.

10) Hozumi Hasegawa (27-2, 11 KO)
Age: 28
Current Title: WBC Bantamweight
Last Five Opponents: Nestor Rocha, Vusi Malinga, Alejandro Valdez, Cristian Faccio, Simone Maludrottu

Next Opponent: TBA

My Take: July 14, 2009 didn’t provide Hasegawa the single win one might look for to consider someone among the game’s overall best. However, Hasegawa’s second consecutive first round knockout over a solid contender who had never been stopped further illuminated just how impressive the slick Japanese southpaw has become. His last five foes are not household names but they had a combined record of 100-8 and only one of the foes, Maludrottu, got out of the second round and made it to the finish. Hasegawa, now with nine straight title defenses and a 24-fight winning streak dating to 2001, started his reign impressively by defeating one of the best Bantamweights of the last twenty years, long reigning two-time titlist Veraphol Sahaprom, in 2005. He stopped Sahaprom in a 2006 return and has continued to improve. His sudden power burst, combined with the speed, volume, and accuracy he’s always had give the appearance of a fighter who has put it all together to become dominant in his prime. This slot could have gone to Flyweight Nonito Donaire who has been just as impressive as Hasegawa. Sahaprom is about equal to Donaire’s best win, Vic Darchinyan, so it is ultimately Hasegawa’s longer title reign which gives him the edge. Bantamweight has the pieces for a renaissance. Hasegawa is the leader of the pack and has earned the right to hang his hat with the best.

Five More Who Could Easily Be Here: Vic Darchinyan, Fernando Montiel, Rafael Marquez, Chris John, Nonito Donaire

Five More Who Could Be Here Shortly: Juan Manuel Lopez, Kelly Pavlik, Arthur Abraham, Mikkel Kessler, Celestino Caballero

As always, feel free to agree…and disagree. This list is for entertainment purposes only and based purely on imagination, hypotheticals and conjecture just like every other pound for pound list ever written. Neither it nor any other such list made up of such illusory ingredients should be used to forward corporate agendas of any kind.

That doesn’t make it any less fun to argue about.

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com