By Cliff Rold
With the first man on this list having made his first start of 2010, boxing’s elite are in full swing with some anticipated twists and turns pending.
Manny Pacquiao didn’t add his latest knockout to the ledger on March 13th, but he did add his second top-ten Welterweight in as many tries and put some distance between himself and his arch-rival for the top spot. In Joshua Clottey and Miguel Cotto, Pacquiao’s two big wins over Welterweights trump what Floyd Mayweather put together with Carlos Baldomir and Zab Judah in 2006.
Mayweather can answer back with Shane Mosley in May…if he can lift the scalp.
Contrary to the way it occasionally feels, boxing isn’t all Pacquiao-Mayweather. Bernard Hopkins will go a long way towards determining where, if at all, he really still belongs. After a lengthy layoff, he returned late last year with a tune-up and now he’s going Ray Parker Jr., a ghostbusting appointment scheduled in April with what used to be Roy Jones.
Japan’s Hozumi Hasegawa faces a fellow titlist at Bantamweight in the spring while Light Heavyweight Chad Dawson will have to wait for the summer for his spotlight time, but there’s plenty to look forward to among the game’s best.
