By Mark Vester
During a recent interview with our friends at doghouseboxing.com, trainer and ESPN boxing commentator Teddy Atlas was asked about the best pound for pound fighters in the sport. When asked about the guys at the top of that list, he quickly threw the name of Floyd Mayweather Jr. Regardless of the two-year layoff, Atlas says Mayweather belongs at the top of the pound for pound list.
"Some people will say 'Teddy he has been out for a year' but we all knew that he was coming back. I don’t think anybody was fooled; hell anybody with a nickname of Money is coming back. I would call you sleepy and a little naive if you didn’t think he was coming back. I not going to penalize him because he retired and came back, he still belongs on top of the list," Atlas said.
There are many who disagree and rate Manny Pacquiao as the best pound for pound fighter in the sport. Atlas doesn't agree. He says Pacquiao's two biggest wins, over Ricky Hatton and Oscar De La Hoya, are very misleading.
"I think there is a little bit of optical illusion there. I got to put a qualifier on it like buyer beware. Just remember that his last two fights that we are all going ga, ga over has probably projected him to the point that in people’s minds as pound for pound the top guy. Pacquiao is not the top guy. Those fights can be very, very, misleading and that’s what I mean by an optical illusion," Atlas said.
"Let’s face it, De La Hoya was probably a dead man, taking nothing away from Pacquiao he and Freddie Roach knew this and he did what he had to do. De La Hoya is a guy who never won the big fights; he always found a way to come up short, always in the big fights. It’s could be that he came down in weight too much combined with his lack of character in big fights. I don’t know, but I do know that we shouldn’t get carried away with that win."
"It should be understood that with the Hatton fight that he was made to order for this guy. I know Pacquiao did a job on him. But quite honestly, Hatton is the kind of guy that if you have some ability he will crack a little bit if you’re professional enough that you have a simple game plan of setting your feet and punching the last three feet, you can get him. Hatton just doesn’t know how to fight. Before we go ga, ga, and anoint Pacquiao the greatest flyweight, or featherweight or whatever weight he is now, of all time, we shouldn’t be doing it from those two fights."
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