What's your definition of "Pound for Pound"?

If Rigo was a WW would he beat Floyd? Would Sergio beat Wlad if he was a HW? If Ward was @ 126 would he beat Mares? That is my definition of P4P. Great responses overall!

Performance Skill set Level of competition

I pretty much agree with your definition of pound for pound. I rate fighters pfp. for the division the are currently fighting in. I also rate them for how good they are right now in the weight class they are fighting in. For example I rate Floyd Mayweather for how good he is as a welterweight right now based on his fights with Cotto and Guerrero. All his past wins from 130 on up don't influence my rating. I only go by how good he looked as a welterweight in very recent fights. Heavyweights are rated pound for pound on how good they are as a heavyweight, not by actual weight. So a giant heavyweight like 250 pound Wlad gets a higher rating than 210 pound Haye because he is a slightly better heavyweight. Sure, if Haye was just as good as he is pfp now and he weighed a rock hard 250 he would beat Wlad but giant heavyweights are never as good as the best smaller heavyweights for their size. On all fighters below heavyweight I rate by how good they are for the weight class they currently fight in. Broner is a lightweight so I rate him as a lightweight. He will soon be a welterweight so I will be rating him on how good he is as a welterweight. He won't get extra points because he is a welterweight that could still make the lightweight limit. I hope this make sense. My point is that when comparing ramdom fighters that would otherwise usually never actually meet in a ring..say: Vladmir Klitschko vs Broner we would hypothetically ask: putting these 2 in the ring head-to-head, making them of equal height, equal reach, and equal weight. Which one is superior? Skillwise, Who is more talented? Thus who would win said hypothetical fight? Therebye giving you the criteria to say who is better p4p.

I pretty much agree with your definition of pound for pound. I rate fighters pfp. for the division the are currently fighting in. I also rate them for how good they are right now in the weight class they are fighting in. For example I rate Floyd Mayweather for how good he is as a welterweight right now based on his fights with Cotto and Guerrero. All his past wins from 130 on up don't influence my rating. I only go by how good he looked as a welterweight in very recent fights. Heavyweights are rated pound for pound on how good they are as a heavyweight, not by actual weight. So a giant heavyweight like 250 pound Wlad gets a higher rating than 210 pound Haye because he is a slightly better heavyweight. Sure, if Haye was just as good as he is pfp now and he weighed a rock hard 250 he would beat Wlad but giant heavyweights are never as good as the best smaller heavyweights for their size. On all fighters below heavyweight I rate by how good they are for the weight class they currently fight in. Broner is a lightweight so I rate him as a lightweight. He will soon be a welterweight so I will be rating him on how good he is as a welterweight. He won't get extra points because he is a welterweight that could still make the lightweight limit. I hope this make sense.

Skill/ versatility Performance/ dominance in the ring and consistency That's my criteria at least.

P4P the best... cherry picking your way all the way to that number one spot. That's what it means to me this is why Floyd Mayweather holds this coveted title ;) Lol. Only two guys are seen as competition for him. 1 would outweigh him by about 25 lbs on fight night, the other would outweigh him by about 20. Obviously a p4p fraud

I cant agree with you guys more on your definition of P4P but imho now that weight jumping is almost a norm, some bigger jumps than the norm like Manny and Floyd, strengthening further their P4P caliber, but this also put shade of grey on the equation as some perform a lot better going up than others... I wouldn't put much stock into jumping weightclasses because look at it this way - between 105 pounds (minimumweight) to 140 pounds (light welterweight) is a difference of 32 pounds which equates to an astonishing 9 weight classes in between. Add 30 pounds to 140 pounds, equating to 170 pounds, and there's only 4 weightclasses in that span. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that it's too easy for someone in the lower weights to rise through and dominate the competition. They gave to gain from as little as 4 to 7 pounds to move up. I respect someone who goes from 140 to 168 as opposed to 105 to 140

P4P the best... cherry picking your way all the way to that number one spot. That's what it means to me this is why Floyd Mayweather holds this coveted title ;)

I cant agree with you guys more on your definition of P4P but imho now that weight jumping is almost a norm, some bigger jumps than the norm like Manny and Floyd, strengthening further their P4P caliber, but this also put shade of grey on the equation as some perform a lot better going up than others...

I've always understood it to mean throwing away size and making it irrelevant. Judge solely on skills and quality of wins.

Pfp means that if you could make fighters equal in size, who'd be the best. Thus the term pfp.