Stynpine

Manny, what did you think politics was before you went into it?

Murata-N'Dam 1 easily steals the spot for me. The scores were absolutely impossible save for the one logical judge, and the Japanese hero got robbed in Japan. That has never happened before. I struggled to give N'Dam more than 1 round, but the judges gave 7-8 rounds to him.

Lomachenko is skilled, there is no denying that. Most skilled? I can't judge that based on the opposition he has fought. He doesn't have a defining career win unlike the guys on my list. The big names he has on his list are either the weakest link of their division (Roman Martinez, Jason Sosa), or hasn't done much in the weight division he fought them in (Gary Russell Jr., Nicholas Walters). Not to mention that loss to Salido... Now if he were to fight and win against either Orlando Salido, Mikey Garcia, Jorge Linares, or any of the other top guys at superfeatherweight (though this is unlikely considering how busy the weight class is), then I'd put him on the list. Right now though, it's too early to put him there, let alone top 5.

I'll give the edge to Golovkin since he has reigned as the best of his division longer and for his win against Jacobs. My p4p list is as follows: 1.) Ward (good resume, got decision over Kovalev, good fighter) 2.) Kovalev (almost got decision over Ward, dominant light-heavyweight for a while) 3.) GGG (beat Jacobs, dominant middleweight for a while) 4.) Crawford (Gamboa, Postol unification, toyed with Diaz) 5.) Chocolatito (should have won against Rungvisai, fantastic resume) 6.) Thurman (beat Porter and got decision against Garcia, which is impressive in of itself) 7.) Canelo (solid names on his resume) 8.) Yamanaka (best bantamweight right now) 9.) Inoue (destroyed best guy at super fly, has been dominant since) 10.) Rigondeaux (only this low due to inactivity, which isn't his fault)

He has a better resume than most and he is most skilled Lomachenko is skilled, there is no denying that. Most skilled? I can't judge that based on the opposition he has fought. He doesn't have a defining career win unlike the guys on my list. The big names he has on his resume are either the weakest link of their division (Roman Martinez, Jason Sosa), or hasn't done much in the weight division he fought them in (Gary Russell Jr., Nicholas Walters). Not to mention that loss to Salido... Now if he were to fight and win against either Orlando Salido, Mikey Garcia, Jorge Linares, or any of the other top guys at superfeatherweight (though this is unlikely considering how busy the weight class is), then I'd put him on the list. Right now though, it's too early to put him there, let alone top 5.

Loma should at least be top 5 I feel that Lomachenko hasn't done anything yet to deserve p4p status. He has a loss to Salido that he has yet to avenge, he hasn't beat any of the top superfeatherweights yet, and he's very early in his career. I'll feel more comfortable adding him to my list next year, when he has more notable wins. He may be a visual spectacle to behold, but his record isn't as good as everybody else on my list.

Really hope this gets finalized. Lara really needs a signature win after being robbed in big fights and having a less than crowd-pleasing style. On the other hand, Hurd winning could set up a Charlo fight, and that would be huge.

Maybe we might see Daigo Higa appear in SuperFly3, seeing how he wants to make his stateside debut like Inoue did. And I'm sure the fans would like Higa's style. Maybe Gonzalez might make a return on that card, and maybe Yafai might appear. The possibilities are endless, but let's hope things work out so we get good match-ups.

As much as I would like for it to happen, I doubt Joshua vs Parker is going to be made. Miller seems more likely. It can raise Joshua's profile in the States to set up a Wilder fight.

I'm not going to hide my bias here, I really want Taguchi to win. However, I think Melindo's power and style is just too much for Taguchi. Taguchi is getting older, and whenever he gets into an exchange with Melindo, he might rush his offense and fall into Melindo's traps. Might be a close call, but I'm calling a wide unanimous decision or late TKO victory for Melindo.

It's positively stupid that Inoue isn't sticking around just another 6 months at 115 to get an all important legacy win on his ledger early in his career against the Rungvisai-Estrada winner, since to become a true superstar on merit, rather than a fake manufactured star pushed by HBO or Showtime and protected by corrupt American judges and refs (but they usually only do this for American or Mexican boxers), you need to rack up a handful of wins like that one after another to build the hype. The Rungvisai-Estrada winner is a golden opportunity for Inoue to start early in his career. There's no guarantee such fights will present themselves to him at 118 or above. Plus, having legacy wins in many weight classes can count for a lot too. This is his only chance to do that at 115. But, if he can't make the weight anymore, then he can't make the weight anymore. It's just strange that he is fighting at 115 in a couple days if he can't make it anymore... but maybe he will pay some money to his opponent to weigh in a couple pounds heavy? We'll have to see. Does anyone know what the story is? It just seems strange that he would give up the opportunity to fight the best guys at 115 before moving up, especially since I think he would beat all of them fairly dominantly. It's been stated by Japanese boxing news outlets that Inoue is struggling to make weight for 115, but that it'd be worth the effort to stay for a little longer if he got a unification by the end of the year or at SuperFly 2. He didn't get a unification for either, so Inoue and his team figures that there are more willing fighters at bantamweight. Inoue is interested in Tete, Nery, and was even in talks with Zhakiyanov back when he was still champion. In fact, Inoue intended on moving up to bantamweight to close off 2017, but stuck around for a little longer for the better fights. However Yafai declined, Ancajas chose a different route, and Rungvisai and Estrada are busy with each other. Furthermore, Inoue is only 24 years old, he is still a growing fighter. Inoue became champion at this division at 21. It's natural that Inoue move up at this point.

Shame the Viloria fight isn't being televised. I understand Loeffler may be looking for a third fight that exclusively features super flyweights, but who else is left? They should televise the Viloria fight. If Viloria wins, then he resurrects his career. If Dalakian wins, then there is a potential new star at the flyweight division who could possibly move up to super flyweight.

The last couple rounds were really fun to watch. Great fight to end 2017 with. Watching this fight closely, I just noticed how technically sound Taguchi is. Great punch anticipation (rolling under expected left hooks after throwing a right hand), good wrestling fundamentals (positioning his head and forearms during clinches to disrupt Melindo's balance and leverage on punches), and good combinations. Shame about the headbutts though, the referee stepped in too much for this fight. He was breaking their clinches up literally every 3 seconds at one point. Let them fight out of the clinch. As much as people dislike it, wrestling is a key component of boxing and Taguchi knew how to use his height and power to prevent Melindo's inside game. Not to take anything away from Melindo though, who had a lot of heart and threw everything but the kitchen sink at Taguchi when he knew he had to go for broke. He also had a lot of really good moments in the beginning stages of the fight.

Only in boxing would an interim belt be awarded before the actual vacant title is. Sanctioning bodies are a joke. The winner of Prograis v Indongo should be the true WBC champion in my opinion.

At least it's not a title fight. This functions more of a tune-up for Garcia since he hasn't fought in a while.

How about Ken ****o Vs Kosei Tanaka next with the winner fighting Tag before the years out? Kosei Tanaka moved up to flyweight and vacated his WBO belt. Angel Acosta (a former Tanaka opponent) holds that belt now. Provided Taguchi gets past Budler and his WBA mandatory, and Shiro gets past Lopez a second time, we may see Taguchi vs Ken Shiro by the end of 2018. It's a shame Kosei Tanaka isn't in the division anymore, and I doubt Angel Acosta is gonna be put in with the bigger dogs any time soon.

Lomachenko the most technically pure boxer? That's inaccurate, he's more athletic than he is technically sound. Mikey Garcia and Terence Crawford fit that description more clearly. Loma is more athletic, like Roy Jones in his prime. Take away that athleticism, and Loma wouldn't really be able to pull off most of his moves. That aside, I thought HBO would chose Rungvisai as their Fighter of the Year. Rungvisai is still on their TV network, and has the accolades to be a legit Fighter of the Year. I'm still waiting to see if Melindo wins against Taguchi to make my pick, but Rungvisai beat the consensus #1 p4p twice, with the second win being by a potential KO of the Year.

Ken Shiro has probably proven himself as the best light flyweight right now considering how he beat two top 10s in Lopez and Guevara, and finishing off the year with a stay-busy fight literally two months after the Guevara fight. That is impressive. He has a great future ahead of him, and a possible unification against the likes of Acosta and the winner of Taguchi-Melindo.

Technically I would call Taylor a 'prospect' (I define it as fewer than 15 fights), but I am weary of any fighter who had only 10 fights in his first three years as a pro. I imagine now, even with the departure of Frampton, Cyclone will have Taylor on the two per year schedule. ;-( Regarding PBK, there is no doubting his skill. However, in watching all of his fights as a pro (and many of his amateur fights) there is something to be concerned about when a fighter does not improve in any of his fights. i.e. PBK is about razzle and dazzle against incredibly inferior opponents. I'm pretty certain as he moves up and finds that the footwork gets better, the chins are stronger, the will to win is there, punches get sharper etc. he will fold because he is more concerned with looking flashy than working on boxing fundamentals. And yes, I realize that Booth teaches a LCG style, but this is beyond that. :gay: My top prospect, or that being 'one to watch in 2018' is Jon Fernadez. I've watched his last six fights and he's improved in each one. You can see, while even though he's dominant, there are things he is looking to augment each time out, and he executes. This, as opposed with running around with his hands next to his side, sticking his chin out, waving to the ladies, etc. When the sh*t get real (and it will), he will be prepped, IMO. I'm giving PBK some leeway since he debuted in April of this year and has plenty of time to fight stiffer opposition later on. But I like Kelly's constant head movement and feinting because it keeps the opponent nervous and unable to figure out what to do next, which leads to predictable movements that Kelly can easily counter. In a way, he's like Ryan Burnett when he fought Lee Haskins for the IBF bantamweight title (although as you said, same trainer). Kelly looks like a natural, and seems very comfortable in the ring. That's why he is my prospect of the year. Great shout-out to Jon Fernandez by the way. Watched one of his fights thanks to you, and I love that hybrid counter-aggressive style he has.

I'm still disgusted by Inoue moving up from such a STACKED division. HBO would have forced the top guys to fight him. He's claiming Yafai turned him down but the HBO guys would have had no choice but to fight him. I'm convinced this is a duck to not risk fighting one of those guys and possibly losing. No one can tell me otherwise. http://www.boxingscene.com/naoya-inoue-vs-kal-yafai-non-starter-over-money--123087 Will this convince you? Also, Inoue is struggling to make weight at 115. Furthermore, Ancajas turned down three offers to fight Inoue. The WBC are constantly ordering fights, so Inoue can't jump in the Gonzalez, Rungvisai, Cuadras, and Estrada rivalries. Struggling to make weight + no big fights = moving up in weight.

Pretty good fight. Vargas is getting back into the swing of things and Gonzalez needs a bigger name to get a title shot once more.

2018 is a cursed year for boxing. Everyone is either getting injured or something happening to them that requires to reschedule or cancel a fight. And lo and behold, the one fight I was hoping go smoothly now has to be postponed.

This guy's whole career the tune up are you kidding me don't defend this stupid ****. Believe me, I can't stand Garcia either. I'm just saying that we've had worse from him (he got a title by defeating a washed-up Guerrero) and that this is a ****ty but understandable approach to a comeback. This is a trash fight if I have ever seen one, but at least it's not Rod Salka.

To Ogawa's credit, he never let up and was very game tonight. However, he did not win the fight.

Look up youtube and you will see Jerwin calling out Inoue for a fight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hreR1SVN1jQ Instead of Boyeaux, Inoue was looking at Ancajas instead. http://www.asianboxing.info/asian-news/naoya-inoue-continues-to-seek-ancajas-bout-eyes-future-bout-with-luis-nery However, Ancajas chose Jamie Conlan. Ancajas's opponent was announced before Inoue's. For SuperFly 2, Inoue wanted Ancajas and Yafai. Yafai declined, and Ancajas chose to be with Top Rank to face Israel Gonzalez on a card that takes place three weeks before SuperFly 2. Check Inoue's twitter and Instagram, he is calling for a unification on SuperFly 2. In fact, Inoue has been negotiating with Ancajas's team since the beginning of the year, but nothing came to fruition. So yeah, Ancajas has no plans on fighting Inoue.

Some judges actually gave Lemieux rounds? Regardless, nice to see BJS actually put up a world-class performance for the first time in a long time.

The hell are you talking about, Ancajas has been vocal to fight Inoue. Inoue disappointed me, I was expecting him to fight Cuadras but instead has taken another weak ass opponent. Inoue is even afraid to fight Rungvisai! Actually, it's been the other way around. Inoue has been chasing Ancajas for the last year or so. Their schedules lined up perfectly for Inoue to fight Ancajas numerous times, but Ancajas chose Kino****a and Conlan over him. Now, Ancajas joined Top Rank to fight a guy nobody has heard about. He could have fought Inoue for a unification on SuperFly2, but nope. Inoue was perfectly willing to fight on SuperFly2 only on the condition that it was a unification. Yafai and Hearn declined, and Ancajas is taking a different route. So no unification. Rungvisai has different priorities, opting to fight a mandatory in Estrada. No unification + outgrowing the division= moving up.

Inoue needs to step up level of opposition. We need to see where his level really is by fighting formidable opposition. Anyone can look like a monster fighting D level fighters. We'll be seeing Inoue against Tete or Nery in his next fight, so we won't have to wait very long I imagine.

That's surprising, I thought Melindo would rematch Budler. Not complaining about this though, seems like a 50-50 fight. I hope Taguchi wins so he could fight Tanaka in 2018 though.

Unification my a*s, these fighters fight for money and fame. The exposure and money sticking around and fighting ANY of the guys featured on the superfly tournament (not just a champion...) there's so many BIG names and good fighters to choose from. He didn't want to fight them if he's moving up. You either fight for a world title, or a big name to make your resume look better and get more exposure. These fighters don't care who is more skilled than who, they want to fight the biggest fights possible. Those guys in the superfly tournament, those top 5 guys are all bigger names then Tete at 118. That's like Sadam Ali choosing to fight Jeff Horn at 147 instead of Miguel Cotto at 154. Yeah you get a belt, but you won't get the same money nor exposure. Plus, both are winnable fights. Let me put it like this: Inoue has yet to reach his physical prime. He's 24 years old, and is a constantly growing fighter. He became a super flyweight champion at the age of 21, having to waste a year fighting only once due to a hand injury. He's growing out of the division after having been there for three years. Inoue needs to move on from the division. From what I have seen, Inoue has negotiated with Gonzalez, Cuadras, McJoe Arroyo, Ancajas, Yafai, Concepcion, Kono, and Estrada. That's nearly every big name in the division. Rungvisai was owed a mandatory shot for the WBC belt since 2015, so he was biding his time. All of these negotiations with the exception of Kono fell through because of different priorities (Arroyo, Cuadras, Gonzalez) or because they outright don't want to fight him (Ancajas, Yafai, Concepcion). All of these offers were made when most of them were still champions at the time. Instead, Inoue had to go for mandatories and voluntaries. And even the mandatories didn't want to fight with Inoue! Tso and Conlan wanted nothing to do with Inoue, and Estrada wanted to fight Gonzalez, so he went the WBC route. Once again, I haven't seen any reports where Inoue turned down an offer against a big name. If you could find one, please let me know. I want proper sources that say Inoue is declining offers to fight big names. Quite frankly, it seems like the other way around. Inoue wants to fight the big names, but they keep avoiding him. It's been like that for the 2 years Inoue has been active at the division (I don't count 2015 because of the injury). I only cite the unification deal because that's what Inoue wanted for the end of 2017 or the SuperFly2 card. For the entire time Inoue has been in the division, only Gonzalez and Kono made an effort to fight Inoue. I remember when Gonzalez vs Inoue was seen as the superfight of the lower weight divisions. They both so badly wanted to fight each other. Alas, Gonzalez spent too much time trying to build his name up, and ended up losing to Sor Rungvisai twice. Those are the facts of the matter. Do fighters want big names, regardless of the belt? Sure, of course. They are called prizefighters for a reason. Inoue has been chasing big names since 2016. Nobody would accept Inoue's offers. Inoue was running out of time to make a mark on the division because of weight issues, so he wanted a unification fight before he moved up. Gonzalez was planned, but he lost. Ancajas and Yafai ducked Inoue. Rungvisai is busy with Estrada. So Inoue moved up. Inoue has called out literally every big name in the bantamweight division, and is willing to travel to the U.K. to fight McDonnell, Burnett, and Tete. The lower weight divisions aren't like the higher ones. Because these guys are smaller fighters, even a 3 lb. difference in weight is a big difference. That's why Gonzalez struggled so much at super flyweight. He is a smaller guy who started at the lowest weight available and is fighting against guys who rehydrate to lightweights. Inoue can't switch between super flyweight and bantamweight at will. Inoue moved up for a reason, and it's because of weight and issues getting a fight while Inoue could still make the weight. Inoue isn't ducking anybody.