He's probably at #10 or #11 right now, if he beats Dawson i imagine he'd be as high as #7. For those saying he should be a p4p top 5, who has he beaten lately of note to put him in with the likes of Pacquiao, Mayweather, Martinez, Donaire, JMM Marquez, or W. Klitschko? Beating Pascal was great of course but before that his last win of note was in 2008 against Pavlik. You may think he's still capable of cleaning out the LHW division but unless he's done it and done it recently he doesn't deserve that distinction, regardless of him be a sure-fired HOF.
I'd favor Canelo after his performance tonight. He looks like he's on his way to being elite, he's still gotta watch out for people outworking him but I don't think Lara would be the fighter to do that.
The Mosely fight was a great performance. Even though I thought he lost when I saw it live.
yeah I would say his run at 147 up until the Margarito fight was very impressive. He beat Mosley who was probably only slightly past his prime. Nobody had beaten Zab Judah so comprehensively before, and he absolutely smoked out Quintana.
In order:
1. Manny Pacquiao.
2. Amir Khan
3. Sergio Martinez
1. Pac
2. Sergio
3. Khan
It looks like Khan wants to fight winner of Berto-Ortiz first to get his bearings at 147 so we might need to wait on that fight. Sergio-May at 154 would be a toss-up IMO
I get you. My thinking is Khan, even though he fights at 140, is a naturally bigger man than Floyd. As much as I want to see Sergio, he's so much larger that 160 would be a huge disadvantage for Floyd, and vice-versa, 150-154 would likely sap Sergio and taint that fight in my eyes. It'd have to be 160 or bust, for me, and though it'd be disappointing, I'd understand if it didn't happen so long as Floyd fights quality opponents around his weight.
Floyd could never compete at 160 you're right, he's an average size 147 pounder. But he showed he could bang with De La Hoya at 154, and Martinez who is by today's standards a small middleweight could probably still make 154. He came in at 158 for his last fight and last fought Jr. middle in '09 so 4 pounds probably won't kill him.
Bull****. He looked tremendous against Randall Bailey, Alfonso Gomez, and Carlos Quintana. **** outta here with that.
oh damn I completely forgot he fought Randall Bailey. He had some good wins at Junior Welter as well
Probably the end of his career. He put up a good fight in that fifth round after it looked like he was ready to quit in the fourth. Sort of redemptive in a way for the way he crumpled in the Margarito fights.
Gamboa should have at least one fight at lightweight before taking on Rios IMO. If you remember Gamboa moved down to featherweight because he kept getting knocked down at super feather. If I were Gamboa, I'd wait for Donaire to move up, and try to get a fight with Juanma, Chris John or Elio Rojas in the meantime.
Antonio Tarver is excellent. He's very articulate and always fair in his comments about non-American boxers.
Steve Albert is okay, and Gus Johnson isn't too bad.
Al Bernstein and Steve Farhood are awful, they are biased against European fighters and always discredit them when they see an opportunity. They score close rounds against them (Holyfield-Valuev, which Bernstein was watching from a screen in the US while he was commentating) claim point deductions are unfair when they are not (Abraham-Miranda I) claim fair stoppages are early stoppages (Bernstein went on and on about the Sheika and Mitchell stoppages against Calzaghe) never give them fair credit (Bernstein: "there's something wrong with Lacy tonight " - no, Calzaghe was what was wrong with Lacy :nono:).
how could you possibly say Al Bernstein is awful and Gus Johnson "isn't too bad"? One's spent his life following boxing, the other prefers MMA to boxing.
Kessler, Froch, and Dirrell would all be good opponents for him to step up against. If he fights one of them next he can erase a lot of the criticism against him.
He should fight Ward now, Bute is more than ready. I'm just afraid we might be looking at a Chris John type of situation where because he's so marketable in Canada he opts to take safe fights and still makes big paydays. I sure hope that's not the case because Bute's a considerable talent and Ward is now p4p #6 on my list
I gave Froch three rounds myself, I could see four, and if you really wanted to give Froch every round that was even somewhat close then maybe five rounds would have been acceptable. But no two ways about it, he was thoroughly outclassed.
that was irresponsible of Top Rank to book a card without having even gotten assurance that the man headlining it was cleared to fight.
Typical Arum sh*t
I did think that was really a classy move by Jhonny, to come over and make sure Abner was OK before celebrating. You don't see too many fighters doing that.
This just isn't right. Is there some kind of financial incentive for Arum to choose the NSAC or WADA over VADA? That's the only explanation I would have other than Marquez is being injected with a hard to trace synthetic testosterone being provided to him by a known PED supplier in Memo Heridia. If I were Bradley I would try to sue or try to get out of the Top Rank contract, this is absolutely outrageous, especially considering Bradley made it clear in the negotiations that he would only take the fight if there were more stringent tests in place.
If you want to say Whitaker beat Chavez (in spite of the BS scorecard), Sweet Pea only has one hall of fame fighter on his resume.
Mayweather beat De La Hoya, Marquez and Mosley, three future HOFers right there, Gatti a guy already in the hall, and Cotto who is a borderline case. Five to one.
Sweet Pea had titles in four divisions, compared with Mayweather's five. And by the age of 33, Whitaker was already over the hill. Mayweather's still going strong at 36. I don't there really is a case to be made that Whitaker is better than Mayweather, especially after he dismantled the legitimate 154 pound champion Saturday night.
The real blemish on Mayweather's record of course is he didn't fight Pacquiao but how much blame one should attribute to him for that fight not coming off in light of the OST controversy and the issues with Arum, is highly questionable.
Martinez is around the same size as Margarito so, it's not a ridiculous fight. But as Cotto is by far the bigger pull, surely they'd make Sergio come down a few pounds?
no way this fight happens at 160. Cotto was too tiny for 154!
I completely agree with you. I don't think any fight could match this one in terms of hype/revenue. There's nothing left. A pacquiao fight would still be huge (though never will happen), but that's it. I don't see any of floyd's future fights doing well, aside from maybe a Khan fight (big ups to the UK). He won't be making 40 mil again. DG v. May = no mexican fans. Sad but true. I don't think people will drop $$ for a PR guy on mexican independence day/cinco de may.
yeah, that's why I'm questioning the business sense of May wanting to fight in May. There are no Mexican fighters out there anymore for Mayweather to face! His only options right now are Garcia, the winner of Khan-Alexander, or Tim Bradley if he beats Marquez and then somehow gets out of his TR contract. Broner's not ready even if he gets through Maidana in November. Mayweather probably just earned the most he'll ever make in a fight, I doubt it gets this lucrative for him again.