Kevin Iole: "Pacquiao is back as P4P #1 because of Floyd's RELUCTANCE to fight"
Rankings: Familiar face back on top
Aug 11, 2010
Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports
Originally posted by Kevin Iole
The new leader in the Yahoo! Sports boxing rankings is an old one. Manny Pacquiao regained the top spot in the voting from Floyd Mayweather Jr., the clear result of voter disappointment with Mayweather’s reluctance to fight his Filipino rival.
There was no poll in July, since I was on vacation, so the last balloting took place in June. At that time, it still looked likely that Mayweather and Pacquiao would meet in the fall.
But Mayweather let pass an opportunity to fight Pacquiao on Nov. 13, with one of his advisors denying negotiations had ever taken place despite the fact that promoter Bob Arum and HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg insisted they had.
Voters clearly were unhappy with Mayweather’s choice and one left him off of his ballot entirely as a result. In June, Mayweather garnered 22 of the 40 first-place votes cast, with Pacquiao taking the other 18. In the August balloting, there were 36 votes cast. Pacquiao got 21 first-place votes and Mayweather 15.
Juan Manuel Lopez, who knocked out Bernabe Concepcion on July 10, reentered the rankings at No. 9, with Shane Mosley dropping out of the top 10. Otherwise, there was only position shifting among the top 10.
With that, let’s take a closer look at the results of the August balloting:
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