..The Rings Top Five 147 Challengers...

[THe TRiNiTY]

Here's their list of the top five 147 pounders, challenging for Mayweathers welterweight title.

C C 97 FLOYD MAYWEATHER 39-0 (25)
1 1 63 MIGUEL COTTO 31-0 (25)
2 3 53 SHANE MOSLEY 44-5 (37)
3 - 1 CARLOS QUINTANA 25-1 (19)
4 2 90 PAUL WILLIAMS 33-1 (24)
5 4 344 ANTONIO MARGARITO 35-5 (25)

Your thoughts? Agree or disagree?

Take part in the poll and discuss.

[VegasDude702]

Cotto obviously presents himself as the biggest challenge we all know that. Its now a fact of filling in the puzzle pieces behind that. Mosley would be a nice fight if your going for that "big name" aspect. Quintana i think isn't great, i think he fought a flawed Paul Williams and stuck to the game plan on Williams which has been there all along. Margarito, i just dont see what he has to be honest but benefit of the doubt.


my rankings of people who could give Money May the matchups.

Cotto
Margarito
Mosley
Quintana
Williams.

[OldSkool]

i think the list contains the top 5 contenders however i would position them differently:

Cotto
Mosley
Williams
Mararito
Quintana

i know tht is probably controversial after wht happened in williams llast fight. but i honestly believe he stands a much better chance of winning (even though this is probably little to none) against floyd than quintana.

[THe TRiNiTY]

i think the list contains the top 5 contenders however i would position them differently:

Cotto
Mosley
Williams
Mararito
Quintana

i know tht is probably controversial after wht happened in williams llast fight. but i honestly believe he stands a much better chance of winning (even though this is probably little to none) against floyd than quintana.

Mayweather fights better inside then most give him credit for. Williams has trouble finding his range with those who can hold their own within his reach. It's easier then most think to get inside that range, if you have movement. I see Mayweather getting into more movement if he fought Williams and shooting off combos on the inside. I think he busts Williams up, to be honest. I've always said that movement against a taller, longer-armed foe is the key, and Williams isn't anything, if he isn't a tall, long-armed opponent.

Mosley, I still think has the SPEED AND POWER to give Mayweather the most trouble out of the five, if you ask me. He just has the right tools. His age is catching up, so it needs to happen by the beginning of next year for him to have a true chance.

Margarito has the chin to keep going forward, his problem is that he needs to quit looping his punches. He hits a bit harder then Baldy does (my opinion) AND he is probably a BIT quicker. He's got a decent beard, except he throws more then Carlos does. That COULD create a problem for Mayweather as it's harder to dictate the pace against a busier and determined fighter.

Cotto can box well, and hits hard. Combinations are good, crisp punches, doesn't seem to fade, can stay on his toes and cuts off the ring to wear his opponents down, EXCEPTIONALLY well. He can go to the body like Hatton, except better and stronger with more skill. His problem is his chin. The punch you don't see (a fast one) is the one that hurts the most. And if Corley can get to his jaw and hurt him, so can Mayweather.

Quintana is a very good fighter. His problem is that he CAN get discouraged. Against Mayweather, that's NOT a good sign. HOWEVER, he hits pretty hard, good conditioning-wise, and has nice skills, in terms of overall boxing. He can stick to a gameplan, he just needs to stay focused. If he can keep his guard up and be as cagey against Floyd as he was against Julio and Williams, he has a boxer-punchers chance, so to speak. His problem will be that he has to keep busy and not let the fact that a lot of early and later rounds wil go to Mayweather if his workrate drops, bother him.

Mayweather can beat these guys, but I can see a couple of them being able to beat him.

I also think an honorable mention is Cintron. He's ALWAYS in it with a punch like his. But, if Feliciano can damn-near outbox you, (or outwork you, in that fight, it was the same thing), you'll be in trouble against Mayweather.

[acelinofreitas1]

Mayweather is duckin cotto, why should he be up there?

[THe TRiNiTY]

Mayweather is duckin cotto, why should he be up there?

Because he beat the TRUE champ. Ducking people can't ALWAYS be bad to you. Freitas ducked Casamayor...........


NOTE: Can someone move this.. I meant to open this up in Non Stop Boxing.

[Gareth Ivanovic]

I agree with that list pretty much.

[RageX]

By that ranking, Mayweather only needs to fight Cotto and then can retire for all I care.

Margarito lost to Williams
Williams recently lost to Quintana
Quintana lost to Cotto

He wont fight them because they lost recently and he wouldn't get much credit anyway. I know styles make fights but no way Mayweather fights them because they recently lost. Cotto is the guy who can present Money with the most Money out of that list. Know what I mean?

I hope the cotto fight happens when both of them are undefeated, because I heard Cotto is fighting Gomez, Mayorga and then Margarito for 2008 and IMO thats a bit of tough task for Miguel. so the Mayweather fight will happen in 2009 probably with Floyd fighting Oscar in September. and then March 2009 its on...hopefully

[Left2body]

Mayweather fights better inside then most give him credit for. Williams has trouble finding his range with those who can hold their own within his reach. It's easier then most think to get inside that range, if you have movement. I see Mayweather getting into more movement if he fought Williams and shooting off combos on the inside. I think he busts Williams up, to be honest. I've always said that movement against a taller, longer-armed foe is the key, and Williams isn't anything, if he isn't a tall, long-armed opponent.

Mosley, I still think has the SPEED AND POWER to give Mayweather the most trouble out of the five, if you ask me. He just has the right tools. His age is catching up, so it needs to happen by the beginning of next year for him to have a true chance.

Margarito has the chin to keep going forward, his problem is that he needs to quit looping his punches. He hits a bit harder then Baldy does (my opinion) AND he is probably a BIT quicker. He's got a decent beard, except he throws more then Carlos does. That COULD create a problem for Mayweather as it's harder to dictate the pace against a busier and determined fighter.

Cotto can box well, and hits hard. Combinations are good, crisp punches, doesn't seem to fade, can stay on his toes and cuts off the ring to wear his opponents down, EXCEPTIONALLY well. He can go to the body like Hatton, except better and stronger with more skill. His problem is his chin. The punch you don't see (a fast one) is the one that hurts the most. And if Corley can get to his jaw and hurt him, so can Mayweather.

Quintana is a very good fighter. His problem is that he CAN get discouraged. Against Mayweather, that's NOT a good sign. HOWEVER, he hits pretty hard, good conditioning-wise, and has nice skills, in terms of overall boxing. He can stick to a gameplan, he just needs to stay focused. If he can keep his guard up and be as cagey against Floyd as he was against Julio and Williams, he has a boxer-punchers chance, so to speak. His problem will be that he has to keep busy and not let the fact that a lot of early and later rounds wil go to Mayweather if his workrate drops, bother him.

Mayweather can beat these guys, but I can see a couple of them being able to beat him.

I also think an honorable mention is Cintron. He's ALWAYS in it with a punch like his. But, if Feliciano can damn-near outbox you, (or outwork you, in that fight, it was the same thing), you'll be in trouble against Mayweather.

Not a bad assesment. I agree with most of it.

[pabcs]

margarito should be above williams and quintana. quintana has one good win but margarito has been destroying welterweights for years and quintana would get brutally knocked out by the tijuana tornado.