Best: 147. Pac/May/Marquez/Ortiz/Bradley/Berto/Guerrero/Alexander. It was 140lb until some of them moved to 147lbs.
That's like saying that HW is best when it's full of cruisers.
147 is a **** division. The two best fighters won't fight each other and the rest is made up by boxers who don't belong there trying to get a bite at them.
I don't think the mix between Jr Welterweight and WW is such an issue, the 7lbs difference is around 5% at the weigh in, most fighters just need to rehidratate a bit less than usual.
It's not the same for a 200lbs Cruiser though, by fighting a 240lbs guy the difference would be around 16%, 13% by fighting a 230 lbs guy.
154 is good too: Trout, Mayweather, Cotto, Lara, Vanes, Kirkland, Molina
Weak(lacking in depth) divisions:
+200: Wladimir, Vitali, Haye, Pulev, Povetkin (no one else really matters at this point)
200: Yoan Pablo Hernandez, Marco Huck, Wlodarczyk, Lebedev
130: Uchiyama, Salgado, Gamboa, Rocky Martinez, Burgos
126: Mikey Garcia, Salido, Ponce de Leon, Abner Mares (moving to 126)
118: Moreno, Santa Cruz, Yamanaka?, Kameda?
115: Narvaez, Sato, Cuadras, Sanchez Jr.
112: Igarashi, Viloria, Tyson Marquez, Mthlane, Reveco
108: Solis, Roman Gonzalez
105: Moises Fuentes, Raul Garcia (this may be the weakest division by far)
I might catch flack for this but I dont really consider 105 a weight class. I cant take a fighter seriously that is at the same weight as the female supermodels ideal. Ricardo Lopez being the exception to the rule.
140, 154 don't really need justification. 160 has a lot of contenders, all are pretty decent. 168 is usually thought of as weak because Ward is top of the pack. But theres so many up and comers, as well as the fights that could be made there. Kessler, Froch, Abraham, Bute (if he returns), Degale, Groves, Dirrell has decided to make a comeback. We can also see what Oosthuizen is going to be like, as well as Rodriguez and also see what Stieglitz does with his career. Best part of 168 is the lack of Goldenboy/Toprank, so matchups can actually be made.
I've been involved in the boxing game for a little over 50 years and the worst heavyweight class is happening right now!!! The Marciano era wasn't much better when you compare talent levels but that era had fighters who came to fight where as this era has a lack of effort to win from my vantage point!
Also the Light Heavy weight class (161-175)lbs is as weak as its ever been, probably the weakest EVER!!
The strongest seems to be 140 thru 160lbs. Welters/Middles! Atleast 12 guys that have decent talent levels to very good talent and most of their efforts are good!
There are a few fighters that are very good technically;
Mayweather
Marquez
Donaire
Broner
and a few others tht have some pop and look as thogh their ready to make a big splash;
Rios
GGG
Kirkland
.......................this is NOT an overly talented era in boxing but if we have some of the above make a concerted effort to get in max condition and be willing to win at all cost we can have some great bouts.
The attention paid to maintaining undefeated status is ruining the oportunity to have better match ups. If the guys like Mayweather weren't in so "easy" as they came up they'd probably have a good fight loss on the record that would have made them much better fighters (ala Leonard vs Duran) in Rays loss it was still one of his best outings!! To many so-called great fighters refuse to challenge themselfs so the boxing scene has become all entertainers instead of "all in fighters"! It maybe good for the individual but it hurts boxing big time!! Ray Corso
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