By Ron Borges
Now that Joe Calzaghe is finished with Bernard Hopkins and Miguel Cotto is ready for Antonio Margarito it seemed time to revisit our pound-for-pound debate. Here’s the latest top 10, with many slots unchanged.
1. Floyd Mayweather - No debating this whether you like his style or not.
2. Manny Pacquiao - Not by much but he got the nod over Juan Manuel Marquez so give him his props.
3. Miguel Cotto - If he beats Antonio Margarito, Pacquiao better have looked good vs. David Diaz if he wants to hold his slot.
4. Juan Manuel Marquez - If it weren’t for some bad luck you could probably flip flop him and Pacquiao and nobody could argue with you.
5. Chris John - Baddest boy nobody knows.
6. Israel Vasquez - Baddest boy a lot of people know.
7. Kelly Pavlik - Until somebody beats him, who’s a better middleweight?
8. Rafael Marquez - He’s probably better than this but he lost to Vasquez so here he sits.
9. Joe Calzaghe - He didn’t cover himself with glory against Hopkins but he did enough to in. Barely.
10. Oscar De La Hoya - You lose a split decision to the No. 1 guy after taking a year off shouldn’t you be in the top 10 somewhere? .
Honorable mention: Crisitan Mijares.
Arguments?
13 responses so far ↓
1 Meemaw // Apr 30, 2008 at 3:36 pm
The only beef I would have with that list is putting De La Hoya in there. I think Winky Wright would beat De La Hoya so I would put him in his place. Then again, I also thought Hopkins was gonna beat Calzaghe… The sporting world needs to see more of Chris John and Mijares. What’s the holdup?
2 Ron Borges // May 3, 2008 at 7:38 am
Money and connections, especially for John. He fights in a division where the
Asian fighters don’t get much play in the US. He’s too dangerous for the big name guys to want to face him if they don’t have to under the theory the risk exceeds the reward. Pretty lame but so it goes.
Mijares will get more publicity and exposure this year.
As for Winky, did you see how many times Hopkins hit him and then see how few times Hopkins hit Calzaghe? Winky is washed up and has been for some time because his game is defense and his quickness and reflexes are fading. De La Hoya lost a split decision to the No. 1 pound-for-ppound fighter that i thought he won by a slight margin. So how is he NOT in the top 10?? We’ll see what he does in the rematch with Floyd in Sept. That will tell the story.
3 Meemaw // May 4, 2008 at 9:55 am
Without a doubt we have Winky, Hopkins and maybe even De la Hoya well past their primes. Last nights De la Hoya-Forbes fight wasn’t too telling. This brings my next question. Is it the just a mere lack of exposure for the young fighters or a more troubling sign of the sport as a whole when we have fighters in their mid to late 30s and beyond all hovering in and around our pound for pound lists?
4 LeonardoMarroquini // May 4, 2008 at 11:10 am
I’m not so sure but I believe a similar argument could be used on Shane Mosley. He lost a very competitive decision to Cotto, and the fact is we don’t really know how good Cotto really is because hes has yet to fight Floyd Mayweather.. I mean, he might be the best welterweight in the world right now. Well, then i’m holding Shane mosleys name to throw it in the list in case Cotto smashes margarito and he dominates Judah convincingly. The fight that should happen is Mayweather Cotto so taht would really clarify things but I think its unlikely to happen this year…
And Chris John is really good, I agree. I have never seem a guy playing a boxer against Marquez the way he did, I mean Marquez had to be the brawler -whether the result was controversial or not, he was the boxer
5 Ron Borges // May 5, 2008 at 10:39 am
You both have good points. Certainly if cotto destroys Margarito it enhances Mosley’s position, although I feel he’s well past his prime. You’re right though it’s the same argument I made for Oscar vs. Mayweather, the only difference being floyd is universally seen as No. 1 at the moment. AS for Saturday night, I thought De La hoya did well but I’m not convinced he did well enough to make me feel he’ll have the answers vs. floyd. In fact, at this point at least, I think at best it will be a repeat of the first fight.
One thing has to be allowed however. A great fighter in his final years often has one great night left. This could be it for Oscar. If it is, I think he wins.
Glad to see someone else feels as I do about Chris john. The way he boxed vs. Marquez should have gotten him more exposure in the U.S. but it hasn’t yet.
6 Ron Borges // May 5, 2008 at 10:41 am
As for the question of young fighters I believe it’s more a question of exposure than anything else. There is talent out there but we don’t get to see it on really free TV any more. Not even our Olympic kids. Would Oscar be The Golden Boy if the U.S. public hadn’t had the chance to fall in love with him and his family story leading up to the ‘92 Games in Barcelona? I think not. Today the Olympic kids are lucky if they get televised on CNBC in the middle of the night.
Someone has to find a way to get them more main stream exposure, which is starting to happen but not enough.
7 LeonardoMarroquini // May 6, 2008 at 8:03 pm
I’d like to know where do you rank Ivan “Iron boy” Calderon, and your oppinion about him…thanks
8 Meemaw // May 9, 2008 at 12:57 pm
I couldn’t agree more with the public missing the oppurtunity to see the development of our Olympians as well as the talented young pros. I believe ESPN2 is as close as we got nowadays to free TV and I question the cards they televise more often than not. I think as always promotional and network greed is the cause of promising fighters being rushed (Francisco Bojado) or mismanaged. Wasn’t our Republican Presidential nominee trying to get the government more involved in the sport? What happened to that and what was your take on his ideas?
9 Ron Borges // May 11, 2008 at 5:28 pm
McCain was trying and he did get the Muhammad Ali Act passed. problem is there’s no way to really enforce it unless a Federal lawsuit is involved. The other problem was McCain decided to run for President. End of his concerns for boxing.
I agree it’s a shame that Olympic boxing is only shown in the middle of the night on some side channel like CNBC. You need a compass to find the broadcasts so if there is the next De La Hoya or Mayweather there you’d never know it. What boxing needs is a way to get back on network (really free) TV on a regular basis but don’t ask me how to get that done unless De La Hoya buys the time on CBS and puts on the cards himself. Which, frankly, ain’t that bad an idea.
10 Ron Borges // May 11, 2008 at 5:32 pm
I like Calderon and have him in my top 20 but not yet the top 10. I think he’s a very good fighter who’ll be back in action very soon and have another chance to show his skills. You could certainly make an argument to put him in the pound-for-pound top 10.
11 fisherman // May 14, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Ron, The idea of free TV for Boxing is great . I grew up watching Fri. night fights and Wide World of Sports. This is what brought a generation of fans to the sport. You knew who the fighters were and looked forward the to the good ones fighting each other two or three times to really see who was the best. If the sport wants to grow it needs to open its appeal to a younger age group by exposing itself to that age group. Mano a mano no other sport has that appeal.
12 LeonardoMarroquini // May 16, 2008 at 8:08 am
I believe many reasons are in the way of boxing to get a free TV spot. First one is money, free TV channels cant afford to pay huge money for boxers because they dont know how much return they will get once boxing has been out of it for such a long time. Second is also about money, the most marketable boxing names dont want to fight on free TV for much less money than they’d get on HBO, and they are the ones free TV would be interested showing. I thinks theres some sort of reciprocal unninterest.
13 LeonardoMarroquini // May 16, 2008 at 8:08 am
correct me if I’m wrong Ron
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