Pound for pound has become meaningless. Ounce for ounce has no bounce. Let’s put aside the mythical throwback to the Ray Robinson era and use a new and more important gauge of a fighter’s ability.
I call it the MTI, the Marley Thrill Index, because it is a barometer of how much of a crowdpleaser a boxer is. I suppose I could have labeled it the LMSI, meaning Larry Merchant Slugfest Index, but it is my belief that Sir Lawrence is hoping to have a school (Larry Merchant School of Ring Generalship?) or something more impressive named after him.
So it is the MTI and it will appear on Boxingconfidential.com whenever the Marley mood so moves me (acronym here is the cumbersome MMSMM). To your right you can see how stimulated and exciting my main man, Freddie Roach, is about hearing that one of his fighters is Numero Uno in the MTI. Maybe Freddie thought someone said that Manny Pacquaio was going to matriculate at MIT as the two can easily be mixed up.
Remember, this is not the P4P, this is judging what fighters give the paying customers, that means you hayseeds, the most bang for their buck, whether in person or over the airwaves.
MICHAEL MARLEY BOXING THRILL INDEX:
1—MANNY PACQUAIO. No surprise here and don’t accuse me of playing to our strong Pinoy base either. Second for second, Manny Pacquaio is boxing’s most exciting fighter. He carries bombs in those gloves and you never know when they will detonate. And you have to love a boxer who starts looking for the KO at the weigh-in. All hail Da Pacmonster!
2—ROCKY KASTIDIS. Would anyone question Rocky’s stones? He and Pinoy Czar Amonsot put on a brutal fight that ended Amonsot’s career and undoubtedly will prove to have shortened the Aussie’s stay on boxing’s big stage. There may be a bit of the vampire in Kastidis as blood—his or the opponent’s—tends to bring out his fistic fury. People were quick to put the successor to Arturo Gatti label on Rockhead but while he obviously has the requisite toughness, his overall skill set seems to put him in a higher category. I hope the K Man does not bring Micky Ward back into the ring. Nah, Micky’s left Lowell, Mass., in favor of Hollywood anyway.
3—WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO. Here comes the hate mail. Personally, I enjoy watching the IBF champ do his work. His jab has improved and it is quite heavy. The shame of it all is that the other so-called champs seem to be in no rush to unify any titles with Dr. Steelhammer. Even the fact that Wlad occasionally visits the canvas adds to his ranking in the MTI. I won’t say he got his Ph.d in Adversity at the University but he did not let KO losses to Ross Purrity and Corrie Sanders prevent him from becoming the world’s top heavyweight, belts be damned.
4—RICKY HATTON. Certainly, he will get outclassed by Floyd Mayweather. If a bigger, strong, harder-hitting man (De La Hoya) could not locate PBF’s head or body for any real damaging shots, do you think this junior welterweight is going to be able to infict any harm to the mobile Mayweather? But I put The One and Only Ricky Hatton on my inaugural MTI list because of the whole Hatton Package: the adoring, boozing, singing along fans; he may be punching with a peashooter but he is incredibly active in terms of punch counts and, except when clinching, he is a picture of intensity in the ring. I’ll be singing along, walking in a winter wonderland, wondering if Hatton can nick even one round of out 12 on Dec. 8 but I doubt Hatton will be boring in any round, either.
5. ROY JONES. You want to see hate mail? This pick should bring that rolling into the Boxingconfidential World HQs. When he was riding high, all those years on HBO, I never enjoyed watching Roy. Like Mayweather now, his skill set made him so vastly superior to his opponents that boxing boredom set in. Not the Johnny Ruiz mind-warping boredom but boredom nonetheless. I base this on how the “middle-aged” (by boxing standards) RJJ has had to adjust his ring style. If you saw him against Anthony Hanshaw, and I know about 99 fans across the PPV universe did, you know that Jones has eliminated much of the dance and prance routine. His legs are not what they were so he stands and fires instead of flicking and fleeing. Also Roy is another guy who makes dramatic ring entrances and, like his hand speed, his charisma endures. I’m not saying it’s all positive but getting the haters to hate (and watch) is important too. I don’t think RJJ will have any dull fights here in the October of his ring years.
(Michael Marley’s two favorite fighters of all time remain G.O.A.T (M. Ali) and Irish Joey Archer with honorable mentions to Ted Whitfield and Marian Connor.)
