On several high profile ranking lists, Manny Pacquiao has been replaced at the top spot of both the welterweight and pound for pound rankings by his main rival Floyd Mayweather.
Pound for pound rankings can be rather hit and miss at the best of times, and are often affected by personal preference over results. However it seems that most lists are basing their rankings on recency of each boxer’s respective fights more than anything else.
Will Mayweather be able to hang on to the top spot for very long?
If recency is the main factor then whenever Mayweather or Pacquiao take on a good opponent, then will temporarily rise to the top.
Seemingly, Mayweather was raised above Pacquiao mainly because he has fought an elite opponent more recently. Pacquiao’s win over Cotto was back in November of last year and Mayweather’s comparable victory over Shane Mosley was last month. If you consider them to be otherwise completely equal wins, then the most recent is the most relevant.
By that logic though, and with his next fight date already announced for November, Manny Pacquiao should be back at the top before very long.
Mayweather isn’t a very active fighter these days, and has said that he intends to take some time off after his latest victory. If this means he probably won’t fight again until next year (unless that is he fights Pacquiao, although I won’t be holding my breath on that one), then Pacquiao will have taken on one more top welterweight than Mayweather, in all likelihood being Antonio Margarito.
Won’t Mayweather jump back over Pacquiao next year when he fights again though?
He might well do, depending on who he fights, and of course the only way to know for sure which of the pair is the better would be for them to fight each other. If that isn’t an option though, the more active of the two will remain on top so long as they both keep winning.
It isn’t clear whether the talks have begun yet to try to put together a fight between Floyd and Manny, but no word is coming out of either Golden boy or Top Rank, which given the circumstances is probably a good sign. If anything had gone seriously wrong then the talks would probably have broken down by now and something would have been leaked to the media.
What will be interesting is if Mayweather takes on middleweight champion Sergio Martinez and emerged victorious. Would it be considered more of an achievement for Floyd to take the middleweight crown than what Pacquiao has achieved throughout the course of his 7 divisions?
Billy Humphris, Pittsburgh: “I bet no matter who Pacquiao faces next outside Mayweather he wont jump back to the top of the pound for pound lists. One rule for an American and another for everyone else”
Tom Richies, Pittsburgh: “Either way Pacquiao will overtake Mayweather again pretty quickly, unless Mayweather takes on a better opponent before Pacquiao does. Floyd will probably take a year or two off though, so Manny has nowhere to go but up”
