September and October had the potential to disturb these pound-for-pound rankings more than they did, but the onset of fall didn’t do as much rumbling as anticipated. It didn’t help that the Super Six finale got canceled and that there were some lackluster performances where nobody really separated themselves.
Nonetheless, there was some legitimate, if incremental, movement. The big debut comes from Floyd Mayweather, which forced out Brandon Rios. And I had to figure out how to handle the Bernard Hopkins-Chad Dawson controversy. I won’t tell you how both those things affected the rankings because you’ve got to have a little mystery to entice you to read the rest. I showed you my ankle! You have to buy the cow if you want the rest of the ankle-milk! So read on.
As usual, my primary standard for pound-for-pound placement is quality wins, especially of recent vintage. Fighters inactive for a year are not eligible, and poor opposition over the past year can lead to downgrades. There’s a dollop of the “eyeball test” thrown in there, where a boxer’s evident talent can help his status — but because a lot of talented-looking fighters lose when they step up their competition, it’s better to see them prove how good they are rather than speculating based on how they fare against less-than-world-class opponents. The most recent update, for comparison’s sake, is here.
