There have been passionate debates in sports about which athlete is better than another ever since records were first kept.
In the 1940s, the debate of the day was between outfielders Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. The answer, of course, depended in large part upon where you lived and which team was your favorite.
A New Yorker who worshipped the Yankees went with the graceful, all-around ability of DiMaggio. A Bostonian who lived and died with the Red Sox preferred the man known as the greatest hitter ever.
In the 1960s, it became a debate between the powerful golf game of Jack Nicklaus and the swashbuckling, go-for-broke style of Arnold Palmer. In the 1970s, it was the cool precision of Bjorn Borg against the passion of Jimmy Connors.
Now, it?s a debate between the offensive majesty of Manny Pacquiao against the defensive wizardry of Floyd Mayweather Jr. The 44 active voters in the Yahoo! Sports boxing pound-for-pound poll had their say, and 29 of them voted Mayweather first.
As a result, Mayweather takes over the top spot in our November ratings by a razor-thin margin. Mayweather received 29 first-place votes, nine second-place votes and six third-place votes. Pacquiao received 15 first-place votes, 26 second-place votes, two third-place votes and one fourth. The remaining second-place votes went to Sergio Martinez (seven) and Juan Manuel Marquez (one).
