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Ralph Rimpell’s Pound 4 Pound List By Ralph Rimpell PhilBoxing.com Wed, 07 Jul 2021  Once again the time has come for me to give my opinion on who the best Pound for Pound (P4P) current fighters in boxing today are. As scientists and health care providers have found a way to keep the Coronavirus or Covid-19 in check, perhaps for the remainder of 2021 and the upcoming year of 2022, fight fans can begin to look forward to some interesting boxing matches. This is a very unique P4P list as eight of the ranked fighters are unified world champions. I can’t recall a recent list made up of so many unified champions. For those that will use an expletive asking, “Who the (expletive) is Ralph Rimpell?” Please read my writer Bio. The best fighters P4P in order of who the best is starting at number 1 are: 1) Terrence “Bud” Crawford (37-0, 28KOs) is ranked number one P4P. Bud is a future hall of famer. He is the current (147lbs) undefeated WBO welterweight champion. He previously was the undisputed 140lbs unified champion. The first 4 belt champion in that division (IBF, WBA, WBC, WBO) and previously held the WBO lightweight title prior to fighting at 140lbs. I dare say he would have given the great Aaron Pryor a run for his money when Pryor was in his prime. Critics have judged Crawford harshly for the quality of his opponents. Bud can’t be blamed for that because reports are he is willing to fight the top fighters but those fights have not materialized. Bud has been unable to secure super fights against fellow future Hall of famer Manny Pacquiao and rival counterpart WBC/IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence. Perhaps that will change and Bud will fight the winner of Pacquiao v Spence in 2022. 2) Saul “Canelo” Alvarez* (56-1-2, 38KOs) is ranked number 2 on this list. At 30 years old he is already a veteran of 58 fights which have earned him 4 titles in 4 different weight classes. He is the unified super middleweight (168lbs) WBA/WBC/WBO champion. He is on a quest to become undisputed champion and will likely fight his IBF counterpart Caleb Plant to accomplish that goal. Canelo has been in the ring with the best fighters in boxing and has officially beaten all except for Floyd Mayweather which was his only loss. He is the current face of boxing. Errol Spence, Jermall Charlo, David Benavidez, and Caleb Plant all want to fight him. Any of the aforementioned fighters matchups make an interesting fight with Canelo. Let’s see what happens if Canelo defeats Plant. 3) Many “Pac Man” Pacquiao (71-7-2, 39KOs) is ranked number 3 on this list. Why not? He is a future hall of famer, won titles in 8 weight divisions, is an active fighter, and last time he fought he won the WBA welterweight crown from a fighter (Keith Thurman) who is 10 years his junior. Pacquiao is the WBA welterweight champion in “recess” due to inactivity because of the Covid-19 pandemic. He may be reinstated back as WBA welterweight champion by the time he fights WBC/IBF champ Errol Spence next month (August 21, 2021). Pacquiao is 42 and Spence is 31. Reports are Pacquiao has NOT lost his speed or boxing ability. If Pacquiao can defeat Spence that will really make him one of the best fighters of all time in boxing he will earn a higher ranking on this list. 4) Errol Spence* is ranked number 4 on this list. Spence is an excellent fighter. His record is 27-0, 21KOs. He is the WBC/IBF welterweight champion. A fight between him and WBO counterpart Terrence Crawford have failed to materialize, much to the dismay of fight fans. Spence, like many welterweights, challenged Pacquiao for a fight. The difference was Spence’s management team was able to seal the deal with Pacquiao’s management team when others couldn’t. Spence has also expressed interest in fighting Canelo. This writer wouldn’t be surprised, provided Spence were to defeat Pacquiao, if Spence’s management team were able to also secure a Canelo fight in the future. Spence says that after the Pacquiao fight he wants to move to 154lbs division, if a fight between him and Crawford can’t be made. That will be very interesting as the King of the 154lbs division is Jermell Charlo, the WBC/WBA/IBF champion who is due to unify with WBO champion Brian Castano next month (August 2021). Charlo and Spence both have the same trainer, Derrick James, and both fight for Premier Boxing Champions (PBC). It will be interesting to see how that plays out when Spence eventually moves up to the 154lbs division. 5) Jermell Charlo* (35-1, 18KOs) ranks number 5 on this list with a record of 34-1, 18KOs. He won his first world title (WBC) in 2016. He lost the title in a controversial decision to Tony Harrison back in 2018. In a rematch, Jermell knocked out Harrison to reclaim his title. He then went on to unify his title by knocking out fellow unified champ Jeison Rosario which gave him 2 more titles (WBA and IBF). Jermell, not to be confused with his twin brother (Jermall) is a tough strong good fighter who comes to fight each and every time. He is close to becoming the undisputed (4 title) champion if he can defeat WBO champion Brian Castano. He is also talking about moving up to 160lbs where his brother Jermall is the WBC 160lbs champion not for a fight but to rule the division together the same way they both ruled 154lbs. Let see what happens with the Castano fight. 6) Gervonta “Tank” Davis** (25-0, 24KOs) makes his debut and is ranked number 6 on this list. Tank simultaneously holds major world titles at 130lbs, 135lbs, and 140lbs. Fight fans recently saw him defeat Mario Barrios to win the WBA 140lbs title. Tank is listed at 5ft 5½ while Barrios is listed at 5ft 10in. The way Barrios towered over Tank it seemed more like 6 feet! This writer thought the fight could go to either fighter and it was a high risk fight for Tank. This writer gives Tank all the credit in the world for taking on a high risk fight. Whatever Barrios height was, that didn’t stop Tank from defeating a previously undefeated fighter giving him his first defeat and taking Barrios’s title. Tank has an impressive resume. Fighters like Leo Santa Cruz and Yuriorkis Gamboa to name a few. Tank moves up this list if he can secure matches and victories at 135lbs against undisputed champ Teofima Lopez, former champ Lomachenko, and Ryan Garcia. 7) Artur Beterbiev* (16-0, 16KOs) also makes his debut on this list and is ranked number 7. He is the unified WBC/IBF 175lbs champion. He became champion in 2017. He unified his title by TKO of former tough WBC champ Oleksandr Gvozdyk in 2019. Gvozdyk was the fighter who defeated Adonis Stevenson. There is some talk that Canelo wants to fight Beterbiev. That would be an awesome fight! If that fight were to take place the winner of that fight earns a higher ranking on this list. 8) Naoya Inoue* (21-0, 18KOs) became a world champion in 2014. He is a 3 division champion and is the current unified WBA/IBF bantamweight champion. He has high KO percentage rate as he has carried is power from the lower division to his current division. Inoue is a future hall of famer and defeated another future hall of famer current WBC bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire. Inoue’s goal is to be the 4 belt undisputed champion. To do that he has to rematch and defeat Donaire as well as defeating WBO bantamweight champion John Casimero. 9) Josh Taylor* (18-0, 13KOs) make is debut this list at number 9. He is the undisputed 140lbs champion. The last person to do that was P4P number #1 Terrence Crawford. Taylor has proved thus far he can fight by beating former and current world champions to become the man at 140lbs division. He earns a higher ranking on this list by beating someone like Mikey Garcia or Tank at 140lbs or by moving up to welterweight and beating any top welterweight at PBC (Danny Garcia, Porter, Thurman, Ugas, etc.). There also some talk of him facing Crawford as well. 10) Teofimo Lopez* (16-0, 12KOs) ranks number 10 on this list. Lopez is now “The Man” at 135lbs after unifying all titles to become undisputed (WBC, WBA, WBO, IBF) champion after defeating Lomachenko. Lopez has a title defense against George Kambosos that has been postponed due to Lopez’s current affliction with Covid 19. If Lopez defeats Kambosos, He can earn a higher ranking on this list if he can defeat Lomachenko in rematch or some other top lightweight. Notes... Future Hall of Famer and current WBC bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire has cancelled his unification match with fellow Filipino WBO champion Johnriel Casimero because of reports that Casimero offended his wife and so he will deny Casimero a big pay day for the fight. When fighters cross the line and are disrespectful to each other don’t they settle their differences in the ring? If Donaire defeated Casimero in the ring wouldn’t that be a good way to punish him for the insult to his wife? By denying Casimero a big payday isn’t Donaire also denying himself a big payday as well?...Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder rematch this month on in Las Vegas. The winner of Wilder-Fury will no doubt be known as the better fighter while the loser will have to rebuild his career or consider retirement…In another interesting rematch on the Wilder-Fury card is Adam Knownacki v Robert Helenius. For those who don’t know or remember, Helenius pulled off a MAJOR UPSET when he stopped Knownacki in 4 rounds last March of 2020. Knownaki had so much momentum with his career and was selling out venues when he fought in his hometown of New York. This is a dangerous fight for Knownacki as Helenius has all the tools to repeat the same outcome of last March 2020. *Fighter is a Unified Champion holding more than one or all major recognized (WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO) sanctioning bodies. **Fighter simultaneously holds major titles in more than one weight division. ***Ralph Rimpell is a writer based out of New York and is a Boxing Correspondent for Philboxing.com. Ralph holds an undergraduate degree from City University of New York. He has been a Boxing Writer for over ten years having written for several top boxing websites on the World Wide Web. Before becoming a writer, Ralph's passion was for professional wrestling until he realized professional wrestling was entertainment and not a real sport. It was at that time the 1984 US Olympic team made up of future stars such as Evander Holyfield, Meldrick Taylor, Pernell Whitaker, etc. entered the professional ranks and signed with promotional outfit Main Events.It was also at that time a young exciting Heavyweight originally hailing from Brooklyn named Mike Tyson also turned professional and became the face of boxing. Young boxing fan Ralph just couldn't get enough of boxing as a large part of it was being broadcast on "free TV". As time went on, Ralph felt boxing writers were not being forthcoming with their boxing coverage, opinion pieces, interviews, etc. So Ralph decided to write an article and submitted it to a Boxing website thinking it would be deleted and ignored by the Editor. To Ralph's surprise his article was posted on their website and the readers embraced it. The rest is history. "I thank God for the Internet because it has created opportunities for writers like myself who likely would not have been given an opportunity to write for print publications. I hope someday soon to expand my role in Boxing on different levels." -- Ralph Rimpell Contact: RLuvsboxing@aol.com Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ralph Rimpell.  |
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