SONAHR: March 29, 2015 – What?s the hottest division in boxing today? Welterweight. Indeed, there is almost an embarrassment of riches in the 147-pound class, starting at the very top, where Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao reside. These two are also at the pinnacle of the pound-for-pound ranks. Plus which, they will meet on May 2 to determine, once and for all, which of them is No. 1 in the world.
In ordinary circumstances, the shine of superstars like Pacquiao and Mayweather would dim the lights of other would-be luminaries who had the misfortune of plying their trade in the same division. But the circumstances of the welterweights in the mid-2010s are far from ordinary. The tier just below the two at the top is loaded with proven veterans and talented newcomers, all of whom are eager to fight the Pacquiao/Mayweather winner or fill the void that will follow their retirement.
Two of the grizzled veterans ? Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez ? boast victories over Pacquiao, who has also beaten both his conquerors in turn. Another ? Marcos Maidana ? gave Mayweather a lot to think about in back-to-back fights, which Mayweather won, though he didn?t look all that impressive in the first one.
Nipping at the heels of the old guard are up-and-comers Keith Thurman, Amir Khan and Kell Brook. Brook, who is from the United Kingdom and holds the IBF 147-pound title, displayed his wares last night in a defense against Jo Jo Dan, a Romanian based in Canada. Dan is one of those mandatory challengers whose mandate is dubious. He lasted only four rounds with Brook, going down four times before his corner and the referee ended the beatdown.
The question going into the fight wasn?t whether or not Brook would win. The uncertainty lay in the effects of a stab wound Brook suffered not long after he had won the IBF title from the highly-touted (and still highly-rated) Shawn Porter. As it turned out, there was nothing to worry about as Brook dominated virtually every second of the fight. The only time he wasn?t hitting Dan was when the latter was on the floor.
In the aftermath of his one-sided triumph, Brook called out fellow-Briton Amir Khan. A Brook-Khan showdown in England would be huge, maybe even generating interest and box office on the scale of Carl Froch?s blockbuster second fight with George Groves last year. But even though the match makes sense for both men, Khan is lobbying for a bout with the Pacquiao-Mayweather winner. Good luck with that. For the past few years, Amir Khan has been to a superfight what Captain Ahab was to Moby Dick ? close, but no cigar.
Given Khan?s notoriously shaky chin, a showdown with the hard-hitting Brook is risky. But the potential purse would make that risk worthwhile. And an eventual bout between the winner of Mayweather-Pacquiao and Brook-Khan would in itself be a winner on pay-per-view.
The welterweight division of today may not quite be on a par with the late 1970s- early ?80s era of Hall-of-Famers Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Roberto Duran and Wilfred Benitez. But it?s pretty damn close.
