Asked to name his pick as the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter today, Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said it’s still unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr.
“With no axe to grind against Oscar (de la Hoya), I think Floyd was the clear winner (in their bout two weeks ago),” said Arum in a telephone interview during his recent visit to General Santos City. “Oscar wasn’t really hitting Floyd and Floyd did enough to win.”
In the event Mayweather retires, however, the fighter moving up to No. 1 will be no other than Manny Pacquiao.
The pound-for-pound reckoning is largely subjective. For the period ending last March 19, The Ring Magazine rated 10 fighters in its pound-for-pound ratings, namely, in order, Mayweather, Pacquiao, Rafael Marquez, Juan Manuel Marquez, Winky Wright, Jermain Taylor, Bernard Hopkins, Joe Calzaghe, Marco Antonio Barrera and Ricky Hatton.
Obviously, The Ring’s pound-for-pound analysis gives no credit to intangibles such as charisma, guts, heart and crowd-pleasing ability. It considers only what a fighter brings to the table in terms of boxing skills.
Mayweather, for instance, doesn’t hold a candle to Pacquiao when it comes to abstracts. Pretty Boy doesn’t take chances in the ring, is content to box for points and avoids a toe-to-toe confrontation when his opponent is a hard-hitting mixer. He couldn’t care less if he bores the fans to sleep with a cautious and unexciting style. His concern is the bottom line. If using a boring style is what it takes to beat an opponent, there will be no hesitation for Mayweather to sleepwalk. Never mind if the fans, who want unadulterated action, won’t get their money’s worth.
For Mayweather, what counts is a win – no matter how it’s done. Preferably, he’d like it to come without a scratch on his “pretty” face. Mayweather’s obviously no throwback to the exciting gladiators of the past, like Rocky Marciano, Aaron Pryor, Roberto Duran and Marvelous Marvin Hagler.
What’s surprising in The Ring’s ratings is Barrera’s presence in the top 10. The Baby-Faced Assassin looked slow, listless and old in his last three bouts. Surely, Rocky Juarez exposed Barrera as a fighter getting on in years and Juan Manuel Marquez’ victory was the clincher.
William Detloff, writing in Boxing 2007 magazine, said Pacquiao is clearly the world’s No. 1 superfeatherweight today as Barrera has lost his glitter.
“If Pacquiao’s destruction of Erik Morales in their rubber match in November didn’t convince you Pacman is the best there is at 130, there is no convincing you,” wrote Detloff.
“You can’t even make a strong case for the great Barrera, seeing as how Pacquiao went through him like Barrera wasn’t even there when they met as featherweights in 2003. Is it possible Barrera could do better in a rematch? Sure. Would we like to see one? Sure.
“But we’d bet the farm on Pacquiao who has become a much better fighter in the interim while Barrera has slowed and become more cautious. In fact, a better match for Pacquiao would be against Joan Guzman.”
Another example of a boring fighter in The Ring’s top 10 is Juan Manuel Marquez who’s just not a crowd drawer because of his ho-hum counterpunching style. Even as Marquez is now the WBC superfeatherweight titlist, Arum said he’s a low priority as Pacquiao’s next opponent because he doesn’t sell tickets.
As for Mayweather, Detloff agreed with Arum that de la Hoya’s conqueror remains on top of the pound-for-pound heap.
“With apologies to Pacquiao, there is little question that Mayweather is the best fighter in the world pound-for-pound, so naturally he is the best welterweight,” said Detloff. “We would imagine that if he were so inclined, he could readily enough take action to prove himself the best junior welterweight as well and probably the best lightweight, too. He’s never been forced to move up in weight by anything other than ego which was at play, too, of course, when he signed to face de la Hoya.” Beating the Golden Boy for the WBC superwelterweight crown only reaffirmed Mayweather’s foothold on the pound-for-pound title and reminded fans that heart had nothing to do with it.
