Who?s the best active fighter in the world, pound for pound?
Um, why is so much time spent giving a damn?
Seriously.
This opinionated soul has noted it in the past: there is far too much attention in modern Boxing to a title that is, by definition, based almost entirely on the imagination of the audience. What if Manny Pacquiao was the same size as Floyd Mayweather and they fought? It?s a fun question, but being the consensus winner in a bout less real than playing thumb war with your sister shouldn?t be the rock any career is built on.
The rock is still divisional performance. Being the Welterweight champ, Cruiserweight champ, Middleweight champ?those are all things that can be measured and proven in the ring. A great bout such as last September?s Kelly Pavlik-Jermain Taylor, like any solid pound for pound debate, fueled speculation and dialogue among fans for months. Unlike pound for pound chatter, the debate had a pay off.
One of the elements that made Pavlik-Taylor special before they even entered the ring is that it was for the true Middleweight championship of the world. Having passed from the hands of future Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins into those of Jermain Taylor gave the fight a powerful link to the division?s history, even if Taylor was having some credibility issues prior to the bout. When the two young warriors went out and waged a violent seven round classic, comparisons could be made to fights like Zale-Graziano and Hagler-Hearns. The fight, and fighters, might not have been quite as good, but they?d fought in a way that lived up to their fistic heritage.
We don?t live in a vacuum of course and the term ?champion? doesn?t always mean what it used to mean. There are alphabelts, Ring belts, and historical lineages all floating around in an awkward mish-mash. Politics, network interests, and promotional power moves too often put the business in front of the sport of Boxing. That allows for some historically accurate champions to find distance from the perceptual, and yes real, top of their divisions. Add in massive amounts of inactivity and inconsistent levels of opposition for almost everyone, and the case for singular World champions has its detractors.
That doesn?t mean that some men who occupy the heads of histories lines of champions don?t live up to their titles. When done right, being the World champion still matters and those that do it right deserve to be noted for it. Those that don?t deserve to be pointed out as well. .
So enough about the best active pound for pound pugs; of the 11 men who can claim the historical right to their titles, who among them are Boxing?s best, and least, active champions?
1) Joe Calzaghe ? World Super Middleweight Champion ? (44-0, 32 KO, Lineal/Ring/WBC/WBA/WBO)
Since 1997, Calzaghe has held the WBO belt at 168 lbs. and defended it 21 times. Over the course of that decade plus, the Welshman has also won every other alphabelt in his division and, while there were lags in his quality of opposition, he closed his tenure in the division with wins over the two most deserving young heirs to his place at the top, Jeff Lacy and Mikkel Kessler in dominant fashion, to solidify his place as the true World champion. Would it have been nice to see Calzaghe face Frankie Liles early in his WBO reign or Ottke during their many years as co-titlists? Yes, but in the grand scheme of things it won?t detract much from him. He?ll leave the quarter century old Super Middleweight class as its greatest champion, if not competitor. When old-timers talk about the great champions, when they talk about the Heavyweight reign of Joe Louis or the Middleweight reigns of Carlos Monzon and Marvin Hagler, they?re talking about elite fighters who fought the best in their class and faced them down through a long stretch of years. Of Boxing?s current champions, Calzaghe comes closest to those standards. His April 19th Light Heavyweight showdown with a Bernard Hopkins who was similarly dominant at Middleweight is the cherry on top of his career.
2) Israel Vazquez ? World Jr. Featherweight Champion ? (42-4, 31 KO, Lineal/Ring/WBC)
When people use the term ?heart of a champion,? the 12th round performance of Vazquez in his third bout with Rafael Marquez is a living dictionary. With the fight on the line, he braced himself for the most valorous three minutes in recent memory and secured his defining victory. Now in his second reign as champion, Vazquez has been a stalwart at 122 lbs. for over a decade and faced a slew of top ten contenders along the way. His trilogy with Oscar Larios produced one classic and his trilogy with Marquez was classic from end to end. If there is a championship critique, it is that Vazquez?s reigns have not been marked by enough fights with men of his division and whispers of a bout with former World Jr. Flyweight champion Jorge Arce should be silenced. While Vazquez has earned the payday, Arce hasn?t done much of anything since leaving 112 lbs. behind and is a ludicrous challenger at 122. Vazquez has serious challengers in WBA titlist Celestino Caballero and WBO titlist Daniel Ponce De Leon, both of which would be intriguing fights. That said, what Vazquez has given to the ring over the course of his career, and in the last year, is breathtaking stuff.
3) Manny Pacquiao ? World Jr. Lightweight ? (46-3-2, 35 KO, Lineal/Ring/WBC)
The former World Flyweight and Featherweight king added his third title (along with an alpha-belt at 122 lbs.) in capturing the vacant crown at 130 lbs. Given his overall standing in the sport and lengthy record of facing top opposition, any title Pacquiao holds merits high regard. What keeps him from the top spots? Two things: that he is already headed out of the class towards 135 lbs. and that his promoter blew off WBO titlist Joan Guzman. Pacquiao has been fortunate to come along at Jr. Lightweight in a period when many of the division?s best were not natural to the weight, but he?s proven to be the best in what is today?s class. The strongest challenge would have come from Guzman and been the closest anyone could come to seeing what a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight might look like. I doubt that Pacquiao cares who he fights; leaving the division without facing Guzman smacks more of promotional economic protectionism. Those objections aside, Pacquiao?s wins over Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez on the road to and arriving at his latest title were everything that could be asked of a champion. Almost every belt in the division ran through Morales or Barrera over the last few years and Marquez?s WBC title win over Barrera last year made him the key player to face.
4) David Haye ? World Cruiserweight Champion ? (21-1, 20 KO, Lineal/Ring/WBC/WBA/WBO)
Haye made his way through to the top of the division the old fashioned way, facing increasingly tough foes, picking up a learning loss, and then getting off the floor to stop a proven champion in Jean Marc Mormeck in November 2007. He followed that with a crushing knockout win over one of his top three contenders in Enzo Maccarinelli. This is how a champion behaves. He lags slightly behind the top of this list only because he?s faced a lesser quantity of quality foes and because it appears all but certain that he?ll exit the division without facing the deserving IBF titlist Steve Cunningham. That?s bad news for Cruiserweight, but great news for Heavyweight, a division that could use a fighter who shows up regularly in shape and fights like he gives a damn.
5) Kelly Pavlik ? World Middleweight Champion ? (33-0, 29 KO, Lineal/Ring/WBC/WBO)
Pavlik went through a fringe contender in Jose Luis Zertuche and a strong contender in Edison Miranda to get his shot at Taylor in 2007. He got off the floor to make the most of that shot and held off a spirited non-title rematch effort from Taylor to further cement himself with the public. He hasn?t been champion long, and has yet to make a defense, but he?s sounding the right notes and couldn?t have a much cleaner link to the past. To Pavlik?s credit, he and his team sound serious about facing his top contender, IBF titlist Arthur Abraham, but not on the best timetable. If Pavlik is to get his payday defense against Gary Lockett in June, a mandatory for his WBO belt, then so be it. But the rumored possibility of worn former World Welterweight champion Ricardo Mayorga? Uugh. I already saw Bernard Hopkins-Simon Brown and this wouldn?t even be that competitive. Middleweight has too many serious challengers to justify Pavlik-Mayorga.
6) Ricky Hatton ? World Jr. Welterweight Champion ? (43-1, 31 KO, Lineal/Ring)
His sketchy forays into the Welterweight division can obscure the fact that Hatton has not been a bad champion seven pounds lower. He hasn?t been a particularly great one either. He?s made three defenses of his crown since defeating Kostya Tszyu in 2005 and prepares now for his fourth. All of those defenses (then WBA-titlist Carlos Maussa, then-IBF titlist Juan Urango, and Jose Luis Castillo) featured men who were top ten contenders at 140. Lazcano, who hasn?t fought in over a year, probably isn?t at that level anymore but it seems to be a set up for a fight with another top contender, IBF titlist Paulie Malignaggi. That?s all okay. What hurts Hatton? Four defenses in almost three years, after Lazcano, hurts. So does the fact that zero defenses will have taken place against his UK countryman, WBC titlist Junior Witter. Witter is so far and away the most deserving of the opportunity to face Hatton that any other fight is hard to swallow right now.
7) Floyd Mayweather ? World Welterweight Champion ? (39-0, 25 KO, Lineal/Ring/WBC)
I can hear the screams of hater from miles away. Yes, Mayweather just beat Hatton, but this is about divisional performance and Hatton is a better champion of his weight class than Mayweather is his. He?s been the Welterweight champion since November 2006 and made zero defenses against Welterweights. He?s gearing up for a rematch with Oscar De La Hoya and then, possibly, a rematch with Hatton that could take him well into 2009 before a Welterweight might get considered to face the Welterweight champ. That he reigns over Boxing?s deepest current field of talent makes his place at the top of the division all the more hollow. If not the clear number one contender and the man acting the part of Welterweight champ, WBA titlist Miguel Cotto, then what of Shane Mosley, Carlos Quintana or any of the division?s other fighters. If Mayweather does not intend to live up to being the Welterweight champion of the World, he should vacate the title altogether and is the bridge between where lineage is fine as a standard and where some real debates are to be had. He could be rated lower but he can?t be pinged entirely for facing another reigning champ in his last bout.
8) Ivan Calderon ? World Jr. Flyweight ? (31-0, 6 KO, Lineal/ Ring/WBO)
I could see some argument with recognizing this as the lineage in the division. However, when Ring recognized a filling of the division?s vacancy, it was after a series of fights between Hugo Cazares, Nelson Dieppa and Ulises Solis that I feel validated the crowning of the Cazares-Dieppa II winner in September 2006. Cazares passed that mantle to Calderon last August, the light-hitting but vastly skilled boxer who had long been seen as the untested best at 105 lbs. Three pounds higher, he got his test. With a lead on the cards, the visibly larger Cazares had him hurt and looking ready to go but Calderon battled back with guile and heart to seal his spot. He?s now made one defense, against a getting longer-in-the-tooth Dieppa. The real test of Calderon as a reigning champion lies ahead. He has two stellar contenders in WBC titlist Solis, who has not lost since the 2004 failing against Dieppa, and a streaking IBF titlist Edgar Sosa. More alphabelts, more respect, and more cementing of his championship lie in the ring with those two warriors.
9) Daisuke Naito ? World Flyweight Champion ? (32-2-2, 20 KO, Lineal/WBC)
Naito has done nothing wrong to be this low on the list. That he suffers reflects more on the man he beat for the title, Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, and the nature of his division moreso than it does on the Japanese veteran. To the credit of his title, it has the farthest reach backwards into history, traceable to the reign of the great Miguel Canto. It is a line that has encompassed some excellent fighters along the way, fighters like Sot Chitalada, Yuri Arbachakov and Pacquiao. The problems at Flyweight are that the talent is often separated by national, if not continental, borders and the best fighters rarely get it on. Wonjongkam broke Canto?s record of 14 consecutive titles defenses without fights against titlists Vic Darchinyan, Eric Morel, Omar Narvaez, or Lorenzo Parra so what kind of reign was he having? Not much of one. In his two defenses so far, Naito decisioned one questionable foe in Daiki Kameda and logged a rematch draw with Wonjongkam so he?s not off to a bad start but will he face WBA titlist Takefumi Sakata or IBF titlist Nonito Donaire?
10) Joel Casamayor ? World Lightweight Champion ? (36-3-1, 22 KO, Lineal/Ring/WBC Interim)
There is legitimate protest of the recognition of Casamayor. He won his title in a bout where the champion, Diego Corrales, vacated his title on the scales, meaning he didn?t beat a Lightweight for the title. It?s a reasonable argument. The problem is that it didn?t seem like a big deal at the time given that he beat the man who had been recognized, weighed in properly for the bout, hadn?t taken over a year off yet, and because Juan Diaz hadn?t made the moves that rejected recognition of Casamayor. Now the division is a steady argument amongst fans, with Nate Campbell having a strong case after his win over Juan and Casamayor only slightly less tarnished after a thrilling win over solid contender Michael Katsidis. The Katsidis win does not undo the fact that Casamayor should not have gotten the decision in November 2007 against Jose Armando Santa Cruz or the fact that his promoters at Golden Boy seem to have no inclination to make rematches for Casamayor with Santa Cruz or Campbell.
11) Zsolt Erdei ? World Light Heavyweight Champion ? (28-0, 17 KO, Lineal/WBO)
Some readers might be asking ?What about Hopkins?? Yet more could ask ?Who the hell?? I understand. Erdei, a German based Hungarian, is the best case anyone can make against adhering too strictly to lineage. In nine title defenses, only three (once against Thomas Ullrich and twice against Hugo Garay) stand out as serious top ten challenges and he could have lost both to Garay. As Hopkins closes in on two years as the popular choice for champ at 175 lbs. without defending against a rated Light Heavyweight, it?s tough to argue that anyone has truly earned the right to be called the champion of this class. Erdei?s stature, what there is of it, can be traced to the 1996 bout between the then premier Light Heavyweights Henry Maske and Virgil Hill, won by Hill.
Aren?t There Seventeen Weight Divisions?
Given little significant unification or other competitive measurement in Boxing?s other weight classes, VACANT stands out as the masterful champion of six weight classes. It is noted that Wladimir Klitschko is very close to being universally hailed as the Heavyweight champ.
What About Ring?
Fans used to hearing more frequently about ?real? World champions on HBO and ESPN in recent years may be wondering why the lineages noted above don?t entirely line up with Ring Magazine since Ring is often the standard used by those media giants. That?s simple.
When Ring decided to start naming champions again, they elected to ignore some established history, including their own.
That?s a problem when considering that their policy is supposed to be about the notion that titles are won, and lost, only in the ring. In other words, Ring looks like it is all about restoring lineage to titles but, if there was an election that said they could just call a do-over on history, I missed it. While Ring left the game of tracing ?the man who beat the man? or at least the ?man who became the man? in the late 80?s, websites like the Cyber Boxing Zone (CBZ), and the magazine Boxing Illustrated well into the 90s, were still protecting Boxing?s history.
So, with renewed discussion at this site, and around the sport, about the merits of Ring?s championships, it?s time to take another look at how things have played out on this front. Loyal readers will find this subject old territory for me, but MaxBoxing readers not as familiar with my work can quickly be caught up on the specifics.
When Ring began recognizing champions again, sans alphabelts, earlier this decade, they did so by declaring, among others, the titles at 108, 112, 115, and 126 lbs. vacant and recognizing Roy Jones as Light Heavyweight champion. Jones was easy for most people to swallow because he was, well, Roy. However, his ?undisputed? title reign was built on sanctioning body recognition, stripped alphabelts, and occasionally top foes. They ignored the history passed from Hill to Dariusz Michalczewski.
They reasoned, paraphrasing, that the other divisions were in disarray and it would be too confusing to retroactively trace the lines so vacant won. Was that really the case? Well, let?s say it wouldn?t have taken much looking to be un-confused.
If any of you have the February 2008 issue of Ring handy, open it up to page 128 and you?ll see that Sot Chitalada and Barry McGuigan were, correctly, recognized as World champs at Flyweight and Featherweight respectively in March 1986. Those lines never broke, and they traced back farther than ?86. When Ring started noting champs again between 2001 and 2002, that would have meant Wonjongkam and Naseem Hamed.
Since becoming a recognizer of championships again, other problems have arisen with Ring. Among them are:
? Crowning Rosendo Alvarez at 108 while the lineage ran through Jorge Arce in a straight line from Michael Carbajal-Humberto Gonzalez; ? Ignoring the lineage at 115 lbs. that belonged to Masamori Tokuyama in a straight line to the Jiro Watanabe-Payao Poontarat fight in 1984; ? Crowning Paulie Ayala at 122 lbs. for his one clear win over Bones Adams in 2002 after three arguably bad decisions in a row for Ayala against Hugo Dianzo, Johnny Tapia and Bones Adams and with no other wins in the division. Ayala never defended his hollow crown; and let us not forget? ? The coronation of big brother Vitali Klitschko as Heavyweight champion for his first win over a currently rated Ring top ten fighter, ever, against Corrie Sanders in 2004. Much as he was loathsome to watch, John Ruiz?s rebound from the Roy Jones loss with wins over Hasim Rahman and Fres Oquendo were more meritorious than anything Klitscko had actually finished when he entered the ring with Sanders.
To their credit, they have been on the ball on other occasions. Their recognizing Jose Luis Castillo-Juan Lazcano as being for the then-vacant Lightweight title in 2004 appeared correct and was validated by an excellent series of fights that culminated in Castillo-Corrales I. Evidenced above, most of their titlists are accurate to date, so it’s not as if they’re way out of the ballpark there even if they did back into history rather than embracing it. Finally, through much of modern Boxing?s rich and unique history, Ring?s belts have been a constant from old pictures of Nat Fleischer and Ray Robinson to the casket of Apollo Creed. When a fighter proves to be his divisions true champion, having that belt there is a bonus and a cool aesthetic. But?
This Ring review is inspired in large part by Steve Kim?s piece here at Maxboxing on Monday. Steve and I don?t approach this issue from the same direction or even reach all the same conclusions, but for those like Steve who might feel no obligation to recognize Bernard Hopkins or Joel Casamayor as sole champions, Ring provides the role model. After all, if Ring can decide that legitimate lineage is discardable, then why can?t their placebo lineage at 175 or decision to recognize the weight-skewed Casamayor-Corrales III also be discarded by knowledgeable boxing people based on the results unfolding before them?
Cliff?s Notes?
Not much left to add besides this: if push comes to shove when picking between the HBO and Showtime shows this weekend, I advise picking Showtime. Chad Dawson-Glen Johnson is the best fight of the week on paper and HBO?s comparable fare, Antonio Margarito-Kermit Cintron II, isn?t as good as it looks. Cintron still doesn?t react well to getting hit and his ?improvement? might have more to do with his recent foes than him. Showtime has a solid boxing fan?s card; HBO has what will probably amount to a commercial for a fabulous Fight of the Year candidate in a Miguel Cotto-Margarito bout this summer.
