The biggest impact made in this month’s list is from newly crowned Ring Champion Zab Judah. His scintillating knockout of Cory Spinks will shoot him close to the top, but how far will he climb? Read the 15 for March to find out:
Fierce departures: Oscar De La Hoya (15).
15. Cory Spinks (12) – Spinks doesn’t drop out just yet, the pressures of defending in front of a large hometown crowd got to him. He still is one of the best boxers pound-for-pound he just ran into a finally, hungry, Judah.
14. Jose Luis Castillo (14) – Castillo will meet Juilo Diaz on March 5 with the winner probably tackling Diego Corrales on May 7. Both men are predicting a KO, hopefully one of them comes through.
13. Kassim Ouma (13) – It’s not known yet where Ouma will find his next opponent. Rest assured after he boxed circles around Jantuah, it won’t be any slouch.
12. Erik Morales (11) – Oooh. Morales-Pacquiao, man you have got to love Morales he’s in one of the most brutal fights of his career at the end of November, does he take a break? No. He takes on the most exciting little man on the planet. Bless El Terrible.
11. Zab Judah (NR) – Judah moves all the way up to No.11 after his impressive KO victory, the reason he’s not higher is he’s 1-1 against Spinks and he was knocked out badly by Kostya Tzsyu. Judah can quickly climb the ladder as soon as he moves past meaningless mandatory title defenses.
10. Marco Antonio Barrera (10) – Barrera headlines a Mexican Pay Per View April 9. He takes on Mzonke Fana?yeah exactly. Not exactly a barnburner follow up after he beats the legendary Morales.
9. Manny Pacquiao (9) – Pacquiao-Morales is drawing closer, March 19 these two warriors will trade leather, this fight will equal big PPV bucks for HBO, but it will also equal more big fights for the winner.
8. Diego Corrales (8) – Corrales lucked out and someone arranged a May 7 date with Showtime, probably against the winner of Castillo-Diaz. However don’t hold your breath. Corrales hasn’t been able to negotiate with Castillo twice now. What is the third time the charm?
7. Antonio Tarver (7) – Still no go on the rematch between Tarver and Johnson. They are contractually bound to fight again, but both are wasting valuable time when the winner could fight Hopkins.
6. Glencoffe Johnson (6) – Johnson and Tarver must fight before Glen has a shot to exact revenge on Hopkins in the fall.
5. Winky Wright (5) – Wright has his wish a big fight with Felix Trinidad. He has the skill to frustrate Trinidad and it sounds as if the winner is in line for a shot at middleweight king Hopkins. All the cards are falling in Wright’s lap – finally.
4. Felix Trinidad (4) – Trinidad has been down this road many times, De La Hoya, Vargas, Whitaker, Hopkins, Mayorga. He’s been in big fights his whole career it seems, does that give him the advantage on May 14?
3. Kostya Tszyu (3) – Can June 4 get here early enough? Tszyu and Hatton square off in the break of dawn to give us in the US a brilliant fight night. The only problem, it can’t get here soon enough.
2. Floyd Mayweather, JR. (2) – Floyd has yet another no contest, but he dodged jail time and therefore the fight with Gatti is still on. Gatti is obviously focused, Mayweather has to stop making out of the ring mistakes before they catch up with him in the ring.
1. Bernard Hopkins (1) – Hopkins defeats Howard Eastman in a lackluster performance, he got the big number 20 out of the way now its two Pay Per View fights to close his career. In my mind it’s one, because Jermaine Taylor will knock him out.
