Oh what a difference a month makes. Averaging the six most prestigious pound-for-pound (P4P) rankings worldwide (sorry ESPN, your “pay to see our list” feature is still being boycotted), here are the top 10 fighters for June 2010:
No. 10 – Wladimir Klitschko. Dr. Steeljabber drops a spot from last month. The man has only three losses and all three were by stoppage (granted he hasn’t lost a fight since 2004). He isn’t going to fight his big brother; therefore, fight David Haye, fight Tomasz Adamek, or get off this list.
No. 9 – Israel Vazquez. The problem with averaging P4P lists is that some of them are lazy. Ahem, Rafael Marquez beat him last month. The puffy-eyed Vazquez lost the fight before the opening bell. Retire or go blind great one.
No. 8 – Bernard Hopkins. Yawn.
No. 7 – Sergio Martinez. Martinez jumps three spots after schooling Kelly Pavlik in April to win 50% of the middleweight title. Check that, the WBO stripped Martinez of the strap, which is basically a compliment. Regardless, as Pavlik moves up to super middleweight, the rematch nobody wanted to see has been avoided and Pavlik’s trainer, Jack Loew, is trying to get something with Chad Dawson. Jack, that’s like Harry Joe Yorgey calling out Paul Williams. Let’s see what Pavlik can do against Sakio Bika or Librado Andrade before we begin to care. Wait, this is about Sergio Martinez. The dude is for real and should be ranking higher.
No. 6 – Chad Dawson. Dawson meets Jean Pascal in August in a welcome change to his typical agenda; however, Dawson should have a relatively easy night. The problem for Dawson is that he has to move down in weight to remain relevant. Kelly Pavlik isn’t the answer, but Lucian Bute is. There is just way too much money floating around at super middleweight right now and Dawson needs to start building a legacy.
No. 5 – Shane Mosley. After his lopsided loss to Floyd Mayweather, Jr. last month, of course it makes sense to keep Sugar Shane in the top 5.
No. 4 – Paul Williams. Williams has had a steady climb on most P4P lists after taking forever to rank at all. The problem is that he struggled in his narrow win over Sergio Martinez and, frankly, Kermit Cintron was holding his own against The Punisher until Kermit decided to fly out of the ring and get hauled off in an ambulance. It’s time for Martinez and Williams to tee it up again.
No. 3 – Juan Manuel Marquez. The sense is that nobody knows what to do with Marquez. He was soundly defeated by Floyd Mayweather, Jr. last year and now wants to slap Juan Diaz again. The P4P move would have been to get one of the top guys at junior welterweight–just sayin’.
No. 2 – Nobody.
No. 1. Manny Pacquiao/Floyd Mayweather, Jr. After taking Yahoo! to task for ranking Mayweather over Pacquiao, it turns out that half of the P4P lists monitored here ranked Mayweather ahead of Manny this month. The only way to solve this ongoing drama is for the two men to fight. Now that’s an interesting concept! The purse should be split equally and Manny should agree to undergo random urine tests throughout camp and a post-fight blood test if he wins. It’s ridiculous to say something other than “both men will comply with the rules of the Nevada State Athletic Commission.” We’ve been beyond all things ridiculous, however, for quite some time. Get some already.
