I hadn’t planned on updating this list until after March 25th, or even April 8th, but with Jesus Chavez having to pullout of his showdown with Marco Antonio Barrera because of a training injury, and the “Battle of Bling” between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Zab Judah losing much of its luster following the Brooklynite’s embarrassing loss to Carlos Balodmir in January, I figured “What the hell” it’s time.
There’s bound to be new additions to the list and plenty shuffling around of pound-for-pound players since my most recent update (last October) with Bernard Hopkins’ second close loss to Jermain Taylor last December, Manny Pacquiao’s dramatic knockout of Erik Morales in January, Joe Calzaghe’s dominant and punishing points victory over Jeff Lacy, as well as surprising upsets involving the likes of Judah, Juan Manuel Marquez and Jean-Marc Mormeck.
You all know my criteria for these rankings by now. I look at a fighter’s quality of opposition, recent activity, longevity, and consistency at a high level more than undefeated records and technical brilliance in the ring.
1. Winky Wright, 50-3 (25) – In my opinion Winky’s the best 160 pounder in the world, but that’s not why he’s on the top of this list. Wright is here because of his longevity in this tough sport and his consistency in the ring, but mainly because of whom he beat in the last two years and how good he looked in doing so. In ’04, Wright twice beat The Ring’s recognized 154-pound champ, Shane Mosley, to become the first undisputed junior middleweight titlist in three decades. In ’05, he virtually shut-out Felix Trinidad over 12 one-sided rounds at 160 pounds, standing directly in front of the prolific Puerto Rican puncher, and often forcing the former three-division champ to back up (something even a peaking Bernard Hopkins didn’t do). Wright finished last year up with workman-like decision over middleweight contender Sam Soliman, an awkward windmill of a fighter who was on a 19-fight win streak, despite being sick. Those who dispute his no. 1 placement on this list and my opinion that he’s tops at 160 pounds will be proven right or wrong in June when Winky challenges middleweight champ Jermain Taylor.
2. Manny Pacquiao, 41-3-2 (32) – The PacMonster does it right. If you want a definition of what I consider to be an elite fighter look no further than the Filipino icon. He keeps a busy schedule and manages to fight either a respected world champion or a recognized pound-for-pound player every year (or at least every other year). He dominated and stopped Marco Antonio Barrera in November of ’03 to become the recognized featherweight champ (the third division that he campaigned in and held titles of some sort), he dropped unified title-holder Juan Manuel Marquez three times in the first round and rallied late to earn a draw vs. the master technician in May of ’04, went to war with Erik Morales in a losing effort last March and then became the first man to stop the Tijuana legend in January. Versus Morales in the rematch, Pacquiao showed the kind of technical improvement and veteran poise that will make him a betting favorite over any 130 pounder in the world.
3. Marco Antonio Barrera, 61-4 (42) – The three-division champ basically took last year off by blowing out hapless “mis-mandatory” challenger Mzonke Fana and then adding Robbie Peden’s IBF 130-pound strap to his WBC super featherweight belt, but Barrera, like Pacquiao, is the epitome of an elite fighter as far as I’m concerned. From 2000 to ’04, Barrera fought a pound-for-pound level fighter (and often strong contenders/former title holders) every year. In ’00, he had his first war with Morales, a 12-round classic than many thought he should have won. In ’01, he undressed the heavily favored Prince Naseem Hamed. In ’02, he won the rematch with his Mexican rival. In ’03, he was shocked by Pacquiao. In ’04, he won the hard-fought rubbermatch with Morales. In-between these elite-level showdowns, Barrera dominated good veterans like Jesus Salud, Enrique Sanchez, Johnny Tapia, Kevin Kelley and Paulie Ayala. Prior to 2000, Barrera thrilled us with battles with the best boxers the U.S. offered like Junior Jones and Kennedy McKinney. His longevity is simply amazing. In the past 12 years, Barrera has bested 14 title holders. His only losses are to Jones, Morales and Pacquiao. I don’t know how much longer he will fight on, but it’s clear to me that he is not only one of the best Mexican fighters in history, but an all-time great of any ethnic/national background or era.
4. Floyd Mayweather Jr., 35-0 (24) – You all know my thoughts on ‘the Pretty Boy’, in my opinion he’s an incredibly gifted boxer who’s been playing hooky for the past three years. Had Zab Judah done what he was supposed to do vs. Carlos Baldomir, Mayweather’s April 8th matchup with his fellow Hip-Hop generation rival would be his first vs. a fighter ranked in anyone’s top 10 or 15 (the Brooklynite was ranked no. 13 on my last list) since taking on Jose Luis Castillo in 2002. Hopefully, Mayweather will do what he is supposed to do and out-box the physically gifted but technically flawed former champ and move on to better (Ricky Hatton) and/or bigger (Antonio Margarito) things. A question for those who rank Mayweather in their no. 1 pound-for-pound slot: where will you rank Judah if the New Yorker pulls the upset? Another question: where will you rank Baldomir?
5. Jose Luis Castillo, 54-7-1 (47)/Diego Corrales, 40-3 (33) – These two ultimate warriors are tied because they are 1-1 in their ‘Savage Science’ series, but also because they have both taken on only elite and/or solid opposition in their last five or six fights. Since October of ’03 Corrales has only taken on fighters who I had ranked inside of my top 20: Joel Casamayor (twice), Acelino Freitas, and Castillo (twice). Castillo’s schedule has been just as impressive, although his management has wisely inserted some non-elite fighters in-between his bouts with the pound-for-pound players (all of whom were either prospects, top contenders or title holders). Since June of ’04, Castillo has battled Juan Lazcano, Casamayor, Julio Diaz, Corrales (twice) and Rolando Reyes. They meet for their rubbermatch on June 3rd, and many would hope that they take a much-deserved rest after that, but knowing these two they’ll both jump to 140 pounds, Chico will fight Ricky Hatton, Castillo will take on Miguel Cotto, and then they’ll go at it a fourth time for the junior welterweight title.
7. Ricky Hatton, 40-0 (30) – The Mad Hatter earned The Ring magazine’s ‘Fighter of the Year’ award for ’05 and rightfully so. His grueling submission beatdown of top 5 pound-for-pound player Kostya Tszyu and stoppage of rugged title-holder Carlos Maussa gained him more ground and accolades than any other fighter last year. Now let’s see what the relentless Mancunian does with the tremendous momentum he picked up last year. He’s scheduled to begin his “U.S. invasion” as the 140-pound champ in May, but there’s still no opponent named, so it’s kinda hard to get excited about it. Let’s just hope Hatton doesn’t have another year like 2004 – when it was announced that he’d fight everyone from Kelson Pinto to Vivian Harris to Sharmba Mitchell, but he wound up fighting Dennis Holbaek, Carlos Vilches, Michael Stewart and Ray Oliveira. There’s too many attractive matchups for Manchester’s Hitman at 140 (Mayweather, Cotto, Castillo) for there not to be at least one mega-fight this year. It takes two to Tango, Ricky, and you can’t blame it on Frank Warren any more if the big fights don’t happen.
8. Joe Calzaghe, 41-0 (31) – The super middleweight champ put on a truly pound-for-pound performance in dominating Jeff Lacy for 12 often brutally one-sided rounds on March 4. Calzaghe out-boxed, out-foxed, out-slugged and out-slicked the powerful American title holder for every minute of every round. The boxing lesson got hard to watch in the later rounds, but it was also hard not to appreciate the level of skill, savvy and ring generalship Calzaghe displayed and not wonder how the Welshman would fare vs. the top American light heavyweights like Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson, or fellow non-U.S. super middleweight standouts like Mikkel Kessler or the winner of the Anthony Mundine-Danny Green showdown. It also makes you wonder how big of a star, worldwide, Calzaghe could be right now had he engaged in such a high-level/high-interest bout two or three years ago. He had a very good run from 2000 to ’03 when he beat Omar Sheika, Richie Woodhall, Charles Brewer and Byron Mitchell, but he pissed away ’04 and ’05 by fighting meaningless opponents. Hopefully, those days are over, and it’s only meaningful fights for Joe from now on. Whatever he decides to do, there will be a lot more fans from the U.S. watching him.
9. Rafael Marquez, 35-3 (31) – The longtime bantamweight belt holder has developed into just as proficient a counter-punching technician as his older brother since winning the IBF title from Tim Austin back in ’03, however, the younger Marquez has fight-ending power in both hands and a killer instinct that Juan Manuel lacks. In his six title defenses, the first fighter to KO Mark Johnson has shown he can be a master boxer or a monster puncher to get the job done vs. grizzled vets (Mauricio Pastrana and Ricardo Vargas) and young upstarts (Heriberto Ruiz and Silence Mabuza). Fans of the little big man can only pray that Rafa’s trainer/manager Nacho Beristain doesn’t to do his career what was done to Juan Manuel’s.
10. Antonio Tarver, 22-3 (18) – The recognized light heavyweight champ had a successful ’05, beating rivals Glen Johnson (to regain his 175-pound crown) and Roy Jones Jr. in return matches, however the 37-year-old vet showed signs of slowing down in both fights, petering out in the final two rounds vs. the “Road Warrior” and often failing to pull the trigger vs. the faded former no. 1 pound-for-pound king. Maybe age is catching up with Tarver, who has gone 8-2 since 2000, but his losses (vs. Jones, then considered the best in boxing, and Johnson) were very close and could have gone the other way or at least been draws with a few swing rounds scored differently. Not sure what his June 10 match with the 40-year-old Bernard Hopkins will prove if he wins, but perhaps the curious bout will set up a meaningful showdown vs. Calzaghe or a rubbermatch with Johnson.
11. Erik Morales, 48-4 (38) – If Tarver appears to be slowing down, we might as well say that ‘El Terrible’ has hit the damn wall. Morales is the hardest man I’ve ever covered in this sport, but he’s still human and all the 12-round wars may have finally caught up with him. Notice I wrote “may”. I’ve counted Morales out at least three times in the past and he’s come back to prove me, and most of you, wrong. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has one more great battle in him. We’ll find out vs. the PacMonster in September; ‘till then purest warrior in the game drops out of my top 10 for the first time in four years. He’s gone 3-3 in his last six fights, but the guys he’s lost to (Barrera, Zahir Raheem and Pacquaio) don’t suck, so he doesn’t fall far from the rest of the cream of the crop. As I’ve stated many times before, I don’t mind losses provided they are competitive and come against very good-to-elite fighters. (If I was enamored with undefeated records and ring perfection, Ivan Calderon would be inside my top five.)
12. Jermain Taylor, 25-0 (17)/Bernard Hopkins, 46-4-1 (32) – The young and old lions of the middleweight division are tied on my list even though the 2000 Olympian has back-to-back victories over the future hall of famer on the books. I, along with one of the official judges and about 80% of the boxing press, thought the old man deserved to retain his undisputed title after their first meeting, though I will admit that the strapping Arkansas native showed the potential of begin something special in the first half of the bout. I thought Taylor did just enough to edge Hopkins in the rematch last December. I give Taylor credit for actually winning rounds vs. a boxing master like Hopkins, and I give the Philly hardass props for being able to take strong young bucks to school at the age of 40. Both middleweights’ upcoming fights in June will let us know if they deserve to be inside the top 10 (or even top five) on this list.
14.Glen Johnson, 44-10-2 (29) – The Road Warrior has looked sharp in his two stay-busy fights since dropping a competitive decision to Tarver last May, but he may find himself locked out of the big-fight picture this year. You don’t hear Tarver or Calzaghe mention his name in any interviews, do you? Can you blame them? For those who think the alphabet belts don’t matter in boxing, think again. Johnson is a prime example of an overlooked, underrated and underappreciated fighter catching a break because of a sanctioning organization. If Johnson hadn’t become the mandatory challenger for the vacant IBF title, he never would have got an opportunity to fight Clinton Woods in late ’03, which set up his ‘Fighter of the Year’ ’04, when he beat Woods, Jones and Tarver in a 10-month span.
15. Chris John, 37-0-1 (20) – Gotta give the unbeaten young mystery man from Indonesia his props, the WBA featherweight king beat a guy I ranked inside my top 10 (Juan Manuel Marquez). I haven’t seen John’s defense against Marquez yet, but from all reports it wasn’t a hometown decision. I have seen his defense vs. former titlist Derrick Gainer and the 26-year-old boxer-slugger looked damn good using his long jab to get inside where he wailed away with both hands to the body and head in the majority of rounds. The tall, rangy fighter also has wins over quality vets like Ratanachai Sor Vorapin, Osamu Sato and Oscar Leon.
16. Joel Casamayor, 32-3-1 (20) – The crafty Cuban southpaw is 3-2-1 in his last six bouts, but as I stated in the Morales blurb, I don’t care much about losses when they come to good fighters in good fights. Both of Casamayor’s recent losses were split decisions to Castillo and Corrales; the draw was to then-undefeated Kid Diamond; one of his three victories was a technical stoppage of Corrales, and the fight before that big win was a decision over Nate Campbell, who was the first to beat Kid Diamond. If you go by the scorecards of MaxBoxing writers who were ringside for Casamayor’s three losses (his first loss was to Acelino Freitas), the ’96 Olympic champ’s pro record reads: 35-0-1 (the Castillo fight being the draw).
17. O’Neil Bell, 26-1-1 (24) – It’s not often that an undisputed champion is this low on anybody’s pound-for-pound list, but that’s the way it is when you occupy one of boxing’s overlooked divisions and were lucky to get a decision over Dale Brown in your first world title fight. Still, “Supernova” gave Jean-Marc Mormeck, a cat that I and many in the press were very high on, a lot of hell before knocking the tough and talented Frenchman out in 10 exciting rounds in January, so he belongs on this list.
18. Juan Manuel Marquez, 44-3-1 (33) – I was about to drop the grossly mismanaged Mexican technician a few notches for his inactivity (he only fought once in ’05), but Chris John saved me the trouble of justifying that move to JMM’s fans (yeah, there are a few out there) by out-pointing him. There’s no denying how skilled the former unified titlist is, but there are some things that even exceptional talent and superlative technique cannot overcome in boxing and crappy management is one of them. Marquez’s title winning efforts vs. Manuel Medina and Derrick Gainer in ’03 and his brave, respect-earning stand vs. Pacquiao in ’04 seem so long ago now. I wonder if he’ll ever reach those heights again?
19. Martin Castillo, 30-1 (16) – the classy and gutsy 115-pound titlist is almost as good a technician as JM Marquez; lucky for him he has much better manager. Castillo is one of those belt holders who is on the cusp of being recognized as one of the best. His decision victories over former titlists Eric Morel and Alexander Munoz (twice) have proven that. All he needs to do now is partially unify titles (and there are talks of him being matched with talented WBO belt-holder Fernando Montiel this year) and then take on an opponent with a name (‘El Gallo’ can look down one division to Jorge Arce or up one weight class to Rafael Marquez).
20. Jorge Arce, 43-3-1 (33) – It was a tough call putting ‘Travieso’ in this slot above long-time WBC flyweight title holder Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, but the “interim” belt holder from Mexico has been in with tougher fighters recently than his counterpart from Thailand, and although Arce hasn’t gone unbeaten in 10 years like Wongjongkam, he’s on a pretty good win-streak himself. Arce hasn’t lost a bout since suffering a classic one-shot KO to recent hall of fame inductee Michael Carbajal back in ’99 (in a fight he was winning handily). The former WBO and WBC 108-pound titlist has won 23 consecutive fights since then, a streak that includes solid little guys like Yo Sam Choi, Melchor Cob Castro (twice), Joma Gamboa, Hussein Hussein (twice), and Adonis Rivas (twice).
THE FURIOUS FIVE
Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, Ivan Vazquez, Antonio Margarito, Mikkel Kessler, and Zahir Raheem
THE TALENTED TWELVE (these fighters are talented in terms of pure skill or natural physical ability – most are gifted with one or the other – and have either yet to land a defining fight, like “Iron Boy”, or failed in their first attempt at like “Left Hook”)
Ivan Calderon, Joan Guzman, Felix Sturm, Vic Darchinyan, Tomasz Adamek, Lorenzo Parra, Jean-Marc Mormeck, Jeff Lacy, Zab Judah, Fernando Montiel, Mahyar Monshipour and Roman Karmazin.
