Filipino sensation Manny Pacquiao maintained his hold on the No. 1 spot in the pound-for-pound rankings in the latest edition of the WBM Pro Boxing Poll, released Monday at worldboxingmedia.com.
Pacquiao, the WBC’s international champion at 130 pounds, earned the top spot for the second straight month by a narrow two-vote margin over unbeaten welterweight Floyd Mayweather Jr.
The voting edge is the same as last month for Pacquiao, who is 2-0 in 2006 and has a third bout scheduled with veteran Erik Morales in November.
Morales beat Pacquiao in their first meeting in March 2005 before Pacquiao evened the matchup with a 10th-round TKO victory on Jan. 21 in Las Vegas.
Mayweather, who’d been No. 1 in the pound-for-pound rankings since the poll’s inception in February, was last active in April when he scored a 12-round decision over Zab Judah in Las Vegas.
A meeting with WBC welterweight champ Carlos Baldomir is rumored for this fall for Mayweather, who’s also discussed a potential bout with Oscar De La Hoya next spring pending De La Hoya’s decision on his own in-ring future.
Holdovers Winky Wright, Jermain Taylor, Joe Calzaghe and Marco Antonio Barrera remain steady in spots 3 through 6, while veteran Bernard Hopkins makes a leap from 10 to 7 in presumably his final poll appearance before officially retiring.
British welterweight Ricky Hatton moves from ninth to eighth, De La Hoya drops from seventh to ninth and unbeaten Venezuelan flyweight Lorenzo Parra debuts at No. 10.
Junior welterweight Miguel Cotto and bantamweight Rafael Marquez round out the top 12, with Cotto falling from eighth and Marquez entering on the basis of his impressive ninth-round stoppage of Silence Mabuza in an IBF title defense on Aug. 5. (the August poll closed on August 6).
The objective of the WBM Pro Boxing Poll is to recognize the achievements of deserving professional boxers by giving voice to boxing journalists around the world.
The poll includes voting members from the United States, Canada, England, Ireland, Italy, Panama, Australia and New Zealand. Membership is open to any professional media person covering professional boxing via print, television, radio or the Internet.
August poll results are available at www.worldboxingmedia.com.
