Floyd Mayweather confirmed his status as the finest ‘pound-for-pound’ fighter in the world recently with a shutout points win over Carlos Baldomir to claim the WBC welterweight title in Las Vegas.
Mayweather barely lost a round against his Argentine opponent, but his defensive mastery was not to the taste of everyone present and ‘Pretty Boy’ was booed for long spells during the contest.
The fight didn’t do great pay-per-view business either, and it’s clear that while Floyd is the sport’s finest talent he certainly isn’t boxing’s Mr Popular.
A fight against someone of the stature of an Oscar De La Hoya, Miguel Cotto or Ricky Hatton would no doubt help remedy that, but having claimed at an emotional post-fight press conference that he will quit the sport after one more fight, who knows what the future holds for him?
Joe Calzaghe didn’t sparkle against Sakio Bika, and the Welshman will certainly have to raise his game if he has designs on moving above Manny Pacquiao in our latest list.
Pacquiao of course goes in against great super-featherweight rival Erik Morales this weekend, and a convincing win over ‘El Terrible’ could see him move above Winky Wright into second spot next time round.
Wright faces Ike Quartey on home soil in December and know he needs a big performance after fluffing his lines somewhat against Jermain Taylor in the summer.
With so few of the big names having fought recently it’s as you were on our latest world ‘pound-for-pound’ list, but one man who could be about to gatecrash the party is Wladimir Klitschko.
Klitschko proved he is boxing’s best heavyweight champion after an impressive seventh-round TKO win over previously unbeaten American Calvin Brock to retain his IBF heavyweight title at Madison Square Garden.
‘Steelhammer’ is now 47-3 (42) and at the relatively young age of 30 could be about to finally dominate the division as trainer Emanuel Steward predicted he would some years ago.
The 6ft 6in behemoth is well schooled with good power and a fantastic jab.
He’s also got a refreshing outlook, admitting he won’t really class himself as the heavyweight champion of the world until he has unified the belts.
He’s certainly got the tools to do so, and I’d make him a big favourite if he met Nikolai Valuev, Oleg Maskaev, Samuel Peter or Shannon Briggs.
Briggs, of course, stunned Sergei Liakhovich in the final second of the final round while trailing on all cards in Phoenix recently, but despite showing he can carry his power late the 34-year-old Brooklyn banger just doesn’t look ‘pound-for-pound’ material.
One man who does look worth keeping an eye on as a potential ‘pound-for-pounder’ is Steve Molitor, the Canadian super-bantamweight who stopped Englishman Michael Hunter in five rounds to become the new IBF champion.
Molitor is a truly smooth operator who seems to have developed a punch at the age of 26.
He is now unbeaten in 23 and claimed in the countdown to boxing Hunter that Mexican WBC champion Israel Vasquez had previously gone out of his way to avoid him.
After watching him dismantle Hunter as the away fighter after being inactive for some 13 months, it’s easy to see why.
