There were plenty who reckoned Adrien Broner only had to turn up to beat Paulie Mallignaggi and claim a third world title in a third weight division at the age of just 23 the other week.
The general consensus was Broner was the second coming of Floyd Mayweather and that, given that Mallignaggi couldn’t crack an egg punch power wise, he would be mere fodder for ‘The Problem’.
In the event, the pair put on a fantastic show in Brooklyn that Broner edged on the cards by scores of 115-113 and 117-111 against a score of 115-113 for Mallignaggi.
Mallignaggi, 32, fought a fantastic fight, using his jab to brilliant effect and deserves every credit for going a dozen rounds with the mercurial Broner. Having watched the fight twice now though he is stretching it by claiming Broner didn’t do enough to take his belt in his native New York.
Broner threw less but landed more and all the power shots were thrown by the man who now joins an elite list of four boxers (the others being Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao and Oscar De La Hoya) who have won world straps at super-featherweight, lightweight and welterweight.
For sure it wasn’t vintage Broner but let us not forget he was jumping up two weight division for this assignment and I always felt this would be significant. He took a while to get into his stride but from the fifth onwards he became the boss and was a worthy winner on my cards, though I’m not sure where one judge got that 117-111 from.
Even the all-time greats have mediocre nights. They are not supermen, merely super boxers. I remember Mayweather toiling against Jose Luis Castillo a few years back and the pantheon of boxing history is full of examples of legends having off nights but keeping it together enough to get that ‘W’.
Broner is not a legend just yet, but as a three-weight world champion at just 23 he is well on the way and if he can ignore the trappings of wealth and fame and concentrate on his craft then my guess is he will be one day.
A new entrant into our ‘pound-for-pound’ list is Gennady Golovkin, who destroyed Matthew Macklin with a crunching body shot to defend his WBA world middleweight title.
Kazakh destroyer Golovkin has a KO ratio approaching 90% and his power is quite remarkable. His spindly frame and long levers offer no clue as to just how hard he can crack. But as Birmingham-based Irishman Macklin will testify, when Golovkin hits you you stay hit.
Granted his resume to date is not littered with stellar names, but the way he manhandled the normally durable Nobuhiro Ishida in Monte Carlo earlier this year made up my mind that his is the hardest puncher in the sport right now.
GGG has not been taken the distance in a fight since 2008 and I say he is the best active middleweight in the world. For this reason he is pitched in at seven on our latest list, ahead of wily Argentine veteran Sergio Martinez.
Golovkin said in the aftermath of that Macklin mauling that his dream is to fight Mayweather. I’m not sure Floyd is of the same opinion but if the pair ever did meet he has the power and poise to give ‘Money’ nightmares.
A well-schooled amateur, it’s a bit of a shame that Golovkin has taken till the age of 31 to reach this point. But he’s here now and we should enjoy the carnage as he looks to clean up at 160 pounds.
Sportinglife.com pound-for-pound world top 10:
1 Floyd Mayweather
2 Juan Manuel Marquez
3 Andre Ward
4 Manny Pacquaio
5 Adrien Broner
6 Guillermo Rigondeaux
7 Gennady Golovkin
8 Timothy Bradley
9 Sergio Martinez
10 Saul Alvarez
Honourable mentions: Wladimir Klitschko, Abner Mares, Roman Gonzalez, Brandon Rios, Nonito Donaire, Carl Froch and Yuriorkis Gamboa.
