By James Le Blanc: As this subpar year of boxing comes closer to an end I have read some interesting pound for pound lists lately; some I respected and others frustrated me deeply. P4P lists are a “What have you done for me lately” contest.
When boxers decide to take an extended period away from the ring they lose part of the right to say they are still the best. Dan Rafael removes a fighter from his list if he has been inactive for over a year and I agree with this practice. An example of a fighter that has been recently removed from Dan’s list would be Andre Ward, and early next year (unless he fights soon) Mikey Garcia. We judge fighters based on their performances, and level of opposition.
We reward them greatly for victories amidst the underdog position (Cotto vs Martinez). They are credited for their ability to get a belt, or multiple belts and successfully defend them. Unification bouts are rare these days because fighters don’t want to risk their belts against other belt holders and concede they are not the best in their division. Last year Floyd Mayweather unified titles against Canelo Alvarez in the junior middleweight division which was the biggest fight of the year. He unified titles again at the Welterweight limit this year against Marcos Maidana. The biggest fight of the year was between Sergey Kovalev, in a unification bout against the always game, intelligent, and master boxer Bernard Hopkins. It’s unfortunate that unification bouts rarely take place so I feel boxers that partake in them should be heavily rewarded when it comes to calling them the best in the game.
Here is my top 10 Pound for Pound list
- Floyd Mayweather
- Miguel Cotto
- Sergey Kovalev
- Vladimir Klitschko
- Carl Froch
- Canelo Alvarez
- Manny Pacqiuao
- Mikey Garcia
- Terrance Crawford
- Danny Garcia
You may be noticing a few guys missing on my list that you expect to be on my top 10 p4p list which would be Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez. I have issue with placing them on my list for a couple of reasons, the first is most P4P lists I have seen do not have recent Floyd Mayweather opponents. I may be the only person that has Canelo Alvarez on his list. If we are not going to place Floyd Opponents on the p4p lists, why would we place Manny opponents? Timothy Bradley never beat Manny Pac in my opinion. He looked sloppy against a guy in Ruslan Provodnikov who had never fought at the welterweight limit before that fight. Marquez who I deeply respect caught Manny with an incredible shot. He has big victories under his belt, but he was unsuccessful against Timothy Bradley, and then beat a much lesser opponent in Mike Alvarado. That’s not enough for me to say he is the top 10 best boxer in the world.
I believe I can make a strong case for every guy on my list, based not only on their performances, but the level of their opposition. I like Gennady Golovkin a lot, still waiting for him to fight an actual opponent, not a sparring partner. If he is successful against Murray he will definitely enter my list, especially if he knocks Murray out. This is just one boxing fans opinion, feel free to follow me on twitter talking boxing @MrFrench_IV
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