Sergey Kovalev moved to #10 in Ring’s pound-for-pound rating

By Boxing News - 03/20/2015 - Comments

kovalev5633By Scott Gilfoid: Last Saturday night IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (27-0-1, 24 KOs) impressed a lot of boxing fans with his 8th round stoppage win over former WBC 175lb champion Jean Pascal. The win elevated Kovalev to the #10 spot in the Ring’s pound-for-pound rankings.

It’s high time that Kovalev cracked the top 10, because he’s unbeaten and considered by many fans to be the No.1 fighter in the 175 pound division.

The Ring’s ratings are a little off as far as the pound-for-pound fighters go. They have Tim Bradley rated #7, three places above Kovalev at #10 and two places above Gennady Golovkin at #9. While I think Bradley is a swell fighter, I don’t see him as a top 10 pound-for-pound fighter.

Bradley is 0-1-1 in his last two fights last year. He was held to a 12 round draw against Diego Chavez last December. In Bradley’s fight before that, he was beaten by Manny Pacquiao by a 12 round decision in April of 2014. In 2013, Bradley had a questionable 12 round decision over Ruslan Provodnikov.

Based off those fights, I think Bradley doesn’t rate to be a rated in the top 10 pound-for-pound list, and he certainly doesn’t deserve to be rated above Kovalev and Golovkin. For that reason I see The Ring’s ratings as way off to the reality of what’s happening in the sport of boxing right now.

Here’s the Ring’s current top 10 pound-for-pound fighters:

1. Floyd Mayweather Jr
2. Wladimir Klitschko
3. Manny Pacquiao
4. Roman Gonzalez
5. Guillermo Rigondeaux
6. Tim Bradley
7. Juan Manuel Marquez
8. Carl Froch
9. Gennady Golovkin
10. Sergey Kovalev

Here’s my ratings for the top 10 pound-for-pound:

1. Floyd Mayweather Jr
2. Guillermo Rigondeaux
3. Gennady Golovkin
4. Sergey Kovalev
5. Roman Gonzalez
6. Manny Pacquiao
7. Wladimir Klitschko
8. Andre Ward
9. Vasyl Lomachenko
10. Naoya Inoue

I couldn’t include Juan Manuel Marquez, Carl Froch and Tim Bradley, because I don’t see them as even the best fighters in their own division. It’s impossible for me to rate those guys as the best when I don’t even see them as being the third best fighters in their division.

I rate Froch well behind Ward, Andre Dirrell and Anthony Dirrell. Froch has already been before more than once, and I just don’t see him as a good fighter when he’s not fighting at home in the UK. Besides that, Froch hasn’t faced what I consider a good fighter since he was whipped by Ward in the Super Six tournament. Since then, Froch has had easy fights against a past his best Lucian Bute, Yusaf Mack and two fights against George Groves, who I see as a domestic level fighter.

Marquez was a good fighter, but he’s 41 now, and I don’t think he could hang with Pacquiao, Kell Brook, Keith Thurman, Mayweather, Amir Khan or Shawn Porter.



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