Who is the Top welterweight in the division?

By Boxing News - 02/08/2016 - Comments

bradley2222222By Tim Fletcher: With Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao clearing out of the sport, it leaves a lot of unknowns about who the top guy is at 147. While some people believe that Tim Bradley is the natural guy to be seen as the replacement for Mayweather, there’s a lot fans that believe that the winner of the Keith Thurman vs. Shawn Porter fight will determine who the best overall fighter is at 147.

I’m sure IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook would have something to so about that, however, because he already beat Porter in 2014. If Thurman defeats Porter, he would still have a question mark over his head.

Here is my list of the top welterweights in the division:

1. Tim Bradley
2. Keith Thurman
3. Kell Brook
4. Shawn Porter
5. Danny Garcia
6. Amir Khan
7. Errol Spence Jr
8. Dmitry Mikhaylenko
9. Sammy Vasquez Jr
10. Lamont Peterson

Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero didn’t make my top 10 list based on his recent losses to Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman and Mayweather. I Guerrero still has the talent to step in at one of the spots in the top 10 if he can stop losing and pick up some solid wins.

Bradley has a chance to really strengthen his position as the No.1 fighter in the welterweight division if he can beat Pacquiao in their fight on April 9. If Bradley wins that fight without controversy, then I think it’s impossible not to have him as the No.1 fighter in the welterweight division. Bradley has too much experience and too good of a track record for him not to be the top guy.

Thurman will need to look good in beating Porter to put himself in position to take the No.1 spot. It won’t work if Thurman uses a lot of movement like he did in his fights against Guerrero and Leonard Bundu. There were not people-pleasing performances from Thurman, and he’s going to need to work on adopting a more exciting fighting style if he wants to become the No.1 welterweight in the division.

Errol Spence Jr. has a chance to jump ahead of all the welterweights in the division by 2017 if he can beat Brook, and some of the other top dogs. The difference between Spence Jr. and fighters like Thurman is that Spence is willing to go after his opponents to try and KO them. Spence puts his chin on the line in the same way that Gennady Golovkin does to try and get knockouts. Thurman doesn’t do that. He hits and moves, and it’s not fun to watch.



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