By Chris Williams: It’s time for me to clear up the confusion with all the ragged pound-for-pound lists that I’ve seen floating around the boxing world. We all know that Floyd Mayweather Jr. still belongs at the of the pound-for-pound list, because you can’t consider him truly retired until he’s been out of the ring for more than five years.
For that reason, Mayweather belongs at the top of the totem pole in the pound-for-pound rankings untol that five0year period has passed. There are too many people coming up with crazy rankings that make sense at all unless you consider their picks coming from a place of wishful thinking on their part.
Here is my list of the top 10 pound-for-pound list and think you’ll agree it’s pure quality from top to bottom:
1. Floyd Mayweather Jr – As I pointed out already, Mayweather makes the pound-for-pound list for the next five years, because in boxing retirement is little more than a code word for ‘on vacation’ much of the time. So until we see Mayweather retired for five years, he’s going to stay at the top of the pound-for-pound list, because there’s no one that is even close to him in the talent department.
2. Adonis Stevenson – This is the best fighter in the light heavyweight division right now. At 38, Stevenson is showing no signs of having aged at all. He’s like a fighter 10 years younger.
3. Andre Ward – the man has slipped a little from the fighter he was five years ago, but he’s still the second best in the light heavyweight division behind Adonis Stevenson. On November 19, Ward will prove that he belongs at the No.2 spot in the division by beating Sergey Kovalev to take his IBF/WBA/WBO 175lb titles.
4. Deontay Wilder – Deontay Wilder has a lot of talent and one-punch power at heavyweight. He’s still getting better at age 30, believe it or not. There’s still a lot of question marks surrounding Deontay about whether he can stay healthy for long, and whether he can handle a punch from a heavyweight with big power. Those questions will be answered in time.
5. Anthony Joshua – This fighter could soon own the heavyweight division if he can get past Wilder. That will be easier said than done. Once Joshua gets Wilder out of the way, he’ll dominate the light heavyweight division with an iron fist. Joshua is only three or four fights away from owning the division. He needs to beat Wilder, Tyson Fury, Luis Ortiz and David Haye to clean out the division.
6. James DeGale – James has the chance to distance himself from the rest of the pack at 168 by beating WBC champion Badou Jack. DeGale has the potential to make big things happen with his career. He just needs to beat Jack, Callum Smith, George Groves, Golovkin and Gilberto Ramirez. Once DeGale adds some of those scalps to his resume of scalps, he’ll cement the fact that he’s the best fighter in the 168lb division.
7. Terence Crawford – This is a controversial pick on my part because I still see Crawford as a very, very flawed fighter with an unknown future. I think Crawford will be fine as long as he stays at 140. Once he moves up to welterweight, I think he’ll get beaten by the top fighters on a regular basis. But with Crawford being with Top Rank, he won’t need to worry about fighting the top guys, because he’ll likely only be matched against his promoter Bob Arum’s Top Rank fighters over and over.
8. Guillermo Rigondeaux – The Cuban fighter has been avoided his entire career by the top fighters at 122. That will likely stay that way until he ages a little more. Right now, Rigondeaux is still the best in boxing at super bantamweight.
9. Gary Russell Jr – This fighter is the best featherweight, period. While other featherweights hog the attention like Carl Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz, Russell Jr. is the best of the bunch. He’s the class of the division in my opinion.
10. Kell Brook – If Kell doesn’t wind up getting hurt in his fight against Gennady Golovkin next month, he’s got the talent to be one of the best welterweights since Mayweather. Whether Brook can get out of the Golovkin fight without getting hurt remains to be seen. Brook might need to move to junior middleweight if he wants to be able to make weight comfortably.