My top pound-for-pound list

By Boxing News - 08/22/2016 - Comments

Image: My top pound-for-pound list

By Scott Gilfoid: Well, I thought I’d seen everything in boxing when it came to oddball pound-for-pound list until I’d seen former super middleweight champion Carl Froch’s own list, and it takes the cake.

Froch’s list resembles a list picked with one’s eyes closed with fighters selected at random rather than from careful consideration of their various talent levels. I honestly don’t know what Froch was thinking with his oddball pound-for-pound list, but I’ll be improving it with my own list, which makes a heck of a lot more sense than the guys that Froch has selected.

Here’s Gilfoid’s pound-for-pound list:

1. Gennady “GGG: Golovkin

2. Deontay Wilder

3. Errol Spence

4. Roman Gonzalez

5. Oscar Valdez

6. Guillermo Rigondeaux

7. Vasyl Lomachenko

8. Carlos Cuadras

9. Sergey Kovalev

10. Krzystof Glowacki

Andre Ward: I had to leave some of the fighters off from the Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound list. They have Andre Ward at No.4, Terence Crawford at No.5, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez at No.8, Shinsuke Yamanaka at No.9 and Carl Frampton at No.10. I’m sorry, but I don’t see those fighters as rating a top 10 rating in my pound-for-pound list, I hate to say. I think Ward was a very, very good fighter five years ago, but he hasn’t shown me much since his comeback after two years out of the ring. As such, I can’t rank Ward based on yesterday’s accomplishments.

Saul Canelo Alvarez: I don’t rate Canelo as being a top 10 guy, because he’s someone that seems to be gaming the system by winning fights based on his ability to dehydrate down to 154 and 155, and facing guys much lighter than him. If they brought back same day weigh-ins that forced fighters to fight in their correct divisions based on their body size, I don’t think Canelo would do well fighting at super middleweight or better yet, light heavyweight. He’s a huge fighter that belongs at light heavyweight in my opinion, and I can’t give him credit for him melting down each time to fight against junior middleweights and welterweights. Canelo needs to fight in the right weight class.

Shinsuke Yamanaka: I’ve seen Yamanaka fight a few times and was not impressed. He doesn’t make my list.

Carl Frampton: I don’t think Carl Frampton did enough to win his last fight against Leo Santa Cruz. I also think he didn’t do enough to beat Scott Quigg. There’s no way on earth I can give Frampton a spot on my pound for pound list with him having two controversial wins in his last two fights. Until Frampton proves that he can beat guys like Santa Cruz and Quigg without controversy, he doesn’t make my pound for pound list. Heck, even if Frampton proves that he can beat those guys, he’ll still need to beat Oscar Valdez and Rigondeaux to make my list. I’m not holding my breath waiting for Frampton to fight either of these guys in this lifetime.

Here’s Carl Froch’s pound-for-pound list at Skysports.com:

1 – Sergey Kovalev

2 – Roman Gonzalez

3 – Andre Ward

4 – Tyson Fury

5 – Guillermo Rigondeau

6 – Terence Crawford

7 – Saul Alvarez

8 – Gennady Golovkin

9 – Carl Frampton

10 – Kell Brook

What’s especially interesting about Froch’s pound-for-pound list is the fact that he has Canelo Alvarez rated above the unbeaten Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, who Canelo chose to avoid fighting recently by vacating his World Boxing Council middleweight title in order not to fight him. I don’t know about you, but when I see a fighter go to lengths of vacating their title in order to avoid a particular fighter, I automatically drop them down on my own personal list below the fighter they’re avoiding. I see Canelo’s avoidance move as a way of forfeiting. It looked to me like a submissive move on Canelo’s part, where Golovkin is saying, “Give me my WBC title,” and Canelo is basically saying, ‘Here it is, sir.’ How in the heck can you rate Canelo above Golovkin after a move like that? It makes no sense except with Froch.

Here’s what Froch had to say about Golovkin at skysports.com to justify his ranking of him at No.8: “Triple G just hasn’t fought anyone to justify his lofty place for me. I’ve literally never heard of some of his recent victims – it’s a shame there isn’t a prime Kelly Pavlik or Jermaine Taylor at 160lbs nowadays. Even the early 160lb, Arthur Abraham or the pre-Pavlik Edison Miranda would have taken it to him and then we could gauge him. I don’t think he’ll run through Kell Brook like many others are saying at all. I also think Billy Joe Saunders and Chris Eubank Jr would give him a fight.”

Wow, Froch thinks that Golovkin would struggle against Kelly Pavlik, Arthur Abraham, Jermain Taylor, Edison Miranda, Billy Joe Saunders, Chris Eubank Jr., and Kell Brook. That’s pretty interesting, because I think Golovkin would mop the deck with all of those guys. Pavlik was never more than a simple brawler. Miranda was the same kind of fighter, who was exposed each time he stepped up a class.

Abraham never beat anyone that was what you could call a good fighter. He was losing to Taylor in the Super Six when he was able to knock him out in the 12th round. Taylor was beaten twice by Pavlik, so what does that tell you? If Taylor couldn’t even beat Pavlik, then he sure as heck would be out of his class against a talent like Golovkin.

It doesn’t make sense anything that Froch says. Golovkin has been trying to get fights against Saunders and Eubank Jr. with no luck. I see those guys in the same situation with Canelo in forfeiting to Golovkin. If you turn a fight against Golovkin, I see that as a submissive forfeiting type thing. I can’t rate fighters that don’t want to fight Golovkin as being better than him. It doesn’t make sense. Saunders is more of a six-round fighter at beat. Look at how he gassed after six rounds in his last fight against Andy Lee last December in his in fight against Eubank Jr. in 2014. I’m sorry but I think Golovkin slices through Saunders and Eubank Jr. like a hot knife through butter. All those other guys that Froch thinks would give Golovkin trouble would be easy pickings. Abraham could barely beat Paul Smith. How in the world can Abraham beat a fighter like Golovkin if he could barely beat Smith. Are we now supposed to believe that Paul Smith would beat Golovkin too? None of this makes sense. Now if Froch were to name guys from the past like Julian Jackson, a prime Nigel Benn, and Gerald McClellan as guys that could give Golovkin trouble, I’d agree with that. Those guys were dangerous. But the fighters that Froch listed here, nah, they’d be too easy for GGG.