By Dave Lahr: For what it’s worth, Ring Magazine has installed Manny Pacquiao as number #1 pound for pound fighter in the world. Incredibly, they have unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. as number #2 instead of the number #1 position. That seems kind of crazy since Mayweather is unbeaten and pretty much established himself as the number #1 fighter in all of boxing with his dominating win over Shane Mosley in May. That win should have cemented Mayweather’s status as number #1, in my view.
How can you not have Mayweather as number #1 when he’s coming off of two outstanding wins over Mosley and Juan Manuel Marquez? Pacquiao had severe problems in his two fights with Marquez, and some people think he got a gift decision in their second fight. Incidentally, Marquez is ranked #3 on the pound for pound list. What does that tell you when Mayweather is totally blowing out the number #3 guy on Ring Magazine’s pound for pound list. Anyway, it’s all subjective garbage and I don’t put any weight behind The Ring’s rankings. I have my own rankings, and I have Mayweather #1, Chad Dawson #2, Juan Manuel Marquez #3, Paul Williams #4, and Wladimir Klitschko #5.
I might rank Pacquiao higher if he had taken on some better opponents recently. I would have liked to have seen Pacquiao fight Mosley. He could have but instead he chose Joshua Clottey. I have no clue why Pacquiao fought that guy. I mean, Clottey was coming off a loss to Cotto, so why on earth did Pacquiao fight him? I wasn’t impressed with Pacquiao’s wins over Ricky Hatton, Oscar De La Hoya or Cotto. I think they were good money fights but not the best fighters he could have fought.
De La Hoya was shot and weight drained, Hatton wasn’t the best fighter in the light welterweight division. Pacquiao should have fought Devon Alexander, Timothy Bradley and Marcos Maidana instead. And the fight against Cotto was pointless because Cotto had taken a pounding to Antonio Margarito and had taken more pounding against Clottey. Pacquiao should have fought Andre Berto, Mosley and Margarito.
The good news is that if Mayweather and Pacquiao fight, they can straighten out the rankings so that The Ring can make some major adjustments with their rankings. I expect to see Mayweather at number #1 shortly if they can ever put this fight together.
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