By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao stayed at #1 in Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound rankings. The rankings update was released today with Sergio Martinez, the hottest fighter in boxing right now, moved up from the #4 spot to number #3 behind Floyd Mayweather Jr. at #2 and Pacquiao at #1. Martinez will likely move up another notch or two depending on how good or bad Pacquiao looks against 39-year-old Shane Mosley on May 7th.

Pacquiao is going to have to really shine in this fight if he wants to keep his number #1 ranking because he already has a mark against him because he’s facing a guy that appears to be shot in the minds of many boxing fans and has looked horrid in his last two fights. Pacquiao is already coming off of a win over another struggling fighter Antonio Margarito last November.

Few fans wanted to see this mismatch and were intensely upset with the choice of Pacquiao fighting Margarito, a fighter who had lost his boxing license because of a hand wrap scandal. Margarito was able to eventually get a boxing license but they had to shop around to find a state that would give it to him after California and Nevada passed. Pacqquiao beat Margarito to no great surprise to capture a catchweight WBC junior middleweight title. Margarito had only fought once at junior middleweight in the past six years, making the fight seem rather odd being that the WBC title was on the line.

Martinez hasn’t been taking the easy path in the past two years, taking on Kermit Cintron, Paul Williams (twice), Kelly Pavlik and Sergiy Dzinziruk.