By James Sexton: Boxrec.com should not be an unfamiliar website for any fan of the sweet science. The guys that run that website have done a fantastic job in compiling thousands and thousands of records detailing the work of fighters, judges and referees dating back hundreds of years. One feature of this website also is the fact that they have their own ratings system which uses this database to come up with a points system to rank every active fighter.
This is a description of their ratings system taking directly from their website.
‘BoxRec.com provides Active and All Time boxer ratings, as calculated daily by its computer. These ratings are not influenced by subjective views or opinions but are wholly dependent upon the bouts contained in the BoxRec database.’
When taking a look at the pound for pound rankings on this website there are some changes from the generally accepted choices chosen by members of staff at Ring Magazine or ESPN. Below is the list of fighters in the order they appear on this list.
1. Floyd Mayweather Jr
2. Wladimir Klitschko
3. Manny Pacquiao
4. Juan Manuel Marquez
5. Saul Alvarez
6. Gennady Golovkin
7. Carl Froch
8. Adonis Stevenson
9. Sergey Kovalev
10. Danny Garcia
Several picks here are going to spark furious debate, but it is interesting to see how these rankings come about when the subjective side of picking is taken out and it is left to the numbers. The strangest thing here for me would be that Stevenson appears above Kovalev despite having a harder time beating lesser opposition when compared to his Russian counterpart.
Juan Manuel Marquez is still rated highly as he is with other ranking lists I have seen. As I have mentioned before I find this very strange seeing as his lone win in 2013 came over a second tier fighter in the previously beaten Mike Alvarado. Rios and Alvarado have returned to fighting each other rather than taking on other big named fighters in the division and racking up more losses. The KO win Marquez dealt to Pacquaio was two years ago but still seems to have fans and writers alike in awe despite the fact that Marquez would not be able to land such a punch if put in with any other top welterweight such as Floyd Mayweather Jr, Kell Brook or Keith Thurman. He was even rocked back by a punch from the light hitting Timothy Bradley during his loss to him in 2013 despite Bradley not having the power to stop or drop anyone since fighting an aging Casamayor in 2011. Interestingly, Bradley is rated number 27 in these computerised rankings following his disappointing draw with Diego Chavez.
Saul Alvarez at number 5? Not where a lot of us would rank him after losing every round to Floyd Mayweather Jr during their fight. However you cannot say that this kid does not entertain, and he goes after the big fights and ducks nobody. The fans said fight Trout and he fought Trout. The fans said fight Lara and he fought Lara. Despite the concern from his team and promoters he puts himself in dangerous positions by taking on all comers and thus far has come out on top every time but one. Now he is going in with James Kirkland, far from an easy pick.
The final questionable pick is Danny Garcia who was removed from many lists during 2014 for his appalling performance in fighting Mauricio Herrera and his shocking choice to then take on Rod Salka as an opponent. The governing bodies, which manage his titles, wouldn’t even accept the money to sanction the Salka fights and that says a lot.
So overall is this a better list than those put out there by others? Yes and no. Some pound for pound talents are not mentioned such as Guillermo Rigondeaux, Terence Crawford or Miguel Cotto and some fans would disagree with that. However despite some obvious flaws its an interesting and refreshing outlook on the coveted list.
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