The 10 best welterweights ranked

By Boxing News - 08/13/2016 - Comments

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By Dan Ambrose: There’s a lot of confusion among boxing fans in who are the very best welterweights in the division right. The ratings that we see from the four sanctioning bodies and Ring Magazine almost appear to some fans be senseless without reason. For example, Ring Magazine has Kell Brook rated No.1, and that’s not someone that the average boxing fans would agree as being good enough to deserve that rating.

This is why I’ve decided to make my own list, which I personally feel is a lot better than the sanctioning bodies and Ring Magazine’s bizarre rankings systems. It’s nice to remove politics from the ranking systems and just go with who the actual best fighters are. That’s why I feel that my list of welterweights is far better than we could ever hope to get from the alphabet sanctioning bodies or Ring Magazine.

Here is what I feel are the best welterweights in the division:

1. Keith “One Time” Thurman

2. Errol Spence Jr

3. Shawn Porter

4. Manny Pacquiao

5. Kell Brook

6. Danny Garcia

7. Frankie Gomez

8. Tim Bradley

9. Andre Berto

10. Jessie Vargas

1. Keith Thurman deserves to be rated No.1 based on his recent win over Shawn Porter, and his unbeaten record. Thurman did a much better job beating Porter than Brook did, as he was forced to hold him all night long rather than fighting him. Thurman did a good job of out-slugging Porter. Thurman showed in that fight that he could slug as well as box. It was a refreshing change for Thurman, because he had been using a lot of movement in many of his fights before that fight. Thurman decided he wasn’t going to move all night long when he got in with Porter, and that made the fight very watchable. Thurman has the potential to replace Floyd Mayweather Jr. if he can take on and beat the likes of Spence, Danny Garcia, Tim Bradley, Brook, Gomez and Vargas. With the politics in boxing, it’s not likely that Thurman will ever fight Top Rank fighters Bradley, Vargas or Manny Pacquiao.

2. Errol Spence makes it to No.2 on the list because he simply looks better than all the other welterweights in the top 10. Spence would likely beat Thurman if he could get a fight against him. I don’t think their mutual adviser Al Haymon is going to put them together, however, because it would he would be wiping out one of his revenue streams if he were to do that. Besides that, Thurman has already rejected a fight against Spence in the past, saying that he hadn’t fought enough high quality fighters. I suspect that Thurman will not be matched against Spence for his entire career. It’s just not a good fight for Thurman because he doesn’t know how to fight on the inside, and he would be forced to run all night long. If he stops and tries to fight, then he gets knocked out from Spence’s body shots. We saw Thurman struggle with the body punching from Luis Collazo in their fight last year, and Collazo is nowhere near as good as Spence is when it comes to throwing body shots.

3. Shawn Porter gets the nod for the No.3 spot based on his aggressiveness, punching power, youth and aggressiveness. His only losses came against Brook and Thurman. The fight against Thurman could very well have gone the other way if Porter had stayed fought better on the inside. Porter smothered his own work when he was on the inside against Thurman. If he had taken a half step back so that he could get leverage on his shots, he might have been able to hurt Thurman. But by staying too close, Porter couldn’t get his shots off with maximum power. That’s what separates Porter from a talented fighter like Spence, who is able to generate incredible punching power even from close range. Spence can do this because he winds up on his shots like a young George Foreman and punches through the midsections of his opponents. Spence appears to visualize his punches going directly through his opponents when he hits them to the body. Porter isn’t able to do this. He can punch with moderate power in close but not with the kind of steam that Spence generates.

4. Manny Pacquiao would be ranked higher if he were younger, bigger and stronger than the other welterweights. However, at 37, Pacquiao doesn’t have the size or the power to compete against the bigger welterweights with youth and size on their side. Pacquiao’s right shoulder does not appear to be fully back to where it was before he suffered his torn right rotator cuff. We saw that in Pacquiao’s last fight against Bradley that he’s not punching power the power that he once could. Pacquiao is still a very good fighter though.

5. Kell Brook is still in my welterweight rankings despite him moving up to middleweight to challenge champion Gennady GGG Golovkin. I have doubts that Brook will return to the welterweight division. Even if he does return, I don’t think he’s going to be the same fighter that he was before he moved up. Errol Spence will beat Brook, as will Thurman and Porter. I suspect that Brook will either not come back down to 147 or he’ll leave the division after he loses to Spence.

6. Danny Garcia has the potential to be a good fighter, but he’s too small and he can’t handle pressure from stronger welterweights I feel.

7. Frankie Gomez Has the potential to be a very good fighter if he can get his weight under control. I have a feeling that he’s going to wind up in the junior middleweight division soon.

8. Tim Bradley Is still a very good fighter despite his recent loss to Pacquiao. However, he’s small and weak for the weight class. I cannot see Bradley being able to hang with the likes of Spence, Thurman, Brook, Gomez, or Danny Garcia.

9. Andre Berto still has the punching power and hand speed to give many of the top welterweight’s problems when he lands his shots. However, he’s getting older, and I can’t see him being able to stick around as a top 10 guy for long. I don’t agree with the World Boxing Council’s rankings of Berto at No.2 at 147.

10. Jessie Vargas Has shown a lot of improvement in his last two fights at welterweight. His lack of punching power will leave him at the mercy of the better welterweights like Spence, Thurman, Pacquiao, Garcia, Brook and Porter. Vargas being with Top Rank likely limits his future outlook once he gets past the Pacquiao fight.