MANILA, Philippines – Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s recent win over “Sugar” Shane Mosley has heated up the race for pound-for-pound ranking, with boxing observers still divided on who is the best boxer today regardless of weight classes.
Although 7-division champion Manny Pacquiao
remains the top pound-for-pound pick of Ring Magazine, considered the “bible of boxing,” its editor-in-chief Nigel Collins admitted that the magazine’s ratings panel was “fairly evenly divided” between the two boxing stars.“I can't remember a prolonged period of time in which there was more of a difference of opinion than right now,” said Collins as quoted in a blog posted on Ringtv.com by boxing writer Michael Rosenthal.
Despite Mayweather’s decisive performance against Mosley last Saturday, the Ring Magazine has decided to stick with Pacquiao as its No. 1 fighter.
“In the end, Pacquiao held on to the top spot due to his slightly better overall body of work and the difficulty involved in demoted a fighter coming off a virtual shutout performance such as Pacquiao’s victory over Joshua Clottey,” said Collins.
Pacquiao’s “overall body of work” has included defeats of quality opponents such as Erik Morales, Juan Manuel Marquez, Marco Antonio Barrera, Oscar de la Hoya, Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey.
Mayweather, on the other hand, defeated De la Hoya, Jose Luis Castillo, Diego Corrales, Zab Judah and Phillip Ndou. His latest victories after un-retiring were against Mosley and Marquez.
Mosley, who held the No. 3 spot before the Mayweather fight, fell to No. 5.
“Manny and Floyd could very well be considered No. 1A and No. 1B,” said Collins. “However, the tricky thing about the pound-for-pound ratings is that they are much more subjective than the divisional ratings, which are objective and based on results within the division.”
BBC has Mayweather on top
The website of the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC.co.uk, sees it differently from Ring Magazine.
According to its updated pound-for-pound rankings, Mayweather is the top boxer, not Pacquiao.
“So masterful was Mayweather against Shane Mosley, we felt compelled to put him back on top of our list,” said the BBC Sport website.
Donaire climbs Ring Magazine rankings
The demotion of Mosley in Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound rankings resulted in the promotion of Nonito Donaire Jr. to No. 4.
Donaire, currently in negotiations for a rematch with world super flyweight Vic Darchinyan, used to hold the No. 5 spot.
He, however, is not included in BBC’s pound-for-pound rankings.
The rest in Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound list are Marquez (No. 3), Chad Dawson (No. 6), Paul Williams (No. 7), Sergio Martinez (No. 8), Pongsaklek Wonjongkam (No. 9) and Celestino Caballero (No. 10).
Completing BBC’s pound-for-pound list are Marquez (No. 3), Bernard Hopkins (No. 4), Mosley (No. 5), Miguel Cotto (No. 6), Israel Vasquez (No. 7), Chad Dawson (No. 8), Paul Williams (No. 9) and Juan Manuel Lopez (No. 10).
Source: abs-cbnnews.com
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