Antonio Margarito knocked out Miguel Cotto on Saturday night in one of the best fights in recent memory, a fight that established Margarito's greatness, slightly tarnished Cotto's previously spotless resume, and gave fans more than their money's worth.
It was also a fight that showed that even after the retirement of pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather, the state of boxing is strong. We explore just how strong with our list of the Top 25 pound-for-pound boxers in the world.
1. Manny Pacquiao, lightweight
The Filipino is both the world's most exciting fighter and the world's best fighter. He's expected to fight again this fall against an as-yet unnamed opponent, and his next goal could be to unify the lightweight belts, which would make him boxing's only unified champ.
2. Joe Calzaghe, light heavyweight
The Welshman will likely retire after fighting Roy Jones in November; if he does he would be the second undefeated Ring Magazine champ to retire this year.
3. Juan Manuel Marquez, lightweight
He's gone 24 rounds with Pacquiao and emerged with a draw and a narrow split decision. If Marquez beats Joel Casamayor in September, a third fight between the two can't be far off.
4. Kelly Pavlik, middleweightThe undefeated Pavlik, the Ring Magazine champion, was methodical and efficient in dispatching Gary Lockett. Next up is perhaps his toughest test, against Bernard Hopkins. If he dominates Hopkins, he might be the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world.
5. Chris John, featherweight
The 41-0-1 John isn't well known in the United States, but with a win over Marquez on his record, it's impossible for me to keep him out of the top 5.
6. Paul Williams, welterweight
The combination of his victory over Margarito last year and his first-round TKO of Carlos Quintana this year makes Williams the best welterweight in the world.
7. Israel Vazquez, junior featherweight
His trilogy against Rafael Marquez, in which Vazquez lost the first fight but then won the next two, has taken a lot out of both fighters, but it also did a lot to cement both fighters' legacies. Vazquez is the Ring Magazine champion; it's not clear when he'll defend his title.
8. Rafael Marquez, junior featherweight
He's basically the equal of Vazquez, but since Vazquez did win the last two times they fought, we have to give Vazquez the slight edge. I actually wouldn't be opposed to a fourth fight between them, but the way things have gone, Marquez would probably get a narrow win, and then everyone would clamor for a fifth bout. So it's probably not a bad idea that they both find some new opponents.
9. Ricky Hatton, junior welterweight
The only blemish on Hatton's record is his loss last year to Mayweather. Hatton is scheduled to defend his Ring Magazine championship against No. 1 contender Paul Malignaggi in Las Vegas in November.
10. Joel Casamayor, lightweight
For now, Casamayor is the Ring Magazine lightweight champion, but to stay the champ he'll have to win a tough test against Juan Manuel Marquez. If he were to win that, every boxing fan would love to see a superfight with Pacquiao.
11. Bernard Hopkins, light heavyweight
The 43-year-old Hopkins may finally be slowing down, and he wasn't able to keep up with Calzaghe. But he fights Pavlik in October, and if he can win that fight, he'll have to move back into the Top 10.
12. Arthur Abraham, middleweightThe undefeated Abraham knocked out Edison Miranda in his first fight on American soil, and he has said he'd like to face Oscar De La Hoya or Kelly Pavlik next.
13. Antonio Margarito, welterweight
The way he turned it on late in the Cotto fight was extremely impressive, although I do worry that I have Margarito ranked just a bit too highly, considering that he did lose to Paul Williams a year ago and to Daniel Santos four years ago. The bottom line, though, is that Margarito won what might have been the fight of the year against a guy many considered the best in the world.
14. David Haye, heavyweight
After clearing out the cruiserweight division, Haye is planning to move up to heavyweight. I'm not sure if he'll be able to beat the enormous heavyweights like the Klitschko brothers, but I am sure that Haye has the kind of exciting style that could get people interested in heavyweight boxing again.
15. Ivan Calderon, junior flyweight
Calderon is an undefeated Ring Magazine champion. It's too bad more people haven't seen him fight. I expect him to keep his perfect record unblemished against Hugo Cazares in August.
16. Cristian Mijares, junior bamtamweight
Mijares hasn't been extremely impressive lately, needing split decisions to win both of his fights in 2008. But I think he'll knock out Chatchai Sasakul in August.
17. Miguel Cotto, welterweight
If he had dominated Margarito I might have considered putting Cotto near the top of this list. But the way Margarito battered him late in the fight shows that while Cotto is great, he isn't quite the complete boxer everyone thought he was.
18. Wladimir Klitschko, heavyweightI like Klitschko, a smart, well-spoken man who's a good ambassador for his sport and dominated America's best heavyweight this month. But with all due respect, the fact that he's the world's No. 1-ranked heavyweight says more about the heavyweight division than it does about Klitschko. The two Klitschko brothers may soon own all the heavyweight title belts, but I'll be rooting for Haye to make the division more interesting.
19. Verno Phillips, junior middleweight
A few years ago Phillips appeared to be on the down side of his career, with back-to-back losses against Kassim Ouma and Ike Quartey. But he's now on a four-fight winning streak, and his split decision win over Cory Spinks in March gave him the IBF light middleweight title.
20. Mikkel Kessler, super middleweight
Kessler's loss to Calzaghe in November took a lot of the wind out of his sails, and he's now a bit overlooked, with his domination of Dimitri Sartison hardly even being noticed beyond hard-core boxing fans. Kessler needs to fight a top-notch opponent to get his name back into the Top 10 pound-for-pound conversation, and unfortunately he's not doing that, instead taking on the overmatched Danilo Haussler.
21. Oscar De La Hoya, junior middleweight The world's most popular boxer and the sport's best businessman will fight one more time, in December, before retiring. It's not clear who he'll take on, but I hope it's one of the people listed above. De La Hoya has been willing to take on top competition throughout his career, and he should do it one more time.
22. Juan Manuel Lopez, super bantamweight
After the way he dominated Daniel Ponce De Leon, the 22-0 Lopez has to be considered among the most exciting young fighters in the sport. The 25-year-old is expected to fight again in October.
23. Yutaka Niida, strawweight
Niida is an extremely difficult boxer to judge because he's never fought outside Japan. But his fight in September against the undefeated Roman Gonzalez should be a reasonably tough test.
24. Nonito Donaire, flyweight
The 25-year-old Donaire lost his second professional fight but is unbeaten since then.
25. Hozumi Hasegawa, bantamweight
Like Niida, Hasegawa has never fought outside Japan. But Hasegawa is the world's top-ranked bantamweight and has won 21 straight fights. It would be great to see him fight Niida.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
MDS...
Seriously... I can't believe you have the guts to put Paul Williams at #1 Welterweight... I thought you were like most casual boxing fans/writers who have forgotten that Williams beat Margarito.
Until Margarito gives Williams the chance to fight him again (which his promoter Bob Arum will not agree to) there should not be any talk of Margarito being the best welterweight.
Period.
Floyd who?
Well Pavlik seems like he will be taking the number 1 spot in the near future assuming nothing bizzare happens. Hopkins is going to fight Pavlick, The same Hopkins who lost to taylor is now going to try to beat the guy who beat taylor, not really seeing how he can beat pavlik. Kind of dissapointed in Calzaghe, even if he beats Jones there will still be a question mark about whether he is the best since he is apparently choosing not to fight pavlik, who if he were to beat would be a better time to retire but not looking like its gonna happen. FLoyd doesn't make a lot of sense. He says he doesn't need the money and that's why he is retiring and not fighting De La Hoya. He also says that the reason he wouldn't fight Cotto (this is when cotto was still undefeated), is because Cotto wasn't a big enough name to draw a big payday. He also has a problem with Pavlik being called possibly the best pound for pound boxer. Well why not move up in weight and fight him if he is so sure he is better? Instead it's no i don't need the money that's why i am not fighting De La Hoya, and, no i won't fight cotto because i won't make enough money fighting him, whatever, it's getting old, if he comes back from retirement he has some serious competition to deal with. He is a great fighter just not to sure about some of his excuses.
You all can talk all the SH___ you want to about Floyd Mayweather...... but I bet he will kick any of your butts any day of the week. He is just smart enough to get out of the game, before he gets beat up or hurt by some no name fool.
The truth is Floyd Mayweather didnt have the balls to fight Margarito or even Oscar De la Hoya didnt have the balls either. Well Paul Williams is like an inch taller than Margarito and has long arms. Cintron lasted 6 rounds against Margarito. While Cotto is only 5'7 and gave his skills and heart out there against a taller longer reach version of himself. I was shocked that Cotto didnt fire as much body shots because Margarito probly stunned him. If Floyd fought Margarito only time will tell how many rounds he 'll last. Floyd even got rocked by Hatton. Floyd retired coz he was scared of Cotto.
Cannot agree with the way Cotto fought Antonio M. Anybody who head hunts him will lose. He doesn't cut, or puffup, and he can take the best punch of anyone out there. To win against him you have to chop down the tree with a pure body attack for 7 rounds then head hunt. The better man won that night. Cotto ran out of gas and could have won if he had boxed with hand and foot speed the last two rounds. He won the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 10th rounds. A. M. the 2nd 7th, 8th, 9th rounds. Would like to see a rematch.
It is funny to read this blog ;
Margarito is a pure puncher with a chin of steel and ala Rocky Marciano in the welterweight division you do not xchange punches with a tornado like such;
Instead Manny is a puncher as well as a boxer so is Mayweather ( not as strong as a puncher) but is a big
difference;
The way to beat Margarito is not to xchange toe to toe
with him, period;
In fact , the one's that survived his fury did exactly that;
In the time that fights do not go over 12th rounds is a blessing for someone that fights Margarito in a small ring
that is why the great Rocky Marciano did not loose because sooner or later he was going to get you;
So im my book Manny and Mayweather still the best at their game, firm.
BERTO BERTO BERTO??? Would had been the real shakup for COTTO This guy would had taken him to someplace he would not had been willing to go hat's off to ya ANTONIO.
Assuming Pavlik continues to dominate his division like he has and if margarrito makes a few succesful title defenses it would be interesting to see if having margarrito move up to middleweight to fight pavlik is something thats realisticly possible, it may not happen.
Also assuming that margarrito matchup becomes unrealistic then if Pavlik continues to dominate his division perhaps there will be some consideration given to him moving up to lightheavyweight. That would be interesting and would be something I assume boxing fans would want to see. Time will tell. I think that just hanging around in one division when you have basically dominated every opponent makes people want to see such a fighter take on stronger opposition so that's why I think these ideas are at least worth considering.
Vic "the raging bull" Darchinyan Should be in top 25.
I couldn't believe how biased toward Cotto Jim Lampley was. I thought he was going to give the mike to Max so he could put his head down and sob. The biggest payday for Antonio would probably be Oscar, Other than that, how about Cotto vs, Paul Williams with the winner getting a rematch with Antonio ?
The winner of Cotto and Williams getting a rematch with Margarito????
That would be fine... but WAIT! Paul already spanked Margarito's ass. He shouldn't have to work to face him again! Since when does the winner have to beg the loser for a rematch?
IS EVERYONE ELSE TOO BLINDED WITH THIS MARGARITO-MANIA TO SEE THROUGH THIS?!?!?!
Cotto should fight Clottey to see who will fight the winner of Margarito and Williams, and the media should wait before they crown Margarito king of the world He has unfinished business.
I guess I'm just thinking about the money. I think if Williams beat either
Cotto or Clottey it would mean more money both for him and Antonio.
Wow this list is awful, are you out of your mind naming Paul Williams the best welterweight in the world; have you no sense of boxing? I agree with Pacquaio of course, he is the best p4p fighter even if Floyd was still fighting; he's fought the better competition and has come out victorious almost every single time. Calzaghe although a little high on the list I agree with. I agree with #3, and #4. Apart from Chris John beating Marquez he hasn’t fought any other significant opponent he shouldn't even be in the top 20. Agree with #6 and #7. Ricky Hatton's last outing against Lazcano shows he's almost done, even though he won almost every round that’s a fight where the cards don't really show how close the fight was, he couldn't even hurt Lazcano, plus his record was blemished by the pillow punching of Mayweather. Look for a spilt decision victory for Paulie in a spirited bout. 10 I agree with but still a little too high, and Bernard should be higher on the list. Margarito should be higher. This list should consist of 15 fighters not 25; it seems that you had to stretch for fighters seeing that #23-25 are unknowns.