Calzaghe's victory over Kessler left no room to question who was actually the best super middleweight at the time. via life.com

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Now that 2009 is getting close to wrapping up, it means this decade is almost over.  Before the end of the year, I hope to get through all the weight classes, presenting to you some choices for the best fighter in a given weight class in the decade.  I'm not going in any particular order here, but we'll get through all 17 weight classes. 

When voting, please only consider the time that the fighter was in the specified weight class during this decade.  Also, I'm not going to count obvious ballot stuffing when I tally these up at the end of the year.

Super middleweight, much like light welterweight, was one of the few weight classes that was for the most part cleared out in the 2000's.  Early in the decade, Ottke defeated many of the top guys and retired undefeated.  Then, mid-decade, Calzaghe and Kessler cleaned out every name worth mentioning before fighting each other to create a true undisputed champion in the weight class.  And now, the cycle begins anew, as the Super Six tournament includes the majority of the names really worth mentioning, and likely will create a new champ in the weight class in early 2011.  That said, there's really only two names that deserve any votes.

Lucian Bute - Bute has gone 14-0 in the weight class, including 4-0 in title fights.  Key wins include victories over Librado Andrade, Sakio Bika, Fulgencio Zuniga, Alejandro Berrio, William Joppy, and a number of Calzaghe rejects.  He has a rematch coming up next month against Andrade.  If he does make a big name for himself, it's a lot more likely he'll be near the top of this kind of poll for next decade than for this one.

Joe Calzaghe - Calzaghe went 17-0 in the weight classes, all of which were title defenses, including two unification victories over Jeff Lacy and Mikkel Kessler, the latter of which probably created the first true super middleweight champion in the history of the weight class.  In the decade, the best wins were over Kessler, Lacy, Sakio Bika, Byron Mitchell, Charles Brewer, Richie Woodhall, Omar Sheika and David Starie.  One thing that hurts him is that for about half the decade, he really focused on taking mandatories and the weakest defenses possible, leading to a pretty underwhelming collection of title defenses from 2000 through 2005.  In addition, he only left England and Wales twice during the reign, and one of those times was on the Tyson-Nielsen undercard where he was facing an unknown American.  On the other hand, his last four defenses were fairly strong (the wins over Bika and Manfredo look better now than they did at the time), and he did manage to make himself the lineal, undisputed, unified super middleweight champion of the world.

Carl Froch - Froch has gone 17-0 in the division, including 3-0 in title fights.  His important victories are over Jermain Taylor, Andre Dirrell, Jean Pascal and Robin Reid.  Like Bute, he's on this list because he's undefeated and has a number of legitimate wins, but he's more likely to make a bigger name for himself in the future than he is to win this poll now.

Mikkel Kessler - Kessler has gone 23-2 in the weight class this decade, including seven title defenses and unification of belts with Markus Beyer.  Kessler has beaten seven former and future beltholders - Beyer, Eric Lucas, Anthony Mundine, Manny Siaca, Julio Cesar Green, Dingaan Thobela and Dmitri Sartison, and one more who still could become a beltholder before the decade is over (Librado Andrade).  The two losses came to Joe Calzaghe and in last night's destruction by Andre Ward.

Jeff Lacy - Lacy started off the decade making a lot of noise, and sort of left it with a whimper.  Lacy went 22-2 in the weight class, including four title defenses.  His best wins include Robin Reid, Omar Sheika, Syd Vanderpool, Epifanio Mendoza and Peter Manfredo. His losses came to Joe Calzaghe (a fight in which he was so thoroughly beaten, that he was never the same fighter again afterwards) and Jermain Taylor.  It's pretty easy to look back at his resume now and say that he was probably always overhyped, but for a while, people thought he was going to be the next great thing.

Anthony Mundine - Mundine has gone 33-3 in the weight class, including twice winning belts.  The former professional rugby player was a novice to boxing when he vowed to win a title within his first 10 fights, and while he didn't win the title, he did manage to get a title shot against Ottke very quickly.  He also lost to Mikkel Kessler and Danny Green.  His best wins were over Danny Green, Antwun Echols, RIck Thornberry and Sam Soliman (thrice).  More recently, Mundine is campaigning at middleweight, having blatantly ducked out of a potential Sakio Bika fight that would have been big in Australia to go after some easier foes.

Sven Ottke - Ottke also went 17-0 in the weight class, all of which were title defenses, including a unification fight with Byron Mitchell.  Key wins include Mitchell, Charles Brewer, Silvio Branco, James Crawford, Anthony Mundine, Rick Thornberry, David Staris, Mads Larsen and Robin Reid (albeit in a fight that nobody other than the judges and Ottke's mum thought Ottke won).  Other than the one name that's blatantly missing from his resume (Calzaghe), Ottke actually did fight the best out there, which is commendable.  On the other hand, he never once left Germany and was on the right end of several gift or questionable decisions, which is not.

Marquez and Mabuza participated in a couple of thrilling wars, both of which resulted in Marquez victories. via www.trufanboxing.com

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Now that 2009 is getting close to wrapping up, it means this decade is almost over.  Before the end of the year, I hope to get through all the weight classes, presenting to you some choices for the best fighter in a given weight class in the decade.  I'm not going in any particular order here, but we'll get through all 17 weight classes. 

When voting, please only consider the time that the fighter was in the specified weight class during this decade.  Also, I'm not going to count obvious ballot stuffing when I tally these up at the end of the year.

There are relatively few guys on this poll, but it's not because there are a lack of names worth mentioning; to the contrary, depending how deep I might decide to go into the second tier, there are probably about 20 names that might be worth mentioning.  That said, that tier is all on about even par with each other, and there are but a few names that really stand out.  Heck, outside of the guy who really stands out, the other guys who made it onto the poll mostly got there by virtue of not losing to the others on the poll.

Jhonny Gonzalez - Gonzalez racked up a record of 31-3 in the weight class, including three title defenses, although much of that record was racked up early in his career.  Key victories include Mark Johnson, Fernando Montiel,  Ratanachai Sor Vorapin, Irene Pacheco, Roger Gonzalez, William Gonzalez and Adonis Rivas.  The lone loss at the weight during his prime came to Gerry Penalosa, getting knocked out in a fight where he was leading on the cards.  The other two losses both came early in his career to Ricardo Vargas, one of those good fighters with a bad looking record.

Hozumi Hasegawa - Hasegawa has gone 24-2 in the weight class, with both losses coming in the first five fights of his career.  This includes 10 victories in title fights, which have become successively more brutal over time.  He has two wins over Veeraphol Sahaprom, plus victories over ranked but unheralded fighters such as Genaro Garcia, Simpiwe Vetyeka, Vusi Malinga and Nestor Rocha.  He has another upcoming defense against unknown Alvaro Perez, after which he intends to move up in weight.  The biggest black mark is that he has yet to leave Japan, although it would be nice to see him take a step up in competition as well.

Rafael Marquez - Marquez went 17-1 in the weight class during the decade, including a run of 8 defenses of his IBF bantamweight title.  Key victories included two wins over each of Silence Mabuza, Mark Johnson and Mauricio Pastrana, plus victories over Tim Austin, Ricardo Vargas and Heriberto Ruiz.  The lone loss came early in the decade against a very game Genaro Garcia.  By the time he was done with his run at 118, he was ranked in the pound for pound top 10, and moved on to have a classic trilogy one weight class up with Israel Vasquez.

Anselmo Moreno - Relatively unknown Moreno has gone 13-0 in the weight class, but has as strong of a resume in the weight class (on paper) as any active fighter.  Wins include two victories over Wladimir Sidorenko (both in Sidorenko's backyard), as well as wins over Mahyar Monshipour, Rolly Matsushita, Tomas Rojas, Ricardo Vargas and Cecilio Santos.

Gerry Penalosa - Penalosa has gone 7-0 in the weight class, including two title fight victories.  The key wins were against Jhonny Gonzalez, Ratanachai Sor Vorapin and Tomas Rojas.

Shout outs: Fernando Montiel, Wladimir Sidorenko, Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym, Ricardo Cordoba, Joseph Agbeko, Yohnny Perez, Silence Mabuza, Veeraphol Sahaprom, Toshiaki Nishioka, Mark Johnson, Johnny Bredahl.

Mayweather and Castillo twice fought for lightweight supremacy, with Mayweather narrowly coming out on top each time.

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Now that 2009 is getting close to wrapping up, it means this decade is almost over.  Before the end of the year, I hope to get through all the weight classes, presenting to you some choices for the best fighter in a given weight class in the decade.  I'm not going in any particular order here, but we'll get through all 17 weight classes. 

When voting, please only consider the time that the fighter was in the specified weight class during this decade.  Also, I'm not going to count obvious ballot stuffing when I tally these up at the end of the year.

Lightweight has been an on and off weight class through the decade.  Early in the decade, it was relatively strong, although many of the best never fought each other.  In the middle, there were a few guys who stepped up, but there was little depth.  As the decade wore on, with fighters moving up and titlists unifying, the weight class again became much stronger, leading to the list below. 

Joel Casamayor - In the decade, El Cepillo went 9-2-1, generally fighting at or near the top level of competition, and holding the Ring title for a period of time.  Wins include Michael Katsidis, a contested decision over Jose Armando Santa Cruz, Chico Corrales and Nate Campbell.  He also had a draw with Kid Diamond.  The losses include a split decision to Jose Luis Castillo and a knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez in a bout that was close until the end, and that came well past Casamayor's best. 

Jose Luis Castillo - Castillo went 7-3-1 at lightweight during the 2000's, but that included a run as the Ring Magazine champion and two runs as a titleholder.  Wins included Stevie Johnston (with whom he also drew), Cesar Bazan, Steve Quinonez, Juan Lazcano, Joel Casamayor and Julio DIaz.  One of those losses was to Mayweather, in the closest fight he's had in his career, and the only fight that people can legitimately argue that Mayweather lost.  One of the losses was a fight of the year against Chico Corrales, where he was winning until Corrales took it by come from behind knockout.  The third was a Mayweather rematch with a more decisive conclusion.

Juan Diaz - Baby Bull went 23-2 in the weight, including seven defenses of his WBA title and unification of three of the belts.  Key victories include Popo Freitas, Julio Diaz, Lakva Sim, Randy Suico, Francisco Lorenzo and Jose Cotto.  The two losses came in bloody battles to Nate Campbell and Juan Manuel Marquez. 

Artur Grigorian - King Artur went 8-1 at the weight, all in defenses of his WBO title.  In fairness to others, he won the title when it was not considered a major belt, and it just kind of grew into one as he held it.  Of those eight wins, the most prominent were Matt Zegan, Rocky Martinez, Antonio Pitalua and Stefano Zoff.  His lone loss came to Acelino Freitas, which ended a string of 18 consecutive defenses for Grigorian.

Juan Lazcano - The Hispanic Causing Panic went 12-1 at the weight in the 2000's, and may have been the best fighter of the four-belt era to never have won a title.  Marquee wins included John John Molina, Stevie Johnston, Jesse James Leija, Dorin Spivey and Wilfredo Vasquez.  By going after the big names much more than he went after the actual belt, it turns out that despite having a lot of great names on the resume, he still couldn't grab a belt.  He went 0-1 in title fights at the weight, losing a close but clear decision to Jose Luis Castillo for the Ring Magazine title.

Juan Manuel Marquez - Marquez is to lightweight what Joe Calzaghe is to heavyweight.  He's fought all of two fights in the weight class, but there's a pretty good argument that he was still the best lightweight of the decade due to who he beat.  First, he beat lineal champion Joel Casamayor by 11th round technical knockout; then, he beat Juan Diaz by 9th round technical knockout.  By the time Marquez got to them, both men had lost some of their luster (most thought Casamayor lost to Jose Armando Santa Cruz, and Diaz had recently lost his belts to Nate Campbell), and both fights were close and competitive before the knockouts, but in each case, Marquez found a way to win, despite the fact that he probably still could have been fighting at featherweight. 

Floyd Mayweather Jr. - Mayweather didn't spend much time at lightweight, only going 5-0 at the weight, with two wins over Jose Luis Castillo, and wins over Emmanuel Augustus, Phillip N'Dou and Victoriano Sosa.  Castillo was one of the top dogs at the time, and one of the decisions was highly controversial. 

Paul Spadafora - Spadafora went 6-0-1 at the weight, all in defenses of his IBF title, and the one draw coming in a unification fight with Leonard Dorin.  The names of the fighters he beat aren't overwhelming - probably the most recognizable are Angel Manfredy and Victoriano Sosa.  But he did become somewhat notorious for being the guy Mayweather never faced.  Real standup guy too.  He still has never lost, in part because he lost a few years of his career to prison after shooting his pregnant girlfriend.

Other shout outs: Nate Campbell, Diego Corrales, Leonard Dorin, Popo Freitas, Zahir Raheem, Kid Diamond

While the old farts were busy trying to avoid anyone with a pulse, Adamek and Dawson faced off in a match between two up-and-comers, with Dawson leaving as the decisive victor.

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Now that 2009 is getting close to wrapping up, it means this decade is almost over.  Before the end of the year, I hope to get through all the weight classes, presenting to you some choices for the best fighter in a given weight class in the decade.  I'm not going in any particular order here, but we'll get through all 17 weight classes. 

When voting, please only consider the time that the fighter was in the specified weight class during this decade.  Also, I'm not going to count obvious ballot stuffing when I tally these up at the end of the year.

Light Heavyweight has a ton of great names, but when you dig a little beyond the surface, they're mostly just names.  There are a couple guys (Jones and Michalczewski) who were true stars in the '90's, but who didn't do too much damage this decade, a couple of guys (Calzaghe and Hopkins) who were dominant at other weights but only took a few fights at 175, a couple of guys (Adamek and Erdei) who have shiny records but never really faced the top competition, a couple of guys (Tarver and Johnson) who faced just about everyone but didn't necessarily always shine, and one guy (Dawson) who has the big names and the shiny record, but the names were mostly well past prime.

Tomasz Adamek - Adamek ran up a record of 27-1 at light heavyweight, although much of it came while he was building up a record against no-names in Poland.  His three best wins were all in his title fights, including two bloody wars against Paul Briggs, and a win over Thomas Ulrich, who's just on the outside looking in to getting on this list.  He was soundly beaten when he faced Chad Dawson, and while he's gone on to do great things at cruiserweight, his resume at light heavyweight isn't nearly as impressive.

Joe Calazghe - He only fought two fights in the weight class, but I can't keep him off of here in good conscience because of who he did beat and the fact that he retired holding the Ring Belt.  He scored a close win over Bernard Hopkins and a wide victory over Roy Jones.  On the plus side, Hopkins was a top 10 pound for pound fighter when Calzaghe beat him, and Jones was still top 10 at the weight.  On the downside, Jones was probably only about 60% of what he was in his prime, and Hopkins was 43 years old.

Chad Dawson - Dawson has gone 12-0 at light heavyweight, and while he seems so natural at the weight, his early fights were actually mostly at middleweight and super middleweight.  Key victories include Tomasz Adamek, two wins over Antonio Tarver, two wins over Glen Johnson (one of which was contested) and Eric Harding. The unfortunate part is what could have been.  While in the greater scheme of things it doesn't change much, his record would be much less assailable had he taken his mandatories (and likely easy wins) against Adrian Diaconu and Tavoris Cloud rather than dumping his belts in the hopes of getting a bigger money fight.

Zsolt Erdei - Erdei is probably the biggest unknown quantity, and like it or not, he's been the lineal titlist at light heavyweight for the last six years.  He's gone 30-0 in the weight in the decade, including 12 title defenses.  However, some of those title defenses would make Omar Narvaez blush.  Key wins include Julio Cesar Gonzalez, Hugo Garay (twice, but both were controversial) and Thomas Ulrich.  However, look at his other title victories, including Alejandro Lakatos, Mehdi Sahnoune, DeAndrey Abron, George Blades and Paul Murdoch - it's just crap, crap and more crap.  None of those guys were so much as top 50 LHWs when his promoter scraped the bottom of the barrel to get those defenses.  Fortunately for us, it appears that Erdei will end his hijacking of the real light heavyweight title by moving up to cruiserweight to face Giacobbe Fragomeni next month.

Bernard Hopkins - Hopkins has gone 3-1 at light heavyweight, at least nominally, while managing to hold onto a top 10 pound for pound spot and winning a Ring belt.  During his reign at light heavyweight, he convincingly beat Antonio Tarver, beat middleweight Kelly Pavlik, beat middleweight Winky Wright and lost to Super Middleweight Joe Calzaghe.  Sure, he'd be a tough fight for anyone, but he's come far from proving himself at the weight, instead generally forcing top competition to come up and meet him.  He does have one more upcoming fight, but he'll be making yet another middleweight (and this time a no-name middleweight at that) gain 15 pounds to fight him at light heavyweight.

Glen Johnson - Johnson's never had the prettiest record, but anyone who's watched him fight knows the Road Warrior can be a beast in the ring.  In the weight class in the decade, he went 12-6-2, including a win over Roy Jones, going 1-1 against Antonio Tarver, going 1-1-1 against Clinton Woods and wins over Eric Harding, Richard Hall and Thomas Ulrich.  In addition, he lost twice to Chad Dawson (once controversially), to Julio Cesar Gonzalez (also controversially) and once to Derrick Harmon.

Roy Jones Jr. - While Jones was really at his peak in the '90's, and his best win this decade came at heavyweight, he did manage to inflict some damage early in the decade, holding the Ring Belt until his loss to Tarver.  Jones has gone 13-4 in the weight class, including being the unified titlist for most of the early part of the decade, with wins over David Telesco, Richard Hall, Eric Harding, Derrick Harmon, Julio Cesar Gonzalez, Glen Kelly, Clinton Woods, Felix Trinidad and Jeff Lacy.  He also went 1-2 against Antonio Tarver and had losses to Joe Calzaghe and Glen Johnson.  He does have one more fight coming up, but it will be at cruiserweight against Danny Green.

Dariusz Michalczewski - Tiger really did most of his damage in the '90's, but he did go 7-2 in the 2000's while being the true light heavyweight champion of the world, all in title fights, including wins over Graciano Rocchigiani, Richard Hall (twice), Joey DeGrandis and Derrick Harmon.  His losses both came at the very end of his career, against Julio Cesar Gonzalez and Fabrice Tiozzo.   It's still a damn shame that he and Jones never faced off to determine who was really the best light heavyweight of their generation.

Antonio Tarver - Tarver went 12-6 in the weight class in the 2000's, but almost all of those fights were high profile bouts.  He went 2-1 against Jones, 1-1 against Johnson and 1-1 against Harding, and scored wins over Clinton Woods, Montell Griffin, and Reggie Johnson.  He also lost once to Bernard Hopkins and twice to Chad Dawson.

Others for consideration: Clinton Woods, Thomas Ulrich, Julio Cesar Gonzalez, Eric Harding, Silvio Branco

Pong and Naito fought in four battles that helped define the weight class in the past decade.

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Now that 2009 is getting close to wrapping up, it means this decade is almost over.  Before the end of the year, I hope to get through all the weight classes, presenting to you some choices for the best fighter in a given weight class in the decade.  I'm not going in any particular order here, but we'll get through all 17 weight classes. 

When voting, please only consider the time that the fighter was in the specified weight class during this decade.  Also, I'm not going to count obvious ballot stuffing when I tally these up at the end of the year.

Flyweight in the 2000's has been one of those strange divisions where there are obviously a number of guys who are pretty good, but it's hard to tell who was the best simply because the better fighters in the class almost never fought each other.  Pongsaklek Wonjongkam and Omar Narvaez each had huge title defense streaks, but even Joe Calzaghe would complain about how weak their competition was.  Others generally avoided each other as well, with guys like Arce, Donaire and Darchinyan preferring to plow through guys who were in the bottom half of or just outside of the weight class' top 10.  Unfortunately, the lack of money in the weight class, together with the fact that little guys tend to come from specific different corners of the world, means that this division will probably always be pretty fragmented in the future.

Jorge Arce - Arce went 9-0 at the weight in the middle of the decade, and in what seems like a strange glitch, six of his fights were for an interim title where he never got to fight for the main belt.  All nine wins came by way of knockout, including two bloody wars with Hussein Hussein, two wins over Adonis Rivas, and wins over Rosendo Alvarez and Angel Priolo.

Vic Darchinyan - Raging Bull went 14-1 in the weight class, where he was able to build a reputation as an awkward, extremely hard hitting fighter.  Wins include Wandee Singwancha (twice), Ireme Pacheco, Jair Jimenez, Diosdado Gabi, Luis Maldonado, Glenn Donaire and Victor Burgos.  After cutting a swathe through good but not great competition, the gravy train ended when he faced Glenn's brother Nonito, who managed to knock out Darchinyan in pretty spectacular fashion.

Nonito Donaire - Donaire is actually only 5-0 at the weight, as up until the Darchinyan fight, he had almost always fought at 115 or 118 (and a couple of times, even at 122).  The big win here is over Darchinyan, who was possibly the top fighter at 112 at the time, but who had not yet established himself as the pound for pound force he would become after his loss to Nonito.  Other wins include Raul Martinez, Morute Mthalane and Luis Maldonado.

Eric Morel - Morel went 6-1 in the decade in the Flyweight division, all of which were title bouts.  Wins include Sompichai Kratingdaenggym, Denkaosan Kovichit and Isidro Garcia.  His lone loss came to Lorenzo Parra.

Daisuke Naito - Naito has gone 20-2-2 in the weight class, including going 1-2-1 against Pongsaklek Wonjongkam.  His other draw came against Takefumi Sakata.  Other key wins include Salaryman Teppei, Hiroshi Nakano, and Daiki Kameda.  While he's generally fought the best Japan has to offer, the only time he's left Japan, he was knocked out by Pong in 32 seconds, and he really hasn't faced anyone else of note besides Pong and the Japanese fighters.  He does have a December fight against Koki Kameda, but I doubt the outcome of that fight would change voting here.

Omar Narvaez - Narvaez is a southpaw cutie from Argentina who currently has the longest title defense streak out there.  He's gone 30-0-2 in the weight class, with his entire career spanning the 2000's.  He won a WBO belt in only his 12th fight, and he's kept it since them, fighting whoever are the worst fighters he's able to get away with and racking up 16 defenses.  Granted, he's had a couple of decent mandatories and has been able to beat them, but he's definitely more concerned with his streak than anything, and his opposition reflects that.  Key wins include Adonis Rivas, Everardo Morales, Rexon Flores, Brahim Asloum, Rayonta Whitfield and Omar Soto.

Lorenzo Parra - Parra went 14-1 in the weight class during the 2000's, including 6 title bouts.  Key wins included Eric Morel, Takefumi Sakata (twice, both times in Japan), Brahim Asloum and Yo Sam Choi.  In a third defense against Sakata that was mandated by the WBC, he struggled immensely to make weight, coming in 4 pounds over, and was summarily knocked out in his weight drained state.  However, while at the weight, he was a force at 112, although he wasn't necessarily able to make an impact at higher weights.

Takefumi Sakata - In his favor, he almost certainly faced the toughest roster of opposition in the 2000's of any flyweight.  On the downside, his record in the weight class was only 20-5-2, probably losing more fights against that tough competition than he won.  He did at one point run off five title defenses.  He went 1-2 against Lorenzo Parra, 0-1-1 against Denkaosan Kaovichit, 1-1 against Roberto Vasquez, 1-1 against Trash Nakanuma and had a draw with Daisuke Naito.

Pongsaklek Wonjongkam - Pong has gone 42-1-1 at 112 in the 2000's, including 33 straight victories and 17 title defenses.  The major issue, however, is his level of competition and the fact that he's rarely left Thailand.  Most notably, he is 2-1-1 against Daisuke Naito, including a knockout victory that set the record for fastest ever knockout in a flyweight title fight.  Other notable wins include Malcolm Tunacao, Alex Baba, Hidenobu Honda, Hussein Hussein, Trash Nakanuma and Julio Cesar Miranda.  As impressive as the title defense streak is, most of it is pretty empty, much like Narvaez's, although in his prime he crushed Naito like a walnut.  Only when he was 29 year old and starting to slow down a tick was Naito able to garner a win.  The two should be fighting for a fifth time not too long from now.

Winky Wright and Shane Mosley battled twice for junior middleweight supremacy. via www.hbo.com

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Now that 2009 is getting close to wrapping up, it means this decade is almost over.  Before the end of the year, I hope to get through all the weight classes, presenting to you some choices for the best fighter in a given weight class in the decade.  I'm not going in any particular order here, but we'll get through all 17 weight classes. 

When voting, please only consider the time that the fighter was in the specified weight class during this decade.  Also, I'm not going to count obvious ballot stuffing when I tally these up at the end of the year.

For much of the 2000's, jumior middleweight has been a transient division.  Many of the top fighters in the weight class were either just passing through or were top welterweights who moved up for a while.  Still, while there were no clear standouts in the division, there were a number of guys who did distinguish themselves.  A lot of guys on this poll, simply because there are a lot of guys who have pretty similar levels of merit (although not necessarily the guy who probably did the most at the weight). 

Oscar de la Hoya - De la Hoya spent most of his time in the decade at 154, which was well above his best weight, but where he was still able to compete at a world class level.  Golden Boy went 5-2 in the weight class for the decade, all against former and future titlists, including wins over Fernando Vargas, Javier Castellejo, Ricardo Mayorga, Yory Boy Campas and Steve Forbes, with his losses coming to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Shane Mosley.

Sergiy Dzinziruk - Dzinziruk has spent his entire career at the weight, going 30-0 in the decade, although quite a few of those were wins that came early on the learning curve.  He won his title against Daniel Santos in 2005, and has made five successful defenses since then, against Joel Julio, Sebastian Lujan, Lukas Konecny, Carlos Nascimento and Alisultan Nadirbegov, plus an earlier victory over Mamadou Thiam.  Not exactly murderer's row, but not horrible given former promoter Universum's propensity to overprotect its fighters.    Hopefully now that he's free from Universum, he'll start making better fights.

Roman Karmazin - "Made in Hell" might have a good case for being the most ducked fighter in the decade.  As a solid technical fighter with a big punch but no name whatsoever, facing him was a very risky proposition, considering that there was almost no financial reward for doing so.  Karmazin went 8-3 in the weight class, including wins over Kassim Ouma, Alejandro "Terra" Garcia, Keith Holmes and David Walker.  His losses were a decision to Javier Castellejo that was widely reported to be a robbery, an extremely highly contested split decision loss to Cory Spinks and a TKO loss to Alex Bunema. 

Shane Mosley - Mosley is clearly a better fighter at 147, and has done most of his recent damage there, but he still accomplished quite a bit at 154.  Mosley went 4-2 at the weight, with both of his losses coming to Winky Wright, and wins coming over Oscar de la Hoya, Ricardo Mayorga and Fernando Vargas (twice).

Kassim Ouma - Kassim's dreams have been shattered recently with some losses that seem to have come relatively early in his career, but he still did quite a bit of damage at 154.  Ouma went 15-4-1 in the weight class in the decade, but three of those losses came at what is likely the tail end of his career.  Key victories include Verno Phillips (twice), Carlos Bojorquez, Alex Bunema, Kofi Janutah, Marco Antonio Rubio and Sechew Powell.  The only loss during the prime of his career came to Karmazin, although he also suffered recent losses to Saul Roman, Cornelius Bundrage and Gabriel Rosado.

Daniel Santos - Santos' resume may not be as flashy as some of the guys on the list, but he did spend almost the full decade at 154 and managed to rack up some decent wins.  In going 7-1, he holds wins over Antonio Margarito, Yory Boy Campas, Fulgencio Zuniga, Jose Antonio Rivera and Joachim Alcine.  His lone loss came on the road in a close (but uncontroversial) decision loss to Sergiy Dzinziruk.

Cory Spinks - While it seems like Spinks has been a junior middleweight forever, he's actually only been at the weight for five fights, going 4-1 in the decade, with wins over Karmazin and Deandre Latimore, as well as a loss that most scored as a win against Verno Phillips.

Felix Trinidad - This one's almost purely on here on a head to head basis.  Trinidad only had three fights at the weight, beating a prime Fernando Vargas, Mamadou Thiam and David Reid.  He was a beast at 147 and good but not great at 160, and he was likely somewhere in the middle at 154, but didn't stay there long enough to really prove it.

Winky Wright - Winky went 9-0 in the 2000's at super welterweight, probably his best division.  This included six title defenses, including becoming unified and lineal champion by beating Shane Mosley.  Besides beating Mosley twice, he also held two wins over Bronco McKart and wins over Angel Hernandez, Robert Frazier and Keith Mullings.

Others for possible consideration: Ricardo Mayorga (keeping in mind his wins over Forrest were at 147 and over Vargas was at 164), Vernon Forrest (best wins all at 147, wins at 154 over Mora, a robbery win over Quartey and Baldomir), Harry Simon (win over Winky Wright was in 1998), Verno Phillips, Travis Simms, Paul Williams (only fight of note at 154 was against Phillips).   If I left your favorite guy off the poll, I apologize - I can only put so many on there, and a few of them up there are already pretty darn borderline.

Hatton and Tszyu met in a crossroads fight in 2005, and dominance over the weight class for the decade seems to be split between the two.

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Now that 2009 is getting close to wrapping up, it means this decade is almost over.  Before the end of the year, I hope to get through all the weight classes, presenting to you some choices for the best fighter in a given weight class in the decade.  I'm not going in any particular order here, but we'll get through all 17 weight classes. 

When voting, please only consider the time that the fighter was in the specified weight class during this decade.  Also, I'm not going to count obvious ballot stuffing when I tally these up at the end of the year.

The junior welterweight division is an interesting one, because there really are only two top candidates, and they did fight each other, but it was a crossroads fight where one was ending his career and the other was becoming a star.  But that doesn't necessarily mean that the results would have been the same every time they fought.  Plus, there are a few other wild cards that these two guys with the top records didn't face, and could have an argument of their own.  And the nominees are...

Miguel Cotto - It's difficult to say that Cotto was ducking guys at 140, as he seemed to face everyone he could, but he just wasn't a big enough name at the time to get fights with any of the higher profile fighters in the weight class.  Cotto went 27-0 at 140, including six title defenses.  Key victories include Carlos Maussa, Lovemore N'Dou, Randall Bailey, DeMarcus Corley, RIcardo Torres and Paulie Malignaggi.  The amazing thing is that everyone on that list won a belt at some point or another, but half of them seemed to be nobodies at the time they faced Cotto, but went on to experience success after he beat them.

Ricky Hatton - There's only one....  Hitman went 29-1 in the weight class in the 2000s.  His true marquis win was a victory over Kotsya Tszyu, in which he won the lineal title.  However, he did have a number of other good victories against future and former titlists Freddie Pendleton, Vince Phillips, Carlos Maussa, Juan Urango, Jose Luis Castillo, Juan Lazcano and Paulie Malignaggi, and that's not even including wins over other solid fighters like Michael Stewart and Ben Tackie.  While he struggled each time he moved up to welterweight, the sole blemish on his record at 140 was a recent loss to Manny Pacquiao, the #1 pound for pound fighter in the world by whom Hatton got demolished in 2.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. - This one's really borderline, but I know a lot of people vote purely on a head to head basis, so here he is.  Pretty Boy's reign at 140 is the weakest of anyone on this list, and this is the weight class where he's fought that his own personal resume is the weakest.  There were only three fights at this class: DeMarcus Corley, Henry Bruseles and Arturo Gatti.  While Floyd did eventually face Ricky Hatton, he did so at 147 and not at 140.

Kostya Tszyu - As the lineal titlist from 2001 - 2005, Tszyu was clearly the head of the class for the first half of the decade.  Tszyu went 9-1 in the decade, facing almost exclusively top shelf competition.  Victories include Julio Cesar Chavez, Sharmba Mitchell, Oktay Urkal, Sharmba Mitchell, Zab Judah (who he made do the famous "chicken dance") and Jesse James Leija.  Tszyu could both box like a champ and knock em out like a champ.  His lone loss came to Hatton, a closely contested bout that turned out to be the last of his career.

Junior Witter - Witter makes the list almost by default, as every other top fighter in the weight class was beaten at some point by one or two of the guys above, taking them out of contention.  Witter went 16-3 in the weight class, continuously calling out Hatton, never to be heard.  While he had three title defenses, his most impressive run was as the European champ.  Key wins included Lovemore N'dou, Andriy Kotelnik, Vivian Harris and Guiseppe Lauri.  His three losses came to Zab Judah (12 fights into his career, and he managed to keep it close with a reigning top titlist) and late career losses to Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander.

Don't let the diminutive stature fool you - Calderon could still box circles around guys, despite always being the smaller man in the ring.

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Now that 2009 is getting close to wrapping up, it means this decade is almost over.  Before the end of the year, I hope to get through all the weight classes, presenting to you some choices for the best fighter in a given weight class in the decade.  I'm not going in any particular order here, but we'll get through all 17 weight classes. 

When voting, please only consider the time that the fighter was in the specified weight class during this decade.

Next up is the strawweight division.  This one's very different from the cruiserweights, which had a number of legitimate candidates, but none of them really stood out.  Here, there's really one guy who jumps out, but since he never really faced the other top guys, there are arguments that could be made that he might not have been the best on a head to head basis.  And the candidates are...

Jose Antonio Aguirre - Aguirre ran up a record of 9-1 at strawweight in the 2000's, all of them title bouts.  Key wins include Juan Palacios and Wandee Singwancha.  The lone loss came to Eagle Kyowa.  While he wasn't able to carry his success up in weight classes, it still doesn't take away the fact that he had a very good run at 105.

Ivan Calderon - Calderon ran up a record of 21-0 in the weight class, as he had a number of light flyweight fights sprinkled in there.  Iron Boy has arguably been the class of the little weights for a while now, but the big black mark on his record is that he never unified or even attempted to unify, and fought very few future or past titlists.  While rattling off 12 consecutive title defenses, he defeated Isaac Bustos, Ronald Barrera, Jose Luis Varela and Lorenzo Trejo, while rarely losing a round.  Only after stepping up to 108, however, did he start to challenge himself with top level fighters.

Roman Gonzalez - While Gonzalez has a big record overall, he's actually only 6-0 in the weight class.  Those victories, however, are mostly good ones, against Yutaka Niida, Katsunari Takayama, Jose Luis Varela and Francisco Rosas.  While the vicious Gonzalez has quite a future, he hasn't done too shabby up to this point.

Eagle Kyowa - Eagle, a Thai fighting out of Japan who went by his given name Den Junlaphan later in his career, managed an 18-2 record in boxing's lightest weight class.  While his record isn't glossy like Calderon's, he arguably fought a higher level of opponent than did Calderon.  Key wins include Jose Antonio Aguirre, Katsunari Takayama, Rodel Mayol and Lorenzo Trejo.  His two losses came to Oleydong Sithsamerchai at the tail end of his career, and a retirement against Isaac Bustos due to dislocating his shoulder. 

Yutaka Niida - Niida ran up a record of 12-2-1 in the weight class, mostly in title fights, including 7 consecutive defenses of his WBC belt.  His best wins came over Eriberto Gejon, Katsunari Takayama, Ronald Barrera, Juan Jose Landaeta and long-time titlist Noel Arambulet.  His losses came to Arambulet (which he avenged) and Roman Gonzalez at the end of his career.

Oleydong Sithsamerchai - Sith Lord has built up a shiny record of 32-0.  A lot of it has been padding, being fed a steady diet of rookie fighters in Thailand, but when he's needed to step up, he's done so with some convincing victories.  He defeated Eagle Kyowa by unanimous decision, rugged former titlist Muhammad Rachman and multiple title challenger Omar Soto.  It appears that he's done for the year, but there have been rumors that he would attempt to unify early next year, which might settle some arguments as to who's currently at the top of the division.