Guess who's back in the pound-for-pound rankings? Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s return win on Saturday has crashed the Pacquiao party at the top of Bad Left Hook's rankings. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

View full size photo »

We always knew he'd be coming back. Manny Pacquiao may be the hottest property in boxing, but Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s return to the ring has opened up a ton of debate. Who's really No. 1? Well...

1. Manny Pacquiao (Junior Welterweight) and Floyd Mayweather Jr. (Welterweight) -- Tie

I don't even like scoring 10-10 rounds, but the truth here, I think, is that there is ONE FIGHT out there that will truly decide the pound-for-pound crown, and it's Mayweather-Pacquiao right now. That might not even be true in two months. If Miguel Cotto upsets Pacquiao, then the pound-for-pound ruler is Mayweather, no questions about it.

A Mayweather-Pacquiao fight would be the perfect storm. Guys like Ricky Hatton and many others have talked about "winning" the pound-for-pound "title" in past fights, but it doesn't really work that way. Should Pacquiao beat Cotto, we would potentially have a fight that is literally to crown the world's top boxer. It's very rare that you get a chance like this, and should that fight come about, I hope boxing fans cherish the opportunity to see a fight of that magnitude and importance take place.

Of course, I still don't think the fight will, for any number of reasons. But I still like to hope.

3. Juan Manuel Marquez (Lightweight)

Until someone more his size can take him down besides (arguably) Manny Pacquiao, Marquez isn't dipping lower than this for me. He didn't look shot, he looked outclassed and out of his range weight-wise. It happens. Lots of great fighters have taken that risk, and while some make special things happen, many just don't, because the weight is too big an obstacle. That's what happened to Marquez. I think he's very vulnerable even at 135, but he's taken out Joel Casamayor and Juan Diaz at that weight, neither an easy task.

4. Paul Williams (Middleweight)

We'll see exactly what Williams can do against a young, strong, big-punching opponent on December 5. Williams' fight with Kelly Pavlik will be a decider in some ways. Either I'm really overrating Williams on the strength of how horribly he embarrassed an aged Winky Wright, plus his disposals of Verno Phillips and Carlos Quintana and a near-forgotten gutsy win over Antonio Margarito, or he becomes cemented up here with the top guys in the world.

5. Bernard Hopkins (Light Heavyweight)

Calling B-Hop a light heavy is kind of a fib, as he has looked more comfortable cutting down to 170 and beating Kelly Pavlik and Winky Wright in two of his last three, and a full 175-pound fight with Joe Calzaghe didn't go near so well. Guys that can make Bernard work really hard and use their speed can still give him fits, which is why I think even the shot Roy Jones Jr. would be a dangerous opponent for Hopkins. And I'm not sure he has the frame to work well at cruiserweight, as has been discussed for a bout with Tomasz Adamek. But Hop has earned his spot up here, and he won't lose it until he loses or retires, and I'm not sure which is more likely to happen first.

6. Shane Mosley (Welterweight)

It's very close between Shane and Cotto. Thing is, if they rematched right now, I'd lean toward Mosley just a little bit. I had him losing a clear, tight decision to Cotto when they fought back in 2007. Last time we saw Shane, he beat the hell out of Margarito, and you can asterisk plenty about Margarito, but one thing is not his chin. He's taken some absurd shots in his career, and no plaster helped him in that regard. Mosley beat him mercilessly until he caved.

7. Miguel Cotto (Welterweight)

A win over Manny Pacquiao would leapfrog Cotto higher than he's ever been, maybe even a shot all the way up to No. 2 depending on how it came about. Cotto isn't in a make-or-break situation or even close to it, but he's never had a bigger fight than this one, and if he loses, he might not get the chance to ever have one this big again.

8. Hozumi Hasegawa (Bantamweight)

Hasegawa jumps from No. 10 for me thanks to a couple of guys dropping after lackluster performances, and the fact that he's just plain been a bulldozer at 118 pounds the last couple of years. He's been ripping guys apart. He may be the most underrated and overlooked fighter out there.

9. Juan Manuel Lopez (Junior Featherweight)

Like Williams, you might think I simply have Lopez too high, but he's got such enormous talent that I can't help but be mesmerized by what he could do. Facts are facts, though, and Lopez needs to face the music against Celestino Caballero. The fight has been discussed for January. If he skips up to featherweight, it'll always be a bit of a question mark on his ledger.

10. Chris John (Featherweight)

John (43-0-2, 22 KO) got the W he probably deserved in February when he again survived a late charge from Rocky Juarez on Saturday night. John was nearly out on his feet in the 12th round, rocked by a short left hook that buckled his knees. He held on for dear life and won a clear decision. John's two fights with Juarez have finally made it clear that yes, this guy is one of the best boxers in the game. His late-fight struggles with Juarez are nothing to be alarmed about, either. Even though he's never gotten over the hump, Juarez is a powerful, legit fighter at 126 pounds.

Continue reading this post »

Nonito Donaire's invasion of the 115-pound division sees him leap right into the top spot in Bad Left Hook's rankings. (Photo via www.notifight.com)

View full size photo »

Bad Left Hook Junior Bantamweight Rankings

The 115-pound division is neither shallow nor terribly deep, its real problem being how few of these fighters are likely to fight one another, as they're all spread about into regional circuits that keep most of them separate. You have the guys that fight in Japan (Nashiro, Munoz, Kono), the guys that fight in America but aren't going to come near each other again (Donaire, Darchinyan), Filipinos becoming hot tickets in Canada (Sonsona), Filipinos that have never quite caught on (Gorres), and then guys like Cazares, Nongqayi and Lopez that'll really fight anywhere they can.

Some have fought already, some will fight, and yet not a lot of movement is bound to happen until and unless my top two, Nonito Donaire and Vic Darchinyan, serve up a rematch that frankly I think both of them need at this point.

Let's be honest: Donaire and Darchinyan have limited options. Donaire's career didn't take off near the way it should have after he shelled Darchinyan in 2007, handing the Armenian loudmouth his first career loss in emphatic fashion, and Darchinyan right now is comebacking, starting on December 12 with a fight against a will-be-overmatched Tomas Rojas, a tough vet that poses no real threat to Vic. Donaire just beat an out of shape Rafael Concepcion, a guy who can hang in there, sure, but also has a name built almost entirely on an upset victory over AJ Banal.

Donaire goes into my top spot simply because he holds a win over Darchinyan and I don't think a rematch would wind up looking terribly different. Darchinyan's dominant run over Dmitry Kirilov, Cristian Mijares and Jorge Arce was really impressive, but neither Kirilov nor Mijares can punch, and Arce is beyond damaged goods. Donaire is faster than Vic, has real power, and just had his number from the opening bell when they fought. Vic has to beat Nonito, or Nonito has to seriously slip, for me to consider Darchinyan the better fighter.

Continue reading this post »

Roy Jones Jr. climbs back into the Bad Left Hook top 10 at 175 pounds following an impressive beating of Jeff Lacy in August. (AP Photo)

View full size photo »

Bad Left Hook Light Heavyweight Rankings

Light heavyweight is one of boxing's "real" divisions, one of the originals with the long, long history and great stars of yesterday. In the last few years the division has skewed really old, led by Bernard Hopkins, Antonio Tarver, Glen Johnson and Roy Jones Jr.

But it's getting younger.

Bernard Hopkins stays at No. 1 for me, because he's earned it. Bernard's really only fought twice at the 175-pound limit, against Antonio Tarver and Joe Calzaghe, and he's just 1-1 in those fights. But his two 170-pound catchweight wins over Winky Wright and Kelly Pavlik were both quite impressive, and technically were light heavyweight fights. I think Bernard has some bad style matchups potentially, but you can also never count out a guy like B-Hop, as we've learned countless times. He's rugged, he's tougher than hell, and he's exceptionally intelligent in the ring. I think a superior athlete (Dawson, Pascal even, and maybe still Ol' Roy) might be able to show Hopkins for the 44-year old man he is, but note that I said "might."

It was Chad Dawson that started the youth movement when he dominated Tomasz Adamek and chased him out of the division in 2007. Last year and this year, he's fought some of the older guys and managed to not fight either Tavoris Cloud or Adrian Diaconu. Dawson's two wins over Antonio Tarver showed us an aged, way-too-slow Tarver whose left hand couldn't find Dawson with a map.

The guy that did test him -- and in some fans' minds, deserve to beat him -- was Glen Johnson, and they'll hook up again in November on HBO. Dawson-Johnson II is a pretty intriguing fight, and way more deserving of a rematch than Dawson-Tarver, a matchup that on two occasions failed to draw a fly to a pile of dung. If Dawson can win convincingly, he's really, really got an argument that he should be regarded as the No. 1 here, not Hopkins. But what if Glen wins? It's hardly unthinkable.

I flipped the spots of Jean Pascal and Zsolt Erdei from my June LHW rankings. Pascal's last two fights have been excellent and against good, tough fighters. Erdei has skills, but is perfectly content to take weak challenge after weak challenge. It's really hard for me to figure what Erdei could do against some of the top guys of his time, because him fighting any of them is about as likely as him fighting Mike Tyson.

Tavoris Cloud bursts into the top ten coming off of a dominant win over veteran Clinton Woods. That Cloud couldn't knock Woods out or even down is no shame; Clinton has taken some nasty shots in his career, and the only time he didn't make the distance in a loss came against the prime Roy Jones Jr., who beat him so horribly it looked like Roy wanted to stop punching, and Woods' corner threw in the towel. Cloud's still rough around the edges, but he fights with ferocity and at times showed a great ability to attack, especially to the body. He did get caught up headhunting in the middle rounds, and his height might someday be an issue for him, but he's on the rise.

Continue reading this post »

Robert Guerrero climbs the junior lightweight ladder following a strong win on Saturday night in Houston over South Africa's Malcolm Klassen. (AFP Photo)

View full size photo »

Bad Left Hook Junior Lightweight (130) Rankings

Not longer ago than 2007, this was one of boxing's best divisions, loaded with the likes of Manny Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez, Joan Guzman, Marco Antonio Barrera, Edwin Valero and Humberto Soto. Now, only Soto remains, and it appears that he, too, will soon move up in weight.

The division is not even close to what it was just a couple of years ago, and frankly it's not even that good or very interesting. But there could be some good fights made among the top guys.

I have Humberto Soto ranked No. 1 simply because he's done the most. We all know his record is hardly indicative of the fighter he is today, as five of his losses came between 1998 and 2002, and his last loss was a horrible disqualification against Francisco Lorenzo, a bogus defeat that he avenged. The only loss of Soto's that I think really matters at all to his current career and standing is his November 2007 shortcoming against Joan Guzman, who was just a bad style matchup and schooled Soto early before running with his lead late.

The current word is that Soto could be facing Edwin Valero at 135 pounds on the Cotto-Pacquiao undercard. Top Rank's Bob Arum was going to put the two in separate bouts if he could, but then changed his mind: "What changed was I didn't want to do separate opponents because then I have s**t. They should fight each other."

Arum foresees the winner fighting Manny Pacquiao at 140, should Pacquiao beat Cotto (or even if he doesn't, I guess).

The Saturday fight between Robert Guerrero and Malcolm Klassen didn't really shake anything up; if anything, all it did was reverse my No. 2 and No. 3-ranked fighters. I can't say enough how bad of a call HBO's Bob Papa, Max Kellerman and Lennox Lewis had for that fight. Guerrero started very fast and jumped out to a commanding lead after four one-sided rounds, but Klassen dominated the second half of the fight, in my view, and I wound up scoring it a draw. If you close your eyes and listen to Bob, Max and Lennox call that one, it sounds like Guerrero met no resistance, when in truth he was stung quite a few times, bothered by Klassen's refusal to go away, and gutted out a win far more than cruised to one. It was a fine performance by Guerrero and I can see anyone having him as the winner, but Klassen was in that fight. It was also a damn good fight.

Unbeaten Puerto Rican titlist Roman Martinez fights again on September 12, as the featured undercard bout on the Calderon-Mayol II pay-per-view. Martinez won the WBO title from Nicky Cook in March in a pretty exciting, short bout that saw Martinez stop Cook in the fourth in a bout that Cook had been controlling. He takes on Vicente Martin Rodriguez (25-2-1, 13 KO) next.

Continue reading this post »

Hozumi Hasegawa makes the biggest power move on the BLH P4P Top 20, flying into the top ten. (via cache.daylife.com)

View full size photo »

There have been some changes since our May 3 update of the P4P top 20 list, so getting an update in seems wise right now. There are really no fights before September that should change much here.

The Top Five: Everything stays the same. Pacquiao and Marquez currently rule the sport, at least until Mayweather's September 19 return. The gap between Pacquiao and Marquez is much closer than a lot of more casual fans really realize. The two are separated by one point on six judges' scorecards are two fights. Mayweather remains unranked because we don't know what he'll look like upon his return. For the record, Israel Vazquez also stays off this list for the same reason.

I have Paul Williams rated higher than just about anyone does, but I think he's earned it. He had one bad night, and he avenged that loss in under a round against a good fighter. Since then he has dominated both Winky Wright and Verno Phillips, one of whom is a former P4P contender and the other a guy who was never stopped inside the distance over 20 years before he met Williams. Tall Paul is a machine and he's still improving.

Aging Hopkins and Mosley round out the top five, because neither is aging as much as might be suggested by their birth certificates.

Six Through Ten: I probably rank Cotto a little higher than most do, too. He's lost one fight and it's got a lot of question marks now. He's come back to destroy Michael Jennings and gut out a tough fight against Joshua Clottey, another really good fighter. Juan Manuel Lopez continues to climb for me; I don't think there's a fighter at 122 or 126 I would pick over him. Nonito Donaire hasn't been on fire since manhandling Vic Darchinyan, but he's done nothing but win when he his fights went through. And even though Vic just lost at 118, that win has done nothing but look better. Ivan Calderon drops a couple spots because his age is starting to show. Hozumi Hasegawa makes a big jump into the top ten; the guy is a steamroller at 118 right now.

Eleven Through Fifteen: Dropping out of the top 10 just due to the rise of others are light heavyweight titlist Chad Dawson and middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. Dawson will have a chance to make a move up if he can beat Glen Johnson convincingly in their rematch. Pavlik needs a big opponent. Arthur Abraham, Chris John and Rafael Marquez all stay steady. Abraham is moving up to 168 for the Super Six, a tournament that could impact this list greatly.

Sixteen Through Twenty: Celestino Caballero still isn't a favorite of mine, but his spot is earned, and he's trying all he can to fight Juanma Lopez. Darchinyan takes a big tumble thanks to a bad night at a weight where his power didn't seem to carry. It wasn't a horrible loss or anything, but these lists are really competitive. There isn't much separating most of these guys. Edgar Sosa jumps two spots and may be on the cusp of overtaking Calderon as the top dog at 108. Mikkel Kessler and Tomasz Adamek round out the list. Kessler has a mandatory before the Super Six, and Adamek is contemplating a move to heavyweight in search of a big fight. It's a shame that we may never see Adamek-Cunningham II if that's the case.

Cristobal Cruz keeps climbing the ranks at 126 pounds.

View full size photo »

May 15 was the last time we did the feathers, and a couple things have shifted around. I think this format is what we'll stick to as it makes it easier to make smaller changes.

Note: I originally forgot that Rafael Marquez has moved up in weight. Israel Vazquez is not ranked because he has not returned to the ring yet, same as I don't yet put Mayweather back on the P4P or welter lists.

So some shuffling around thanks to a few fights.

The biggest was Cristobal Cruz's exciting revenge win over Jorge Solis to retain his IBF title in another upset. He's on a streak of about four of them in a row right now, so I think they've stopped qualifying as upsets from here on out. Solis beat Cruz back in 2003, but Cruz is a way different fighter. Brick recently compared him to Librado Andrade as a guy who gets the absolute maximum results out of having subpar skills, and that's apt. Andrade gets by on insane stamina and an iron chin, and for Cruz it's workrate. He has turned into an Energizer bunny of a fighter.

I could even rank him higher, but there was a lot of dirtiness in Cruz-Solis that really screwed with the scores, and it is what it is. Still, he might well beat some of the top five. I think he for sure loses to John and Gamboa on pure skill. I think he could be a nightmare for Luevano, Santiago and Juarez, who all have a habit of waiting around too much. Santiago's power is really good and I still give him great credit for drawing Luevano last year, but he's been pretty inactive. Juarez is a stop-and-go fighter and Luevano just doesn't throw a ton.

Two new additions, too. First, former 122-pound titlist Daniel Ponce de Leon has moved up to featherweight and will fight an eliminator soon with Roinet Caballero, who has won five in a row after losing to Chris John when he quit after seven rounds in early 2008. The eliminator is for John's title. I really don't get why these sanctioning bodies book eliminators for guys who have already been outclassed by the guy who still holds the title. Eliminators are bunk 90% of the time, but this is the second one of these recently. Miki Rodriguez was up for another shot at Andre Berto for God's sake.

The second is Rafael Marquez, who shoots in at No. 4. His comeback fight in May was at 126 pounds. I don't think there's much worry that he won't handle the weight well (he's a former ruler at bantamweight) because he's a fantastic boxer with huge power. The only concern is how his body will respond to a good puncher, but that's to be sorted out later. I put him in at four because I simply cannot see Rocky Juarez beating him.

Falling out were Hiroyuki Enoki, who lost to Ryol Li Lee, and Takahiro Aoh, who lost his strap to Elio Rojas on July 14. Rojas has been trying to get a fight with Yuriorkis Gamboa for about a year now but it's never come together. Now that Gamboa holds the interim WBA title (sure needed an interim titlist there) and Rojas is the WBC titlist, it's even less likely. It's a good fight, though, and you never know.

Next Up for the Top Ten: Top-ranked John defends against No. 5 Juarez in a rematch on September 19 in Vegas. ... No. 2 Luevano faces Bernabe Concepcion (29-1-1, 16 KO) on August 15. ... Gamboa returns to action on September 26. No opponent named yet. ... Ponce de Leon-Caballero is scheduled for September 5 in Panama. ... Everyone else is TBA.

Honorable Mentions: Ryol Li Lee (13-1-1, 7 KO) might be a serious contender soon. His lone loss was a tight technical decision. ... The Ring still lists Martin Honorio in their top ten, but he's moved up to 130, even winning a meaningless alphabet regional strap. ... Enoki's loss to Lee was tight on the cards, and he's been no means too far out of the top ten. Aoh, on the other hand, was there mostly because he held a title that he won from a faded Oscar Larios, who seems officially retired. ... 37-year old Mongolian Choi Tsveenpurev (28-4, 20 KO) created some buzz by stunning then-unbeaten Derry Matthews with a fifth round knockout in April of last year, then did nothing for 15 months before fighting a tomato can in July, and he came in at 133 pounds for that fight. ... Belfast's Martin Lindsay (14-0, 6 KO) also knocked out Matthews, and followed that up with a win over Paul Appleby in April. ... Billy Dib is still out there. ... I won't be shocked if Bernabe Concepcion upsets Luevano. Luevano is a heck of a good boxer and has earned his ranking, but he's hardly unbeatable.

Amir Khan joins the top ten party at 140 pounds after winning the WBA title from Andriy Kotelnik. (Photo by John Gichigi/Getty Images)

View full size photo »

I don't want to do a full, long post like I usually do for divisional rankings, but 140 has seen some changes since the last time we did it, just after Hatton-Pacquiao.

The top five stay the same for now, but that might well change after August 1 when Bradley and Campbell meet on Showtime, and No. 4 ranked Junior Witter faces rising contender Devon Alexander for the vacant WBC strap that same show.

This is yet another division that is far better than the over-glorified welterweights, as pretty much all of the guys in the top ten are solid fighters, and there's a good list of guys you could sub in for a few of them.

Maidana gets a big jump because his loss to Kotelnik was really close and you could argue he won, and then he pulled a minor upset in a great fight that showed a lot of guts in June when he forced Victor Ortiz to quit. Amir Khan moves in, obviously, because he routed Kotelnik on Saturday and looked really good in the process. Freddie Roach has made troublesome guys with a lot of natural skill into pretty special fighters before by accentuating their positives. Khan has the exact right trainer, a promoter that dotes on him, and even though he's never going to be a Ricky Hatton (or even Joe Calzaghe) level beloved fighter in the UK, I think he'll make some fans and a good bit of money if he can stay off the canvas.

I dropped Juan Urango two spots not particularly because he lost to welterweight titlist Andre Berto in late May in a disappointing snoozer of a fight, but because it once again showed just how one-dimensional and limited he is. If he can't get to a guy, he's going to lose. Still, he holds a title that he won against a legit opponent and is taking a pretty promising mandatory defense with Randall Bailey on ESPN2 in late August. Given Urango's wild brawling and rock solid chin and Bailey's KO record (39-6, 35 KO, including a sensational one-shot stoppage of Frankie Figueroa in April), that could be a barnburner.

Ricardo Torres dropped out because he moved up to welterweight. I kept Kotelnik in because he's still quite a good fighter, he just got physically overmatched against an Amir Khan that didn't go out trying to be a cowboy. Khan went out to box and win, and that's what he did.

Honorable Mentions: Paulie Malignaggi doesn't get too much love from a lot of folks, but he's still fringe top ten material. He'll take a catchweight (138.5 pounds) fight with Juan Diaz on August 22. A win boosts him; a loss rather kills him as a viable contender. ... Mike Alvarado was supposed to fight Malignaggi on June 27, but pulled out with an injury. ... Lamont Peterson is the "lesser" Peterson brother by most estimations, but still a solid rising contender. ... I have no idea yet what to make of Devon Alexander, but you can consider me surprised if he winds up beating Junior Witter on Aug. 1. ... There's been no official word on Victor Ortiz yet, but boxing was immediately unforgiving, and it kind of got to a point where I felt bad for the guy. I hope he comes back strong, but you can't really teach heart. He's an exciting, mega talented fighter though, and even if that's the only reason to wish him the best and hope for a strong return to action, it's a good enough reason. ... File Herman Ngoudjo under "never getting over the hump." ... I'd spread more of my "I don't think Demetrius Hopkins even likes boxing" propaganda, but honestly, why bother? He's a non-factor. ... There may be yet another murderous-punching Argentinian on his way up: Lucas Matthysse (24-0, 22 KO). ... Souleymane M'baye recently won a split decision over Colin Lynes to claim the EBU title, but is pretty much a regional fighter at this point.

Kelly Pavlik is now undeniably the king of the middleweights, but there's almost nobody left for him to fight, making it something of a paper crown. (via blog.cleveland.com)

View full size photo »

We last ranked the middleweights in February, and there has been some major shifting around. Guys leaving, guys have fought since then, some have looked good and others have not. It is a ridiculously empty division now.

1. Kelly Pavlik (35-1, 31 KO, Ring Magazine World Champion)

Kelly Pavlik has to move up to 168 pounds. He has to. There is nothing left for him on a major scale at 160. Period. There is NOTHING. In a perfect world, Pavlik might need to stay at 160, but the world ain't perfect and Kelly's got no opponents, making his totally legitimate championship a bit of a paper crown. He has made only two defenses of his title since beating Jermain Taylor for it in their September 2007 instant classic. In spring of '08, he fought and demolished Gary Lockett in a yawner that shouldn't have happened. In February of this year, he dominated Marco Antonio Rubio on Top Rank PPV, a fight most people just didn't see.

I've bashed Kelly a little lately because I thought his comments on the Super Six were really...dumb. There's no other way to put it. Judging by the comments here and elsewhere, I wasn't alone in thinking that. It just came off poorly in every possible way. But I've been a Pavlik fan since the first time I saw him wreck someone with that right hand of his, and I remain one to this day. But he's got to get out of this division, because it's doing nothing for his career. If he's that concerned about money, 168 has more of it than 160 does. The only semi-money fights he can make at 160 are against 154-pound titlist and division-hopper Paul Williams (not gonna happen, that fell apart once in nasty fashion) and Winky Wright, which is a fight you could probably get HBO to buy, but also isn't that attractive as Winky is old, kind of out of the loop, and has never been a draw.

I really don't know what the next step for Pavlik is going to be, but they're talking October 3 as his return date. Sergio Mora is out of the running since no one wanted to see that fight and it was probably better off canceled. The best thing would be if everyone swallowed their pride and made Pavlik-Williams happen, but don't hold your breath for that. And I still do like the Pavlik-Sergio Martinez rumor. That would be a damn solid fight for both guys.

2. Winky Wright (51-5-1, 25 KO)

This is how bad this division is. No offense to Winky Wright, but he's a 37-year old man who has fought once since 2007, and he won at best one round of that fight against Paul Williams. But I would pick him on fair ground with good judges to beat anyone else in this division, and handily so. His defense still looked OK, but Williams punched like a madman on ten five hour energy shots that night, so there was really nothing Wink could do. He says he intends to fight on and has talked about going to Germany to take on Felix Sturm, and also says he'd be happy to fight Pavlik. If Pavlik-Wright happened, I would pick Pavlik on youth and power but you'd have to Mr. Blonde me to get me to put any money on the pick, too. I'd be awash in memories of what a 43-year old Bernard Hopkins did to Pavlik.

3. Khoren Gevor (30-4, 16 KO)

I don't care that he "lost" to Felix Sturm. If you didn't catch it, find that fight and explain to me how Sturm won it, because I sure as hell didn't see it. Brickhaus summed up the latest German controversy with this after the fight:

Throughout the entire fight, Gevor probably threw twice as many punches as Sturm.  He controlled the action for all but one round.  He landed the harder shots in all but about three rounds.  He blocked about 85% of what Sturm threw at him, and although Sturm probably blocked around the same percentage of punches, the sheer volume of Gevor's output means that he landed many many more punches than Sturm.

Gevor won that fight. He's better than Sturm.

4. Anthony Mundine (36-3, 23 KO)

It's kind of too bad that Anthony Mundine has lost a step at 34 years of age, because he's really not a bad fighter, even still. He's not world class and never quite was, but in a division depleted as this one is, he remains a viable contender. That's kind of too bad itself, I suppose. His last fight with Daniel Geale was a damn good scrap, and a rematch has been ordered. There's big money in that in Australia, so I expect it to happen while Mundine continues to chirp about coming to the States and working with Golden Boy.

5. Daniel Geale (21-1, 13 KO)

Mundine's split decision win over Geale wasn't really controversial, I don't think. I had Mundine winning the bout close and didn't feel there was anything shady about it whatsoever. If anything, you'd expect a screwjob to likely go in Geale's favor, since he's younger, has a brighter future, and isn't, um...how do I put it? Such a loudmouthed, prickly sort? Sure, that works. Geale impressed me with his resolve and his skills. There's work to be done there, but he could be an actual export instead of "just an Australian fighter."

Continue reading this post »