Ranking the Welterweights: February 2008

With Pavlik-Taylor II fever running wild as we're less than 24 hours away, my mind is stuck on the sweet science. I'm up, I can't get tomorrow night's fight out of my head, and I threatened earlier in the week to try to rank the welters post-Williams-Quintana, so now I'll do just that.

1. Floyd Mayweather, Jr. (39-0, 25 KO)

The race is getting tighter and some things need to be settled, but Money Mayweather is still the definite No. 1 in the world, regardless of division.

2. Miguel Cotto (31-0, 25 KO)

Some talk about Cotto deserving a fight against Mayweather said that Cotto should have to beat Paul Williams first. Laughable now, isn't it? Miguel Cotto is firmly the No. 2 welterweight in the world, and nobody could consider the race remotely close. Look through this top ten. How many fighters has Mayweather beaten? One, at 154 pounds. How many has Cotto beaten? Two, Mosley and Quintana, both in my top five. Both have beaten Zab Judah convincingly. But you know who else Cotto has beaten? Paulie Malignaggi and Ricardo Torres, reigning titlists at 140. As good as Floyd Mayweather is, this discussion is closer than some people want to admit.

3. Shane Mosley (44-5, 37 KO)

Should he fight Zab Judah, I have no doubts he'll dominate him. Look at the two guys and their performances against Cotto. Mosley was able to weather the storm all night, and even back Cotto down. Judah hurt Miguel a few times early in the fight and fought his ass off, but eventually Cotto beat him into the canvas. Sugar Shane still has it. I wouldn't rule him out against anyone, despite that he's a distant third.

4. Carlos Quintana (25-1, 19 KO)

Any more questions? This is a hell of a fighter. I never wanted to drop him from my top ten, because I really believed in his skill. The boxing lesson he gave Joel Julio was astounding. And Julio is no chump; since moving up to 154, he's become a real contender. That's the only loss on Julio's record. The only one on Quintana's is to Miguel Cotto in what was a dialed-in, seek-and-destroy performance from Cotto that was unlike anything Cotto has done in any of his other major fights.

5. Antonio Margarito (35-5, 25 KO)

The loss to Paul Williams stirred a sleeping dragon, so to speak. Margarito is no Superman, but he's tougher than nails and can overwhelm opponents. Golden Johnson is not a great example since he was a patsy, but Margarito rained down a hurricane of punches that night. And it was damn impressive. More on ranking Tony fifth in the next paragraph.

6. Paul Williams (33-1, 24 KO)

Might catch some guff for ranking Williams behind Margarito, but I have my reasons. Once Margarito settled in and stopped letting Williams dictate the fight, he was beating him. Williams won that fight and earned it, but he was clearly very uncomfortable when Margarito brought the fight to him. Carlos Quintana did it to start and stuck with it, gassing himself to beat Williams. Paul Williams does not know what to do with a fighter that doesn't wait for openings. Margarito pressured him and hurt him late in their fight, and Quintana made his own damned openings. He's still a fighter everyone should believe in, but at some point, 147 is going to be too light. Even freaks of nature like Williams have to move up at some point. Does he have the power to get up to middleweight and succeed? I don't think so. He's a very strange case.

7. Kermit Cintron (29-1, 27 KO)

Now starring in Kermit Cintron's A Series of Unfortunate Events, coming to a ring near you. The fight with Feliciano proved horrible for Cintron, who has seen a unification fight with Paul Williams fall through because of it, and now they're wrangling for a rematch with Margarito. Honestly, I don't think it's his best idea, but you have to admire the "Beat the man who beat you" mentality. It takes guts. He is definitely a more complete fighter than he was back then.

8. Oscar de la Hoya (38-5, 30 KO)

Headed back to the division, first to take on Steve Forbes, and then to settle up at the bank with Mayweather. Oscar de la Hoya has always been able to fight and still can.

9. Joshua Clottey (33-2, 19 KO)

Tough guy to get a read on, if you ask me. Shamone Alvarez looked bad against him, and Diego Corrales was well out of his depth at welterweight. He looked OK-ish in his loss to Margarito. He's a grinder, a workman-like fighter who comes to fight but lacks the dynamite to knock top-tier fighters out. He's Cintron's mandatory, and I think, sadly for Clottey, that he makes the perfect foil for an explosive puncher like Cintron.

10. Luis Collazo (28-3, 13 KO)

Good boxer, good defense, and deserved to get a decision against Ricky Hatton. I know that's been talked to death, and you can't change the past, and the fight was definitely close. But how much different would the boxing landscape look right now if Collazo had been awarded the decision that night in Boston? Mayweather-Hatton never would have happened, which might have meant that Mayweather would have had his hand forced to fight Miguel Cotto, or Mayweather might still be inactive since last May. Hatton probably would've been forced to fight Junior Witter by now, against his will, and there is a small army of folks who think Witter would own Hatton. For Collazo, it might not have gone much differently. He still could have fought Shane Mosley last February and been where he is today. He's never going to be on P4P lists, but Collazo presents problems for anyone.

You Coulda Been a Contender...

Andre Berto (21-0, 18 KO) is close to the top ten. Very close. I wouldn't argue with those that put him a notch ahead of Collazo at the ten spot. But for as much as I like him, the truth is in the record: He has yet to face anyone as good as Collazo, and the fight with Trabant turned out to be a joke. That's not Berto's fault, but it's time for him to make the next step. Trabant was a nobody who posed absolutely zero threat to Berto -- Trabant doesn't hit hard, he's not a slick boxer, and Berto had no fear of bull rushing him. It was a cakewalk. That also says something about Berto's skills. He has dominated everyone. Even Cosme Rivera, who knocked Berto down, was never really in the fight. The kid is for real. Let's see it now. It's time.

Zab Judah (36-5, 25 KO) hasn't won a meaningful fight in years. His best performance in years was a lopsided loss to Miguel Cotto. That fight was gritty and rough, but I've never seen it as being terribly competitive. In the middle rounds, Cotto took over and ruthlessly destroyed him until the referee intervened. A fight with Quintana fell through, and a fight with Margarito fell through. Now, the talk is Shane Mosley. Zab'll get a nice payday, and probably his last one, at least for a while. You can't keep losing to names, padding your record with chumps, and expect to continue being a PPV feature.

Yuriy Nuzhenko (27-0, 13 KO) and Viktor Plotkinov (19-0, 9 KO) are both undefeated. Neither guy has much chance at major success. No more than Michel Trabant.

Isaac Hlatswayo (27-1, 9 KO) once fought Kendall Holt at 140 pounds. He got lambasted. He's one of the worst alphabet champions in the sport. He doesn't belong in the division's top ten. I'm not saying he can't box, I'm only saying we've seen no real proof of it over 135 pounds.

American Shamone Alvarez (19-1, 11 KO) was almost a contender, then Joshua Clottey dominated him. But "The Truth" is, he looked lost in that fight, like a guy who had no business in against someone on Clottey's level. Back to the drawing board.

The best U.K. fighter in the division? I'll take Michael Jennings (32-1, 15 KO). His record is almost paper thin, but he is the current European welterweight champ with a win over Ross Minter a couple weeks ago. Alternate pick would be Scotsman Kevin McIntyre (25-5, 8 KO), sort of a non-knockout divisional version of Darnell Wilson. After some struggles, he's scored two straight upset wins over Kevin Anderson and the previously unbeaten Tony Doherty.

Steve Forbes (33-5, 9 KO) is not a true welterweight, but he's fought in the division, and that's where he's headed in May against Oscar in what is a chance of a lifetime-type opportunity for a guy who has never given up on himself. Truthfully, he doesn't even really belong at 140. We're talking about a veteran fighter who knows all the tricks of the trade that was a world champion at 130 pounds eight years ago. Steve Forbes can box, and I have no doubt he'll bust his ass trying to score the massive upset in May. He won't do it, but he'll never stop trying.