This is more question than post: Who do you have in your pound-for-pound rankings? I think most serious boxing fans keep their own, or at least a rough draft in their head.
I'll start. This is by no means all that well thought-out -- and I'm lying, because I didn't just haphazardly slap it together. Though you may think I did.
- Winky Wright
- Manny Pacquiao
- Floyd Mayweather Jr.
- Marco Antonio Barrera
- Bernard Hopkins
- Jermain Taylor
- Joe Calzaghe
- Rafael Marquez
- Israel Vazquez
- Ricky Hatton
You can argue Mayweather, he's 36-0. So clearly he's statistically tougher to beat. But PBF hasn't fought anyone too challenging in a while now, except maybe Judah, and really, Judah was coming off a loss to Baldomir. Pacquiao has a legitimate case.
After that, I've got two veterans in Barrera and Hopkins. I think Barrera will handle Rocky Juarez in their September rematch, even though father time is catching up to him. Hopkins shamed Antonio Tarver, so even though he's all but set in stone as retired, I can't leave him out just now.
As for Jermain Taylor, maybe he really lost his last three instead of going 2-0-1, but Taylor was -- if nothing else -- exceptionally competitive in those fights against two guys who have made careers of making other fighters look bad.
Calzaghe and Marquez are both generally somewhere in the 7-10 spots in most P4Ps I've seen, and I think that's where both fit. Vazquez is someone I rank because I think it's quite impressive that he knocked Larios out in the third round. Considering Larios just went 12 with Pacquiao and stepped up in weight to do so, I think it makes Vazquez look even better.
I put Hatton at ten because I'm not sure what to do with him. I have two differing opinions on Hatton. For one, at 147, he's not the fighter he has at 140. He's exciting a lot of the time and I enjoy watching him, and 41-0 is 41-0. Then again, that's a really padded 41-0 record, and Luis Collazo made him look pretty bad for a lot of that fight.