Ranking the Top Pound-for-Pound Boxers Ahead of Mayweather vs. Pacquiao
The mythical pound-for-pound list dominates many a boxing conversation.
There's no official title or belt given to the holder of the designation as boxing's top overall fighter regardless of weight class, but plenty of discussions, debates and arguments abound over who belongs where and what accomplishments and skill sets are better than others.
We figured that we would once again weigh in on the subject here at Bleacher Report, especially given that the Fight of the Century between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao now sits just about one week away.
We ranked fighters based on a variety of factors, including their recent opposition, career accomplishments and the important what-do-you-have-planned-next category.
In boxing, like everything else, it's mostly about what you've done for me lately, and that will make up the lion's share of the rationale behind these rankings.
So, without further delay, here are the best 10 fighters, along with honorable mentions, in boxing today.
Feel free to discuss, dissect and disagree in the comments section.
Honorable Mentions
1 of 11
Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KO)
Cotto won the lineal and WBC Middleweight Championships from Sergio Martinez in a shockingly one-sided fight last June at Madison Square Garden. That was the last time he stepped through the ropes, and he hasn't seemed in any great hurry to face Gennady Golovkin, the best 160-pound fighter in the world.
Puerto Rico's first four-division champion recently signed a multifight promotional contract with Jay Z's Roc Nation Sports and will face former middleweight titlist Daniel Geale on June 6 at the Barclays Center, per Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. Should he win, a long-anticipated bout with Canelo Alvarez should be up next in the fall.
Terence Crawford (26-0, 18 KO)
Crawford is one of the most impressive young fighters in the sport today. He won three fights in 2014, including a 135-pound title road win over Ricky Burns, and has already gotten off to a hot start in his follow-up campaign.
The Omaha, Nebraska, native patiently waited for an opening before tattooing Thomas Dulorme on HBO last Saturday night to win a second world title in as many weight classes. Some in the industry believe his combination of skills and personality could make him the leader of the next generation of boxing stars in the near future.
Andre Ward (27-0, 14 KO)
Ward, the reigning super middleweight champion, would be as high as No. 2 on this list, but he just hasn't made fighting a priority in recent years. He wasted a good portion of his prime fighting with his promoters in court before finally reaching a settlement and signing with Roc Nation earlier this year.
He's scheduled to return for the first time since November 2013 on June 20 at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. His opponent will be Paul Smith, who lost back-to-back title challenges against Arthur Abraham in his most recent outings.
Naoya Inoue (8-0, 7 KO)
There's nothing more you could ask for from Inoue after just eight fights as a professional. He's already a two-time, two-division champion with knockouts of Adrian Hernandez and long-reigning flyweight champion Omar Narvaez on his resume.
A potential showdown with Roman Gonzalez, which we hope happens sooner rather than later, would be one of the most salivating lower-weight showdowns in boxing history.
Juan Francisco Estrada (32-2, 23 KO)
Let's continue this lovefest for the little guys.
Estrada lost an absolute war against Gonzalez in a challenge for a light flyweight championship near the end of 2012. He recovered from that narrow defeat by moving up in weight and taking Brian Viloria's WBA/WBO Flyweight Championships, which he's successfully defended five times against stiff opposition.
10. Juan Manuel Marquez (56-7-1, 40 KO)
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Why He's Here
Marquez remains on this list largely out of respect for all that he's accomplished in a boxing ring throughout his career. The 41-year-old is a four-division world champion who has seven overall championships to his name.
He followed up a stunning knockout of Pacquiao with a narrow, but clear, decision loss against Timothy Bradley and then rebounded with a one-sided thrashing of the bigger Mike Alvarado last May.
Why He's Not Higher
We have no idea when or even if he'll fight again.
Marquez has been a warrior throughout his career, and he's made no secret of his desire to compete for a welterweight championship. A win in that fight would make him the first five-division champion in Mexico's storied boxing history, a substantial accomplishment to be sure. Lingering injuries and an inability to land the fight he wants could force his hand into retirement.
What's Next
Marquez has been linked to a potential welterweight championship challenge against England's IBF champion Kell Brook, according to Lem Satterfield of The Ring, but the Brit will make his next appearance May 30 against compatriot Frankie Gavin. Marquez has no definitive fights on the horizon at the moment.
9. Carl Froch (33-2, 24 KO)
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Why He's Here
Froch firmly established himself as the best 168-pound fighter in the world during Ward's extended absence. That's not to say he's a better fighter than Ward, who defeated him in the finals of Showtime's 168-pound tournament. It's just that someone had to occupy the throne when he was gone, and Froch was that guy.
His pair of wins over George Groves, the latter in decisively emphatic fashion, proved that he remains no less than Ward's top challenger in a top-heavy super middleweight division.
Why He's Not Higher
Froch hasn't fought since blowing out his rival Groves in front of 80,000 fans at London's Wembley Stadium last May. You can't retain your spot unless you're active, and Froch has been in constant pursuit of a follow-up performance since.
What's Next
Froch was deep in negotiations with former middleweight titlist Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for a pay-per-view clash in January before withdrawing due to injury.
Chavez Jr. torpedoed that prospect with a decisive loss to Andrzej Fonfara last Saturday on Showtime, and that once again leaves The Cobra looking for, and not necessarily finding, a significant fight. Ward remains a possibility for a rematch, but you might not want to hold your breath too long for that one.
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8. Timothy Bradley (31-1-1, 12 KO)
4 of 11
Why He's Here
Bradley is still one of the best pure boxers in the sport today, and he has impressive resume-building wins over Marquez and Siberian slugger Ruslan Provodnikov. A chance to move way up this list was unsuccessful when he decisively lost to Pacquiao in a rematch—many feel he was more competitive than the first fight he won—after telling the world that the Filipino no longer had the will to fight.
Why He's Not Higher
Bradley's draw against Diego Chaves was ludicrous. It's hard to count that against him too much, but the official result stands. That was supposed to be a somewhat tough stay-busy fight for Desert Storm while he bides his time in anticipation of a title shot. He clearly won that fight, and it's impossible to see how anyone could score six or even eight rounds for Chaves, as the usually dependable Julie Lederman did.
What's Next
Bradley seems to be another one of those fighters who are stuck in boxing purgatory waiting for an attractive fight to drop in their lap. He was selected for an IBF 147-pound title eliminator along with Amir Khan—to become Brook's mandatory challenger—a fight he accepted but the IBF claims Khan declined.
That fight with Bradley has since been offered to Shawn Porter, but Andrew L. John of The Desert Sun reports Top Rank shot that down and that Brandon Rios and Jessie Vargas are possibilities.
7. Sergey Kovalev (27-0-1, 24 KO)
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Why He's Here
You can match Kovalev's last two wins up against anyone's in boxing and you'd probably have to give the nod to The Krusher.
He dominated the ageless Bernard Hopkins—in a way we've never seen before—to secure two-thirds of the 175-pound title before becoming the first man to stop rugged former undisputed light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal last month. That's impressive stuff, especially when you consider he did it back-to-back.
Why He's Not Higher
Kovalev is the best fighter in the light heavyweight division. That's clear to anyone who gives you an honest assessment of the situation. He beat two of the three fighters that the lineal champion, Adonis Stevenson, seemed uninterested in facing, and the third is Kovalev himself.
He's definitely on the fast track up this list, but No. 7 is solid stuff for a guy whom many people weren't even sold on until his last couple of fights.
What's Next
Kovalev's promoters at Main Events withdrew him from a WBC purse bid that would have led to the long-awaited showdown against Stevenson. Their reasoning for that isn't likely to satiate many of the fans who want to see this fight and now may shift their blame for it not happening to a different set of shoulders.
A mandatory fight against the IBF's No. 1 contender Nadjib Mohammedi will come next over the summer before a hopefully larger event in the fall.
6. Gennady Golovkin (32-0, 29 KO)
6 of 11
Why He's Here
Golovkin has knocked out his last 19 foes, cutting a swath of destruction like a Category 5 hurricane toward the top of the middleweight division. Cotto remains the lineal champion, but there's no legitimate way you can claim that anyone other than GGG holds the mantle of the division's best fighter.
GGG has a methodical style and places tremendous physical and mental pressure on his opponent. He can either blow you out of there early or slowly rearrange your facial features and the contents of your gut on the way to bludgeoning you later in the fight.
He's a scary dude.
Why He's Not Higher
Golovkin has had a difficult time attracting the type of high-profile opponents who will get the few boxing fans still hedging to buy his stock as the next big thing in the sport. It's hard to hold that against a guy who has publicly called out fighters like Cotto, Sergio Martinez and Canelo Alvarez in the past, but if nobody wants to fight him, that's not his fault.
What's Next
Unable to secure the middleweight fight that everyone wants against Cotto, GGG will return to the ring on May 16 to defend his middleweight title against Boxcino winner Willie Monroe Jr. in Los Angeles.
5. Guillermo Rigondeaux (15-0, 10 KO)
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Why He's Here
Rigondeaux is the best technical fighter in the entire sport. Period. End of discussion.
That doesn't make him the most exciting or in-demand fighter, but his ability to box and move and hit and not get hit in return is unmatched in boxing today. Rigo is underappreciated and holds the unified super bantamweight championship, even if he's too high-risk, low-reward for most fighters.
Why He's Not Higher
Nobody wants to fight him, and nobody wants to televise his fights in the United States. It's one of the unfortunate business realities of the sport that a fighter as savvy and technically skilled as Rigo has to travel the world in search of someone, anyone really, to fight in relative anonymity.
What's Next
Rigondeaux, per Elisinio Castillo of BoxingScene.com, is rumored to be waiting out the end of his contract with his current manager Gary Hyde. That deal is set to expire in September, and the unified champion has stated that big changes, including big fights, will be in the offing once that happens.
Anyone else think he could be heading to Al Haymon?
4. Wladimir Klitschko (63-3, 53 KO)
8 of 11
Why He's Here
Klitschko is the best heavyweight to come around in quite some time. He's successfully defended at least a share of the heavyweight title in his last 17 fights, which is good for second all-time behind Joe Louis' record 25 title defenses. He's also held a share of the title for nine years, again second to Louis.
Why He's Not Higher
Heavyweights generally have a difficult time getting this high up the pound-for-pound list for a variety of reasons, but Klitschko is an exception as one of the most technically skilled fighters in history.
He has presided over a relatively weak crop of big men, and that contributes to why he's not higher on this list and why some are still not quite willing to bestow all-time great status on him. It hasn't exactly been a murderers' row in there with him in recent years, but that's not his fault.
What's Next
Klitschko returns to the United States and faces undefeated American challenger Bryant Jennings Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
3. Roman Gonzalez (42-0, 36 KO)
9 of 11
Why He's Here
If you've seen Gonzalez, the undefeated three-division and current flyweight world champion, fight, then you know that ranking him this high on a pound-for-pound list is justified. If you haven't seen him fight, then you're derelict in your duties as a boxing fan and need to clear some space this weekend and get on that.
Chocolito is a warrior in the truest sense of the word. The Nicaraguan, from the same city that produced wild man Ricardo Mayorga, loves to fight and does it well. His 36 knockouts in 42 fights in the lowest of the low weight classes show that he has a borderline absurd amount of power. Keep an eye out for bigger things from him in the near future.
Why He's Not Higher
He will be very soon. Regardless of the outcome of the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight in a couple of weeks—and depending on that result, it's possible that one of them could drop—neither of those men will be around for a lot longer.
Gonzalez has the style and ability that will hopefully command a great deal of mainstream attention in the near future. And once that happens, there will be no denying his hold as the best little man and one of the best overall fighters in boxing.
What's Next
Gonzalez will make his HBO debut—set your DVRs—on May 16 against former longtime light flyweight champion Edgar Sosa on the undercard of Golovkin vs. Monroe. The dam between Gonzalez and the mainstream has finally broken, which is good for him and us.
2. Manny Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KO)
10 of 11
Why He's Here
Pacquiao once occupied the top spot on this list, during his reign of dominance when Mayweather was sidelined and happily in retirement, but he's consistently hovered around the second spot ever since Money came back.
The Pac-Man has a resume that will easily lead him to enshrinement in Canastota, New York, one day at the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He's won world championships in a record eight weight divisions—all the way from 112 to 154 pounds—and 10 titles overall and is the first fighter to win the lineal title in four weight divisions.
Pacquiao holds wins over a virtual who's who of his era, including Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, Marquez, Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Cotto and Shane Mosley. He'll look to add an even bigger name to that list in the coming days.
Why He's Not Higher
He hasn't beaten the man in front of him, but he'll get his chance.
What's Next
For those of you who live under a rock or recently emerged from an extended period of unconsciousness, Pacquiao will meet Mayweather in the most anticipated fight in boxing history on May 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
1. Floyd Mayweather (47-0, 26 KO)
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Why He's Here
It's tempting to ask if this is a real question or not.
Mayweather has beaten every man placed in front of him, most with stunning ease, on his way to a perfect 47-0 record and multiple world championships in multiple weight divisions. He's boxing's biggest attraction, as measured in the dollars and attention he produces, and he will remain that way until toppled.
Money has also won 22 fights against current, former and future world champions, an impressive mark to be sure.
Why He's Not Higher
He can't be. The conversation for Mayweather, should he defeat Pacquiao, will be one of his standing all-time and not where he stands in boxing today.
What's Next
Mayweather will finally measure himself against his greatest contemporary when he faces Pacquiao for the unified welterweight championship in a debate-settling and legacy-securing fight on May 2 in Las Vegas.
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