PROBOXING-FAN: The top Pound for Pound Boxers in the World

FROM: PROBOXING-FAN

Every boxer strives to be included amongst the pound for pound best in the world. Today, there’s a clear number 1 and number 2 with Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. After that, there are some big name fighters and holdovers from the last decade or two, as well as the younger, fresher faces coming up through the sport's hottest weight divisions. After all of the big fights of the past few months, here’s the top 20 pound for pound boxers in the world ranking.

Top 20 Pound for Pound Boxers

Top 20 Pound for Pound Boxing Rankings Last Updated November 17, 2010

Fighter	Record	Ranking Change
1. Manny Pacquiao	52 (38) – 3 – 2	-
The string of dominant performances continues for Manny Pacquiao. From Oscar de La Hoya to Ricky Hatton, from Miguel Cotto to Joshua Clottey, and now the biggest and strongest yet in Antonio Margarito, Pacquiao continues to surge past whoever is lined up in front of him. The question is what's next for Pacquiao, and how many more fights will he have?
2. Floyd Mayweather	41 (25) – 0	-
It was tempting to place Mayweather back in the number 1 spot he held for so long after his dominant performance against Shane Mosley. While he was the favored fighter, few thought he would absolutely control the fight as he did. Still, Pacquiao is not far removed from his stirring string of knockout victories, and cannot be usurped on the strength of that one performance, although clearly Mayweather has raised the bar. However, he has since been inactive, while Pacquiao came back with a dominant showing over the Tijuana Tornado. Is Mayweather fighting too many courtroom battles to stage one in the squared circle?
3. Paul Williams	39 (27) – 1	-
After a brutal and entertaining first fight against Sergio Martinez, where Williams escaped with a Majority Decision, his fight with Kermit Cintron ended early. Now the rematch is finally here, and the winner of Williams vs. Martinez II has the middleweight title and an unlimited future ahead of himself.
4. Sergio Martinez	45 (24) – 2 – 2	+1
Martinez finally put on such a strong showing that the judges couldn’t take away his hard work. His win over Pavlik was emphatic, and it seems like he will be staying at middleweight for the time being. Many feel he beat Paul Williams the first time, so his high ranking is certainly not arbitrary, and the rematch against Williams will solve one of the biggest lingering questions in the sport, who is the better man between the two?.
5.Celestino Caballero	34 (23) – 2	+2
After reeling off 14 straight wins at super bantamweight and largely being unable to get any top fighter to face him, Caballero has now moved up to greener pastures. He dominated a respected, tricky fighter in Daud Yordan and now wants to get one of the big names in the division to face him. In the meantime, he should look pretty spectacular against Jason Litzau in a stay busy fight at super featherweight.
6. Andre Ward	22 (13) – 0	+2
Andre Ward could hardly have done anything better in his breakout performance over Super Six favorite Mikkel Kessler. He’s now the favorite to win the tournament himself, and will get plenty more chances to prove himself over top competition over the next year or two. The domination over Allan Green was just further proof of his great boxing skill and ring generalship. He'll stay busy against Sakio Bika before advancing into the semi-finals.
7. Juan Manuel Marquez	51 (37) – 5 – 1	-3
How does a fighter move down in the rankings after a win against a top contender in his weight division? Despite the second win over Juan Diaz, I think Marquez finally may be slowing down, and his yo-yo up to welterweight nad back down to lightweight could be a contributor. He should shine in an exciting fight against Michael Katsidis, and then could get a big showdown with a young star at 140 lbs, the third bout against Pacquiao we always wanted to see, or a match-up with someone like Robert Guerrero.
8. Fernando Montiel	43 (33) – 2 – 2	+6
Montiel hushed the critics who said he would meet his match against Hozumi Hasegawa. All the guy does is continue to win convincingly, going 10-0-1 in his last 11 bouts, including wins over Hozumi, Luis Maldanado, Z Gorres and Martin Castillo. Now we'll all hopefully be treated to a showdown long in the making, a Montiel vs. Donaire bout, which crowns the true bantamweight champion, the Showtime bantamweight tournament be damned.
9. Nonito Donaire	24 (16) - 1	+6
It has been easy to lose track of Nonito, because since his huge KO win over Vic Darchinyan, he hasn't been able to land any bigtime opponents. He had three straight wins at 115 lbs and is now becoming a full-fledged bantamweight when he takes on Wladimir Sidorenko in December. Then, assuming a win, he gets match up against Fernando Montiel next year, in an exciting fight that should bring the little guys back to HBO.
10. Bernard Hopkins	51 (32) – 5 – 1	-1
The win over Roy Jones was far from spectacular, especially considering Roy was coming off a first round stoppage lost. It almost got ol' B-Hop tossed right out of the top 10 pound for pound list entirely. The ageless one might be finally coming to the point of no return. But he gets up for the big fights, and he has a chance at a final hurrah when he meets light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal. The fact that he avoided mentioning Chad Dawson's name for years, then pounced on Pascal the minute he got the title, has to tell you Hopkins sees some glaring flaws he can expose.
11. Wladimir Klitschko	55 (49) – 3	+2
Say what you will about Wlad, but it’s six years without a loss, 13 straight wins and a string of top challengers that continue to be unable to produce against the champion. He’s still a more complete, if less menacing, fighter than big brother and as long as he desires to stay champion nobody will be favored to take that right away from him. He needs to do more against overmatched opposition, and with a potential showdown with David Haye potentially brewing up once again, he first needs to whip the inexperienced Dereck Chisora.
12. Timothy Bradley	26 (11) – 0	+6
Bradley continues to prove his doubters wrong by turning away challengers Kendall Holt, Nate Campbell and Lamont Peterson. He then handled Luis Abregu in much the way he should have, and now, finally, we get to see him with fellow undefeated junior welterweight star Devon Alexander. The winner should move into the top 10 pound for pound without too much trouble.
13. Devon Alexander	21 (13) - 0	+6
Alexander didn't quite earn the nickname "The Great" in his close call against Andriy Kotelnik, but it's another win in the books. His best performance, and it was Great, was his stoppage win over Juan Urango. He had been calling out Timothy Bradley for the better part of a year, and now we'll finally get a chance to see the much anticipated battle in January 2011.
14. Tomasz Adamek	42 (27) – 1	-3
When Dawson beat Adamek, the boxing community knew he was a good fighter, but nobody could have predicted his domination of the cruiserweight division that has followed. A knockout win over O’Neil Bell, and a decision over Steve Cunningham, not to mention other impressive knockout wins along the way. Now he has a few wins under his belt at heavyweight, including most impressively a strong showing over big puncher Chris Arreola. He's been one of the busiest world-class fighters around, and a heavyweight title fight against the likes of fellow former cruiserweight David Haye would be much more up his alley than a fight against the behemoth Klitschko brothers
15. Lucian Bute	27 (22) – 0	-
Bute isn’t getting the notoriety of the guys in the Super Six, but he’s dominating the opposition that’s left available to him. His KO win over Librado Andrade was resounding, and the follow-up performance over Edison Miranda was impressive as well. He did what he had to do against Jesse Brinkley, and now that he's locked up with Showtime, he should be meeting the best of the Super bunch ASAP.
16. Juan Manuel Lopez	30 (27) - 0	Debut
It's officially the era of Juan Manuel Lopez. At least for the time being. He looked fantastic in his biggest battle to date, taking out veteran warrior Rafael Marquez. That's three straight wins at featherweight, following his six title efforts at super bantamweight. Yuriorkis Gamboa and Celestino Caballero are lurking, will we see these guys all settle it in the ring?
17. Chris John	43 (22) – 0 – 2	-1
Talk about all sizzle and no steak, Chris John was supposed to take the American fight scene by storm nearly two years ago. What happened next was two wins over Rocky Juarez, the second of which shouldn't have been necessary, and a mess of delays due to injury and illness. He's finally, maybe, potentially, back in the ring in December, but the shine from his distant win over Juan Manuel Marquez seems lost.
18. Chad Dawson	29 (17) – 1	-8
Bad Chad didn't look Baaad against Jean Pascal, he just looked bad. Unwilling or unable to pull the trigger and catch up with the quick moving Pascal, Dawson lost his 0 and his claim to the division's crown. The more I think about the performance, and his showing, the more I have to downgrade Chad, who just wasn't anywhere near the fighter he's supposed to be that night. Pascal is facing Hopkins in December, does Dawson get the winner, or what's his next move?
19. Pongsaklek Wonjongkam	77 (41) - 3 - 1	Debut
The guy has lost once in about 14 years, and since his last defeat, against Daisuke Natio, he has gone 12-1 in a three year timespan. Sure, most of those fights are throwaways, against three fighters in their first pro fights, and two more against fighters with an 0-1 and 8-11-2 record, but he also defeated the previously unbeaten Koki Kameda to capture the WBC flyweight title he had lost. He's 20-1-1 in his career in title fights.
20. Miguel Cotto	35 (28) - 2	-
Cotto returns to the top 20 pound for pound following his outclassing of Yuri Foreman, winning a title in a third weight division in the process. Instead of a dubious match against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Cotto took the rest of 2010 off. There are plenty of fights for him at 154 lbs, including Kermit Cintron, Alfredo Angulo, and a rematch with Antonio Margarito, to name a few.