Welcome to the final set of power rankings for 2008. With all due respect to Nikolai Valuev (actually, maybe not that much respect), everyone of consequence has finished their fight schedules for the year.
If you've been with us before, you'll remember that this is not a pound-for-pound list (we recently did one of those too), but a pseudo-scientific way of ranking how boxers have been performing over a rolling three-year period. More details are here.
Staying active, winning and winning by KO all help your score. Losing, obviously, does not. Fighting people who come into the bouts on winning streaks also helps. A "perfect" score would be 36, and anything above 20 is pretty damn good.
That being said, here we go:
1. Arthur Abraham - 24.96 - Yes, he pretty much fights exclusively in his native Germany. But it's hard to say any world class boxer at any weight class is on as much of a roll right now. Since May of 2007, King Arthur has knocked out six straight opponents.
2. Wladimir Klitschko - 23.67 - Is it his fault the heavyweight division is less than scintillating? Dr. Steelhammer can only fight the guys who are out there, and with the notable exception of the Sultan Ibragimov fight, he's been taking care of business.
3. David Haye - 21.07 - He's fun to watch because there's always the feeling he could get the KO or end up looking up at the lights himself. Next year could be a big one for Haye.
4. Celestino Caballero - 20.72 - Fresh off an impressive knockout of previously undefeated Steve Molitor, Caballero makes his first appearance in these rankings. I'd love to see him fight Israel Vazquez.
5. Manny Pacquiao - 20.62 - Pac Man proved the doubters wrong by wiping the mat with Oscar De La Hoya. Now we'll watch anxiously to see if he can succeed the Golden Boy as the top draw in the sport.
6. Vic Darchinyan - 17.00 - Vic enters the rankings after pretty much dominating highly regarded Cristian Mijares. His February fight with Jorge Arce should be a fun one.
7. Andre Berto - 16.34 - Though undefeated, Berto has his fair share of critics waiting to be impressed. He'll get a chance in the first intriguing bout of 2009 when he steps in against Luis Collazo.
8. Paul Williams - 15.89 - The Punisher is a champion at 154 pounds but is willing to move up or down to make the right fight. A case could be made that he's entering the new year as the most avoided boxer out there.
9. Kelly Pavlik - 15.36 - Marco Antonio Rubio awaits in February as The Ghost returns to his hometown and a more comfortable middleweight division. The big question is when he will face Abraham.
10. Antonio Margarito - 15.20 - Endangered his rep for fighting anyone, anywhere by holding out for more money to face Shane Mosley, but it's all good now. We know he's not scared of Mosley, or anyone for that matter.
The next 7: Miguel Cotto, Chris John, Nonito Donaire, Juan Diaz, Juan Manuel Marquez, Joe Calzaghe, Nate Campbell
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13 comments:
Interesting, this is pretty cool. I have nothing bad to say about it.
Only thing that I can "complain" about, I guess would be whats said after Margarito's name. I don't think he's avoided at all. Seriously, if he was avoided, why did Williams fight him and then offer him a rematch for the past year and a half (in which Maragarito has declined and hasn't even talked about). Just recently AFTER he signed for the Mosley fight did he say he'll fight Williams. Cintron wouldn't have tried to fight him again, then there's Cotto. We wouldn't be having a Mosley match this January. Where did someone "avoid" him. I've never fallen for that. Clottey jumped on the occassion to fight him, he got hurt though and fought him 1 handed. Clottey has wanted a rematch but Margarito has said there's no point. Before anyone brings up Mayweather, remember, Mayweather DOES NOT want to do business with Arum. I don't believe it had anything to do with Margarito being too dangerous. Then there's DLH, EVERYONE knows DLH will always go where the money is.
I know it may seem like I don't like Margarito and I'm just looking to bash him, but it's really not like that. I like him, he's actually one of my favorite fighters to watch. I just think he's overrated and the media just tries to make it seem like no one wants to fight him because he's soooo good. He's avoided by everyone. I just don't get it.
Oh yeah, I really didn't explain how all that fit in on what was said after his name. It says:
10. Antonio Margarito - 15.20 - Endangered his rep for fighting anyone, anywhere by holding out for more money to face Shane Mosley, but it's all good now. We know he's not scared of Mosley, or anyone for that matter.
I see that and think "people are going to think Margarito will fight anyone yet not everyone is willing to fight him, he's not scared of anyone, but other fighters are scared of him"
I just wish he fought Williams already. I would think he would want to get revenge on the man who last beat him. They offered him 4 million!!! Arum said "the money isn't there". Who cares, thats what they promise Margarito would get, if he doesn't, sue them!!!
Feels like I'm just rambling now. Sorry bout that.
I agree with you. Fighters are quick to call fighters out they are on their way up the ladder, then they aren't willing to fight the guys who are the new version of them, if that makes any sense.
I can see why they do it; they all want the maximum money and to minimize their risk of losing their position. I can totally understand that. But you are right, it is not accurate to call Margarito avoided anymore. Now that he's got a little fame and he can move tickets and get a spot on HBO, tons of guys would fight him.
Williams, Mosley, Clottey, Judah, probably Forrest, Mora, Qunitana, Collazo, they would all likely jump at a chance as long as the money was half-way decent at 147 and 154.
Only a few guys are afraid to lose their spot by fighting him right now at 147, and would only fight him for a huge payday, and maybe not even then. Berto, Cotto, and Pacquiao and Hatton.
@ ICUH8N - You read a little bit more into that than I intended. All I meant was that when he held out, it was strictly about the money. Whether that's an admirable stance to take is really neither here nor there. Though Paul Williams is certainly a better boxer at this point than Sugar Shane, he's not as big a name. So if it's just about the dollars for Tony, fighting Mosley seemed like the way to go.
For the record, I don't begrudge Margarito for trying to get paid now that he's the one people are chasing. I just found it interesting that he always carried himself as someone who was avoided, and then as soon as he won the belts, he (and Arum!) chose to make a stink about money.
sometimes I wonder too, when you hear the big money offers, if there is some kind of string attached or something. either there is an offer for $4million or there isn't.
If there is, it must not be guaranteed, it must be with potential upside or something.
The way Dan Goosen explains it, its 4 million dollars straight up for Margarito. Whatever though, I'm sure Margarito now knows how it feels to be on the other side. It will be short lived anyways, if Cotto doesnt beat him, I will eat crow and be the 1st one to come on here and admit I was wrong.
I kinda knew I read too much into it, as far as I'm concerned though, he's scared of Williams.
well if it's a straight up 4 million offer, then I would have to guess Magarito prefers less money and an easier fight with Shane because he doesn't want to jeopardize the big money fight with Cotto even for more money.
So I would say, in that context he is ducking Williams. If it was all about the most money alone, he would fight Williams.
There's an update on that very subject on another boxing website. Don't know how you guys feel about posting another site here, so I won't. But Dan Goosen says:
"...in the Margarito case, Bob took close to $2 Million Dollars LESS of his fighter's money not to fight Paul Williams!"
In other words, Margarito is getting 2 million to fight Mosley.
I will stick with my opinion, Margarito is scared of Williams. Funny thing is, I think Margarito has a good chance against him. I would imagine he's just scared to lose again.
Williams is a tough, tough out for anyone. I thought Margarito was getting to him down the stretch, and the possibility is there that if he could do that the whole fight, then he could beat Paul. Easier said than done.
The way Quintan beat Williams is likely not a style Margarito could or would even consider trying to duplicate.
Williams-Margarito is a close fight, but I would consider Williams the favorite. Margarito-Mosley, not so much. Magarito has the size advantage over all the guys at 147 that he doesn't have over Williams. So I would call it scared to fight Williams, at this juncture.
Just for the heck of it I went back to look at my scorecard for Cotto-Margarito and I had Cotto up 8-2 at the time of the KO. So my memory matched up with the scorecard, I had Cotto outboxing Margarito considerably. Just in reference to the conversation regarding Pound-for-Pound between the two of them.
I have it recorded on my DVR, I have 100+ hours of boxing on there lol. I just watched it again a couple days ago. I gotta say, Cotto looked real good in that fight. Margarito just looked stupid up until the KO. I checked the round by round on here to see which rounds you gave Margarito, the 4th and the 7th. The 4th could have gone either way, the 7th Margarito did indeed win.
Rematch, Cotto wins with ease, my opinion.
That's one thing I don't have, and don't think the others have on here, which is any kind of recordings library. We always get to catch the replays offered OnDemand, but we don't have them at our disposal at all times like you do. I would love to have 100+ hours recorded.
I can't say that Margarito got lucky, but I see Cotto being just a tad more cautious and winning the fight. Cotto showed a bit of that down the stretch against Mosley, where he fought going backwards. He didn't get on his bicycle like Oscar against Trinidad, but he didn't put himself completely in harm's way. I think of it as a more offensive version of Floyd. If Cotto mixes in a little more of that, he might beat Margarito in very lopsided fashion.
I usually can remember my overall impressions of a fight, and certain highlights and punches, but I don't remember the specific rounds like round 4 and 7 anymore. I would have to rewatch the fight.
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